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Category Archives for "Networking"

DHCP Relaying in EVPN VRFs

After figuring out how DHCP relaying works and testing it with VRFs and in VXLAN segments, it seems like a no-brainer to make it work with EVPN.

TL&DR: It works, at least when using Arista vEOS as the relay and Cisco CSR 1000v as the DHCP server.

Lab Topology

We’ll keep using the exact same “physical” topology we used in the VXLAN DHCP relaying lab, add EVPN and BGP to the control-plane cocktail, and put the VXLAN segment into a VRF. We’ll use CSR 1000v as the DHCP server because Cisco IOSv doesn’t support some of the DHCP option-82 sub-options we need.

DHCP Relaying in EVPN VRFs

After figuring out how DHCP relaying works and testing it with VRFs and in VXLAN segments, it seems like a no-brainer to make it work with EVPN.

TL&DR: It works, at least when using Arista vEOS as the relay and Cisco CSR 1000v as the DHCP server.

Lab Topology

We’ll keep using the exact same “physical” topology we used in the VXLAN DHCP relaying lab, add EVPN and BGP to the control-plane cocktail, and put the VXLAN segment into a VRF. We’ll use CSR 1000v as the DHCP server because Cisco IOSv doesn’t support some of the DHCP option-82 sub-options we need.

New Juniper Rack Mount Kit

Juniper has a new enhanced four-post rack mount kit “JNP-4PST-RMK-1U-E” for their 1RU datacenter devices. It works with devices like the QFX5120 and PTX10001-36MR. It is much improved over the legacy rack mount kit. It are not as good as some competitors, but it is backwards compatible. It makes switch installation quicker and safer.

Background: Current 4-post rail kit

Juniper has used the same 4-post kit for their 1RU datacenter switches and routers for many years. The same kit works on QFX5100, QFX5110 and QFX5120-48Y switches. The MX204 uses a slight variation, but is almost identical. Oddly, the QFX5120-32C uses something completely different. Devices are secured to the front and rear posts. 2-post mounting is unwise for modern deep devices with heavy PSUs. You can still get away with 2-post mounting for lighter, shallower access switches. Modern servers and deep switches/routers need 4-post mounting, or some sort of shelf.

The current kit “EX-4PST-RMK” has 2 parts per side:

Legacy rail kit

One piece screws in to each side of the switch. Note that there are 8 holes per side, but Juniper supplies a total of 12 very small screws. As you can imagine, installing 12 very small screws per switch is no fun Continue reading

Ask JJX: Lynyrd Skynyrd Answers “Who Should Create an Org’s BYOD Policy?”

After LastPass's latest breach through a personal laptop, most boards, CIOs, and CISOs are taking the opportunity to reevaluate their Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies.

Here's how, why, and a lesson learned from Lynyrd Skynyrd. 

The post Ask JJX: Lynyrd Skynyrd Answers “Who Should Create an Org’s BYOD Policy?” appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Demo Bytes: Managing Your SD-WAN Deployment Lifecycle With LiveAction’s LiveNX (Sponsored) – Video

Sponsor LiveAction demonstrates how its LiveNX product can be used to deploy, monitor and repair multi-vendor SD-WANs. Our guest is Ron Groulx, Senior Systems Sales Engineer at LiveNX. LiveNX can manage and monitor your SD-WAN lifecycle from day zero (baselining your network performance) to day one (building policies to optimize performance) to day two (deployment […]

The post Demo Bytes: Managing Your SD-WAN Deployment Lifecycle With LiveAction’s LiveNX (Sponsored) – Video appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Heavy Networking 672: Overcoming Your Imposter Syndrome

Lots of folks suffer from impostor syndrome. Tech is complex--how could you know what you’re doing? And yet, many of us are responsible for incredibly complex IT systems. Fake it ‘til you make it, right? To handle the cognitive dissonance of impostor syndrome, we overcompensate. In doing so, we pay a personal price. Today's Heavy Networking guest is Matt Vitale. He's here to share what he's learned about coping with and overcoming imposter syndrome.

The post Heavy Networking 672: Overcoming Your Imposter Syndrome appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Heavy Networking 672: Overcoming Your Imposter Syndrome

Lots of folks suffer from impostor syndrome. Tech is complex--how could you know what you’re doing? And yet, many of us are responsible for incredibly complex IT systems. Fake it ‘til you make it, right? To handle the cognitive dissonance of impostor syndrome, we overcompensate. In doing so, we pay a personal price. Today's Heavy Networking guest is Matt Vitale. He's here to share what he's learned about coping with and overcoming imposter syndrome.

Upgrading one of the oldest components in Cloudflare’s software stack

Upgrading one of the oldest components in Cloudflare’s software stack
Upgrading one of the oldest components in Cloudflare’s software stack

Cloudflare serves a huge amount of traffic: 45 million HTTP requests per second on average (as of 2023; 61 million at peak) from more than 285 cities in over 100 countries. What inevitably happens with that kind of scale is that software will be pushed to its limits. As we grew, one of the problems we faced was related to deploying our code. Sometimes, a release would be delayed because of inadequate hardware resources on our servers. Buying more and more hardware is expensive and there are limits to e.g. how much memory we can realistically have on a server. In this article, we explain how we optimised our software and its release process so that no additional resources are needed.

In order to handle traffic, each of our servers runs a set of specialised proxies. Historically, they were based on NGINX, but increasingly they include services created in Rust. Out of our proxy applications, FL (Front Line) is the oldest and still has a broad set of responsibilities.

At its core, it’s one of the last uses of NGINX at Cloudflare. It contains a large amount of business logic that runs many Cloudflare products, using a variety of Continue reading

Google picks Qatar for second Middle Eastern cloud region

Google is adding a second cloud availability region in the Middle East, at Doha, to cater to demand from Qatar’s government and enterprises in the region, it said on Friday.The new cloud region will help the Qatari government achieve its Qatar National Vision 2030 plan to sustain development and provide a high standard of living for its people, according to Google Cloud’s country manager for Qatar, Ghassan Kosta.“This new region is a strong step towards building regional capacity that meets the needs of the Qatari digital economy, from availability and data residency, to digital sovereignty and sustainability,” Kosta wrote in a blog post.To read this article in full, please click here

Data center fires raise concerns about lithium-ion batteries

Fire is to blame for a small but significant number of data-center outages including a March 28 fire that caused severe damage to a data center in France, and an analysis of global incidents highlights ongoing concerns about the safety of lithium-ion batteries and their risk of combustion.The use of lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries in data centers is growing. Now commonly used in uninterruptible power supplies, they are expected to account for 38.5% of the data-center battery market by 2025, up from 15% in 2020, according to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.To read this article in full, please click here

Data center fires raise concerns about lithium-ion batteries

Fire is to blame for a small but significant number of data-center outages including a March 28 fire that caused severe damage to a data center in France, and an analysis of global incidents highlights ongoing concerns about the safety of lithium-ion batteries and their risk of combustion.The use of lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries in data centers is growing. Now commonly used in uninterruptible power supplies, they are expected to account for 38.5% of the data-center battery market by 2025, up from 15% in 2020, according to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.To read this article in full, please click here