Ansible Content Collections: The Sensu Go Use Case

In Getting Started With Ansible Content Collections, which presented the general idea behind what is becoming a new standard in the distribution of Ansible content, we learned about the what, the why and the how of Ansible Collections (and hopefully it got you excited about Ansible Collections!). In this post, we'll take things a bit further, continuing the journey into the world of Ansible Collections accompanied by the certified Sensu Go Ansible Collection that our team at XLAB Steampunk developed and supports for Sensu.

What to expect?

This article will guide you through the process of creating a fully functioning automated deployment of the Sensu Go monitoring agent and backend with the help of roles and modules included in the Sensu Go Ansible Collection. 

If you are not familiar with Sensu Go, this quick introduction to Sensu Go will help you get up to speed.

Before we begin, let's first talk about the collection we're taking along for the ride.

The Sensu Go Ansible Collection: the basics

What exactly do we need for a complete and fully functioning deployment of Sensu Go? First, the Sensu Go monitoring backend. Then, to allow the backend to Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: SD-WAN management means more than reviewing logs and parsing events

By creating a single view of all network data, you can do things better like correlating threat information to identify real attacks or keep a log of packet statistics to better diagnose intermittent networking problems.However, to turn data into value with the limitations of traditional systems, we must be creative with the solution. We must find ways to integrate the different repositories in various appliances. It’s not an easy task but an architectural shift that I’ve written about in the past, SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), should help significantly.SASE is a new enterprise networking technology category introduced by Gartner in 2019. It represents a change in how we connect our sites, users, and cloud resources.To read this article in full, please click here

Gap Narrows Between Azure, AWS, GCP in Cockroach Labs 2020 Report

SD-WAN to Clip WAN Edge Growth, Gartner Predicts

Intel Is $2B Serious About AI, Buys Habana to Target Nvidia

Five Benefits of Network Monitoring Software You Can’t Deny

Cisco Buys Exablaze, Scores Ultra-Low Latency FPGA Tech

Tech Bytes: Fortinet Taps ASICs To Accelerate SD-WAN (Sponsored)

Tech Bytes: Fortinet Taps ASICs To Accelerate SD-WAN (Sponsored)

In today's Tech Bytes episode, sponsored by Fortinet, we talk about how the company differentiates itself from competitors, including its ability to inspect TLS 1.3, its use of custom ASICs, and more.

The post Tech Bytes: Fortinet Taps ASICs To Accelerate SD-WAN (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

HA inside Data Center

The Week in Internet News: U.S. Lawmakers Threaten Anti-Encryption Regulations

Don’t make us make you: Members of a U.S. Senate committee recently told representatives of Facebook and Apple that they need to give police access to customers’ encrypted communications, or they will be forced to by Congress, the Washington Post reports. The companies told lawmakers that backdoors in encryption would be exploited by cybercriminals.

Facebook declines: Meanwhile, Facebook has refused a request from U.S. Attorney General William Barr to build encryption backdoors into WhatsApp and Messenger, the New York Times reports.

Women want to be included: As Internet access is growing in the central African country of Chad, women are demanding to be in on the action, Reuters reports. Women across sub-Saharan Africa are currently 15 percent less likely to own a mobile phone than men are and 41 percent less likely to use the mobile Internet, the story says.

Gigabit tech boom: Gigabit-speed Internet service is turning some small U.S. cities into tech centers, bringing businesses and jobs to the areas, Inc. says. The story looks at businesses taking advantage of gigabit-speed networks in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Melbourne, Florida, and Sarasota, Florida.

Arrested for reporting: Thirty journalists are currently in prison worldwide on charges related to Continue reading

Network Break 265: Cisco Chips At Broadcom With New ASIC; AWS Gives Networking Some Love

Network Break 265: Cisco Chips At Broadcom With New ASIC; AWS Gives Networking Some Love

On today's Network Break we analyze Cisco's new ASIC platform and the 8000 router series, dig into a string of AWS announcements related to networking and security, and discuss new products from Cato Networks and Silver Peak.

The post Network Break 265: Cisco Chips At Broadcom With New ASIC; AWS Gives Networking Some Love appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Deep Dive Into the New Docker Desktop filesharing Implementation Using FUSE

The latest Edge release of Docker Desktop for Windows 2.1.7.0 has a completely new filesharing system using FUSE instead of Samba. The initial blog post we released presents the performance improvements of this new implementation and explains how to give feedback. Please try it out and let us know what you think. Now, we are going to go into details to give you more insight about the new architecture.

New Architecture

Instead of Samba running over a Hyper-V virtual network, the new system uses a Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) server running over gRPC over Hypervisor sockets.

The following diagram shows the path taken by a single request from a container, for example to read a PHP file:

In step (1) the web-server in the container calls “read” which is a Linux system call handled by the kernel’s Virtual File System (VFS) layer. The VFS is modular and supports many different filesystem implementations. In our case we use Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) which sends the request to a helper process running inside the VM labelled “FUSE client.” This process runs within the same namespace as the Docker engine. The FUSE client can handle some requests locally, but Continue reading

IoT security: IT’s biggest headache

The internet of things encompasses connected devices on a massive scale, actionable data and innovative business models – and it also brings unprecedented security challenges.

IoT security: Why it’s your biggest nightmare

The internet of things encompasses connected devices on a massive scale, actionable data and innovative business models – and it also brings unprecedented security headaches.

IoT security: Why it’s your biggest nightmare

The internet of things encompasses connected devices on a massive scale, actionable data and innovative business models – and it also brings unprecedented security headaches.

BrandPost: Customers Demonstrate the Benefits of Secure SD-WAN Across Industries

Given today’s expanding networks, largely being driven by cloud transformation and similar digital transformation efforts, keeping everything connected in a single, easily manageable environment is a critical challenge. Extending things like cloud services to your mobile workers and branch offices will inevitably impact your network’s performance – especially if you are still trying to route traffic through your central network using things like WAN routers and MPLS connections in a hub and spoke design. Routing cloud-based applications through a WAN link to the central network can severely impact productivity and user experience while creating continually increasing bandwidth loads.To read this article in full, please click here

Figure Out What Problem You’re Trying to Solve

A long while ago I got into an hilarious Tweetfest (note to self: don’t… not that I would ever listen) starting with:

Which feature and which Cisco router for layer2 extension over internet 100Mbps with 1500 Bytes MTU

The knee-jerk reaction was obvious: OMG, not again. The ugly ghost of BRouters (or is it RBridges or WAN Extenders?) has awoken. The best reply in this category was definitely:

I cannot fathom the conversation where this was a legitimate design option. May the odds forever be in your favor.

A dozen “this is a dumpster fire” tweets later the problem was rephrased as:

End of term