EVPN’s 4 critical benefits for digital transformation
Digital transformation demands more of everything: speed, throughput, agility and scalability. That’s why organizations are rethinking traditional layer 2 switched data center architectures and moving towards intelligent layer 3 routed network designs. With a layer 3 architecture, your data center can use proven routing protocols to simplify troubleshooting, facilitate upgrades, scale efficiently and converge traffic.
But what about the applications, storage appliances and multi-tenant environments that still require traditional layer 2 connectivity? Legacy protocols that enable layer 2 traffic to run over a layer 3 routed infrastructure have significant limitations that become serious obstacles when the data center must scale, accommodate multiple vendors’ systems or support multi-tenancy. Fortunately, there’s a scalable, simple, non-proprietary solution. Enter EVPN.
Cumulus’ unique Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) solution offers unmatched interoperability and efficiency. By adding VXLAN distributed routing, Cumulus EVPN undoes all of the complications of layer 2 connectivity and frees you from reliance on proprietary controllers. Looking for proof that EVPN delivers on that promise? We’ve got plenty of evidence, so here’s four major advantages of utilizing EVPN to meet the demands of digital transformation.
1) Accommodate growth without disruption
With Cumulus EVPN, you can quickly and Continue reading
CI/CD: What does it mean for the network engineer?
The continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) process is very popular in the DevOps industry. CI/CD creates a more agile software development environment, which provides benefits including the faster delivery of applications. As a network engineer, are there any aspects of this I can benefit from to improve network operations and achieve the same goal: design and deploy an agile network that provides customers access to those applications as fast as they are deployed? After all, quick, reliable application delivery is only as fast as customers can access it.
This blog post outlines how treating infrastructure as code and implementing a CI/CD workflow can ease the life of a network engineer. It also describes how using Cumulus VX and Cumulus NetQ can simplify this process further.
What does “infrastructure as code” mean?
Generally, it means treating all your network node configurations as code that you manage externally to the nodes. The program identifies each individual node and renders or produces all the configurations for all the nodes in the network in one step. This also means all configuration changes happen in this code, and the code itself accesses the box to deploy the configurations, not the engineer. Configuration deployment can be done Continue reading
How EVPN saved SDN from the brink of death
In 2010 and 2011, Software Defined Networking (SDN) was the hot new way of looking at architecture, and everyone had high hopes that it would reduce the stress of highly manual and complex operations. That was then, but now we’re in 2018 and it appears that SDN hasn’t quite fulfilled what it advertised, as many networks remain expensive, complex and proprietary. Some may claim that SDN is dead, but perhaps that’s not the case; maybe SDN has changed from its previous understanding and taken on a new definition. With solutions like EVPN and freedom from proprietary controllers bringing it back to life, SDN has risen like a phoenix from the ashes to finish the mission it started. How did we get here and what’s changed? You can check out our white paper for a more in-depth, technical look at SDN’s journey, or you can keep reading here for a CliffsNotes version of the information.
A link to the past: what SDN promised us
SDN promised to enable the network to behave like the server world, where resources could be virtualized and new environments could be deployed or decommissioned almost instantaneously. SDN sought to break-up the vertical stack by moving the Continue reading
What it means to be an “automation first” enterprise
We’ve previously discussed how automation can give engineers some well-deserved extra free time. So how do those benefits extend to helping the company as a whole? Well, according to TechTarget’s article analyzing Gartner’s recent report about network innovation, there are some pretty obvious indicators that a company is putting automation first and achieving success. All a business has to do is take advantage of the automation practices used by hyperscale data centers. While it may sound impossible to operate on the same level as cloud giants like Amazon and Facebook, Gartner’s report states that there is a remarkable increase in efficiency and agility enterprises mimic from even 1% to 10% of the practices in hyperscale data centers. In this post, we’ll discuss what it looks like to be an “automation first” enterprise. And from what we can tell, it looks pretty good!
Reduced costs
Adopting automation doesn’t just save you time — it also saves you money. Let’s start with the fact that proprietary solutions are incredibly expensive on their own. In addition to steep initial costs, proprietary vendors prevent additional savings by not allowing customers to take advantage of automation tools like Ansible, Puppet and Chef. However, these capabilities Continue reading
Automation won’t cost you your job — it could save it
If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you probably do a lot of professional work with networking, manage an enterprise data center or play around with networks as a hobby (if you don’t, close your eyes for just a moment and imagine yourself in a well air-conditioned data center). You also likely know about the day-to-day tasks that maintaining a network requires, and how much time they take out of the day. Or, perhaps you’re a director that’s trying to resolve the issues your networking team keeps having. Has it ever occurred to you that there might be a better way to tackle these daily problems? Sure, what you’re doing now works, but there’s so much else you could be doing if the management of these tasks were optimized. That’s where network automation solutions can step in and give you more free time than you could have dreamed of. Why automation? Well, let’s get into what problems it eliminates and the benefits it brings — you can thank us later!
Problem: A manually configured and operated network
A day in the life of a network engineer includes three layers of regular tasks. At the top, we have troubleshooting operation Continue reading
5 Ways you can leverage the Linux community for your data center network
Here at Cumulus, we often talk about the benefits of having an operating system on Linux (if you need to be re-schooled on the benefits of unifying the stack, head here). But something that possibly goes overlooked, or at least under appreciated, is the value of the Linux community itself. The community is made up of 50,000 or so engineers all passionate about learning, improving and creating code. People like to say that when you go with a Linux operating system, you’re “standing on the shoulder of giants,” meaning that you don’t only have to rely on your inhouse engineering team (even if they’re world-class engineers), but rather you’re relying on thousands of engineers, including some of the absolute best in the business. Since Cumulus Linux runs on Linux, our customers have this community at their disposal. So why does that really matter? Here are five reasons to consider.
1. Security
The most widely cited benefit of having a community of 50,000 behind you is security. Basically it looks something like this. Let’s say you’re with a proprietary vendor (*cough* Cisco *cough* Juniper *cough*), and there is a glitch in your latest package installation causing a security vulnerability. Maybe Continue reading
Top 5 moments from Networking Field Day 2017
Did you miss Cumulus Networks’ session at Networking Field Day 2017 on February 26th? Or maybe you tuned in, and you want to reminisce on the best moments? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Check out our top five favorite highlights from Technical Marketing Engineer Pete Lumbis’ presentation about managing EVPN/VXLAN. (You can also watch the whole session here, if you’d prefer to hear it from the man himself. Prepare for an intelligent demonstration peppered with some good laughs!)
5) The Legos of Linux
It makes sense to start with the basics, and that’s exactly how we begin the presentation. In a daring move, Pete decides to illustrate Cumulus Linux’s capabilities sans-Powerpoint, and whiteboards the architecture of a Mellanox switch running our OS.
One of the great things about Cumulus technology is that it’s all based in Linux. So, any configurations you would make on a Linux device are exactly the same on Cumulus Linux. Simple, right? That’s exactly our goal — allowing customers to easily customize their network as they see fit with basic building blocks. As Pete describes it, building the network is like “taking those Lego pieces and turning them into Saturn V.” Continue reading
Cumulus content roundup: February
We’ve made it through the first month of the year, and the future of networking is looking bright — but is your data center ready for the brave new world? In this content roundup, we’re giving out the latest articles, videos and reports so you’re ready for 2018 and not left behind in twenty late-teen. There’s no time to waste! Get started on your data center upgrade today.
What’s new from Cumulus:
Cumulus Networks: What we do: Looking for an overview of who we are and what we’re working towards? We’ve got you covered. Watch this video for more information about our mission and our products, and share it with anyone else who wants to know what we’re all about.
Getting started with Linux: the basics – part 1: Everyone has to start their journey with Linux somewhere, so why not start here? This three part blog series about the basics of Linux networking teaches you everything you need. Check out part one to start learning the language of the data center.
Understanding Linux internetworking: Let’s say you’ve already got the hang of the basics of Linux. What’s the next step, and how can you take your Continue reading
Getting started with Linux: the basics – part 3
In part 1 of our series on the basics of Linux, we learned how to download Linux, whether you should use the CLI or the GUI, how to get a SSH client, how to login to Linux, and how to get help.
In part 2 of our series, we learned how to know what type of Linux you are using and how to navigate the Linux file system.
In this final post in the series, you’ll learn about Linux files, Linux permissions, Linux package management, and how to install applications in Linux.
Files and permissions
Let’s say that a user named “david” was denied access to the file /var/log/syslog. The reason for that is likely the user “david” doesn’t have permission to access to the file.
You can see this if you execute ls -l /var/log/syslog:
david@debian:~$ ls -l /var/log/syslog
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 9074 May 15 10:17 /var/log/syslog
The file is owned by the user “root” and the group “adm”. The file permissions are “rw” (shorthand for read/write) for the owner and “r” (shorthand for “read”) for the group with no permissions for anyone else. The graphic below shows how file permissions work in Linux.
In the file permissions Continue reading
Gartner’s open model: How does Cumulus stack up?
As we’ve discussed in a previous blog post, it can be difficult to determine whether or not a vendor is truly as open as they claim to be. Sure, your network provider says they support open solutions, but the reality is they take advantage of open networking’s flexible definition to market not-so-flexible networks. How can you be certain that you’re investing in the open network your data center deserves?
Never fear, Gartner is here! Their report on gauging vendors’ openness provides you with five easy questions to help you take a machete to the forest of false advertisement. So, how does Cumulus Networks stack up to these requirements, and how have we maintained our dedication to open networking? Let’s take a look at Gartner’s criteria — we think you’ll find that this open model fits Cumulus like a glove.
1) How simple is the solution?
We’ve broken down the qualifications for a simple solution into three parts. First of all, managing your network should be easy from the moment it comes online. Cumulus Linux is an operating system that ensures a simple start. A few features that guarantee a confusion-free beginning include:
- Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) – ZTP enables network Continue reading
Getting started with Linux: the basics – part 2
In part 1 of our series about getting started with Linux, we learned how to download Linux, whether you should use the CLI or the GUI, how to get a SSH client, how to login to Linux and how to get help. In this post, you’ll learn how to know what type of Linux you are using and how to navigate the Linux file system.
How do I know what type of Linux I am using?
Because there are so many different types of Linux, you want to be sure you know what distribution and version you are using (for the sake of searching the right documentation on the Internet, if nothing else). Keep in mind a couple different commands to identify your Linux version.
The uname command shows the basic type of operating system you are using, like this:
david@debian:~$ uname -a
Linux debian 3.16.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.16.43-2 (2017-04-30) i686 GNU/Linux
And the hostnamectl command shows you the hostname of the Linux server as well as other system information, like the machine ID, virtualization hypervisor (if used), operating system and Linux kernel version. Here’s an example:
david@debian:~$ hostnamectl
Static hostname: debian
Icon name: computer-vm
Continue reading
NetDevOpEd: Abstracting configuration management
I was talking to a banking customer in Northern Europe the other day and they asked me about configuration management. They had many different vendors with different management methods in their infrastructure and wanted to know how they could speed up management.
This specific customer had an outsourced infrastructure. They picked what hardware they wanted to run, but then paid a managed services company to deploy the infrastructure in a colocation facility and perform day-to-day operations.
The issue arose in the speed of deployment. When they launched a new application that required a new service in their data center, the application engineers would need to contact the network team in this bank. The network team would then open up a ticket with the managed services company to provision VLANs and open up ports on their firewalls to allow access to the application. The issue was that this process took up to one week to complete.
This bank contacted us with the hope we could help them unify their management under one framework, so that they could insource the firewall configuration to accelerate their application deployments. They asked me about automated management best practices.
Normally when I have this conversation, we Continue reading
Getting started with Linux: the basics – part 1
Perhaps you’re a Windows admin who is interested in making the jump to Linux, or perhaps you are a Mac OS user who may soon be administering a Linux-based network. Either way, you need to know some of the basics of Linux, just to get started gaining some hands-on experience. In this post, that’s exactly what you’ll get!
Where do I get Linux?
To get started with Linux, you need to download a Linux distribution, such as RedHat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS or Cumulus Linux. You want to make sure that you obtain a Linux distribution that is compatible with your hardware. For example, you might select a 32-bit i386 image or a 64-bit amd64 image.
For example, if you want to start with the Debian distribution, you can download an ISO-formatted image that you would use to install Debian Linux.
While some people will want to run Linux directly on a physical server, desktop or laptop, many people start learning Linux for the first time by running it inside of a virtual machine. With a VM option, you can run Linux inside your existing Microsoft Windows or Apple macOS operating system using virtualization tools such as Continue reading
Cumulus content roundup: January
Got a New Year’s resolution for a data center revolution? We’ve got your back! The Cumulus content roundup is here to make sure you start out 2018 on the right foot. With a variety of blog posts, videos and networking resources at your disposal, you’ll find that upgrading your networking knowledge is an easily achievable goal (and much easier than starting a diet or going to the gym). Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone if you’ve already broken your resolution! It’s a time for new beginnings and looking to the future; let’s check out what’s in store.
Cumulus resources
Cumulus in the Cloud overview: What is Cumulus in the Cloud, and what can it do for you? In this video overview, let CTO JR Rivers walk you through the pre-built virtual data center and teach you all about the great Cumulus tech you can play with.
NCLU: Network Command Line Utility overview: There’s a new chapter in our how-to video series. This time, our highly qualified instructors will teach you the ins and outs of Cumulus Networks CLI, the Network Command Line Utility. Watch the tutorial to learn more.
Open networking drives forward with Cumulus Linux Continue reading
Understanding the architecture of the modern Linux operating system
Linux is cool and can do amazing things in the enterprise data center, whether it’s hosting a web app or acting as an Internet firewall. But what makes up the modern Linux OS? What are the many pieces and parts that make the Linux OS work? Before we answer those questions, let’s start by answering a few more basic questions about Linux architecture such as…
What is an operating system?
The short answer is that an operating system, or OS, is software that you load on your hardware to make it do things. Without an operating system, most hardware is useless. For example, you might have a Dell computer that runs the Windows 10 operating system from which you run your applications. You might have an iPhone that runs the iOS operating system. You may also have an Apple MacBook that runs the Apple macOS operating system. The operating systems on these hardware platforms are what enable them to run applications, as shown in the graphic.
What is a kernel, and what does it do?
The kernel is the special piece of the operating system that controls the CPU hardware, allocates memory, accesses data, schedules processes, runs the applications and Continue reading
VXLAN routing with EVPN: asymmetric vs. symmetric model
We all know and love EVPN as a control plane for VXLAN tunnels over a layer 3 infrastructure (Need a refresher? Check out our blog post on the topic). EVPN gives us the ability to deploy VXLAN tunnels without controllers. Plus, it offers a range of other benefits such as reduction of data center traffic through ARP suppression, quick convergence during mobility, one routing protocol for both underlay and overlay and the inherent ability to support multi-tenancy (just to name a few). So EVPN for VXLAN for all of your layer 2 needs, right? Well it’s a little more complicated than that.
Customers need to also communicate between VXLANs and between a VXLAN tunnel and the outside world, so VXLAN routing must also be enabled in the network — which is what I cover in this post. Previous generation merchant silicon does not internally support VXLAN routing, so customers implement a workaround — adding an external loopback cable, sometimes called hyperloop, to the switch. The newer chips that support VXLAN routing allow us to route directly on the ASIC, eliminating the need for the hyperloop.
VXLAN routing can be performed with one of two architectures – centralized or distributed. Continue reading
2018 Predictions: a new year for the Net
Happy New Year! I was thinking back on the last year, reflecting on all of the changes in the IT industry, and in true nerd fashion, I opened a bottle of wine in search of the most poignant change that I expect to see in 2018. In the end, I ended up with two predictions linked to a common theme: the repeal of net neutrality.
First, I predict that we’ll start seeing effects of that legislation early in 2018, likely by the summer time. The anti net neutrality sponsors won’t be able to help themselves; they’ve got to institutionalize changes before the winds can blow in a different direction. I predict the first signs to emerge will be Internet access plans that distinguish based on access to content. These won’t be subtle plans — they’ll look a lot like your TV subscription in the flavor of something like “basic browsing” that will cost less than your current rate and a more expensive “streaming media” package that gives you access to content outside of that offered by your service provider.
The second is that we’ll see an emergence of one or more access/service providers that use this as a land grab Continue reading
Our commitment to open networking
On Monday we released our latest version of Cumulus Linux, 3.5. It includes symmetric VxLAN routing, Voice VLAN and 10 new hardware platforms. This includes General Availability (GA) of our two supported chassis, the four slot Backpack and eight slot OMP800. We announced Early Access (EA) support for both chassis in our previous release, Cumulus Linux 3.4.
At Cumulus, moving fast to fix problems and get features in the hands of our customers is core to our culture. In today’s webscale networks, it’s hard for even the largest of organizations to operate on classic 18+ month buying cycles. Some folks want the ability to use new technology as soon as possible.
The EA process gives customers the ability to use working software or hardware and provide direct feedback on the final product. That feedback improves all aspects of the product, from purchasing, delivery, default configurations or operations.
When we announced EA for our chassis systems, we had many Fortune 500 customers express interest. For some, the EA process allowed them to start the purchasing process knowing that it would take months until a final purchase order was ready. For others, they were able to put working, stable Continue reading
A Cumulus holiday special: unboxing the Facebook Backpack Chassis
Season’s greetings from Cumulus Networks! We wish you all the happiest of holidays and hope they lead into a fantastic new year.
But before we take off for our holiday break, we’ve got one more present for you — a Facebook Backpack Chassis! Well, a video of a Facebook Backpack Chassis. Pour yourself a mug of hot chocolate and prepare yourself for some laughs as we unwrap this exciting new addition to our data center. Check it out:
The post A Cumulus holiday special: unboxing the Facebook Backpack Chassis appeared first on Cumulus Networks Blog.
VXLAN designs: 3 ways to consider routing and gateway design (part 2)
In my previous post, I focused on the concepts of what is called off box routing and centralized routing. They were two different yet similar solutions. The first one being the simplest solution leveraging an external gateway to route between VXLANs. The second solution integrated the edge device to be both an external gateway and VXLAN end point (VTEP).
To expand on my previous post, the next logical place to put a gateway in VXLAN designs is to distribute them all on the top of rack (TOR), also known as the leaf. This TOR acts as a VTEP in the VXLAN solution. Its primary purpose is to encapsulate and decapsulate traffic. This solution is also colloquially known as Anycast Gateway VXLAN Routing. Anycast Gateway VXLAN Routing can only be performed on ASICs that support routing in and out of tunnels (RIOT), as discussed in the previous post. For the rest of this post, when I refer to VXLAN Routing, I specifically mean Anycast Gateway VXLAN Routing unless otherwise noted.
In the simplest form, VXLAN Routing allows the TOR to perform a route lookup on the inbound packet before encapsulating the traffic into a VXLAN tunnel. There are two ways that Continue reading