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Category Archives for "Networking"

netlab Release 1.4.3: Cisco IOS XRv, MPLS on FRR

I had tons of plans to implement new netlab features during the last week of December, but then (fortunately) reality intervened and I spent my time relaxing and enjoying the break. I still managed to add IOS XRv support to netlab release 1.4.3 though ;). Other new features include:

To upgrade, execute pip3 install --upgrade networklab.

New to netlab? Start with the Getting Started document and the installation guide.

Tools 12. Using Prometheus with SNMP Exporter to Monitor Cisco IOS XR, Nokia SR OS and Arista EOS Network Devices

Dear friend,

Awareness of what is happening in your IT infrastructure (in our case, in network) is a key success or failure factor of any modern business, as huge majority of businesses are now running online. The awareness is built on top of visibility of network events and activities happening in the network, which in their turn reflects in data points, which can be collected. In this blogpost we’ll cover how these data points can be collected in multi vendor network running Cisco IOS XR, Nokia SR OS and Arista EOS switches using Prometheus, which is one of the most popular monitoring platforms these days.


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Is Monitoring Needed for Network Automation?

The ultimate state of any system, including the IT/network is self-managed (self-healed, self-controlled, etc). It is simply impossible to build any self-controlled system without monitoring and collection of the data, as this data collection in the self-controlled system is the only (as we remove people Continue reading

Worth Reading: Routing Protocol Implementation Evaluation

In 2018 I tried to figure out whether the rush to deploy new routing protocols in leaf-and-spine fabrics is anything more than another blob of hype (RIFT, OpenFabric, BGP), considering OSPF got the job done for AWS. Those discussions probably sounded like a bunch of smart kids trying to measure outside temperature with a moist finger, so the only recommendation I could give in 2021 was “use the best tool for the job, keeping in mind you’re not Google or Microsoft

It’s always better to measure than to have opinions, and a group of academics did just that. They developed Sybil – a tool to measure routing protocol performance in leaf-and-spine fabrics – and Dip Singh used it to compare BGP to IS-IS and OpenFabric.

Worth Reading: Routing Protocol Implementation Evaluation

In 2018 I tried to figure out whether the rush to deploy new routing protocols in leaf-and-spine fabrics is anything more than another blob of hype (RIFT, OpenFabric, BGP), considering OSPF got the job done for AWS. Those discussions probably sounded like a bunch of smart kids trying to measure outside temperature with a moist finger, so the only recommendation I could give in 2021 was “use the best tool for the job, keeping in mind you’re not Google or Microsoft

It’s always better to measure than to have opinions, and a group of academics did just that. They developed Sybil – a tool to measure routing protocol performance in leaf-and-spine fabrics – and Dip Singh used it to compare BGP to IS-IS and OpenFabric.

Roomba Stuck at ‘Verify password’

You have:

  1. A Roomba vacuum. (I was working with an i-series when I wrote this. Maybe this applies to other models as well.)
  2. A firewall or router between your Roomba and your mobile device. (Maybe the two are on different wifi networks as would be the case if you have a network set aside for IoT devices.)
  3. An iRobot app that gets stuck at Verify password when setting up the Roomba.

Read the rest of this post.

Controlling Your View of the World

Straw Bales on Hill Landscape, Tuscany, Italy

As I’m writing this it looks like Twitter has made some changes to the way that third-party clients interact with service. My favorite client, Tweetbot, is locked out right now. The situation is still developing but it’s not looking pretty for anyone using anything other than the web interface. While I will definitely miss the way I use Tweetbot I think it’s the kick I needed to move away from Twitter more than before.

A Window on the World

The apps that we use to consume and create content are the way that we view things. Maybe you prefer a webpage over an app or the way that one client displays things over another but your entire view is based on those preferences. If the way you consume your media changes your outlook on it changes too.

I didn’t always use Tweetbot to view Twitter. I tried using the standard app for a long time. It wasn’t until the infamous “Dickbar” incident back in 2011 that I broke away for something that wasn’t so slavishly dependent on ads. The trending topic bar might not have been specifically for ads at the time but Continue reading

BrandPost: Reduce the Network Team’s Workload with AI Technologies

Network admins and engineers have enough work on their plates, especially considering increasing numbers of access points amid the hybrid workforce. They’re also grappling with ever-more sophisticated cybersecurity threats across a highly complex network that now includes data centers, clouds and edge computing.Yet, there’s little forgiveness from end users when there is network disruption leading to down time. High availability and low latency are crucial.Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies — such as machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP) and enhanced automation — can provide relief for overstretched IT teams, while ensuring highly performing networks.To read this article in full, please click here

BrandPost: Don’t Wait for a Refresh to Achieve a Modern Network

Many organizations modernize or upgrade their network only when it’s time for a refresh. However, transformation doesn’t have to be a wholesale, do-it-all-at-once project to start improving customer and employee experiences today.For example, a large food retailer was happy with its existing Wi-Fi network vendor. “It was a good product, it served us well for over a decade,” said the organization’s network architect.Although the company typically has a five-year refresh cycle, its IT leaders became open to making a change after seeing a demo of Juniper Mist™ AI, a wired and wireless network platform. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to optimize user experiences and simplify network operations.To read this article in full, please click here

Top 10 outages of 2022

The most significant network and service outages of 2022 had far-reaching consequences. Flights were grounded, virtual meetings cut off, and communications hindered.The culprits that took down major infrastructure and services providers were varied, too, according to analysis from ThousandEyes, a Cisco-owned network intelligence company that tracks internet and cloud traffic. Maintenance-related errors were cited more than once: Canadian carrier Rogers Communications experienced a massive nationwide outage that was traced to a maintenance update, and a maintenance script error caused problems for software maker Atlassian.BGP misconfiguration also showed up in the top outage reports. Border gateway protocol tells Internet traffic what route to take, but if the routing information is incorrect, then traffic can be diverted to an improper route, which happened to Twitter. (Read more about US and worldwide outages in our weekly internet health check.)To read this article in full, please click here

Top 10 outages of 2022

The most significant network and service outages of 2022 had far-reaching consequences. Flights were grounded, virtual meetings cut off, and communications hindered.The culprits that took down major infrastructure and services providers were varied, too, according to analysis from ThousandEyes, a Cisco-owned network intelligence company that tracks internet and cloud traffic. Maintenance-related errors were cited more than once: Canadian carrier Rogers Communications experienced a massive nationwide outage that was traced to a maintenance update, and a maintenance script error caused problems for software maker Atlassian.BGP misconfiguration also showed up in the top outage reports. Border gateway protocol tells Internet traffic what route to take, but if the routing information is incorrect, then traffic can be diverted to an improper route, which happened to Twitter. (Read more about US and worldwide outages in our weekly internet health check.)To read this article in full, please click here

Cloud CNI privately connects your clouds to Cloudflare

Cloud CNI privately connects your clouds to Cloudflare

This post is also available in 简体中文, 日本語 and Español.

Cloud CNI privately connects your clouds to Cloudflare

For CIOs, networking is a hard process that is often made harder. Corporate networks have so many things that need to be connected and each one of them needs to be connected differently: user devices need managed connectivity through a Secure Web Gateway, offices need to be connected using the public Internet or dedicated connectivity, data centers need to be managed with their own private or public connectivity, and then you have to manage cloud connectivity on top of it all! It can be exasperating to manage connectivity for all these different scenarios and all their privacy and compliance requirements when all you want to do is enable your users to access their resources privately, securely, and in a non-intrusive manner.

Cloudflare helps simplify your connectivity story with Cloudflare One. Today, we’re excited to announce that we support direct cloud interconnection with our Cloudflare Network Interconnect, allowing Cloudflare to be your one-stop shop for all your interconnection needs.

Customers using IBM Cloud, Google Cloud, Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Amazon Web Services can now open direct connections from their private cloud instances into Cloudflare. In this blog, we’re going Continue reading

CIO Week 2023 recap

CIO Week 2023 recap

This post is also available in 日本語, 简体中文, and Español.

CIO Week 2023 recap

In our Welcome to CIO Week 2023 post, we talked about wanting to start the year by celebrating the work Chief Information Officers do to keep their organizations safe and productive.

Over the past week, you learned about announcements addressing all facets of your technology stack – including new services, betas, strategic partnerships, third party integrations, and more. This recap blog summarizes each announcement and labels what capability is generally available (GA), in beta, or on our roadmap.

We delivered on critical capabilities requested by our customers – such as even more comprehensive phishing protection and deeper integrations with the Microsoft ecosystem. Looking ahead, we also described our roadmap for emerging technology categories like Digital Experience Monitoring and our vision to make it exceedingly simple to route traffic from any source to any destination through Cloudflare’s network.

Everything we launched is designed to help CIOs accelerate their pursuit of digital transformation. In this blog, we organized our announcement summaries based on the three feelings we want CIOs to have when they consider partnering with Cloudflare:

  1. CIOs now have a simpler roadmap to Zero Trust and SASE: We announced Continue reading