How to back up Kubernetes and Docker

Yes, your container infrastructure needs some type of backup.  Kubernetes and Docker will not magically build themselves after a disaster. As discussed in a separate article, you don’t need to back up the running state of each container, but you will need to back up the configuration used to run and manage your containers.Here’s a quick reminder of what you’ll need to back up.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] Configuration and desired-state information The Dockerfiles used to build your images and all versions of those files The images created from the Dockerfile and used to run each container Kubernetes etcd & other - K8s databases that info on cluster state Deployments - YAML files describing each deployment Persistent data created or changed by containers Persistent volumes Databases Dockerfiles Docker containers are run from images, and images are built from Dockerfiles. A proper Docker configuration would first use some kind of repository such as GitHub as a version-control system for all Dockerfiles. Do not create ad hoc containers using ad hoc images built from ad hoc Dockerfiles. All Dockerfiles should be stored in a repository that allows you to pull historical Continue reading

Cache Is King

The gap between the performance of processors, broadly defined, and the performance of DRAM main memory, also broadly defined, has been an issue for at least three decades when the gap really started to open up. …

Cache Is King was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

McAfee Hires New CEO, Mulls Sale or IPO

Locking and unlocking accounts on Linux systems

If you are administering a Linux system, there will likely be times that you need to lock an account. Maybe someone is changing positions and their continued need for the account is under question; maybe there’s reason to believe that access to the account has been compromised. In any event, knowing how to lock an account and how to unlock it should it be needed again is something you need to be able to do.One important thing to keep in mind is that there are multiple ways to lock an account, and they don't all have the same effect. If the account user is accessing an account using public/private keys instead of a password, some commands you might use to block access to an account will not be effective.To read this article in full, please click here

Daily Roundup: CenturyLink Nabs $1.6B IT Win

HPC In 2020: Acquisitions And Mergers As The New Normal

After a decade of vendor consolidation that saw some of the world’s biggest IT firms acquire first-class HPC providers such as SGI, Cray, and Sun Microsystems, as well as smaller players like Penguin Computing, WhamCloud, Appro, and Isilon, it is natural to wonder who is next. …

HPC In 2020: Acquisitions And Mergers As The New Normal was written by Michael Feldman at The Next Platform.

Why Do You Need NAT66?

It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight years since I wrote my most controversial post ever. I get all kinds of comments on my NAT66 post even to this day. I’ve been told I’m a moron, an elitist, and someone that doesn’t understand how the Internet works. I’ve also had some good comments that highlight a specific need for tools like NAT66. I wanted to catch up with everything and ask a very important question.

WHY?

Every Tool Has A Purpose

APNIC had a great post about NAT66 back in 2018. You should totally read it. I consider it a fair review of the questions surrounding NAT’s use in 2020. Again, NAT has a purpose and when used properly and sparingly for that purpose it works well. In the case of the article, Marco Cilloni (@MCilloni) lays out the need to use NAT66 to use IPv6 at his house due to ISP insanity and the latency overhead of using tunnels with Hurricane Electric. In this specific case, NAT66 was a good tool for him to use to translate his /128 address to something useable in his network.

If you’re brave, you should delve into the comments. A Continue reading

Rogers Breaks Ice on Canada’s First 5G Deployment

Google Cloud Woos Enterprises With Premium Support

CenturyLink Nabs Interior Department’s $1.6B IT Contract

Wi-Fi 6 into 6 GHz = WiFi6E. But not 5G but is 5Ghz.

Remember WiFi6 was making naming easier. Except when it isn't.

The post Wi-Fi 6 into 6 GHz = WiFi6E. But not 5G but is 5Ghz. appeared first on EtherealMind.

Announcing the Cloudflare Access App Launch

Every person joining your team has the same question on Day One: how do I find and connect to the applications I need to do my job?

Since launch, Cloudflare Access has helped improve how users connect to those applications. When you protect an application with Access, users never have to connect to a private network and never have to deal with a clunky VPN client. Instead, they reach on-premise apps as if they were SaaS tools. Behind the scenes, Access evaluates and logs every request to those apps for identity, giving administrators more visibility and security than a traditional VPN.

Administrators need about an hour to deploy Access. End user logins take about 20 ms, and that response time is consistent globally. Unlike VPN appliances, Access runs in every data center in Cloudflare’s network in 200 cities around the world. When Access works well, it should be easy for administrators and invisible to the end user.

However, users still need to locate the applications behind Access, and for internally managed applications, traditional dashboards require constant upkeep. As organizations grow, that roster of links keeps expanding. Department leads and IT administrators can create and publish manual lists, but those become Continue reading

Why multicloud security is your next big challenge

Companies deploy an average of three to five different cloud services. With an increased emphasis on security and regulatory compliance, the capability to manage these disparate systems is crucial.

Why multicloud security is your next big challenge

Companies deploy an average of three to five different cloud services. With an increased emphasis on security and regulatory compliance, the capability to manage these disparate systems is crucial.

Why multicloud security is your next big challenge

Companies deploy an average of three to five different cloud services. With an increased emphasis on security and regulatory compliance, the capability to manage these disparate systems is crucial.

SASE as Described in Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Enterprise Networking

Removing Unnecessary Complexity

Recently, I’ve been working to remove unnecessary complexity from my work environment. I wouldn’t say that I’m going full-on minimalist (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but I was beginning to feel like maintaining this complexity was taking focus, willpower, and mental capacity away from other, more valuable, efforts. Additionally, given the challenges I know lie ahead of me this year (see here for more information), I suspect I’ll need all the focus, willpower, and mental capacity I can get!

When I say “unnecessary complexity,” by the way, I’m referring to added complexity that doesn’t bring any real or significant benefit. Sometimes there’s no getting around the complexity, but when that complexity doesn’t create any value, it’s unnecessary in my definition.

Primarily, this “reduction in complexity” shows up in three areas:

1. My computing environment
2. My home office setup
3. My lab resources

My Computing Environment

Readers who have followed me for more than a couple years know that I migrated away from macOS for about 9 months in 2017 (see here for a wrap-up of that effort), then again in 2018 when I joined Heptio (some details are available in this update). Since switching to Fedora on a Lenovo Continue reading

Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 15: 2019 retrospect and 2020 predictions

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Click here for our previous episode.

In this episode, hosts Brian O’Sullivan and Roopa Prabhu are joined by Kernel of Truth podcast guest pros Pete Lumbis and Rama Darbha. The group looks back at 2019, discussing what they learned from the year and then move on to their 2020 predictions. Want a teaser? Automation was a hot topic in 2019 not just on our podcast but with our customers. It’s become less of a “nice to have” and more of a “need to have.” If you’re hungry for more 2019 retrospect and 2020 predictions, be sure to listen to this jam-packed podcast.

Guest Bios

Brian O’Sullivan: Brian currently heads Product Management for Cumulus Linux. For 15 or so years he’s held software Product Management positions at Juniper Networks as well as other smaller companies. Once he saw the change that was happening in the networking space, he decided to join Cumulus Networks to be a part of the open networking innovation. When not working, Brian is a voracious reader and has held a variety of jobs, including bartending in three countries and Continue reading

Automation Solution: Data Center Fabric with Tenant Connectivity

I always tell networking engineers attending our Building Network Automation Solutions online course to create minimalistic data models with (preferably) no redundant information. Not surprisingly, that’s a really hard task (see this article for an example) - using a simple automation tool like Ansible you end with either a messy and redundant data model or Jinja2 templates (or Ansible playbooks) full of hard-to-understand and impossible-to-maintain business logic.

Stephen Harding solved this problem the right way: his data center fabric deployment solution uses a dynamic inventory script that translates operator-friendly fabric description (data model) into template-friendly set of device variables.

Addressing 2019