Using Infoblox as a dynamic inventory in Red Hat Ansible Tower

Ansible_and_Infoblox-3

Do you still use spreadsheets to keep track of all your device inventory? Do you have Infoblox Appliances deployed in your infrastructure? Do you want to start automating without the burden of maintaining a static register of devices? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this blog is for you.

Operations teams often struggle to keep their Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) up-to-date, primarily because they were not involved in the specification process to share what pieces of information are relevant to them, or even if they were, once it is put in place: Teams are not allowed to change any of their Configuration Items (CI) because they have only read-only access!

The reality is that a lot of the time when we talk about a CMDB, we are talking about tables in a database without any version control mechanism, therefore only read access is provided to end users.

The impact is that in order to perform lifecycle management (Create/Update/Decommission) of their configuration items, teams must go through a fastidious and manual process until they give up changing CIs (Configuration Items) in the CMDB and just leave everything as it is. What happens next? Different teams start Continue reading

If You Worry About 768K Day, You’re Probably Doing Something Wrong

A few years ago we “celebrated” 512K day - the size of the full Internet routing table exceeded 512K (for whatever value of K ;) prefixes, overflowing TCAMs in some IP routers and resulting in interesting brownouts.

We’re close to exceeding 768K mark and the beware 768K day blog posts have already started appearing. While you (RFC 2119) SHOULD check the size of your forwarding table and the maximum capabilities of your hardware, the more important question should be “Why do I need 768K forwarding entries if I’m not a Tier-1 provider

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Compress objects, not cache lines: an object-based compressed memory hierarchy

Compress objects, not cache lines: an object-based compressed memory hierarchy Tsai & Sanchez, ASPLOS’19

Last time out we saw how Google have been able to save millions of dollars though memory compression enabled via zswap. One of the important attributes of their design was easy and rapid deployment across an existing fleet. Today’s paper introduces Zippads, which compared to a state of the art compressed memory hierarchy is able to achieve a 1.63x higher compression ratio and improve performance by 17%. The big idea behind zippads is simple and elegant, but the ramifications go deep: all the way down to a modified instruction set (ISA)! So while you probably won’t be using Zippads in practice anytime soon, it’s a wonderful example of what’s possible when you’re prepared to take a fresh look at “the way we’ve always done things.”

The big idea

Existing cache and main memory compression techniques compress data in small fixed-size blocks, typically cache lines. Moreover, they use simple compression algorithms that focus on exploiting redundancy within a block. These techniques work well for scientific programs that are dominated by arrays. However, they are ineffective on object-based programs because objects do not fall neatly Continue reading

Vagrant Libvirt Install CentOS 7

This post will cover the process of installing Vagrant with the libvirt provider on CentOS 7. For reference the following software will be used in this post. CentOS - 7 Vagrant - 2.2.4 Vagrant-libvirt - 0.0.45 System Prep Before we begin, lets ensure the host is updated. cmd sudo yum...

Self Hosted Vagrant Cloud

It is possible to host your own Vagrant "cloud" on premises. You might want to do this to align with your companies security policy and or to host your custom Vagrant boxes. There are a number of methods to serve your Vagrant boxes, in this post I will show you how to build a web server to...

Cisco ties its security/SD-WAN gear with Teridion’s cloud WAN service

Cisco and Teridion have tied the knot to deliver faster enterprise software-defined WAN services.The agreement links Cisco Meraki MX Security/SD-WAN appliances and its Auto VPN technology which lets users quickly bring up and configure secure sessions between branches and data centers with Teridion’s cloud-based WAN service. Teridion’s service promises customers better performance and control over traffic running from remote offices over the public internet to the data center. The service features what Teridion calls “Curated Routing” which fuses WAN acceleration techniques with route optimization to speed traffic.To read this article in full, please click here

Qualcomm loses case about its mobile-chip licensing fees

Chip maker Qualcomm has lost a round in federal court over how much it charges makers of wireless devices for its mobile chips.The company must lower its fees and submit to seven years of monitoring by the Federal Trade Commission, which brought the suit. Qualcomm says it will appeal.For more details about the suit and its impact on upcoming 5G deployments, watch this TECH(feed) video.   More about 5g networks:To read this article in full, please click here

Study: Most enterprise IoT transactions are unencrypted

Of the millions of enterprise-IoT transactions examined in a recent study, the vast majority were sent without benefit of encryption, leaving the data vulnerable to theft and tampering.The research by cloud-based security provider Zscaler found that about 91.5 percent of transactions by internet of things devices took place over plaintext, while 8.5 percent were encrypted with SSL. That means if attackers could intercept the unencrypted traffic, they’d be able to read it and possibly alter it, then deliver it as if it had not been changed.To read this article in full, please click here

Study: Most enterprise IoT transactions are unencrypted

Of the millions of enterprise-IoT transactions examined in a recent study, the vast majority were sent without benefit of encryption, leaving the data vulnerable to theft and tampering.The research by cloud-based security provider Zscaler found that about 91.5 percent of transactions by internet of things devices took place over plaintext, while 8.5 percent were encrypted with SSL. That means if attackers could intercept the unencrypted traffic, they’d be able to read it and possibly alter it, then deliver it as if it had not been changed.To read this article in full, please click here

Kubernetes Lifecycle Management with Docker Kubernetes Service (DKS)

There are many tutorials and guides available for getting started with Kubernetes. Typically, these detail the key concepts and  outline the steps for deploying your first Kubernetes cluster. However, when organizations want to roll out Kubernetes at scale or in production, the deployment is much more complex and there are a new set of requirements around both the initial setup and configuration and the ongoing management – often referred to as “Day 1 and Day 2 operations.”

Docker Enterprise 3.0, the leading container platform, includes Docker Kubernetes Service (DKS) – a seamless Kubernetes experience from developers’ desktops to production servers. DKS makes it simple for enterprises to secure and manage their Kubernetes environment by abstracting away many of these complexities. With Docker Enterprise, operations teams can easily deploy, scale, backup and restore, and upgrade a certified Kubernetes environment using a set of simple CLI commands. In this blog post, we’ll highlight some of these new features.

A Declarative Kubernetes Cluster Model

A real Kubernetes cluster deployment will typically involve design and planning to ensure that the environment integrates with an organization’s preferred infrastructure, storage and networking stacks. The design process usually requires cross-functional expertise to determine the instance Continue reading