Internet by the people, for the people – a view from the Digital Empowerment Foundation
The Digital Empowerment Foundation believes building community networks is something everyone can do. And people are doing it. Internet connectivity may be important for our global society, but in rural India it’s a luxury not many villages have access to. Osama Manzar, the founder of the Digital Empowerment Foundation, has spent the last decades trying […]
The post Internet by the people, for the people – a view from the Digital Empowerment Foundation appeared first on Internet Society.
Linux as a network operating system
NVIDIA Linux Switch enables any standard Linux distribution to be used as the operating system on the NVIDIA Spectrum™ switches. Unlike network operating systems that are Linux based, where you are limited to a specific version of Linux and control of the hardware is restricted to vendor specific software modules, Linux Switch allows you to install an unmodified version of your favorite Linux distribution along with familiar Linux monitoring and orchestration tools.
The key to giving Linux control of the switch hardware is the switchdev module - a standard part of recent Linux kernels. Linux switchdev is an in-kernel driver model for switch devices which offload the forwarding (data) plane from the kernel. Integrating switch ASIC drivers in the Linux kernel makes switch ports appear as additional Linux network interfaces that can be configured and managed using standard Linux tools.
The mlxsw wiki provides instructions for installing Linux using ONIE or PXE boot on Mellanox switch hardware, for example, on NVIDIA® Spectrum®-3 based SN4000 series switches, providing 1G - 400G port speeds to handle scale-out data center applications.
Major benefits of using standard Linux as the switch operating system include:
- no licensing fees, feature restrictions, or license management Continue reading
Data Center Threats: Turning Remote Access into Money
Data centers are an appealing target for cybercriminals. Even though they may be more difficult to compromise than the home computer of a kid playing Fortnite or the laptop of a sales representative connecting to a random wireless network, they can bring very large rewards: databases with millions of records containing financial and personal information, substantial computational resources that can be used to mine cryptocurrencies, and access to key assets that can be held for ransom.
In this blog post, we analyze the main pathways that cybercriminals leverage to gain access to data centers, how they take advantage of that access, and what security administrators can do to reduce and manage the associated risks.
Getting into the Data Center
The obvious first goal of an attacker is to gain access to the targeted data center. This can be achieved in several ways — including social engineering [1], physical access [2], and occasionally by deer [3]— but anecdotal evidence suggests that the two main avenues are remote exploitation (also known as remote-to-local attacks [4]), and stolen credentials [5].
Remote-to-local Attacks
In a remote-to-local attack, an attacker targets a remotely accessible service provided by one of the workloads running in the data Continue reading
Semiconductor Shortage Hurts Network Equipment Makers and Customers
Semiconductors are scarce, and so are many types of network gear. The wait for things to get back to normal may be a long one.IPv6 Buzz 076: Even More Listener Questions!
Where does IPv6 fit in to the Zero Trust model of network security? What are the considerations when deploying IPv6 on a global network with lots of firewalls? Are there caveats to using IPv6 Global Unicast Addresses (GUAs)? Today's IPv6 Buzz podcast answers these and other listener questions.IPv6 Buzz 076: Even More Listener Questions!
Where does IPv6 fit in to the Zero Trust model of network security? What are the considerations when deploying IPv6 on a global network with lots of firewalls? Are there caveats to using IPv6 Global Unicast Addresses (GUAs)? Today's IPv6 Buzz podcast answers these and other listener questions.
The post IPv6 Buzz 076: Even More Listener Questions! appeared first on Packet Pushers.
Improving your monitoring setup by integrating Cloudflare’s analytics data into Prometheus and Grafana
The following is a guest post by Martin Hauskrecht, DevOps Engineer at Labyrinth Labs.
Here at Labyrinth Labs, we put great emphasis on monitoring. Having a working monitoring setup is a critical part of the work we do for our clients.
Cloudflare's Analytics dashboard provides a lot of useful information for debugging and analytics purposes for our customer Pixel Federation. However, it doesn’t automatically integrate with existing monitoring tools such as Grafana and Prometheus, which our DevOps engineers use every day to monitor our infrastructure.
Cloudflare provides a Logs API, but the amount of logs we’d need to analyze is so vast, it would be simply inefficient and too pricey to do so. Luckily, Cloudflare already does the hard work of aggregating our thousands of events per second and exposes them in an easy-to-use API.
Having Cloudflare’s data from our zones integrated with other systems’ metrics would give us a better understanding of our systems and the ability to correlate metrics and create more useful alerts, making our Day-2 operations (e.g. debugging incidents or analyzing the usage of our systems) more efficient.
Since our monitoring stack is primarily based on Prometheus and Grafana, we decided to implement our own Continue reading
Automation: Dealing with Vendor-Specific Configuration Keywords
One of the students in our Building Network Automation Solutions online course asked an interesting question:
I’m building an IPsec multi-vendor automation solution and am now facing the challenge of vendor-specific parameter names. For example, to select the AES-128 algorithm, Juniper uses aes-128-cbc, Arista aes128, and Checkpoint AES-128.
I guess I need a kind of Rosetta stone to convert the IKE/IPSEC parameters from a standard parameter to a vendor-specific one. Should I do that directly in the Jinja2 template, or in the Ansible playbook calling the template?
Both options are awkward. It would be best to have a lookup table mapping parameter values from the data model into vendor-specific keywords, for example:
Juniper i40e NVM Firmware Upgrade
Juniper Routing Engines with VM Host need an i40e NVM firmware upgrade. The procedure is a pain in the ass, and documentation is not great. But you can’t avoid the upgrade any more. New Junos versions need the firmware upgrade, and replacement REs will ship with it already installed. Here’s some tips on doing the upgrade.
Background
Newer Juniper Routing Engines use a Linux-based hypervisor, and Junos (still BSD-based) runs as a guest VM. This is mostly transparent for day to day operations. When you do a Junos upgrade, it will upgrade the underlying hypervisor if required.
Upcoming Junos versions ship with a new version of Wind River Linux that needs i40e firmware version 6.01. Older versions used v4.26. You need the new i40e firmware installed first, before you can install the latest Junos versions. You can’t put this upgrade off forever. Sooner or later you’ll want to ugprade to a Junos version that only supports the new firmware. Or you’ll get a replacement RE delivered with new firmware, and you can’t downgrade it.
For the last couple of years, Juniper has been shipping Junos versions that will work with both old & new firmware versions. You Continue reading
Why you don’t want to miss the upcoming Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit
The inaugural Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit will be a free, live, online experience full of Kubernetes-related security and observability content. On June 3, 2021, industry experts will gather under one virtual roof to discuss trends, strategies, and technologies for Kubernetes security and observability, to help you understand and navigate today’s pressing issues in the world of cloud-native applications.
Why attend?
The Summit is a great opportunity to:
- Network with the industry’s best security, DevOps, and site reliability engineer (SRE) teams for cloud-native platforms
- Learn how to secure, observe, and troubleshoot Kubernetes environments
- Explore real-world Kubernetes security and observability use cases presented by experts from industry-leading companies like Amazon, Box, Citi, EY, Mirantis, Morgan Stanley, PayPal, Salesforce, and of course, Tigera
Who should attend?
SREs, platform architects, and DevOps and security teams will all find value in attending the Summit.
- DevOps teams and SREs – Learn how to include security and observability in your CI/CD to enable security, observability, and troubleshooting
- Platform architects – Learn architecture patterns and best practices to secure and troubleshoot cloud-native applications
- Security teams – Learn how to holistically secure your cloud-native applications following today’s best practices
Speakers & sessions
An opening keynote address from Continue reading
Can OpenTelemetry Fix the Microservices Mess?
OpenTelemetry combined with analysis that produces actionable insights will go a long way toward making microservices more manageable.How Upgrading PHP On WordPress Became *It Was DNS*-An IT Operations Tale
The server needed a PHP update. WordPress told me so with a severe-sounding notification adorned with red coloration, a security warning, boldface type, and a link explaining how to change the PHP version. I sighed. Security issues never end, and I have a recurring reminder in my todo list to patch the Virtual Private Server (VPS) boxes I shepherd.
But this PHP issue…hmm. This felt like a bigger deal, and many sites I support lean heavily into WordPress. Rather than wait for the next regular patching session, I decided to get on it. I did a process test on one server, a lower profile machine that wouldn’t hurt too much if things went awry. The goal was to move from PHP 7.2.insecure to PHP 7.4.secure. How hard could it be?
Most of the search engine hits for “upgrade PHP on WordPress” told me to go into CPanel or a similar tool my hosting provider might offer to abstract what’s going on with the server itself. That’s not what I was looking for, because I manage my own hosts. I needed to know how to reconfigure the host itself. The OS packages to install. The conf files Continue reading
Day Two Cloud 098: Cloud Centers Of Excellence – Should You Have One?
A fractured cloud strategy causes headaches such as duplicated services, unnecessary costs, poor security controls, and other problems. A cloud center of excellence can reduce the pain by developing and championing best practices, socializing adoption, and addressing inevitable exceptions. Fred Chagnon visits the Day Two Cloud podcast to advocate for building a cloud center of excellence in your org.
The post Day Two Cloud 098: Cloud Centers Of Excellence – Should You Have One? appeared first on Packet Pushers.
Day Two Cloud 098: Cloud Centers Of Excellence – Should You Have One?
A fractured cloud strategy causes headaches such as duplicated services, unnecessary costs, poor security controls, and other problems. A cloud center of excellence can reduce the pain by developing and championing best practices, socializing adoption, and addressing inevitable exceptions. Fred Chagnon visits the Day Two Cloud podcast to advocate for building a cloud center of excellence in your org.Why you don’t want to miss the upcoming Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit
The inaugural Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit will be a free, live, online experience full of Kubernetes-related security and observability content. On June 3, 2021, industry experts will gather under one virtual roof to discuss trends, strategies, and technologies for Kubernetes security and observability, to help you understand and navigate today’s pressing issues in the world of cloud-native applications.
Why attend?
The Summit is a great opportunity to:
- Network with the industry’s best security, DevOps, and site reliability engineer (SRE) teams for cloud-native platforms
- Learn how to secure, observe, and troubleshoot Kubernetes environments
- Explore real-world Kubernetes security and observability use cases presented by experts from industry-leading companies like Amazon, Box, Citi, EY, Mirantis, Morgan Stanley, PayPal, Salesforce, and of course, Tigera
Who should attend?
SREs, platform architects, and DevOps and security teams will all find value in attending the Summit.
- DevOps teams and SREs – Learn how to include security and observability in your CI/CD to enable security, observability, and troubleshooting
- Platform architects – Learn architecture patterns and best practices to secure and troubleshoot cloud-native applications
- Security teams – Learn how to holistically secure your cloud-native applications following today’s best practices
Speakers & sessions
An opening keynote address from Continue reading
The Hedge 84: David Brown and the Root of Trust
Many engineers just assume that secure hardware boot is, in fact, secure. How does this security work, and just how secure is it, though? David Brown joins Tom Ammon, Eyvonne Sharp, and Russ White on this episode of the Hedge to discuss the secure boot loader in some detail. For more information on the secure boot loader and IoT, see David’s presentation at the Open Source Summit.