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Category Archives for "Networking"

HPE’s new Nimble flash arrays offer storage guarantee, NVMe and SCM support

HPE is rolling out the next generation of its Nimble Storage platform, overhauled to better meet the ever-increasing performance demands on data-center workloads, including real-time web analytics, business intelligence, and mission-critical enterprise resource applications.The new HPE Nimble Storage All Flash arrays as well as Nimble Adaptive Flash arrays for hybrid implementations (mixing solid state drives and hard disk drives, for example), are generally available from May 7 and have both been engineered to support NVMe (non-volatile memory express), an extremely fast communications protocol and controller designed to move data to and from SSDs via the PCIe bus standard. NVMe SSDs are expected to offer two orders of magnitude speed improvement over prior SSDs.To read this article in full, please click here

HPE’s new Nimble flash arrays offer storage guarantee, NVMe and SCM support

HPE is rolling out the next generation of its Nimble Storage platform, overhauled to better meet the ever-increasing performance demands on data-center workloads, including real-time web analytics, business intelligence, and mission-critical enterprise resource applications.The new HPE Nimble Storage All Flash arrays as well as Nimble Adaptive Flash arrays for hybrid implementations (mixing solid state drives and hard disk drives, for example), are generally available from May 7 and have both been engineered to support NVMe (non-volatile memory express), an extremely fast communications protocol and controller designed to move data to and from SSDs via the PCIe bus standard. NVMe SSDs are expected to offer two orders of magnitude speed improvement over prior SSDs.To read this article in full, please click here

HPE’s new Nimble flash arrays offer storage guarantee, NVMe and SCM support

HPE is rolling out the next generation of its Nimble Storage platform, overhauled to better meet the ever-increasing performance demands on data-center workloads, including real-time web analytics, business intelligence, and mission-critical enterprise resource applications.The new HPE Nimble Storage All Flash arrays as well as Nimble Adaptive Flash arrays for hybrid implementations (mixing solid state drives and hard disk drives, for example), are generally available from May 7 and have both been engineered to support NVMe (non-volatile memory express), an extremely fast communications protocol and controller designed to move data to and from SSDs via the PCIe bus standard. NVMe SSDs are expected to offer two orders of magnitude speed improvement over prior SSDs.To read this article in full, please click here

Using 4-Byte BGP AS Numbers with EVPN on Junos

After documenting the basic challenges of using EBGP and 4-byte AS numbers with EVPN automatic route targets, I asked my friends working for various vendors how their implementation solves these challenges. This is what Krzysztof Szarkowicz sent me on specifics of Junos implementation:

To learn more about EVPN technology and its use in data center fabrics, watch the EVPN Technical Deep Dive webinar.

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Amateur Radio and FT8

My interest in SDR got me into Amateur Radio. One reason was that so that I could transmit on non-ISM bands and with more power. Turns out the 2.3GHz band available to Amateur Radio operators is much quieter than the 2.4GHz band where WiFi, bluetooth, microwave ovens, drones, cordless phones and everything else lives. Shocker, I know.

Amateur radio doesn’t just have voice and morse code, there’s also digital modes.

A popular mode is FT8. It’s only used to exchange signal reports, so there’s no chatting. It’s in fact often practically unattended.

It’s a good way to check the quality of your radio setup, and the radio propagation properties that depend on how grumpy the ionosphere is at the moment.

If you transmit, even if you nobody replies, you’ll be able to see on PSKReporter who heard you, which is useful.

Because propagation should be pretty much symmetric, receiving a strong signal should mean that two-way communication is possible with the station. Though FT8 is a slow mode that will get through where others won’t, so a weak FT8 signal means that any voice communication is very unlikely to get through.

Unfortunately unlike WSPR the standard FT8 Continue reading

Learning TrustSec – An Introduction to Inline Tagging

In my last article, Basic TrustSec – Implementing Manual SGTs and SGACLs,
we talked about a basic TrustSec configuration. In that example, we shared the understanding of having two devices connected to a single switch and enforcing traffic policies via SGACL. We know that there are more scalable and automated ways to configure TrustSec enabled networks, but our goal is to work toward understanding the building blocks.

In today’s article, we will expand our knowledge and connect the two devices to different switches. The trunks between these switches will be configured to carry the associated source SGT’s (Security Group Tags). The topology used for this discussion is as follows.

Topology

To demonstrate the topic of inline SGT, we will need to accomplish the following.

  1. Configure and Confirm that 192.168.254.11 (connected to c9kSW1) is recognized by its switch with an SGT of 2.
  2. Configure and Confirm that 192.168.254.100 (connected to c9kSW2) is recognized by its switch with an SGT of 3.
  3. Configure the trunk between the switches to carry SGTs
  4. Configure an enforcement policy to demonstrate overall functionality

Configuration Steps

c9kSW1 configuration/confirmation for host port

//We are using static SGT and need to do IP Device  Continue reading

Learning TrustSec – An Introduction to Inline Tagging

In my last article, Basic TrustSec – Implementing Manual SGTs and SGACLs,
we talked about a basic TrustSec configuration. In that example, we shared the understanding of having two devices connected to a single switch and enforcing traffic policies via SGACL. We know that there are more scalable and automated ways to configure TrustSec enabled networks, but our goal is to work toward understanding the building blocks.

In today’s article, we will expand our knowledge and connect the two devices to different switches. The trunks between these switches will be configured to carry the associated source SGT’s (Security Group Tags). The topology used for this discussion is as follows.

Topology

To demonstrate the topic of inline SGT, we will need to accomplish the following.

  1. Configure and Confirm that 192.168.254.11 (connected to c9kSW1) is recognized by its switch with an SGT of 2.
  2. Configure and Confirm that 192.168.254.100 (connected to c9kSW2) is recognized by its switch with an SGT of 3.
  3. Configure the trunk between the switches to carry SGTs
  4. Configure an enforcement policy to demonstrate overall functionality

Configuration Steps

c9kSW1 configuration/confirmation for host port

//We are using static SGT and need to do IP Device  Continue reading

Learning TrustSec – An Introduction to Inline Tagging

In my last article, Basic TrustSec – Implementing Manual SGTs and SGACLs,
we talked about a basic TrustSec configuration. In that example, we shared the understanding of having two devices connected to a single switch and enforcing traffic policies via SGACL. We know that there are more scalable and automated ways to configure TrustSec enabled networks, but our goal is to work toward understanding the building blocks.

In today’s article, we will expand our knowledge and connect the two devices to different switches. The trunks between these switches will be configured to carry the associated source SGT’s (Security Group Tags). The topology used for this discussion is as follows.

Topology

To demonstrate the topic of inline SGT, we will need to accomplish the following.

  1. Configure and Confirm that 192.168.254.11 (connected to c9kSW1) is recognized by its switch with an SGT of 2.
  2. Configure and Confirm that 192.168.254.100 (connected to c9kSW2) is recognized by its switch with an SGT of 3.
  3. Configure the trunk between the switches to carry SGTs
  4. Configure an enforcement policy to demonstrate overall functionality

Configuration Steps

c9kSW1 configuration/confirmation for host port

//We are using static SGT and need to do IP Device  Continue reading

MTU (Maximum Transmit Unit) and MSS (Maximum Segment Size)

What is difference  between MTU and MSS ? Most frequent question asked on the internet by networking guys.Hope this post will answer all queries related to MTU and MSS. As per Wikipedia , the maximum transmission unit (MTU) is the size of the largest protocol data unit (PDU) that can be communicated in a single, network layer, transaction , that […]

Zero Trust. Maximize Network Virtualization and Micro-segmentation

 

It’s official: when it comes to security threats, the question IT teams should be asking is not if but when. VMware recently commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate how organizations are improving the security of their infrastructure through network virtualization and micro-segmentation. Analysis found that 92% of respondents reported having faced minor security incidents in the last 12 months alone, while 65% of respondents endured a major incident in the same time span. These figures seal the deal; the naïve days of preparing for potential issues are long gone. Cyber threats are real, imminent, and happen often.

 

 

Companies today attribute more of their security issues to improper network segmentation than to the volume of threats overall. In response, leaders across industries are turning to network virtualization – specifically the Zero Trust security model – as a key strategy in combating threats. This strategy posits that whether a network is labeled secure or insecure, both should be treated as equally vulnerable. Further, the Zero Trust model supports the argument that ”traditional, perimeter-based security configurations are no longer a sufficient measure for protecting the network, and highlights steps companies can take to better secure their network, starting with network virtualization Continue reading