Calculating the CA Certificate Hash for Kubeadm

When using kubeadm to set up a new Kubernetes cluster, the output of the kubeadm init command that sets up the control plane for the first time contains some important information on joining additional nodes to the cluster. One piece of information in there that (until now) I hadn’t figured out how to replicate was the CA certificate hash. (Primarily I hadn’t figured it out because I hadn’t tried.) In this post, I’ll share how to calculate the CA certificate hash for kubeadm to use when joining additional nodes to an existing cluster.

When looking to figure this out, I first started with the kubeadm documentation. My searches led me here, which states:

The hash is calculated over the bytes of the Subject Public Key Info (SPKI) object (as in RFC7469). This value is available in the output of “kubeadm init” or can be calculated using standard tools.

That’s useful information, but what are the “standard tools” being referenced? I knew that a lot of work had been put into kubeadm init phase (for breaking down the kubeadm init workflow), but a quick review of that documentation didn’t reveal anything. Reviewing the referenced RFC also didn’t provide any Continue reading

View-centric performance optimization for database-backed web applications

View-centric performance optimization for database-backed web applications Yang et al., ICSE 2019

The problem set-up in this paper discusses the importance of keeping web page load times low as a fundamental contributor to user satisfaction (See e.g. ‘Why performance matters’). Between client-side tools such as Google’s Lighthouse, back-end tools that can analyse ORM usage and database queries and point out issues such as N+1 selects, and the information provided by your favourite APM I was initially wondering what ground there was left to tread here. So I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out the authors were looking at the problem in a different way to most of these approaches.

Rather than accepting the current rendered view (web page) as seen by the end-user as fixed, and then asking what can be done to optimise the end-to-end loading time of that page, this paper examines the question of what changes to the current view could dramatically reduce its load time? I.e., small (or sometimes not so small) changes to what the end user ultimately sees on the page, that can have a net benefit on the overall user experience.

Empirical studies have found Continue reading

10 Reasons Developers Love Docker

Developers ranked Docker as the #1 most wanted platform, #2 most loved platform, and #3 most broadly used platform in the 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey. Nearly 90,000 developers from around the world responded to the survey. So we asked the community why they love Docker, and here are 10 of the reasons they shared:

ROSIE the Robot at DockerCon. Her software runs on Docker containers.

 

  1. It works on everyone’s machine. Docker eliminates the “but it worked on my laptop” problem.

“I love docker because it takes environment specific issues out of the equation – making the developer’s life easier and improving productivity by reducing time wasted debugging issues that ultimately don’t add value to the application.” @pamstr_

  1. Takes the pain out of CI/CD. If there is one thing developers hate, it is doing the same thing over and over.

“Docker completely changed my life as a developer! I can spin up my project dependencies like databases for my application in a second in a clean state on any machine on our team! I can‘t not imagine the whole ci/cd-approach without docker. Automate all the stuff? Dockerize it!” @Dennis65560555 

  1. Boosts your career. According to a recent Continue reading

Avi Networks Now Part of VMware

By Tom Gillis, SVP/GM of Networking and Security BU

When we first announced our intent to acquire Avi Networks, the excitement within our customer base, with industry watchers and within our own business was overwhelming. IDC analysts wrote, “In announcing its intent to acquire software ADC vendor Avi Networks, VMware both enters the ADC market and transforms its NSX datacenter and multicloud network-virtualization overlay (NVO) into a Layer 2-7 full-stack SDN fabric (1).

Avi possesses exceptional alignment with VMware’s view of where the network is going, and how data centers must evolve to operate like public clouds to help organizations reach their full digital potential. It’s for these reasons that I am happy to announce VMware has closed the acquisition of Avi Networks and they are now officially part of the VMware family going forward.

I’ve heard Pat Gelsinger say many times that VMware wants to aggressively “automate everything.” With Avi, we’re one step closer to meeting this objective. The VMware and Avi Networks teams will work together to advance our Virtual Cloud Network vision, build out our full stack L2-7 services, and deliver the public cloud experience for on-prem environments. We will introduce the Avi platform Continue reading

Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 10: Practical open networking

Subscribe to Kernel of Truth on iTunes, Google Play, SpotifyCast Box and Sticher!

Click here for our previous episode.

But wait, there’s more! If you keep up with our podcast you may have noticed the previous episode where we talk about what open networking was, so why are we chatting about it again? Last time we talked about having open API’s and having the demarcation point between components but in this podcast, we’re extending the conversation out to show how everyone can take advantage of open networking in a wider, practical sense. Guests Rama Darbha and Roopa Prabhu join host Brian to share their thoughts, experiences and expertise on the subject. Listen, enjoy, and feel free to comment away here or on our social media channels if you have any questions or thoughts to add.

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 Continue reading

IPv6 Buzz 030: Overcoming The Big 3 Objections To IPv6 Adoption

Objections to IPv6 adoption tend to follow three tracks: we don't need it, we don't have budget, and we'll lose the security and multihoming benefits of NAT. On today's IPv6 Buzz podcast, Dr. David Holder explains why these objections don't hold water, and how to communicate with business and technical leaders to overcome them.

The post IPv6 Buzz 030: Overcoming The Big 3 Objections To IPv6 Adoption appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Smarter IoT concepts reveal creaking networks

The internet of things (IoT) needs its own infrastructure ecosystem — one that doesn't use external clouds at all, researchers at the University of Magdeburg say.The computer scientists recently obtained funding from the German government to study how to build a future-generation of revolutionary, emergent IoT systems. They say networks must be fault tolerant, secure, and traverse disparate protocols, which they aren't now.[ Read also: What is edge computing? and How edge networking and IoT will reshape data centers ] The researchers say a smarter, unique, and organic infrastructure needs to be developed for the IoT and that simply adapting the IoT to traditional networks won't work. They say services must self-organize and function autonomously and that people must accept the fact that we are using the internet in ways never originally intended. To read this article in full, please click here

The Network is the Computer: A Conversation with John Gage

The Network is the Computer: A Conversation with John Gage
The Network is the Computer: A Conversation with John Gage

To learn more about the origins of The Network is the Computer®, I spoke with John Gage, the creator of the phrase and the 21st employee of Sun Microsystems. John had a key role in shaping the vision of Sun and had a lot to share about his vision for the future. Listen to our conversation here and read the full transcript below.


[00:00:13]

John Graham-Cumming: I’m talking to John Gage who was what, the 21st employee of Sun Microsystems, which is what Wikipedia claims and it also claims that you created this phrase “The Network is the Computer,” and that's actually one of the things I want to talk about with you a little bit because I remember when I was in Silicon Valley seeing that slogan plastered about the place and not quite understanding what it meant. So do you want to tell me what you meant by it or what Sun meant by it at the time?

[00:00:40]

John Gage: Well, in 2019, recalling what it meant in 1982 or 83’ will be colored by all our experience since then but at the time it seemed so obvious that when we introduced the first scientific workstations, they Continue reading

The Network is the Computer: A Conversation with Ray Rothrock

The Network is the Computer: A Conversation with Ray Rothrock
The Network is the Computer: A Conversation with Ray Rothrock

Last week I spoke with Ray Rothrock, former Director of CAD/CAM Marketing at Sun Microsystems, to discuss his time at Sun and how the Internet has evolved. In this conversation, Ray discusses the importance of trust as a principle, the growth of Sun in sales and marketing, and that time he gave Vice President Bush a Sun demo. Listen to our conversation here and read the full transcript below.

[00:00:07]

John Graham-Cumming: Here I am very lucky to get to talk with Ray Rothrock who was I think one of the first investors in Cloudflare, a Series A investor and got the company a little bit of money to get going, but if we dial back a few earlier years than that, he was also at Sun as the Director of CAD/CAM Marketing. There is a link between Sun and Cloudflare. At least one, but probably more than one, which is that Cloudflare has recently trademarked, “The Network is the Computer”. And that was a Sun trademark, wasn’t it?

[00:00:43]

Ray Rothrock: It was, yes.

[00:00:46]

Graham-Cumming: I talked to John Gage and I asked him about this as well and I asked him to explain to me what it Continue reading

The Network is the Computer: A Conversation with Greg Papadopoulos

The Network is the Computer: A Conversation with Greg Papadopoulos
The Network is the Computer: A Conversation with Greg Papadopoulos

I spoke with Greg Papadopoulos, former CTO of Sun Microsystems, to discuss the origins and meaning of The Network is the Computer®, as well as Cloudflare’s role in the evolution of the phrase. During our conversation, we considered the inevitability of latency, the slowness of the speed of light, and the future of Cloudflare’s newly acquired trademark. Listen to our conversation here and read the full transcript below.


[00:00:08]

John Graham-Cumming: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. I've got Greg Papadopoulos who was CTO of Sun and is currently a venture capitalist. Tell us about “The Network is the Computer.”

[00:00:22]

Greg Papadopoulos: Well, from certainly a Sun perspective, the very first Sun-1 was connected via Internet protocols and at that time there was a big war about what should win from a networking point of view. And there was a dedication there that everything that we made was going to interoperate on the network over open standards, and from day one in the company, it was always that thought. It's really about the collection of these machines and how they interact with one another, and of course that puts the network in Continue reading

The Network is the Computer

The Network is the Computer
The Network is the Computer

We recently registered the trademark for The Network is the Computer®, to encompass how Cloudflare is utilizing its network to pave the way for the future of the Internet.

The phrase was first coined in 1984 by John Gage, the 21st employee of Sun Microsystems, where he was credited with building Sun’s vision around “The Network is the Computer.” When Sun was acquired in 2010, the trademark was not renewed, but the vision remained.

Take it from him:

“When we built Sun Microsystems, every computer we made had the network at its core. But we could only imagine, over thirty years ago, today’s billions of networked devices, from the smallest camera or light bulb to the largest supercomputer, sharing their packets across Cloudflare’s distributed global network.
We based our vision of an interconnected world on open and shared standards. Cloudflare extends this dedication to new levels by openly sharing designs for security and resilience in the post-quantum computer world.
Most importantly, Cloudflare is committed to immediate, open, transparent accountability for network performance. I’m a dedicated reader of their technical blog, as the network becomes central to our security infrastructure and the global economy, demanding even more powerful technical innovation. Continue reading

Configuring MACsec Encryption

This article describes the simplest way to enable MACSec using preconfigured static key-string. The example was tried on Catalyst 3850 and should work on other switches too. There is another article that I wrote years ago which describes a more complex implementation with dot1x etc. MACSec Media Access Control Security is the way to secure point-to-point Ethernet links by implementing data integrity check and encryption of Ethernet frame. When you configure MACsec on a switch interface (and of course, on the other switch connected to that interface), all traffic going through the link is secured using data integrity checks and encryption.

The post Configuring MACsec Encryption appeared first on How Does Internet Work.

How network pros acquire skills for SDN, programmable networks

Jason Pichardo’s career path has mirrored the changes in networking over the past decade, moving from a traditional hardware-dominated past to a software-centric future that reflects the network’s growing importance to business operations.“The industry started having conversations about digital transformation, and already we have moved to a hybrid-cloud state with programmability and orchestration. We’ve gone from talking about switches and routers to talking about how to speed to market faster and how to accomplish business tasks at a faster rate,” says Pichardo, senior network architect at insurance provider Anthem. (The opinions he expresses are his own, not those of Anthem, Inc.)To read this article in full, please click here