Vrnetlab: Emulate networks using KVM and Docker
Vrnetlab, or VR Network Lab, is an open-source network emulator that runs virtual routers using KVM and Docker. It supports developers and network engineers who use continuous-integration processes for testing network provisioning changes. Researchers and engineers may also use the vrnetlab command line interface to create and modify network emulation labs in an interactive way. In this post, I review vrnetlab’s main features and show how to use it to create a simple network emulation scenario using open-source routers.
Vrnetlab implementation
Vrnetlab users create Docker images for each type of router that will run in their network. They package the router’s disk image together with KVM software, Python scripts, and any other resources required by the router into the Docker image. Vrnetlab uses KVM to create and run VMs based on router software images, and uses Docker to manage the networking between the network nodes.
Virtual nodes
Vrnetlab users create Docker images that incorporate the router’s qemu disk image, along with software packages such as qemu-kvm, and the other resources needed by the router, such as a launch script and license files. The new Docker image represents a “virtual router” that comes with all the software and Continue reading
Feedback: Data Center Interconnects Webinar
I got great feedback about the first part of Data Center Interconnects webinar from one of ipSpace.net subscribers:
I had no specific expectation when I started watching the material and I must have watched it 6 times by now.
Your webinar covered just the right level of detail to educate myself or refresh my knowledge on the technologies and relevant options for today’s market choices
The information provided is powerful and avoids useless discussions which vendors and PowerPoint pitches. Once you ask the right question it’s easy to get an idea of the vendor readiness
In the first live session we covered the easy cases: design considerations, and layer-3 interconnect with path separation (multiple routing domains). The real fun will start in the second live session on March 19th when we’ll dive into stretched VLANs and long-distance vMotion ideas.
You can attend the live session with any paid ipSpace.net subscription – details here.
Fact or Fiction? With IoT It’s Not Always Clear
Recently, owners of expensive smart shoes found themselves at loose ends. Unable to pair the shoes to their smart phone app, they couldn’t tighten their self-lacing sneakers. It sounds like science fiction, but this really happened.
From dental sensors that can monitor what a person eats to kitty litters that can track a cat’s every movement, it can be difficult to sort fact from fiction when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT). Can you tell which is real and which is not?
Fact or Fiction? The voice came from inside the Arizona man’s home – his home security camera to be exact. “You’ve never met me. I’m just a hacker.” Fortunately, it was a friendly hacker, alerting the household to a vulnerability in their home security system.
Fact: The hacker had a solution: turn on two-factor authentication. When using IoT devices, consumers can take this simple step, plus a few others, to help protect their privacy and security.
Fact or Fiction? A couple returned home to find that their carpet had been worn through by their overzealous Internet-connected vacuum cleaner. A hacker had programmed it to clean one square foot of their carpet for several Continue reading
rbenv Install CentOS 7
Install rbenv on CentOS 7 linux.rbenv Install CentOS 7
rbenv is a utility for installing multiple ruby versions on a host machine. Using rbenv allows you to install ruby in a path you have ownership over so you can install gems without having to have sudo or root privileges. rbenv also allows you to target the exact ruby version in development...Arista Helps Facebook Reimagine Its Data Centers
The companies contributed both Minipack and the Arista 7368X4 switch to OCP.
Cumulus Networks is Excited to Announce being the First to Power Facebook’s Next Generation, Open Modular Platform, Minipack
Cumulus Networks, the leader in building open, modern and scalable networks, announced at OCP Summit that Cumulus Linux is the first network operating system to fully support the Minipack next-generation modular switch platform. Developed by Edgecore and contributed by Facebook to the Open Compute Project, Minipack empowers organizations of all sizes to architect, design and scale their infrastructure with unprecedented flexibility, capacity and interoperability.
Figure 1: Minipack Modular Chassis
Minipack is a modular switch platform, which means together, Cumulus Networks and Edgecore are bringing the benefits of web-scale networking to the mainstream. Minipack follows the open networking principles of disaggregation that allow customers to maintain consistent automated provisioning across all their switches of different form-factors (fixed or chassis).
Minipack leverages the latest ASIC technology from Broadcom including the Tomahawk III, the industry’s highest performance switch silicon. Compared to its predecessor, Backpack, Minipack is ½ the height, uses ½ the power and offers equivalent capacity making it one of the most operationally efficient open networking data center spine switches available today.
Additionally, Minipack offers either 100GE or 400GE options with Field Replaceable Port Interface Modules (PIM)’s in the following form factors:
- PIM-16Q: Port Interface Module with 16 x QSFP28 100G
- Continue reading
Open Cloud Networking-Redefined
Networking vendors have long touted distinct routers and switches with different LAN/WAN interfaces for different customer use cases. After three decades of evolution, Ethernet now truly addresses all aspects of the present state and the next generation of networking, making it possible to support these previously separate use cases from a single common platform, which flexibly incorporates new capabilities in an open, standards-based approach. Arista, together with an ecosystem of partners including Broadcom and Cloud Titan customers, has a history of collaborating in many industry forums to define these new networking capabilities, including OCP, 25/50G and COBO, while driving next generation optics such as OSFP and QSFP-DD.
Microsoft Ziplines Into Open Source Storage, Facebook Launches AI Hardware
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Huawei Brings OCP’s Open Rack Into Its New Public Cloud Data Centers
Open Rack will increase the environmental sustainability of the vendor’s future data centers and...
How Verizon is Using Software to Power Its 5G Network
Behind the scenes, Verizon engineers have been preparing for 5G by migrating network core and edge...
Polish Operator Pushes for ‘Extreme’ 5G Network Sharing Model
Exatel has been pushing for a 5G model that would see all operators share the same network. Dutch...
Buoyant Buoyed by $10M in Funds for Service Mesh Battle With Istio
“Much of Linkerd’s recent momentum is from folks coming to Linkerd after struggling with...
GigaSpaces Accelerates Machine Learning on Real-Time and Historic Data
The company released a new service that accelerates access to data lakes and warehouses to simplify...
Marriott data breach has cost the hotel chain only $3 million so far, after insurance
Cyber insurance actually does payout
The post Marriott data breach has cost the hotel chain only $3 million so far, after insurance appeared first on EtherealMind.
3 Stumbling Blocks for Network Engineers Adopting Ansible
Ansible, ansible, ansible seems to be all we hear these days. There are lots of resources out there all trying to convince us this is the new way get stuff done. The reality is quite different – adoption of tools like this is slow in the networking world, and making the move is hard for command-line devotees.
Here are the three main problems I encountered in my adoption of Ansible as a modern way to manage devices:
1. Most network devices don’t support Python
Ansible is derived from the systems world, and is only latterly coming to be used for managing network devices. It is often said that Ansible is agentless, but when managing a Linux host (for example) the control machine pushes the Ansible playbook to that host and executes it there. In effect, *Python* is the agent.
Most network devices don’t have on-box Python, so when using Ansible against a router or a switch you have to have ‘connection: local’ in your playbook:
---
name: Get info
hosts: all
roles:
Juniper.junos # Invokes the Junos Ansible module
connection: local # Tells it to run locally
gather_facts: no
What this does is run the playbook using the local Continue reading