Archive

Category Archives for "Networking"

The Hedge #70: FR Routing Update

FR Routing is a widely used and supported open source routing stack. In this episode of the Hedge, Alistair Woodman, Quentin Young, Donald Sharp, Tom Ammon, and Russ White discuss recent updates, additions to the CI/CD system, the release process, and operating system support. If you’re looking for a good open source, containerized routing stack for everything from route servers to DC fabrics and labbing to production, you should check out FR Routing.

download

Best Practices for Securely Setting up a Kubernetes Cluster

David Bisson David Bisson is an information security writer and security junkie. He's a contributing editor to IBM's Security Intelligence, Tripwire's The State of Security Blog, and a contributing writer to Bora. He also regularly produces written content for Zix and a number of other companies in the digital security space. Organizations are increasingly looking to containers to fuel their digital transformations. In 2020, documentation: Load balancing. Organizations turn to Kubernetes to make Continue reading

HPE intros SSD replacements for 10K RPM HDD server drives

There was once a time when hard drives that spun at 10,000 and 15,000 RPMs were considered fast storage. Then came the SSD and blew that all away. But there are some old servers out there still using them, and they could use a more modern approach.HPE has announced an SSD replacement option for SATA-connected disk drives in its Apollo, ProLiant and Synergy servers called Very Read-Optimized (VRO). These 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SSDs use SATA interfaces and are plug-in replacements for the drives in the servers.HPE claimed in a Community Experts blog post this week that the drives will deliver better TCO than 10,000 RPM HDDs, although really, that's not a hard claim to make. Based on HPE's own testing, you can get 70,000 read IOPS on an HPE SATA VRO SSD compared to 400 IOPS on the fastest HPE 10K HDD. It's not even close. HPE argues that the upgrade pays for itself. It says the SSDs are up to three times more energy efficient than the 10K drives.To read this article in full, please click here

Repost: On the Importance of Line-Rate Switching of Small Packets

I made a flippant remark in a blog comment

While it’s academically stimulating to think about forwarding small packets (and applicable to large-scale VoIP networks), most environments don’t have to deal with those. Looks like it’s such a non-issue that I couldn’t find recent data; in the good old days ~50% of the packets were 1500 byte long.

… and Minh Ha (by now a regular contributor to my blog) quickly set me straight with a lengthy comment that’s too good to be hidden somewhere at the bottom of a page. Here it is (slightly edited). Also, you might want to read other comments to the original blog post for context.

Repost: On the Importance of Line-Rate Switching of Small Packets

I made a flippant remark in a blog comment

While it’s academically stimulating to think about forwarding small packets (and applicable to large-scale VoIP networks), most environments don’t have to deal with those. Looks like it’s such a non-issue that I couldn’t find recent data; in the good old days ~50% of the packets were 1500 byte long.

… and Minh Ha (by now a regular contributor to my blog) quickly set me straight with a lengthy comment that’s too good to be hidden somewhere at the bottom of a page. Here it is (slightly edited). Also, you might want to read other comments to the original blog post for context.

Day Two Cloud 084: So You Want To Be A Consultant

Today's Day Two Cloud gets into consulting. How do you start? What does the job entail? Is it a good job to have? How do you build a client base? There are so many questions! We're joined by Michael Jenkins, Sr. Systems Reliability Engineer at Managed Kaos; and Anthony Nocentino, Enterprise Architect at Centino Systems and Pluralsight author, to get some answers.

The post Day Two Cloud 084: So You Want To Be A Consultant appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Day Two Cloud 084: So You Want To Be A Consultant

Today's Day Two Cloud gets into consulting. How do you start? What does the job entail? Is it a good job to have? How do you build a client base? There are so many questions! We're joined by Michael Jenkins, Sr. Systems Reliability Engineer at Managed Kaos; and Anthony Nocentino, Enterprise Architect at Centino Systems and Pluralsight author, to get some answers.

State Consistency in Distributed SDN Controller Clusters

Every now and then I get a question along the lines of “why can’t we have a distributed SDN controller (because resiliency) that would survive network partitioning?” This time, it’s not the incompetency of solution architects or programmers, but the fundamental limitations of what can be done when you want to have consistent state across a distributed system.

TL&DR: If your first thought was CAP Theorem you’re absolutely right. You can probably stop reading right now. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, maybe it’s time you get fluent in distributed systems concepts after you’re finished with this blog post and all the reference material linked in it. Don’t know where to start? I put together a list of resources I found useful.

State Consistency in Distributed SDN Controller Clusters

Every now and then I get a question along the lines of “why can’t we have a distributed SDN controller (because resiliency) that would survive network partitioning?” This time, it’s not the incompetency of solution architects or programmers, but the fundamental limitations of what can be done when you want to have consistent state across a distributed system.

TL&DR: If your first thought was CAP Theorem you’re absolutely right. You can probably stop reading right now. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, maybe it’s time you get fluent in distributed systems concepts after you’re finished with this blog post and all the reference material linked in it. Don’t know where to start? I put together a list of resources I found useful.

Meraki-CLI – Command Line Utility for the Meraki Dashboard

Meraki changed the industry years ago as one of the first platforms to use a cloud portal for all configuration; forgoing the typical local CLI/GUI administration of network appliances. One of the first things a traditional network engineer (like myself) may notice about Meraki equipment is their complete lack of a command-line interface. For the […]

The post Meraki-CLI – Command Line Utility for the Meraki Dashboard appeared first on Packet Pushers.

How COVID-19 is shaping enterprise networking

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the networking arena in a number of ways, including the rise of fully automated remote offices, the need to support a "branch of one," and the growth of new communications software tools."One of the biggest trends we are seeing is business agility. That is, IT looking at the tech they have deployed and evaluating it not just in terms of speeds and feeds, but how agile it is to handle whatever's coming next," said Todd Nightingale, Cisco's Enterprise Networking & Cloud business chief. "Software APIs are a huge part of that trend, because it is amazingly easier to handle changes through APIs and software that make it possible to change things in a day rather than months."To read this article in full, please click here

How COVID-19 is shaping enterprise networking

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the networking arena in a number of ways, including the rise of fully automated remote offices, the need to support a "branch of one," and the growth of new communications software tools."One of the biggest trends we are seeing is business agility. That is, IT looking at the tech they have deployed and evaluating it not just in terms of speeds and feeds, but how agile it is to handle whatever's coming next," said Todd Nightingale, Cisco's Enterprise Networking & Cloud business chief. "Software APIs are a huge part of that trend, because it is amazingly easier to handle changes through APIs and software that make it possible to change things in a day rather than months."To read this article in full, please click here