Wendell Odom

Author Archives: Wendell Odom

First Steps from CCNA R&S SDN to APIs and Programming

On the same day I posted this post, I’m also speaking in a webinar about the new CCNA R&S exams, hosted by the folks at the Cisco Learning Network (CLN).  The new exams have some SDN content. And it always seems like when you talk to networkers about anything that sounds like SDN, the question comes up: should I learn programming?

Today’s question answers a similar question, one that I hope is useful for the specific audience for the webinar. If you assume that programming is a skill you should learn, and you’re currently studying for CCNA R&S, what’s a good path from CCNA learning to then learning programming? That is, what are some good steps to bridge between those Cisco CCNA R&S SDN exam topics and then learning programming?

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SDNSkills Plan Moving Forward

Hi to those of you subscribing and following. For those of you who have been watching of late, this is a brief note to let you know what’s going on, and what my plan is for ramping back up with writing posts here in this blogspace. Short version: I expect to be back to normal by August sometime, and I may post a few items here and there in the mean time.

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Top 3 Labs for Networkers to Get Started at Cisco’s DevNet

Today’s post gives a top 3 list: For you networkers, what are three labs to try at Cisco’s DevNet Zone, even before you have a lot of confidence with APIs?

As part of my role in the #CiscoChampion program, I wrote a recent blog post over at Cisco.com. For that post, I could pick any topic that I thought might be of interest to Cisco followers, and I ended up writing about Cisco’s DevNet Zone, Cisco’s software developer portal. I had a few more thoughts about labs beyond the other blog post, so I put those notes in this companion post. If you’re interested in Cisco’s DevNet Zone, check out both posts!

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Flowgrammable as a Tool for Learning OpenFlow Concepts and Programming

At first glance, the Flowgrammable web site looks like a toolbox of tools you collected over time. All those tools have something to do with helping us all towards an SDN world. Two of those tools in particular can help you learn about SDN, particularly about how OpenFlow works, and that’s exactly the kind of topic I look to post about here – so today’s post takes a closer look at what’s available at the Flowgrammable site.

Quick Overview of Flowgrammable

The first sentence of the Flowgrammable web site’s About page both confirms why the content may appear to be a mash of topics, but why it all the topics have a common theme:

Flowgrammable.org is a coalition of researchers and industry engineers dedicated to improving adoption of software-defined networks and networking.

Basically, they’re trying to help us all get there, to an SDN world, in the ways that they can help.

I talked to 5-6 of the Flowgrammable team at ONS in June and learned about their site. As for the people, many are grad students that have worked together to develop the tools shown on the site.

For this post, I’ll mention two of their tools, and Continue reading

ONF Announces SDN Certification Specifications

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced their intent to create an SDN certification program back in September ‘14. The message since that time has been that they’re working on it. In June, at the ONS15 conference, the ONF showed a few more details, and now the ONF web site lists plenty of details about their new certification program. Today’s post kicks off what will likely be a few posts working through what the ONF has posted about their new certification exams.

Big Picture Overview

The official name of the program - ONF Certified Professional Program - begins its history with two certifications:

The two certifications separates the conceptual (the first certification) from the hands-on skills requirements (the second certification).

The Exams

Each certification requires that you pass a single exam, with the exam names being obvious as to which certification they apply.

CSDNA-110

CSDNE-111

The exams have a few key differences from what you may be used to seeing with vendor-focused exams. The big differences is that the exams will be offered online, with an honor system to prove that it’s you taking the exam. Obviously that’s a Continue reading

Some Impressions from Open Networking Summit 2015

I’ve used the Open Networking Summit (ONS 15) the last few years as part of my education plan to re-tool for the word of SDN and NFV. You can too – the ONS posts videos from most of the sessions (except those that cost a few extra $$.) While I think it’s worth attending the show for the hallway conversations alone, I think you can pick up a lot from just watching the sessions.

I plan a few posts about things I learned at the show; to start, this post hits a few highlights about a few speakers and topics that made a particularly strong impression.

Quick Aside

Sorry it took a while to make this post. This blog site got infected, and I've spent all my blog time working to overcome the problem. Should be back on track now!

 

Small Appetizers

To get rolling, here are a few big observations from the show – things that might not jump out at you if you just cherry pick a few of the videos to watch.

First, Open Source software rules. Open Daylight was of course prominently mentioned, but so was ONOS. But it wasn’t just an Continue reading

Cisco ACI in the CNPES Cert (Engineering Specialist)

Cisco’s current network programmability certs uses two exams per cert, with the second exam focusing on ACI. That represents the first ACI-focused specialist exams from Cisco, and a great reason to learn about ACI and validate that knowledge. Today’s post looks at the ACI-focused exam for the Cisco CNPES Cert exam: the 600-512 NPENGACI exam. We’ll look at both the exam and a related video course.

Other posts in this series:

Overview

First, to set the stage, Cisco rolled out their network programmability (read: SDN) certifications over a period of months, mostly in 2014. Figure 1 shows these four certs, with the engineering specialist cert focusing on engineering and implementation.

Figure 1: Overview of Cisco SDN Certifications

 

Today’s post focuses on the second exam: the 600-512 NPENGACI exam. The name itself is a bit of a mouthful:

Network Programmability ENGineering with ACI

Basically, the NPENG 600-504 exam covers SDN implementation excluding ACI, NPENGACI 600-512 exam includes ACI.

This list provides the links for more details – for the certification, each of the two exams, and each of Cisco’s two Continue reading

SDN Appears in Cisco Career Certs: The New CCNA (and CCNP) Cloud

Most of us probably don’t sit around meticulously reading the exam topics of vendor certification exams. But if you did, you might have noticed the announcement of a few new career certifications from Cisco this week. And if you look closely at one of the exam blueprints, for the first of two exams related to the CCNA Cloud certification, you’d see a bit of a milestone:

  • The first Cisco career cert exam blueprints that mention ACI
  • The first Cisco career cert exam blueprints that mention SDN

In today’s post, I’ll outline the key facts about the new certs, and look more closely at the exam blueprint for one of the exams. And the most interesting exam topic, given that it’s the first Cisco career cert exam with SDN in it?

“Describe how ACI solves the problem not addressed by SDN”.

Read on!

Quick Overview

Cisco refers to their CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE certifications as career certifications. The CCNA Cloud and CCNA Industrial certifications push the total number of current Cisco CCNA certifications up to 11.

As for an SDN angle – this blog is called SDNSkills, after all - the cloud certs happen to be Cisco’s first career certifications (best Continue reading

NFV Terminology and Architecture from ETSI

Well, if you thought SDN introduced a lot of terminology, you’ll love NFV! The good news is that ETSI, which defines NFV, does a great job documenting NFV, with extensive term and acronym lists to support other documents about the details of NFV architecture. Several of the ETSI NFV docs provide some great stepping-stones for understanding the basic concepts and terminology, which is where we’ll go in this post.

This is the last in a related series! The other posts:

A Brief Big Picture of NFV

One of the challenges with this blog is figuring out how much prior knowledge to assume. If you don’t know much at all about NFV, read this section for a quick intro. Otherwise, skip to the next heading.

Briefly…

Think of every networking device used in the IT world. Those include routers, switches, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, load balancers, and so on. Traditionally, those devices have indeed been devices – purpose built hardware, running some OS that performed the networking function.

While you’re thinking of the old way to network, Continue reading

SDN Terminology from Layered Models

Even though we don’t build networks with OSI products, we still use terms from the OSI model. What terms will we end up using for SDN, once the dust settles?

The previous post introduced one document that attempts to define terms and architecture, and today’s post introduces another: the ITU-T Y.3300 document. But how do these documents fit in with our fast-changing networking landscape – and what words should we use? Today’s post looks at the Y.3300 doc, and explores a few of the terms.

Other posts in this series:

 

Big Picture First: ITU-T Y-Series

Most of us don’t have a reason to read docs from standards bodies unless we’re looking for a particular standard or fact. But as long as we’re talking about one doc from the ITU-T Y-series, it’s worth a minute to set the context of what these documents are.

First off, the topic area for the Y-series is broad, but it’s all networking! The title for the ITU-T’s Y-series of documents spells out the big items:

Global information infrastructure, Internet protocol aspects and next-generation networks

Great, so the topic is global network, IP, including next-generation networks. It’s networking! Continue reading

SDN Terminology from RFCs?

80% of your job in networking is getting you and your co-worker to agree to what the terms mean.

That paraphrase comes from one of my three networking profs in college, from literally 30 years ago. But that statement is still true today. Getting to a shared understanding of what we mean helps in any conversation about networking, and failing to truly understand the terminology can cause problems.

SDN promises many things, but it certainly has a big impact on networking terminology. SDN introduces many new terms, but it also redefines some terms and reemphasizes the underlying concepts behind other long-used terms.

And then there are no terminology police to run around and make us all use terms the same way. It’s enough to drive you crazy!

Today’s post (and possibly a few more) explores some attempts to answer some of the questions about what SDN terms to use and what they mean. In this post, I’ll look at a relatively new Internet RFC: the SDN Layers and Architecture Terminology RFC.

 

Overview: Terminology is a Challenge

What’s a network? Is it a class A, B, or C network, as defined by IPv4? Any subset of an IPv4 class A, Continue reading

The Cisco CNPES Cert, First Exam (600-504) and Course

Do you think of yourself as a network engineer? Cisco’s Network Programmability Engineer Specialist (CPNES) certification represents Cisco’s first crack at a certification focused on network engineering in an SDN world. Today’s post begins to examine this certification by looking at the first of the two required exams: the 600-504 NPENG exam. We’ll look at both the exam and a related video course.

Other posts in this series:

Overview

First, to set the stage, Cisco currently offers four network programmability certifications. Loosely you can think of these as two networking-focused certs, and two development-focused certs, based on job roles. For the two networking-focused certs, one focuses on design, while one (the one discussed here) looks at engineering and implementation.

Figure 1: Overview of Cisco SDN Certifications

 

Today’s post focuses on the cisco network programmability engineering specialist (CNPES) cert, and specifically the first exam: the 600-504 NPENG exam. Basically, the NPENG exam covers SDN implementation but excludes ACI, while the second required exam, 600-512 NPENGACI, includes ACI.

This list provides the links for more details – for the certification, each of the two exams, and each of Cisco’s two Continue reading

The Cisco Network Programmability (SDN) Intro Course

Four network programmability certs, two exams for each cert (with matching video courses for each exam) – plus one introductory video. Today’s post discusses that introductory video course, namely:

  • Introducing Network Programmability Fundamentals

No muss, no fuss – jump into the post for more details.

Overview

Cisco recommends their “Introducing Network Programmability Fundamentals” course to anyone who is:

  • New to SDN
  • New to network programmability

Basically, before diving into the other exams and courses, this introductory course sets the stage. Do you have to watch it to get the certifications? No. Can you benefit? Sure. But if you do want to use this course, take it first in sequence, before taking the other Cisco network programmability courses.

 

Figure 1: Big (and Obvious) Progression from the Introductory Course

 

Covering the bases, this list gives the highlights of the course:

  • Six videos of approximately 1 hour each
  • Six different presenters (one per video)
  • 6 month lease
  • $59 (at least when I looked just now)
  • No exam associated with the course – it’s just fundamental background
  • My recollection (with no way to confirm) is that the version of the course I see when writing this post came out late 2013.

To Continue reading

A Deeper Look at Cisco’s SDN Certifications

It’s time to look in depth at one of the SDN certs in the market: Cisco’s Network Programmability certs. I’ve written about the emerging SDN certifications before, and will continue to update those certs as news appears. However, I’ve not yet blogged to any depth about any one certification here at SDNSkills.com. This post begins a new series that does exactly that with a deeper dive into one branch of SDN certifications: those currently offered by Cisco Systems.

Series Intro

The plan for this series is as follows: Work through some details about at least half of the 8 Cisco exams related to SDN (billed as network programmability by Cisco). I think half of them should be enough to get a sense for the whole, even if I don’t look at every single one of the eight exams. For each exam, I’ll look at the associated courses, the exam topics, take the exams, and write a summary of impressions. I’ll probably weave in and out of this topic over the coming months, hitting the first exam here in January.

 

SDN Market and Certifications Perspective

Some of you might already be thinking: Cisco and SDN? Isn’t SDN what Continue reading

SDN Jobs Vs. Traditional Jobs, 3QCY14

Are the number of #SDN jobs catching up to traditional networking skills, for instance, for jobs that require OSPF skills? Today’s post wraps this short series about the SDN job market in the 3rd quarter of 2014, with a comparison of the number of SDN jobs versus other search terms. Other posts in the series for this quarter:

 

I Wanted to Know, and Thought You Might as Well

Let’s say the SDN numbers show us 25 new jobs/week in the US. Is that a lot? Not many? I have no idea. So I pondered how we could get some perspective, with just a little effort (translated: only a little time and money). The solution seemed obvious: track some traditional networking terms with the same kinds of searches that we were already tracking with “SDN”.

So, we’ve been tracking a few other terms for a while now:

  • CCIE
  • CCNP
  • OSPF

Note that we didn’t track for each type of CCIE or CCNP, but simply that single term. So our data counts any and every job with CCIE in the title or description, and another counter for CCNP.

However, Continue reading

SDN Job Numbers – 3QCY14

How many SDN jobs are out there so far? If you missed the previous post, well, I’ve been counting them for about five months. Today’s post looks at the numbers for 3QCY14. Check out the previous post for all the picky details about how we gathered the data. This post focuses on the numbers!

 

 

 

SDN in the Job Title, 3QCY14

I’m theorizing that for a term to be in the title of the job posting, that term must be a pretty important part of the job. So, we searched for “SDN” in the title, at Dice.com and Monster.com, did some averaging to keep a week or two spike or drop from skewing the perception, and we’ve created some graphs.

Figure 1 shows the first graph:

  • Searches for SDN in the job title
  • The data is about new job listings per week
  • We use a couple of rolling averages to reduce the bumps in the graph
  • The graph shows both Dice and Monster combined, but with the raw numbers as well

 

Figure 1: SDN in the Job Title, Per-Week New Job Listings, 3QCY14

 

 

SDN in the Job Description

When we find “SDN” Continue reading