In the previous post, I talked about a common programmable abstraction layer (CPAL).  To better understand the thought process behind having a common PAL, it makes sense to review some of the work Jeremy Schulman has been doing.  Jeremy often refers to the Python interactive shell as the new CLI for networking.  When you watch him give a demo using the Python shell as a CLI, it is second nature and looks exactly like a network CLI.  It makes perfect sense.

It gives real time access to the network devices in a programmatic fashion.  Being programmatic is key here – no screen scraping, etc.  The downside --- you need to know Python.  Well, yes and no.  Of course, you would be using the Python interpreter so you’ll be leveraging programming concepts -- things like variables, functions, classes, etc. 

But, before you think you need to become a professional software developer, the other good news is that Jeremy has created the Junos OS PyEZ library that drastically simplifies the interaction and baseline knowledge to start programming Juniper devices.  Juniper supports native XML APIs, but the PyEZ module abstracts that and eliminates Continue reading

In late January, there were some big names on stage at the latest Open Compute Summit.  I’d like to focus on one keynote panel that was called, “Opening Up Network Hardware.”  The panelists for this session included Martin Casado (VMware), Matthew Liste (Goldman Sachs), Dave Maltz (Microsoft), and JR Rivers (Cumulus) and was led by Najam Ahmad (Facebook).  If you haven’t watched the session already, it’s definitely worth it.  You can check it out here.

It’s always interesting when there are consumers of the technology on stage with those that sell and build their own technology.  Even in a session like this, it’s hard to put Facebook and Microsoft in the consumer/user group because they are increasingly rolling their own.  But Goldman Sachs (GS) on the other hand is unique --- and more relevant to the Enterprise.  They are a user of Enterprise technology, but what makes them unique, in my opinion, is that they seem to be crossing the chasm or straddling Enterprise technology and rolling their own (DIY) with technology from OCP and what they announced at last year’s ONS, which was soon after they joined the ONF.  And there is probably Continue reading

In a recent post, I wrote about some Python work I was testing on the Nexus 3000.  The end conclusion was that open Linux platforms will offer more flexibility --- for the consumer of the technology, ultimately the customer.  In this post, we’ll take a look at an example that integrates Python with the native Linux operating system.  

In the context of networking, the question often arises, what does having access to Linux really gain you?  For one, as you can see from my last post and you’ll see in this one, for native scripting within bash and Python is of extreme value in itself, not to mention you’d also have the ability to load any piece of software you want to that is compatible with Linux (think about tools, mgmt/monitoring platforms, etc.).

Okay, so you’d have the ability to use Python on a network switch.  So what?  What about running onboard analytics on the switch?  What about sending the exact data you need, the data you use to troubleshoot, the data part of your operational workflow, directly upstream to a head end server, or just simply to an existing syslog Continue reading