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Category Archives for "Networking"

Why it makes sense to converge the NOC and SOC

It’s been 17 years and counting since Nemertes first wrote about the logic of integrating event response in the enterprise: bringing together the security operations center (SOC) and network operations center (NOC) at the organizational, operational, and technological levels. Needless to say, this has not happened at most organizations, although there has been a promising trend toward convergence in the monitoring and data management side of things. It’s worth revisiting the issue.Why converge? The arguments for convergence remain pretty compelling: Both the NOC and SOC are focused on keeping an eye on the systems and services comprising the IT environment; spotting and understanding anomalies; and spotting and responding to events and incidents that could affect or are affecting services to the business. Both are focused on minimizing the effects of events and incidents on the business. The streams of data they watch overlap hugely. They often use the same systems (e.g. Splunk) in managing and exploring that data. Both are focused on root-cause analysis based on those data streams. Both adopt a tiered response approach, with first-line responders for “business as usual” operations and occurrences, and anywhere from one to three tiers of escalation to more senior engineers, Continue reading

Why it makes sense to converge the NOC and SOC

It’s been 17 years and counting since Nemertes first wrote about the logic of integrating event response in the enterprise: bringing together the security operations center (SOC) and network operations center (NOC) at the organizational, operational, and technological levels. Needless to say, this has not happened at most organizations, although there has been a promising trend toward convergence in the monitoring and data management side of things. It’s worth revisiting the issue.Why converge? The arguments for convergence remain pretty compelling: Both the NOC and SOC are focused on keeping an eye on the systems and services comprising the IT environment; spotting and understanding anomalies; and spotting and responding to events and incidents that could affect or are affecting services to the business. Both are focused on minimizing the effects of events and incidents on the business. The streams of data they watch overlap hugely. They often use the same systems (e.g. Splunk) in managing and exploring that data. Both are focused on root-cause analysis based on those data streams. Both adopt a tiered response approach, with first-line responders for “business as usual” operations and occurrences, and anywhere from one to three tiers of escalation to more senior engineers, Continue reading

Automating Green-House Photos through Event-Bridge Pipes and Lambda

< MEDIUM: https://medium.com/towards-aws/automating-green-house-photos-through-event-bridge-pipes-and-lambda-434461b89f55 >

Image sent to Telegram

I have a small greenhouse which was in the pipeline for over 2 years and I finally decided to build it. Whoever is in gardening will agree that anything grows better in the greenhouse at least it appears to be so.

Now, the initial impression is all good but I have plans to learn and explore both the plant sides of things and also some using some part of image analysis for a predictive action, for all that to happen I need a camera and a picture to start with.

Hardware —

  1. Raspberry Pi — I have an old one at home, you can technically have any shape or size as long as it fits your need, My recommendation — is Raspberry Pi Zero

What are the other simplest alternatives:

  • I could have written a Python script which directly could have sent the image to Telegram storing the image locally or uploading it to S3

The reason I choose to go with Event-bridge Pipe is to put this more into practice and from there on connect more Lambda and step-functions for future expansion of the project.

Architecture Diagram for sending Images Continue reading

Achieving High Availability (HA) Redis Kubernetes clusters with Calico Clustermesh in Microsoft AKS

According to the recent Datadog report on real world container usage, Redis is among the top 5 technologies used in containerized workloads running on Kubernetes.

Redis database is deployed across multi-region clusters to be Highly Available(HA) to a microservices application. However, while Kubernetes mandates how the networking and security policy is deployed and configured in a single cluster it is challenging to enforce inter-cluster communication at pod-level, enforce security policies and connect to services running in pods across multiple clusters.

Calico Clustermesh provides an elegant solution to highly available multiple Redis clusters without any overheads. By default, deployed Kubernetes pods can only see pods within their cluster.

Using Calico Clustermesh, you can grant access to other clusters and the applications they are running. Calico Clustermesh comes with Federated Endpoint Identity and Federated Services.

Federated endpoint identity

Calico federated endpoint identity and federated services are implemented in Kubernetes at the network layer. To apply fine-grained network policy between multiple clusters, the pod source and destination IPs must be preserved. So the prerequisite for enabling federated endpoints requires clusters to be designed with common networking across clusters (routable pod IPs) with no encapsulation.

Federated services

Federated services works with federated endpoint identity, Continue reading

After China’s Micron ban, US lawmakers urge sanctions on chips from CXMT

The US Commerce Department should put trade restrictions on Chinese memory chip maker Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT), say lawmakers on the US House of Representative’s Committee on China.The comments come in the wake of the Chinese government ban on the use of some Micron chips in certain sectors, citing concerns that the products pose a significant security risk to the country’s key information infrastructure supply chain.However, these claims are “not based in fact” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, adding that the Department of Commerce was engaged directly with the PRC (People's Republic of China) to detail the administration’s views on the ban.To read this article in full, please click here

Day Two Cloud 196: Peering Behind The Curtain Of Podsqueeze’s AI Podcasting Service

Today's show gets behind the curtain of a cloud service called Podsqueeze. Podsqueeze is an application that ingests audio and video files and then produces text-based output including a show description, an episode transcript, suggested headlines, segment timestamps, suggested social media posts, and more. The Packet Pushers are experimenting with Podsqueeze as part of our own production. Being curious nerds, we thought this was a good opportunity to see how the service really works. Our guest is Tiago Ferreira, one of the entrepreneurs and developers of Podsqueeze.

The post Day Two Cloud 196: Peering Behind The Curtain Of Podsqueeze’s AI Podcasting Service appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Day Two Cloud 196: Peering Behind The Curtain Of Podsqueeze’s AI Podcasting Service

Today's show gets behind the curtain of a cloud service called Podsqueeze. Podsqueeze is an application that ingests audio and video files and then produces text-based output including a show description, an episode transcript, suggested headlines, segment timestamps, suggested social media posts, and more. The Packet Pushers are experimenting with Podsqueeze as part of our own production. Being curious nerds, we thought this was a good opportunity to see how the service really works. Our guest is Tiago Ferreira, one of the entrepreneurs and developers of Podsqueeze.

Failed Expectations

In a recent workshop I attended, reflecting on the evolution of the Internet over the past 40 years, one of the takeaways for me is how we've managed to surprise ourselves in both the unanticipated successes we've encountered and in the instances of failure when technology has stubbornly resisted to be deployed despite our confident expectations to the contrary! What have we learned from these lessons of our inability to predict technology outcomes?

Leaf and spine network emulation on Mac OS M1/M2 systems


The GitHub sflow-rt/containerlab project contains example network topologies for the Containerlab network emulation tool that demonstrate real-time streaming telemetry in realistic data center topologies and network configurations. The examples use the same FRRouting (FRR) engine that is part of SONiC, NVIDIA Cumulus Linux, and DENT network operating systems. Containerlab can be used to experiment before deploying solutions into production. Examples include: tracing ECMP flows in leaf and spine topologies, EVPN visibility, and automated DDoS mitigation using BGP Flowspec and RTBH controls.

The Containerlab project currently has limited support for Mac OS, stating "ARM-based Macs (M1/2) are not supported, and no binaries are generated for this platform. This is mainly due to the lack of network images built for arm64 architecture as of now." However, this argument doesn't apply to the Linux based images used in these examples.

First install Docker Desktop on your Apple silicon based Mac (select the Apple Chip option).

mkdir clab
cd clab
docker run --rm -it --privileged \
  --network host --pid="host" \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v /run/netns:/run/netns \
  -v $(pwd):$(pwd) -w $(pwd) \
  sflow/clab bash

Run Containerlab by typing the above commands in a terminal. This command uses a pre-built multi-architecture Continue reading

Intel launches Agilex FPGA for smart networking

Intel has launched a field-programmable gate array—Agilex 7 with R-Tile—that features PCIe 5.0 and CXL capabilities for processing networking workloads.The Agilex FPGA is primarily used in smartNICs that offload the processing of network traffic from the CPU, thus freeing up CPU capacity for other tasks. Intel sees Agilex playing a role in data centers, telecommunications, and financial services, among other high-traffic industries.Agilex is a rebranding of Intel’s Stratix and Arria FPGA lines that involves renumbering, with Agilex 3 being the low-end and Agilex 9 the high-end. So Agilex 7 is not the seventh generation of the chip but is the second most powerful processor in the family.To read this article in full, please click here

Microsoft integrates Nvidia’s AI Enterprise Suite with Azure Machine Learning

Microsoft is integrating Nvidia’s AI Enterprise software suite with its Azure Machine Learning service to help enterprise developers build, deploy, and manage applications based on large language models, it said Tuesday.Developers and enterprises will have access to over 100 frameworks, pretrained large language models, and development tools as part of AI Enterprise Suite integration with Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning service, the companies said in a joint statement. For now, the integration is only available through an invitation-only preview in the Nvidia community registry.To read this article in full, please click here

Kubernetes Security And Networking 8: Loading The Cillium CNI – Video

Container Network Interfaces (CNIs) are plug-ins that enable networking capabilities. This video provides a brief overview of the Cillium CNI and the importance of network policies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzswIJpdPtY You can subscribe to the Packet Pushers’ YouTube channel for more videos as they are published. It’s a diverse a mix of content from Ethan and Greg, plus […]

The post Kubernetes Security And Networking 8: Loading The Cillium CNI – Video appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Make your FortiGate firewalls work with Kubernetes: How Calico enables Fortinet firewalls to secure Kubernetes workloads

FortiGate firewalls are highly popular and extensively utilized for perimeter-based security in a wide range of applications, including monolithic applications developed and deployed using the traditional waterfall model. These firewalls establish a secure perimeter around applications, effectively managing inbound and outbound traffic for the organization. FortiGate relies on IP addresses for implementing “allow/deny” policies.

The use of IP addresses is effective for non-cloud native applications, where static IP addresses serve as definitive network identifiers. However, in a Kubernetes environment, workloads have dynamic IP addresses that change whenever they are restarted or scaled out to different nodes. This dynamic nature poses challenges when utilizing FortiGate with Kubernetes workloads, requiring continuous updates to firewall rules and the opening of large CIDR ranges for node-based access. This introduces security and compliance risks, as workloads running on these CIDR ranges gain unrestricted access to external or public services.

To facilitate the usage of FortiGate firewalls with Kubernetes workloads, it becomes crucial to identify workloads that necessitate access to external resources and assign them fixed IP addresses for utilization in FortiGate firewall rules. The integration of Calico with FortiGate firewalls and FortiManager offers an elegant solution, enabling the use of FortiGate firewalls while retaining existing Continue reading

Nvidia joins with Dell to target on-prem generative AI

Dell Technologies and Nvidia are jointly launching an initiative called Project Helix that will help enterprises to build and manage generative AI models on-premises, they said Tuesday.The companies will combine their hardware and software infrastructure in the project to support the complete generative AI lifecycle from infrastructure provisioning through modeling, training, fine-tuning, application development, and deployment, to deploying inference and streamlining results, they said in a joint statement.Dell will contribute its PowerEdge servers, such as the PowerEdge XE9680 and PowerEdge R760xa, which are optimized to deliver performance for generative AI training and AI inferencing, while Nvidia contribution to Project Helix, will be its H100 Tensor Core GPUs and Nvidia Networking to form the infrastructure backbone for generative AI workloads.To read this article in full, please click here

Nvidia joins with Dell to target on-prem generative AI

Dell Technologies and Nvidia are jointly launching an initiative called Project Helix that will help enterprises to build and manage generative AI models on-premises, they said Tuesday.The companies will combine their hardware and software infrastructure in the project to support the complete generative AI lifecycle from infrastructure provisioning through modeling, training, fine-tuning, application development, and deployment, to deploying inference and streamlining results, they said in a joint statement.Dell will contribute its PowerEdge servers, such as the PowerEdge XE9680 and PowerEdge R760xa, which are optimized to deliver performance for generative AI training and AI inferencing, while Nvidia contribution to Project Helix, will be its H100 Tensor Core GPUs and Nvidia Networking to form the infrastructure backbone for generative AI workloads.To read this article in full, please click here

Now on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond: One slightly used data center

With Bed Bath & Beyond filing for bankruptcy last month, it’s liquidation-sale time. That doesn’t mean just  blankets and cookware; it also includes its data center in North Carolina. Not just its servers but the whole facility.The data center in Claremont, N.C., was built in 2013 with a total of 47,500 square feet, 9,500 feet of which is raised floor space, with the ability to double the amount of raised floor space and boost the total power from 1MW to 3.5MW.It is rated a Tier III on the data-center ranking scale of I through IV. Tier III data centers have redundant components and infrastructure for power and cooling, with a guaranteed 99.982% availability.To read this article in full, please click here

Now on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond: One slightly used data center

With Bed Bath & Beyond filing for bankruptcy last month, it’s liquidation-sale time. That doesn’t mean just  blankets and cookware; it also includes its data center in North Carolina. Not just its servers but the whole facility.The data center in Claremont, N.C., was built in 2013 with a total of 47,500 square feet, 9,500 feet of which is raised floor space, with the ability to double the amount of raised floor space and boost the total power from 1MW to 3.5MW.It is rated a Tier III on the data-center ranking scale of I through IV. Tier III data centers have redundant components and infrastructure for power and cooling, with a guaranteed 99.982% availability.To read this article in full, please click here

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