Ivan Pepelnjak
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Ivan Pepelnjak
Video: Automated Data Center Fabric Deployment Demo
I was focused on network automation this week, starting with a 2-day workshop and continuing with an overview of real-life automation wins. Let’s end the week with another automation story: automated data center fabric deployment demonstrated by Dinesh Dutt during his part of Network Automation Use Cases webinar.
You’ll need at least free ipSpace.net subscription to watch the video.
Speakers in the Spring 2018 Building Next-Generation Data Center Online Course
We managed to get another awesome lineup of speakers for the Spring 2018 Building Next-Generation Data Center online course.
Russ White, one of the authors of CCDE and CCAr programs and highly respected book author will start the course with a topic everyone should always consider when designing new infrastructure: how do you identify tradeoffs and manage complexity, making sure you meet the customer requirements while at the same time having an easy-to-operate infrastructure.
Read more ...I Can’t Choose the Gear for You
One of my readers sent me a question along these lines after reading the anti-automation blog post:
Your blog post has me worried as we're currently reviewing offers for NGFW solution... I understand the need to keep the lid on the details rather than name and shame, but is it possible to get the details off the record?
I always believed in giving my readers enough information to solve their challenges on their own (you know, the Teach a man to fish idea).
Read more ...Streaming Telemetry Standards: So Many to Choose From
Continuing the Streaming Telemetry saga, let’s focus on presentation formats and transport mechanisms.
I already mentioned three presentation formats: XML (used by NETCONF), JSON (used by RESTCONF) and Protocol Buffers (used by gRPC). Two of them are text-based, the third one (Protocol Buffers) is binary encoding not unlike ASN.1 BER used by SNMP. That can’t be good in a JSON-hyped world, right?
Read more ...Should You Build or Buy an Automation Solution?
One of the most important aspects of the introductory part of my Building Network Automation Solutions online course is the question should I buy a solution or build my own?
I already described the arguments against buying a reassuringly-expensive single-blob-of-complexity solution from a $vendor, but what about using point tools?
Read more ...Worth Reading: How to Talk to a C-Level Executive
Ever wondered who manages to produce deja-moo like this one and why they’d do it?
We unveiled a vision to create an intuitive system that anticipates actions, stops security threats in their tracks, and continues to evolve and learn. It will help businesses to unlock new opportunities and solve previously unsolvable challenges in an era of increasing connectivity and distributed technology.
As Erik Dietrich explains in his blog post, it’s usually nothing more than a lame attempt to pretend there are some clothes hanging on the emperor.
Just in case you’re interested: we discussed the state of Intent-Based Majesty’s wardrobe in Network Automation Use Cases webinar.
Linux Interfaces on Software Gone Wild
Continuing the Linux networking discussion we had in Episode 86, we focused on Linux interfaces in Episode 87 of Software Gone Wild with Roopa Prabhu and David Ahern.
We started with simple questions like “what is an interface” and “how do they get such weird names in some Linux distributions” which quickly turned into a complex discussion about kernel objects and udev, and details of implementing logical interfaces that are associated with ASIC front-panel physical ports.
Read more ...Before Commenting on Someone Mentioning RFC1925 ;)
Some of my readers got annoyed when I mentioned Google’s BeyondCorp and RFC 1925 in the same sentence (to be perfectly clear, I had Rule#11 in mind). I totally understand that sentiment – reading the reactions from industry press it seems to be the best thing that happened to Enterprise IT in decades.
Let me explain in simple terms why I think it’s not such a big deal and definitely not something new, let alone revolutionary.
Read more ...Who’s Pushing Layer-2 VPN Services?
Here’s another great point Tiziano Tofoni raised in his comment to my EVPN in small data center fabrics blog post:
I cannot understand the usefulness of L2 services. I think that the preference for L2 services has its origin in the enterprise world (pushed by well known $vendors) while ISPs tend to work at Layer 3 (L3) only, even if they are urged to offer L2 services by their customers.
Some (but not all) ISPs are really good at offering IP transport services with fixed endpoints. Some Service Providers are good at offering per-tenant IP routing services required by MPLS/VPN, but unfortunately many of them simply don’t have the skills needed to integrate with enterprise routing environments.
Read more ...Model-Driven Telemetry Isn’t as New as Some People Think
During the Campus Evolution with Cat9K presentation (I hope I got it right - the whole event was an absolute overload) the presenter mentioned the benefits of brand-new model-driven telemetry, which immediately caused me to put my academic hat on and state that we had model-driven telemetry for at least 30 years.
Don’t believe me? Have you ever looked at an SNMP MIB description? Did it look like random prose to you or did it seem to have some internal structure?
Read more ...Not Interested in Network Automation? No Problem (for now)
In the Business Impact of Network Automation podcast Ethan Banks asked an interesting question: “what will happen with older networking engineers who are not willing to embrace automation”
The response somewhat surprised me: Alejandro Salisas said something along the lines “they’ll be just fine” (for a while).
Let me recap his argument and add a few twists of my own:
Read more ...Worth Reading: There Are No Enterprises and Service Providers
Russ White wrote a great article along the lines of what we discussed a while ago. My favorite part:
There are companies who consider the network an asset, and companies that consider the network a necessary evil.
Enjoy!
On a tangential topic: Russ will talk about network complexity in the Building Next-Generation Data Center online course starting on April 25th.
Video: Create an NSX Logical Switch with PowerNSX
After introducing PowerNSX Anthony Burke illustrated how easy it is to use with a Hello, World equivalent: creating a logical switch (VXLAN segment).
You’ll need at least free ipSpace.net subscription to watch the video.
Want to know more about VMware NSX? We’ll run an NSX-focused event and a NSX Deep Dive workshop in Zurich on April 19th 2018, an overview webinar comparing NSX, ACI and EVPN on March 1st, and a deep dive in VMware NSX architecture later in 2018.
Lack of Fast Convergence in SD-WAN Products
One of my readers sent me this question:
I'm in the process of researching SD-WAN solutions and have hit upon what I believe is a consistent deficiency across most of the current SD-WAN/SDx offerings. The standard "best practice" seems to be 60/180 BGP timers between the SD-WAN hub and the network core or WAN edge.
Needless to say, he wasn’t able to find BFD in these products either.
Does that matter? My reader thinks it does:
Read more ...Single-Image Systems or Automated Fabrics
In the Network Automation 101 webinar and Building Network Automation Solutions online course I described one of the biggest challenges the networking engineers are facing today: moving from thinking about boxes and configuring individual devices to thinking about infrastructure and services, and changing data models which result in changed device configurations.
The $1B question is obviously: and how do we get from here to there?
Read more ...Upcoming ipSpace.net Events
In March 2018, we’ll continue the crazy content producing pace you’ve seen in January and February:- We’ll have the first part of NSX, ACI or EVPN webinar on March 1st. This session will cover the basics (don’t expect too many details), a follow-up session on April 24th with Mitja Robas will go into design considerations;
- The EVPN Technical Deep Dive series with Dinesh Dutt starts on March 6th;
- Elisa and Paolo will run the final part of Network Visibility with Flow Data on March 8th;
- Last webinar in March: another installment in the leaf-and-spine saga – Multi-Pod and Multi-Site Fabrics with Lukas Krattiger on March 29th;
Read more ...
Anti-Automation from the Antimatter Universe
One of my readers sent me a vivid description of his interactions with one of the so-called next-generation firewall vendors. Enjoy!
We’re using their highly promoted Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) management solution. New cutting edge software, centralized manager… but no CLI for configuration (besides some initial bootstrap commands). "You don't need that because everything is managed from our centralized manager GUI", says $vendor sales managers.
Read more ...Worth Reading: The Thankless Life of an Analyst
Stumbled upon a great article explaining behind-the-scene details of large analyst firms like Gartner. I guess it nicely explains my mixed feelings: on one hand I hate Gartner quotes, on the other hand I know amazing people working there that I quote all the time.
EVPN with MPLS Data Plane in Data Centers
Mr. Anonymous (my most loyal reader and commentator) sent me this question as a comment to one of my blog posts:
Is there any use case of running EVPN (or PBB EVPN) in DC with MPLS Data Plane, most vendors seems to be only implementing NVO to my understanding.
Sure there is: you already have MPLS control plane and want to leverage the investment.
Read more ...Big Red Button for Network Automation
A while ago I was enjoying a few beers with a longtime friend of mine who happens to be running the networking team for one of the rare companies that understands how infrastructure should be built and operated.
Of course, I had to ask him what he thinks about the imminent death of CLI and all-encompassing automatic provisioning from some central orchestration system. Here’s the gist of his response:
Read more ...