Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 9: Open Networking in 2019
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We had a couple of weeks off but we’re back in action, bringing to you a podcast about what makes up open networking in 2019. We took a different approach than normal this time and have guests both from sales & engineering here to discuss the different things they’re seeing from their respective “worlds” with the hopes of bridging the gap between the two of them for you. Joining host Brian is Andreas la Quiante, calling in from Germany no less, and representing the “sales” side of the conversation. On the engineering side, we have some folks you might recognize from previous podcasts: Roopa Prabhu and David Ahern. With that intro out of the way, now is the time to sit down, relax and listen to their conversation here. We hope you enjoy it!
Guest Bios
Brian O’Sullivan: Brian currently heads Product Management for Cumulus Linux. For 15 or so years he’s held software Product Management positions at Juniper Networks as well as other smaller companies. Once he saw the change that was happening in the networking space, he decided Continue reading
Validation vibes: How we’ve won the praise of customers and employees alike
The success of a company is often defined by two key factors: how your customers feel about you and how your employees feel about you. We’re excited to share that recently we’ve had some great validation by both!
Customer validation
We’re very honored to work with a variety of innovative companies that are breaking the status quo with open networking principles in data centers designed to scale. All of our customers have realized the need for an open, modern data center and are looking to build infrastructure with purpose. From web-scale giants to visionary enterprises, we give them all the ability to build something “EPIC.”
This was recently highlighted when for the second year in a row, our customers have rallied around our vision for the future of data center networking and recognized us as “The Best Data Center Networking 2019” with their reviews through Gartner Peer Insights.
As Gartner puts it, “The Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice is a recognition of vendors in this market by verified end-user professionals, taking into account both the number of reviews and the overall user ratings.” To ensure fair evaluation, Gartner maintains rigorous criteria for recognizing vendors with Continue reading
Cumulus content roundup: May
May is well in the books and summer seems to be in full swing with recent heatwaves across the country. Since we know life can get pretty busy and you may have missed some of May’s great content, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite podcasts, blog posts, and articles for you here. So settle in, hopefully, stay cool, and get ready for all things open networking!
From Cumulus Networks:
Minipack Highlight Video from OCP Summit: Listen to Brian O’Sullivan & Michael Lane, VP of Business Development at Edgecore Networks discuss the recently launched Minipack, open, modular switch.
Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 7: Certifications: Listen as we discuss the value of certifications, if any, what works for certifications and what doesn’t, who should be taking certifications and more!
Installing Cumulus packages on air-gapped equipment: Check out this excerpt to help you get additional packages into an air-gapped environment for the install where you don’t have a repo or mirror available to pull from.
ngrok on Cumulus Linux: If you have a good idea of what ngrok is and what it does, here are step-by-step instructions for turning up ngrok ssh services on Cumulus Linux.
Campus design feature set-up : Part 4
In case you’ve missed the first three blogs, I’ve been showing you how to set up the CL 3.7.5 campus feature: Multi-Domain Authentication. This is a 6-part blog series and we’re officially past the half-way point.In blogs 1-3 we covered Wired 802.1x using Aruba ClearPass, Wired MAC Authentication using Aruba ClearPass, Multi-Domain Authentication using Aruba ClearPass. We’ll also have guides for Wired 802.1x using Cisco ISE, Wired MAC Authentication using Cisco ISE, and Multi-Domain Authentication using Cisco ISE. So yes, we’ve got all the bases covered.
In this fourth guide, I’ll be sharing how to enable wired 802.1X authentication in Cumulus Linux 3.7.5+ using Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) 2.4 Patch 8.
Keep in mind that this step-by-step guide assumes that you have already performed an initial setup of Cisco ISE.
Cisco ISE Configuration:
1. Add a Cumulus Switch group to Cisco ISE:
First, we are going to add a Network Device Group to Cisco ISE:
Administration > Network Resources > Network Device Groups. Click the “+Add” button
Make sure to set the “Parent Group” to “All Device Types.” The result will look like the following:
2. Adding Continue reading
Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 8: Network of pods
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Click here for our previous episode.
You’ve probably heard of HCI (hyper-converged infrastructure), and we’ve chatted out it before on an earlier episode here but have you heard of “Network of pods?” Kernel of Truth host Brian O’Sullivan and “resident jam band man” JR Rivers have a great conversation about what pod architecture is and how is it relevant to you so be sure to queue it up and listen!
Guest Bios
Brian O’Sullivan: Brian currently heads Product Management for Cumulus Linux. For 15 or so years he’s held software Product Management positions at Juniper Networks as well as other smaller companies. Once he saw the change that was happening in the networking space, he decided to join Cumulus Networks to be a part of the open networking innovation. When not working, Brian is a voracious reader and has held a variety of jobs, including bartending in three countries and working as an extra in a German soap opera. You can find him on Twitter at @bosullivan00.
JR Rivers: JR is a co-founder and CTO of Cumulus Networks where he works on Continue reading
The future of HCI
You may have noticed already but HCI has been on our minds lately. We’ve talked about it in-depth in our recent white paper and JR Rivers, Cumulus Networks co-founder & CTO, has shared more about it in relation to a network of pods in his on-demand webinar. JR will share more about his take in an upcoming Kernel of Truth podcast episode but in the meantime, we’ll get Naveen Chhabra’s, a senior industry analyst at Forrester, opinion on the future of HCI.
We sat down with him recently to discuss this and here’s what he had to say.
Question: Why is the network such a critical consideration in any hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) deployment?
Let’s look at the major transformational projects the organizations globally are working on. One project that spans all organizations, verticals, and geographies is digital transformation. IT leaders upgrade or acquire new technologies to support these projects. One pertinent issue across a large percentage of projects is that these are still focused on technology silos.
Specific to HCI, organizations have successfully collapsed the compute and storage silo. Network infrastructure is still not integrated to the extent that it could and should be. Firms have the capability, via HCI, Continue reading
ngrok on Cumulus Linux
If you’ve landed on this page, you likely already have a good idea of what ngrok is and what it does. For those that don’t, the reader’s digest version is that it’s a simple way to securely tunnel to a device that sits behind a firewall/NAT device. It’s a slick implementation that is easy to install and allows a few different tunneling options. For the purpose of this blog, we’re using ssh and eliminating the need for port forwarding on the firewall.
Here are step-by-step instructions for turning up ngrok ssh services on Cumulus Linux. Note that these instructions work on the default VRF. You’ll need to take additional configuration steps to get this to work on Cumulus Linux with mgmt VRF enabled.
First, install the unzip package from the repo
Then wget the ngrok application, or optionally add the appropriate repo to your /etc/apt/sources.list and use apt to pull the package. You’ll obviously want to find the appropriate package for your switch (x86 or ARM).
If you don’t know the download link, navigate to https://dashboard.ngrok.com/get-started and copy the link address on the web link of the download section (right click the download link to snag the Continue reading
Installing Cumulus packages on air-gapped equipment
From time to time I run into situations where someone would like to install the Cumulus Linux operating system as well as additional packages that aren’t part of the default binary install package. This short excerpt is meant to assist in helping get those additional packages into an air-gapped environment for the install where you don’t have a repo or mirror available to pull from.
For instance, let’s say we want to install TACACS+ on an air-gapped switch and we don’t have access to a mirrored repo. There is a very tedious method which I’ll outline first, then there is the more Linux admin like option which is much more streamlined.
One thing that could be done is to run through the install on a switch with outside connectivity, gather the package and dependency info… manually pull the deb’s off of the repo on whatever media you are using to transfer files to the new switch. Then copy all of the packages over and install them. It’s the hard way, but sometimes that’s the road we have to take.
The long way
Pull the package list from a switch connected to the repo:
All of the packages should be in Continue reading
Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 7: Certifications
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Click here for our previous episode.
In a recent podcast, we talked with our friend Angelo Luciani from Nutanix about the value of being part of a community and what that can mean for your career. We continue along that train of thought in this podcast but pivot over to the topic industry certifications. Host Brian talks again to Nick Mitchell and Eric Pulvino, two of our consultants who’ve not only taken certifications throughout their career but worked on and helped to create our open networking certification. Listen as they discuss the value of them, if any, what works for certifications and what doesn’t, who should be taking certifications and more!
As Brian mentions in the podcast, we have a social game going on for 2019 where you can win some fun prizes. Part of the game includes some flash give-aways of free CCOMP certification exam registration and more! Head over to our EPIC Year Game page to learn more or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Guest Bios
Brian O’Sullivan: Brian currently heads Product Management for Cumulus Linux. For 15 or so Continue reading
Minipack Highlight Video from OCP Summit
Minipack is an open, modular super spine switch and is the most recent addition to the industry’s open modular switches. Paired with the flexibility and cost benefits of Cumulus Linux OS, the platform is ideal for deploying the next generation of high-capacity data center fabrics. Based on Broadcom’s StrataXGS Tomahawk III Switch Series, Minipack is more powerful than other chassis while occupying a smaller footprint.
Together, Cumulus Networks and Edgecore Networks are bringing the hyperscale that was once only available to the largest enterprises to an entirely new segment of the market with Minipack.
Listen to Brian Sullivan, Sr Director of Product Management at Cumulus Networks and Michael Lane, VP of Business Development at Edgecore Networks as they discuss the recently launched Minipack, open, modular switch.
Minipack Announcement Blog
Minipack Datasheet
Edgecore Networks Minipack launch Press Release
Please let me know if you have any comments or questions, or via Twitter at @CicconeScott.
Cumulus content roundup: April
You know we like to stay busy here at Cumulus Networks, and April was no exception! We’ve rounded up some of our favorite podcasts, blog posts, and articles in case you missed them. So settle in and get ready for all things open networking!
From Cumulus Networks:
RIP up your dynamic routing with OSPF: Let’s RIP right into the ins and outs of Routing Information Protocol and Open Shortest Path First in this blog post by Keith Ward. Here we’ll discuss all things IGPs, history of RIPS and what you need to know about OSPFs.
Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 5: The power of community: Grab a pair of headphones and tune into Season 2 Episode 5 of our podcast, Kernel of Truth. In this episode, Brian O’ Sullivan talks with Angelo Luciani from Nutanix and our own Pete Lumbis about the power of community and self-service. Learn about the resources available surrounding building community and the importance of it all.
Cumulus NetQ Reinvented
Did you hear the news? We are pleased to announce the launch of our newest product, Cumulus NetQ! Cumulus NetQ is a highly-scalable, modern network operations toolset that provides visibility into and troubleshooting Continue reading
Campus design feature set-up : Part 3
We’ve said it before but since it’s important we’ll say it again. Shared knowledge makes for a stronger ecosystem! With this in mind, I’m showing you how to set up the CL 3.7.5 campus feature: Multi-Domain Authentication in a 6-part blog series.
In this series we’re covering it all: Wired MAC Authentication using Aruba ClearPass, Multi-Domain Authentication using Aruba ClearPass, Wired 802.1x using Cisco ISE, Wired MAC Authentication using Cisco ISE, and Multi-Domain Authentication using Cisco ISE.
This third guide is how to enable Multi-Domain Authentication in Cumulus Linux 3.7.5 + using Aruba ClearPass 6.7.x.
Keep in mind that this step-by-step guide assumes that you have already performed an initial setup of Aruba ClearPass and read the following Wired 802.1x using Aruba ClearPass and Wired MAC Authentication using Aruba ClearPass.
Over the past year, Cumulus Networks has made a concerted effort to expand the breadth and scope of the campus features within Cumulus Linux. Hot off the press in 3.7.5 is one of those features, Multi-Domain Authentication (MDA).
Classically, MDA allows for a voice VLAN and data VLAN to be configured independently on the same switch port for a VoIP Continue reading
Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 6: Infrastructure as code
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Click here for our previous episode.
Our consultants are often the first to hear about trends and issues that customers and the industry as a whole are seeing and dealing with. Recently we’ve found that quite a few were unaware of what “infrastructure as code” is so we thought, let’s demystify it for everyone! Host Brian talks to Nick Mitchell and Eric Pulvino, two of our consultants who have first-hand knowledge about the topic and share not only what it is but what the problems infrastructure as code is solving for and why you should care! As you listen beware, there may be a “dad joke” and an attempt at Buzzword Bingo along the way. Apparently, it can’t be helped when you’re talking about “git.”
Guest Bios
Brian O’Sullivan: Brian currently heads Product Management for Cumulus Linux. For 15 or so years he’s held software Product Management positions at Juniper Networks as well as other smaller companies. Once he saw the change that was happening in the networking space, he decided to join Cumulus Networks to be a part of the Continue reading
Cumulus NetQ Reinvented
When it comes to visibility into the health of your network. telemetry is all the rage these days. Even so, many customers are still plowing through old SNMP and Flow data to try to piece together what went wrong in their network with no easy way to back the clock up to a time before something broke your spine or leaf! Network downtime is usually costly and for many customers, large and small, can be mission critical.
With these and many other reasons in mind, I’m really excited to introduce Cumulus NetQ. With NetQ, Cumulus Networks has reinvented, from the ground up, our original NetQ product to include a long list of very useful features that are sure to make NetQ a Network Operators best friend.
Figure 1: Cumulus NetQ Benefits
Figure 1: Cumulus NetQ BenefitsNetQ is a highly-scalable, modern network operations toolset that provides visibility into and troubleshooting of your overlay and underlay networks in real-time. NetQ, delivers actionable insights and operational intelligence about the health of your network and your Linux-based data center — from the container, virtual machine, or host, all the way to the switch and port. In short, NetQ provides holistic, real-time intelligence about your modern network.
So, what Continue reading
Campus design feature set-up : Part 2
To catch you up to speed quickly, I have a six-part blog series that will show you how to set up the CL 3.7.5 campus design feature: Multi-Domain Authentication.
We’ll cover it all: Wired 802.1X Authentication using Aruba ClearPass, Wired MAC Authentication using Aruba ClearPass, Multi-Domain Authentication using Aruba ClearPass, Wired 802.1x using Cisco ISE, Wired MAC Authentication using Cisco ISE, and Multi-Domain Authentication using Cisco ISE.
In the last blog, I showed you how to enable wired 802.1X authentication in Cumulus Linux 3.7.5+ using Aruba ClearPass 6.7.x. In this second guide, I’ll be sharing is how to enable wired MAC Authentication in Cumulus Linux 3.7.5+ using Aruba ClearPass 6.7.x.
Keep in mind that this step-by-step guide assumes that you have already performed an initial setup of Aruba ClearPass.
Aruba ClearPass Configuration:
1. Add the Cumulus Switch to ClearPass
First, we are going to add this specific Cumulus Network switch to ClearPass. Go to the following:
Configuration > Network > Devices. Click “+Add” in the top right-hand corner
Fill in the appropriate IP Address, Description, and Shared Secrets. For simplicity sake, set the “Vendor Name” to Continue reading
Campus design feature set-up : Part 1
Shared knowledge makes for a stronger ecosystem and with this in mind, I’m going to show you how to set up the CL 3.7.5 campus feature: Multi-Domain Authentication in a 6-part blog series.
We’ll cover it all: Wired MAC Authentication using Aruba ClearPass, Multi-Domain Authentication using Aruba ClearPass, Wired 802.1x using Cisco ISE, Wired MAC Authentication using Cisco ISE, and Multi-Domain Authentication using Cisco ISE.
The first guide I’ll be sharing is how to enable wired 802.1X authentication in Cumulus Linux 3.7.5+ using Aruba ClearPass 6.7.x.
Keep in mind that this step-by-step guide assumes that you have already performed an initial setup of Aruba ClearPass.
Aruba ClearPass Configuration:
1. Add the Cumulus Switch to ClearPass
First, we are going to add this specific Cumulus Network switch to ClearPass. Go to the following:
Configuration > Network > Devices. Click “+Add” in the top right-hand corner
Fill in the appropriate IP Address, Description, and Shared Secrets. For simplicity sake, set the “Vendor Name” to “Cisco.”
2. Adding the Cumulus Switch to a Device Group
Configuration > Network > Device Groups. Click “+Add” in the top right-hand corner
We are Continue reading
Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 5: The power of community
Subscribe to Kernel of Truth on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Cast Box and Sticher!
Click here for our previous episode.
From developer days to hackathons and from events to forums, Slack and social media included- there’s a community out there waiting for you! In this episode, host Brian talks to community evangelist for Nutanix Angelo Luciani and our own Pete Lumbis about the power of community and self-service. What are the perks, both personally and professionally, that you get when you’re actively participating in a community? What are some communities and resources we’ve found useful? Grab a taco, listen and find out. We promise you’ll get the taco reference after listening.
Guest Bios
Brian O’Sullivan: Brian currently heads Product Management for Cumulus Linux. For 15 or so years he’s held software Product Management positions at Juniper Networks as well as other smaller companies. Once he saw the change that was happening in the networking space, he decided to join Cumulus Networks to be a part of the open networking innovation. When not working, Brian is a voracious reader and has held a variety of jobs, including bartending in three countries and working as an extra in a German Continue reading
RIP Up Your Dynamic Routing With OSPF
What is dynamic routing? Why is Routing Information Protocol (RIP) horrible, and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) ever so slightly less horrible? How does Linux handle OSPF, and what advantages does it bring over traditional networking gear in complex, intent-based, infrastructure-as-code environments?
RIP and OSPF are Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs). IGPs are protocols designed to allow network routers and switches within an organization’s internal network to dynamically reconfigure the network to respond to changes. These changes may include the addition or removal of network equipment or network links between network devices.
The purpose of IGPs is to tell networking equipment which devices live where. While devices that are part of the same subnet can find one another, they require a router to communicate with devices on other subnets. Routers and switches keep routing tables of which devices are on which physical interface, and VLAN. These routing tables allow each device to know where to send a packet to reach a given system, and whether or not that packet needs to be encapsulated or tagged.
IGPs allow routers and switches to exchange some or all of their routing tables so that other devices within the network fabric know where to send Continue reading
Cumulus content roundup: March
Did you feel like you missed any of our great blogs or podcasts this month? We had a lot of great ones to choose from in our March content roundup and on top of that, we had a lot of great industry articles and videos we shared that you can easily access below too! Spend a minute or two, or maybe even sixty to digest it all and increase your overall knowledge. Happy trails!
From Cumulus Networks:
Cumulus Networks is excited to announce being the first to power Facebook’s next generation, open modular platform, Minipack: With this news being announced at the recent OCP Summit 2019, we provided this helpful blog with links to everything you need to know about the announcement including data sheets etc.
Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 3: Storage solutions: Ask & you shall receive! A question asking “what are middle-tier customers doing for storage” came across our path & we thought hey, let’s tap a couple of experts to answer this one. Listen as David Iles from Mellanox Technologies discusses this with our own Peter Lumbis & host Brian O’Sullivan here.
The multicloud we need, but not the one we deserve: How can you take advantage of multi-cloud deployments without completely ditching Continue reading
Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 4: Integrated network telemetry
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Click here for our previous episode.
Telemetry, is it cool or not? Host Brian tries to wrangle in JR Rivers and Scott Raynovich to find out in our latest episode. Will he succeed? Or, more importantly, what does integrated networking telemetry mean and why should you care? Listen and find out although pro tip: make sure you listen to the whole episode to find out what surprising band JR has been listening to.
Guest Bios
Brian O’Sullivan: Brian currently heads Product Management for Cumulus Linux. For 15 or so years he’s held software Product Management positions at Juniper Networks as well as other smaller companies. Once he saw the change that was happening in the networking space, he decided to join Cumulus Networks to be a part of the open networking innovation. When not working, Brian is a voracious reader and has held a variety of jobs, including bartending in three countries and working as an extra in a German soap opera. You can find him on Twitter at @bosullivan00.
Scott Raynovich: Scott is the Founder and Principal Analyst at Futuriom. Founded in Continue reading