Automation Isn’t About Building a Button to Press

This is a guest blog post by Carl Buchmann, Managing Solution Consultant at TeraMach. Carl attended the Building Network Automation Solutions online course in 2017.

There is one thing I regret not doing sooner during my automation journey, and that is adopting Git and a proper IDE/text editor that has built-in source control management. I personally use Microsoft Visual Studio Code, as it has Git built in and has many great extensions to validate code syntax.

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Understanding IPv6: Link-Local ‘Magic’ (Part 2 of 7)

For those of you new to IPv6, what I am about to show you is going to look a lot like a magic trick. I’m going to bring up an IPv6 IGP neighbor relationship (OSPFv3) between two routers. This doesn’t sound like a magic trick, I know. But what if I told you I am going to do this without putting any IPv6 addresses into the configurations of either routers?

Like any true magician, I must start my magic act with letting you know I have nothing up my sleeves. So let’s review the facts:

  • IPv6 unicast routing is globally enabled on both routers
  • IPv6 OSPFv3 is enabled via the one global command, “ipv6 router ospf 6”
  • Each router has an interface in an out-of-band management network (OOB mgt.) in the subnet 14.14.14.0/24.
  • RouterA is 14.14.14.101 and RouterB is 14.14.14.102 in this OOB management network
  • The IPv4 addresses for the OOB management interfaces are the only IP addresses in the configurations
  • Gig1/0/1 on both routers only has only two IPv6 commands on it, as shown below
  • Router A is monitoring the gig1/0/1 interface and sending the traffic to a Spirent Continue reading

Understanding IPv6: Link-Local ‘Magic’ (Part 2 of 7)

For those of you new to IPv6, what I am about to show you is going to look a lot like a magic trick. I’m going to bring up an IPv6 IGP neighbor relationship (OSPFv3) between two routers. This doesn’t sound like a magic trick, I know. But what if I told you I am going to do this without putting any IPv6 addresses into the configurations of either routers?

Like any true magician, I must start my magic act with letting you know I have nothing up my sleeves. So let’s review the facts:

  • IPv6 unicast routing is globally enabled on both routers
  • IPv6 OSPFv3 is enabled via the one global command, “ipv6 router ospf 6”
  • Each router has an interface in an out-of-band management network (OOB mgt.) in the subnet 14.14.14.0/24.
  • RouterA is 14.14.14.101 and RouterB is 14.14.14.102 in this OOB management network
  • The IPv4 addresses for the OOB management interfaces are the only IP addresses in the configurations
  • Gig1/0/1 on both routers only has only two IPv6 commands on it, as shown below
  • Router A is monitoring the gig1/0/1 interface and sending the traffic to a Spirent Continue reading

Understanding IPv6: The Journey Begins (Part 1 of 7)

IPv6 and I met back in the early 2000s. I really didn’t see the big deal or know what all the RFCs were about. This stuff was easy. Of course, at the time, my thoughts were barely even scratching at the surface, and I still believed IPv6 was just IPv4 with 128 bits. I was in what I now refer to as the “Checklist IPv6” phase.

“Checklist IPv6” was actually a great place for me to start. I had to remember only a few things while I was configuring the routers. Then I could kick back and let the magic of routing protocols work. Voila, IPv6 addresses would show up in the routing table of some other router in the lab. Ping to confirm, and I was done.

IPv6 “I know nothing” phase

The quote “The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know. The less you know, the more you think you know,” is attributed to David T. Freeman. I discovered the truth of this as I began digging deeper. The trigger to this phase was when I realized that IPv6 was clearly not IPv4 with 128 bits. When did that happen? When Continue reading

Understanding IPv6: The Journey Begins (Part 1 of 7)

IPv6 and I met back in the early 2000s. I really didn’t see the big deal or know what all the RFCs were about. This stuff was easy. Of course, at the time, my thoughts were barely even scratching at the surface, and I still believed IPv6 was just IPv4 with 128 bits. I was in what I now refer to as the “Checklist IPv6” phase.

“Checklist IPv6” was actually a great place for me to start. I had to remember only a few things while I was configuring the routers. Then I could kick back and let the magic of routing protocols work. Voila, IPv6 addresses would show up in the routing table of some other router in the lab. Ping to confirm, and I was done.

IPv6 “I know nothing” phase

The quote “The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know. The less you know, the more you think you know,” is attributed to David T. Freeman. I discovered the truth of this as I began digging deeper. The trigger to this phase was when I realized that IPv6 was clearly not IPv4 with 128 bits. When did that happen? When Continue reading

Firepower FMC API – Initial Observations

As many of you know, I am not a developer but I do occasionally hack stuff together. This article is just some of the initial things I have learned working with the Firepower Management Console API.

A good place to start is the Firepower REST API Quick Start Guide. This can be found at the following URL.

Firepower REST API Quick Start Guide

One thing to note is that there is a recommendation to use a dedicated username for the API. I would go a step beyond that with a recommendation for testing and development. During development, I currently have a username for the FMC UI, a username for the API Explorer and a username for whatever tool I’m working with (Postman or a Python Scripts). The reason for the extra accounts is that logging in to any of the UI’s tends to generate a new token (and invalidate the old one). This causes a constant reauthentication to the Web Interfaces.

Here is a screenshot of Postman doing an initial authentication — Post to retrieve an access token.

Generate Token URL

https://<server-ip>/api/fmc_platform/v1/auth/generatetoken

Sending a post with basic authentication to the URL will produce an “x-auth-access-token”. This is good for 30 minutes Continue reading

Firepower FMC API – Initial Observations

As many of you know, I am not a developer but I do occasionally hack stuff together. This article is just some of the initial things I have learned working with the Firepower Management Console API.

A good place to start is the Firepower REST API Quick Start Guide. This can be found at the following URL.

Firepower REST API Quick Start Guide

One thing to note is that there is a recommendation to use a dedicated username for the API. I would go a step beyond that with a recommendation for testing and development. During development, I currently have a username for the FMC UI, a username for the API Explorer and a username for whatever tool I’m working with (Postman or a Python Scripts). The reason for the extra accounts is that logging in to any of the UI’s tends to generate a new token (and invalidate the old one). This causes a constant reauthentication to the Web Interfaces.

Here is a screenshot of Postman doing an initial authentication — Post to retrieve an access token.

Generate Token URL

https://<server-ip>/api/fmc_platform/v1/auth/generatetoken

Sending a post with basic authentication to the URL will produce an “x-auth-access-token”. This is good for 30 minutes Continue reading

Firepower FMC API – Initial Observations

As many of you know, I am not a developer but I do occasionally hack stuff together. This article is just some of the initial things I have learned working with the Firepower Management Console API.

A good place to start is the Firepower REST API Quick Start Guide. This can be found at the following URL.

Firepower REST API Quick Start Guide

One thing to note is that there is a recommendation to use a dedicated username for the API. I would go a step beyond that with a recommendation for testing and development. During development, I currently have a username for the FMC UI, a username for the API Explorer and a username for whatever tool I’m working with (Postman or a Python Scripts). The reason for the extra accounts is that logging in to any of the UI’s tends to generate a new token (and invalidate the old one). This causes a constant reauthentication to the Web Interfaces.

Here is a screenshot of Postman doing an initial authentication — Post to retrieve an access token.

Generate Token URL

https://<server-ip>/api/fmc_platform/v1/auth/generatetoken

Sending a post with basic authentication to the URL will produce an “x-auth-access-token”. This is good for 30 minutes Continue reading

Starting Today: NDSS Highlights the Best in Internet Security Research

You’ve undoubtedly heard about all sorts of Internet security vulnerabilities and incidents causing harm around the world, but the flip side of all that doom and gloom is all the promising efforts underway to create a more secure, private, and trusted Internet. Starting today and going through Wednesday (18-21 February), the Network and Distributed Systems Security (NDSS) Symposium takes place to present groundbreaking research in the world of Internet security.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of NDSS, and the Internet Society is proud to have been associated with it for over 20 years now. A key focus of the Internet Society has long been improving trust in the global open Internet. In order to promote this trust, we need new and innovative ideas and research on the security and privacy of our connected devices and the Internet that brings them together. NDSS is a top tier forum for highlighting this research.

NDSS 2018 is four full days featuring:

The Week in Internet News: Can Blockchain Improve IoT?

Blockchain merges with IoT? Could Blockchain technology help the Internet of Things become more resilient? IBM thinks so. The company is exploring ways to use Blockchain to build trust between devices and to accelerate transactions on the IoT. EETimes explores the issue.

Grand Theft IoT: Someone involved in the online community for the video game, “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” has spun up a new botnet made up of IoT devices, according to security firm Radware. For the price of $20, the botnet can supposedly launch a 300gbps Distributed Denial of Service attack, reports Motherboard.

AI on the rise: Nearly after of all CIOs have plans to implement artificial intelligence in the future, according to a recent Gartner survey. The IT research firm recommends that companies rolling out AI projects aim low to start, and focus augmenting workers instead of replacing them, according to a story on TechRepublic.

Where the jobs are: For a time, it appeared that actual deployments of Blockchain seemed to be lagging behind the buzz. But that appears to be changing, with Blockchain developers now in high demand, TechCrunch reports. Blockchain jobs are the second fastest growing category in the labor market, with 14 job openings Continue reading

Linux: To recurse or not

Linux and recursion are on very good speaking terms. In fact, a number of Linux command recurse without ever being asked while others have to be coaxed with just the right option. When is recursion most helpful and how can you use it to make your tasks easier? Let’s run through some useful examples and see.Easy recursion with ls First, the ls command seems like a good place to start. This command will only list the files and directories in the current or specified directory unless asked to work a little harder. It will include the contents of directories only if you add a -R option. It provides a -r option, but that option causes the listing to be in reverse order as shown below while -R delves into the various subdirectories.To read this article in full, please click here

Keeping our users safe

Keeping our users safe

To everyone in Cloudflare, account security is one of our most important tasks. We recognize that to every customer on our platform, we are critical infrastructure. We also know that the simplest attacks often lead to the most devastating of outcomes. Most people think that if they are going to get hacked it will be by some clever ”zero day”. The reality couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Attackers are smart and they have realized that even in 2018, the human is still the weakest link in the chain. The 2017 Verizon breach report identified that 81% of hacking related breaches occurred as a result of weak credentials or credential theft, an increase from the 63% reported in 2016’s breach report.

Keeping our users safe

Source: Verizon 2017 data breach report

Your credentials are as important as your house or car keys. If someone copies or steals them, the repercussions can be catastrophic. If you suspect someone has access to your house keys you change your locks. If you aren’t fast enough, someone might break in.

Likewise if you realize that someone might have access to your password, the remedy is to change it. Too often, as with house keys, we are slow to Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Comparing global internet access services for SD-WAN: huge differences in pricing and quality

All too often, IT teams make the mistake of thinking about Internet access as a commodity, failing to consider how well connected a provider is with the rest of the Internet. Picking the right Internet service, especially internationally, can be extremely important when evaluating SD-WAN solutions from companies like Aryaka, Cato Networks, Cisco (Viptela or Meraki), Open Systems, Silver Peak, Versa or VMware (Velocloud).To better understand why looking at the quality of an Internet service is so important, I gathered global pricing and configuration information from my friends at GlobalInternet, a global aggregator of Internet access connections. Here’s what we found.To read this article in full, please click here

Weekend Reads 180216: Skimmers and MITM and x509 Covert Channels, oh my…

When you realize how easy it is for thieves to compromise an ATM or credit card terminal with skimming devices, it’s difficult not to inspect or even pull on these machines when you’re forced to use them personally — half expecting something will come detached. For those unfamiliar with the stealth of these skimming devices and the thieves who install them, read on. @Krebs on Security

Here is a short blog post that explains how you can make your own Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) setup for sniffing the traffic between a SIM card and the backend server. This is NOT a new research but I hope this will help anyone who doesn’t have a telco background to get started to play with mobile data sniffing and fake base stations. This is applicable to many scenarios today as we have so many IoT devices with SIM cards in it that connects to the backend. —Priya Chalakkal @The Insinuator

He got the idea while analyzing the Vawtrak malware after discovering that it read multiple fields in the X.509 certificate provided by the server before proceeding. Jason initially thought these fields were used as a C2 channel, but then realized that Vawtrak performed a Continue reading

What it means to be an “automation first” enterprise

We’ve previously discussed how automation can give engineers some well-deserved extra free time. So how do those benefits extend to helping the company as a whole? Well, according to TechTarget’s article analyzing Gartner’s recent report about network innovation, there are some pretty obvious indicators that a company is putting automation first and achieving success. All a business has to do is take advantage of the automation practices used by hyperscale data centers. While it may sound impossible to operate on the same level as cloud giants like Amazon and Facebook, Gartner’s report states that there is a remarkable increase in efficiency and agility enterprises mimic from even 1% to 10% of the practices in hyperscale data centers. In this post, we’ll discuss what it looks like to be an “automation first” enterprise. And from what we can tell, it looks pretty good!

Reduced costs

Adopting automation doesn’t just save you time — it also saves you money. Let’s start with the fact that proprietary solutions are incredibly expensive on their own. In addition to steep initial costs, proprietary vendors prevent additional savings by not allowing customers to take advantage of automation tools like Ansible, Puppet and Chef. However, these capabilities Continue reading

Supercomputing At The Crossroads

The supercomputing business, the upper stratosphere of the much broader high performance computing segment of the IT industry, is without question one of the most exciting areas in data processing and visualization.

It is also one of the most frustrating sectors in which to try to make a profitable living. The customers are the most demanding, the applications are the most complex, the budget pressures are intense, the technical challenges are daunting, the governments behind major efforts can be capricious, and the competition is fierce.

This is the world where Cray, which literally invented the supercomputing field, and its competitors …

Supercomputing At The Crossroads was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

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