Choosing your chassis: a look at different models
Simplicity, scalability, efficiency, flexibility — who doesn’t want to be able to use those words when talking about their data center? As more and more companies adopt web-scale networking and watch their growth rapidly increase, the need for an equally scalable and powerful solution becomes apparent. Fortunately, Cumulus Networks has a solution. We believe in listening to what our customers want and providing them with what they need; that’s why we supports the Facebook Backpack for 64 to 128 ports of 100gig connectivity and the Edge-Core OMP800 for 256 ports of 100gig connectivity. So, what exactly is so great about these chassis? Let’s take a closer, more technical look.
The topology
When designing and building out new data centers, customers have universally agreed on spine and leaf networks as the way to go. Easy scale out by adding more leafs when server racks are added and more manageable oversubscription by adding more spines makes this design an obvious choice. We at Cumulus have built some of the largest data centers in the world out of one-rack-unit switches: 48 port leafs and 32 port spines. These web-scale data centers build “three-tier” spine and leaf networks using spine and leaf “pods” Continue reading
Cumulus content roundup: October
Welcome back to the Cumulus content roundup! This month, we think it’s time to get our hands dirty and play around with the latest technology. From video tutorials to how-to blogs to thought-provoking articles, this issue brings together all the resources you need to start experimenting with new configurations, networking practices and more. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get off of the couch (or stay on the couch, if that’s where you work) and start upgrading that datacenter!
What’s new from Cumulus:
Web-scale networking how-to videos: This month, we launched a series of how-to videos to show you the ropes of web-scale networking. What’s the difference between configuring an IP address with Cisco or Cumulus Linux? How do I automate my datacenter? Watch our tutorials to answer these questions!
Cumulus Express — proof that our customers’ success is our success: Announcing Cumulus Express has done great things for Cumulus Networks, but the greatest asset we have is listening to our customers. Read on to see how paying attention to what people want returns the best rewards.
Contain yourself! Best practices for container networking: This webinar covers everything that you need to know about container architecture, the challenges they Continue reading
Proof that our customers’ success is our success
From the start, one mission has driven us: to bring the economics and agility that the web-scale giants enjoy in networking to companies of all sizes.
We announced Cumulus Express at the start of the year with that mission front of mind. The response has exceeded our expectations and reaffirmed our belief that web-scale IT is something companies across the spectrum are serious about. open chassis based on Facebook Backpack — has helped us attract some amazing new customers within the Fortune 100, helping us boost bookings by more than 20%. An interesting insight from speaking to our customers is that established enterprises are looking to create a web-scale architecture with fixed and modular platforms. Both our fixed-form Cumulus Express offering as well as our modular platforms like Backpack cater to companies like those that need a joint solution that is easy to procure and quick to deploy. On average, the availability of Cumulus Express has cut the time it takes from initial conversation to live proof of concept (PoC) in half, meaning that our customers are seeing value faster.
But it isn’t just the Fortune 100 taking an interest; we’ve also seen uptake among other mainstream enterprises. For example, both Healthcare Realty, a major real estate trust, and Perth Radiological Clinic chose Express as a means of quickly expanding their existing Cumulus deployments. What’s more, we’re speaking to a whole range of other companies that are interested in following in their footsteps.
So how did we get here? Simple: we listened.
Many cloud architects we spoke with in the process of developing this product wanted more choice. Many companies were eager to build modern, web-scale networks, but needed the ability to deploy a PoC quickly before committing to the disaggregated model. This was particularly true among large, established enterprises. Others were already on board, but were used to buying their networking system as an appliance. We needed to create an option that would make buying Cumulus Linux — and getting a PoC up and running — quick and easy in both instances.
Enter Cumulus Express. With it, you get a fixed or modular switch preloaded with Cumulus Linux and a set of certified cables and optics. Offering our open networking software and high performance switching hardware in one ready-to-run package was one more way we could make web-scale networking more accessible to more companies and help them be successful.
It’s been a great year for us so far, but we never feel our work is done. I’ve always been steadfast in my belief that building great, enduring companies requires great products — built by listening to customers — so that’s what we’re going to continue to do. Keep sharing your feedback and ideas with us, because it fuels us to keep improving.
Alongside Cumulus Express, we’ve worked extremely hard to bring other standard-setting products like Host Pack to market and build further on our mission of bringing web-scale to the masses. What Cumulus Networks now has is the most mature offering on the market, so we’re perfectly placed to serve the demand for web-scale for years to come.
The post Proof that our customers’ success is our success appeared first on Cumulus Networks Blog.
Why it pays to spend more on premium people
To spend, or not to spend — that is the question. Whether it’s wiser to invest in the latest and most-hyped hardware and suffer the great misfortune of mediocre talent, or to take the hit and invest in greater minds, and thus end troubles. We can wax poetic for much longer on the many dilemmas that accompany partitioning a budget, but we think our time is better spent providing an actual solution. The reality is that too much of funding is spent on hardware, and not enough is spent on investing in the people who make the technology mean something. In this blog post, we’ll help you understand the benefits of investing more money in employees, and then show you how you can reduce your TCO so that you can stop overspending on hardware and start investing in premium people.
What are the benefits of investing in people?
It pays to invest in people who can really make your company great. In fact, failing to properly invest in your hires can actually cost your company. A study in 2013 showed that seventy percent of American workers were actively disengaged at their job, which cost businesses more than $450 million. So, Continue reading
A networking expert on how to experiment with containers using Mesosphere and Cumulus Linux
With the rising popularity of containers, it seems that containers and networking interact more and more frequently. Amongst all the excitement, there is also terminology and technical complexity. And because of this, I’m super grateful for Cumulus in the Cloud. As a Sr. Consulting Engineer, part of my job is ensuring I am deeply familiar with the technologies and methodologies our customers are using. I’ve recently been playing with Cumulus in the Cloud to better learn how Mesos’s Marathon and Mesosphere interoperate with Cumulus Linux and NetQ.
Let me start off by saying that if you’re interested in container networking but want more information on how to do it right, we’re hosting a webinar with Mesosphere that you should most definitely check out. Our co-founder, JR Rivers, will also be hosting, and, I promise you, he’s always an engaging speaker. Of course if you’re already familiar with container networking, or you would like to learn about it in a more hands-on atmosphere, then please read on!
I’m a networking veteran, but working at Cumulus has pushed the boundaries of my networking knowledge as I’ve had to learn more about integrating networking solutions with application functionality. When I have to talk Continue reading
Announcing our new how-to video series!
Class is in session! This week, we are excited to announce that the new networking how-to video series is live on the Cumulus Networks website. Join our highly-qualified instructors as they school you on everything you need to know about web-scale networking. No backpack or homework required — learn everything you need from the comfort of your couch.
So, what’s on the syllabus for web-scale 101? Our goals this semester are to make open networking accessible to everyone, to teach the basics and beyond of Linux, and to demonstrate exactly what you gain from leaving behind traditional networking. Are you confused by configurations? Or have you ever wondered what APT stands for? Our instructors will answer all of your questions. After watching these how-to video tutorials, you’ll be a web-scale scholar!
These video tutorials cover topics such as:
- Configuring trunks and access ports
- How Linux networking differs from traditional networking
- Automating your data center
- …And much more!
What’s the difference between configuring IP addresses with Juniper or Cumulus Linux? We’ll let you decide that for yourself. Head over to our how-to video page and begin your educational journey. No need to worry about tuition — this priceless educational experience is Continue reading
Troubleshooting with Docker Swarm + NetQ
Say you are a network engineer, and you recently were told your company will be building applications using a distributed/microservices architecture with containers moving forward. You know how important this is for the developers — it gives them tremendous flexibility to develop and deploy money making applications. However, what does this mean for the network? It can be much more technically challenging to plan, operate, and manage a network with containers than a traditional network. The containers may need to talk with each other and to the outside world, and you won’t even know IF they exist, let alone WHERE they exist! Yet, the network engineer is responsible for the containers connectivity and high availability.
Since the containers are deployed inside a host — on a virtual ethernet network — they can be invisible to network engineers. Orchestration tools such as Docker Swarm, Apache Mesos or Kubernetes make it very easy to spin up and take down containers from various hosts on a network – and may even do this without human intervention. Many containers are also ephemeral and the traffic patterns between the servers hosting containers can be very dynamic and constantly shifting throughout the network.
Cumulus Networks understands Continue reading
Your guide to selecting pluggable transceiver modules
The high-cost of vendor-locked optics has spawned a lot of ingenuity over the years as other ‘non-approved’ manufacturers build the same optics to the same spec and try to get them to work as a low-cost alternative to preferred ODMs. But the whitebox revolution has now leveled the playing field. Lower cost whitebox hardware can work with low-cost or high-cost optics, without discrimination based on manufacturer brand. In the case of a data center deployment, the cost savings of using lower cost optics can translate to millions of dollars.
As long as the box manufacturer and the optics manufacturer both build to industry standards — both formal and informal ones — optics from any manufacturer should be able to work on any box. Most of the implementation details are specified by standards. However, that doesn’t guarantee that you can pick any module on the internet, order a thousand units and have a successful deployment.
At Cumulus Networks, we do everything we can to ensure a smooth, easy deployment. We believe that one of the critical benefits of disaggregation is that it provides you with the ability to choose whatever hardware and software best suit your business needs.
When it comes Continue reading
Automating network troubleshooting with NetQ + Ansible
Network Automation is so hot right now! Joking aside, DevOps tools like Ansible, Puppet, Chef and Salt as well as proprietary tools like Apstra are becoming all the rage in computer networks everywhere. There are python courses, network automation classes and even automation focused events for the first time in the history of computer networks (or at least it feels like it).
For this blog post I want to focus on automating network troubleshooting, the forgotten stepchild of network automation tasks. I think most automation tools focus on provisioning (or first time configuring) because so many network engineers are new to network automation in general. While I think that is great (and I want to encourage everyone to automate!) I think there is so much more potential for network automation. I am introducing Sean’s third category of automation use-cases — OPS!
I want to combine Cumulus NetQ, a fabric validation system, with Ansible to:
- Figure out IF there is a problem (solved by NetQ)
- Figure out WHAT the problem is (solved by NetQ)
- FIX the problem (solved by Ansible)
- AUTOMATE the above 3 tasks (solved by Ansible)
Because I think looking at terminal windows is super boring (no Continue reading
Network automation best practices for DevOps
Optimizing a network for maximum efficiency almost always requires some level of automation. From provisioning resources to configuring processes and applications, network automation can improve upon the consistency of network operations while also reducing the resources needed to maintain the network. That being said, network automation can be exceedingly complex as well. Following network automation best practices is necessary to ensure that automation doesn’t interfere with or compromise the network.
Create a centralized hub for automated services
As networks grow, it can be tempting to add new services and tools one by one. Unfortunately, piecemeal additions can quickly become haphazard and difficult to maintain. Automated services should always be controlled through a single API or centralized hub, to improve upon reporting, maintenance, consistency and optimization.
Network automation suites have been developed to be robust enough that they can use the same code base for computing, networking, and storage, thereby significantly simplifying network optimization and other related processes. Ansible is one example of a network automation tool that can help you embrace DevOps as a network automation best practices, though there are many others. IT departments will find the process of automation easier to manage and maintain when filtered through a Continue reading
Cumulus content roundup: September
The Cumulus content roundup is back! This month, we’ve journeyed to the far-reaches of the Internet to bring you the best articles, blog posts, and videos about network automation trends. Now, the latest news about containers, clouds and configurations is a click away. Wondering what the CNCF is up to? Or are you more interested in bringing connectivity and visibility to your network? Read on to satiate your curiosities and find the answers to your burning questions. Then, let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Cumulus’ current content
Introduction to Host Pack: Are you searching for software essentials that remove the difficulties of container networking while also bringing visibility and connectivity to the entire stack? Then Host Pack is the product for you! Watch this video to learn about what Host Pack can do for you.
What is FRRouting?: FRRouting (FRR) is the open source software that makes Host Pack’s connectivity so revolutionary. This page goes into deeper, more technical detail about how FRR was developed and how it is used in Cumulus Networks’ Host Pack. Read about FRR here.
NetDevOps: important idempotence: What exactly is idempotence, and what does it have to do with Continue reading
Containers vs. hypervisors: A death knell for hypervisors?
Containers vs. hypervisors: the battle is ongoing, but the two technologies don’t need to be pitted against one another—in fact, they each offer benefits that are more suitable for certain workloads than others.
Containers are considered resilient, in part, because they can be deployed both as classic monolithic applications as well as highly composable microservices. They are portable, and can be scaled up or down and deleted when no longer needed. Among many other benefits, containers pack more applications into a single physical server than a virtual machine (VM) is capable of, which means they are superior if you need the maximum amount of applications on a bare minimum number of servers.
When it comes to hypervisors in our current technology climate, their value seems to be slowly diminishing—and containers continue to enjoy a steady increase in popularity. Part of VM’s decline is due to resource allocation: they use a lot of system resources, requiring a full copy of the OS and a virtual copy of the hardware that the OS needs to run, while containers only need the supporting libraries required to run a specific program.
Furthermore, VM’s don’t provide the same level of portability, consistency, or speed that Continue reading
Fly be free: introducing Cumulus in the Cloud
I get really excited watching people use the technology that we develop at Cumulus Networks, and we’re always looking to make it easier for people get their heads and hands wrapped around our products and tools. Our first product, Cumulus Linux, is pretty easy; a curious techie can download our free Cumulus VX virtual machine and use it standalone or in concert with other virtual machines. If they want to see the rubber meet the road with a physical experience, they can buy a switch/license and experiment in a live network.
The introduction of Cumulus NetQ and Cumulus Host Pack upped the ante in demonstrability. These products work together to allow for high scale, operationally sane infrastructure. We wanted the curious to be able to explore all of our products in a comfortable setting. Thus was born a project we call Cumulus in the Cloud.
The awesome team here at Cumulus leveraged modern technology to set up a personal mini data center infrastructure complete with four servers and a multi-rack leaf/spine network. Then we put that technology to work in infrastructure related architectures that are meaningful to customers.
Our first personalization is a container deployment leveraging Mesos and Docker. An Continue reading
Backing up configs with the Ansible NCLU module
With the release of Ansible 2.3 the Cumulus Linux NCLU module is now part of Ansible core. This means when you `apt-get install ansible`, you get the NCLU module pre-installed! This blog post will focus on using the NCLU module to backup and restore configs on Cumulus Linux. To read more about the NCLU module from its creator, Barry Peddycord, click here.
The consulting team uses Ansible very frequently when helping customers fully automate their data centers. A lot of our playbooks use the Ansible template module because it is very efficient and idempotent, and Cumulus Linux has been built with very robust reload capabilities for both networking and Quagga/FRR. This reload capability allows the box to perform a diff on either `etc/network/interfaces` or `etc/quagga/Quagga.conf` so when a flat-file is overridden with the template module, only the “diff” (or difference) is applied. This means if swp1-10 were already working and we added configuration for swp11-20, an ifreload will only add the additional config and be non-disruptive for swp1-10. This reload capability is imperative to data centers and our customers couldn’t live without it.
However, many customers also want to build configs with NCLU (or the net commands) when Continue reading
NetDevOps: important idempotence
As more and more network engineers dive into network automation, the word idempotence keeps coming up. What is it? Why is it important? Why should we care? Idempotence is often described as the ability to perform the same task repeatedly and produce the same result. I want to demonstrate a super simple example of what this means.
If I am logged into a Linux box and want to add an IP address to the loopback address, I could use something simple like a sed command.
root@leaf01:mgmt-vrf:~# sed -i '/loopback/ a address 1.1.1.1/32' /etc/network/interfaces
This produces exactly what I want!
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
address 1.1.1.1/32
address 10.0.0.11/32
I have appended the address 1.1.1.1/32 to the loopback interface stanza of the /etc/network/interfaces file. Now what happens if I run that same exact command again?
Running the command again produces the following output:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
address 1.1.1.1/32
address 1.1.1.1/32
address 10.0.0.11/32
That is not what I wanted. I performed the same task but instead of just leaving the file alone, since the 1.1.1. Continue reading
Introducing Host Pack — host software essentials for fabric-wide connectivity + visibility
From day one, Cumulus Networks has always believed in making data center networking easier and better. To us, that never stopped at just an operating system. Our goal has always been to unify the entire stack on Linux and bring web-scale principles to all aspects of the data center networking process — from network to operations; from host to switch. This was one of the many key drivers behind our introduction of NetQ, a fabric validation system designed to make network operator’s lives easier by ensuring the network is behaving as intended. Today, we launch the next critical step in web-scale networking — Cumulus Host Pack.
Host Pack offers software essentials that bring the host into the network. It optimizes visibility and connectivity into Cumulus Linux network fabric from end to end. Your entire stack can now be unified with the same language and the same tooling using the Linux networking model. Host Pack ensures real-time reliability and uptime to the container by leveraging NetQ to enhance visibility of the host. In addition to visibility, Host Pack enhances network scalability and connectivity by enabling the host to be part of the layer 3 network, while completely supporting popular layer 2 Continue reading
5 host network configurations for MLAG
Host network configurations for MultiChassis Link Aggregation (MLAG, also referred to as dual-attach or ‘high availability’) can vary from host OS to host OS, even amongst Linux distributions. The most recommended and robust method is to use Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), which is supported on most host operating systems natively. Host bonds or bonding refers to a variety of bonding methods, but for the purpose of this article it will refer to LACP bonds. The terms etherchannel, link aggregation group (LAG), NIC teaming, port-channel and bond can be used interchangeably to refer to LACP depending on the vendor’s nomenclature. For the sake of simplicity, we will just call it bonds or bonding. This post will take your through the steps for host network configurations for MLAG across five different operating systems.
Why LACP? LACP is a IEEE standard that has been available since 2000 known as 802.3ad. This makes a highly interoperable standards approach to bonding that can work across many network vendors and host operating systems. LACP is superior to static configuration (also referred to bond-mode ON) because there is a control protocol keeping the bond active. This means failover is predictable and automatic. This is also Continue reading
Cumulus content roundup: August
It’s time for another Cumulus content roundup! To bring you some of our favorite think-pieces about open source networking trends, both from our website and around the Internet, we’ve wrangled all the links into one convenient spot. From virtual network optimization to private clouds to hyperscale data centers, we’ve got all of the best topics covered. Take a look at these exciting new developments, and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Cumulus Networks’ latest and greatest
Private cloud vs. public cloud: If you’re getting ready for a data center refresh or thinking about moving to a private cloud, this article is for you. We break down the major differences, benefits and use cases between each type of cloud environment, giving you the information you need to make the right choice for your organization. Read on and find out if it’s time for you to switch to a private cloud.
Monash University video: How did Cumulus Networks manage to migrate Monash University’s entire data center in just two weeks? Senior Consulting Engineer Eric Pulvino breaks it down for you and explains how Cumulus was able to do the impossible. Watch the video to learn more.
4 tips for managing big data from IoT in your network
Big Data and the Internet of Things. The two seem to go hand in hand, even if there are some important differences between them. As IoT becomes a greater reality, it’s important that your network devops team is ready for its huge impact on your systems and networks. In this post, we’ll cover the basics, like the difference between big data and the Internet of Things, and then we’ll go into more detail about how to ensure your network is managing big data from IoT effectively.
The Internet of Things: a hot topic
The Internet of Things has been a hot topic in recent years. Little wonder, since its potential is increasing daily. From Bluetooth accessible devices such as smart appliances and smart homes, to wearable technology, to smart cars, to energy plants and wind turbines, smart technology is growing fast. Along with this technology is the need to support these devices both in network and storage. By 2025 McKinsey expects IoT will generate $11.1 Trillion annually. Companies are rushing to find ways to capitalize on IoT and the big data it will generate.
Differences between the Internet of Things and big data
Big Data is an interesting concept Continue reading
Announcing the ultimate BGP how-to guide
The Border Gateway Protocol has become the most popular routing protocol in the data center. But for all its popularity, some consider BGP to be too complicated. Despite its maturity and sophistication, many network operators and data center administrators won’t go anywhere near it. If only there were an equally sophisticated BGP guide to solve this problem…
Fortunately, your prayers to the data center gods have been answered. We at Cumulus are incredibly proud of our Chief Scientist, Dinesh Dutt, who has added the title of “published author” to his impressive repertoire with the publication of the ebook BGP in the Data Center. This handy BGP how-to guide, published by O’Reilly Media, is the ideal companion for anyone looking to better understand the Border Gateway Protocol and its place in the data center. It’s perfect for any network operators and engineers that want to become masters of this protocol, regardless of their base level of familiarity with BGP.
In this ebook, Dinesh covers BGP operations and enhancements to simplify its use in order to help readers truly appreciate the elegance and ultimate simplicity of BGP.
This guide covers topics such as:
- How the BGP theory of operations works for the Continue reading