Issue with VMware-Formatted Cumulus VX Vagrant Box

I recently had a need to revisit the use of Cumulus VX (the Cumulus Networks virtual appliance running Cumulus Linux) in a Vagrant environment, and I wanted to be sure to test what I was doing on multiple virtualization platforms. Via Vagrant Cloud, Cumulus distributes VirtualBox and Libvirt versions of Cumulus VX, and there is a slightly older version that also provides a VMware-formatted box. Unfortunately, there’s a simple error in the VMware-formatted box that prevents it from working. Here’s the fix.

The latest version (as of this writing) of Cumulus VX was 3.5.0, and for this version both VirtualBox-formatted and Libvirt-formatted boxes are provided. For a VMware-formatted box, the latest version is 3.2.0, which you can install with this command:

vagrant box add CumulusCommunity/cumulus-vx --box-version 3.2.0

When this Vagrant box is installed using the above command, what actually happens is something like this (at a high level):

  1. The *.box file for the specific box, platform, and version is downloaded. This .box file is nothing more than a TAR archive with specific files included (see here for more details).

  2. The *.box file is expanded into the ~/.vagrant.d/boxes directory Continue reading

Worth Reading: How Google ditched VPNs

Today, none of Google’s employee-facing applications are on a virtual private network. They all have public IP addresses. The company feels this approach, which it has dubbed BeyondCorp, is the “new cloud model,” for doing cloud security, asserted Neal Mueller, head of infrastructure product marketing at Google, who gave a presentation on this approach at the O’Reilly Security conference, held recently in New York. —Joab Jackson @ The New Stack

NOAA Weather Forecasts Stick With CPUs, Keep An Eye On GPUs

When it comes to supercomputing, more is almost always better. More data and more compute – and more bandwidth to link the two – almost always result in a better set of models, whether they are descriptive or predictive. This has certainly been the case in weather forecasting, where the appetite for capacity to support more complex models of the atmosphere and the oceans and the integration of models running across different (and always increasing) resolutions never abates.

This is certainly the case with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which does weather and climate forecasting on a regional, national, …

NOAA Weather Forecasts Stick With CPUs, Keep An Eye On GPUs was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Intel, Nervana Shed Light on Deep Learning Chip Architecture

Almost two years after the acquisition by Intel, the deep learning chip architecture from startup Nervana Systems will finally be moving from its codenamed “Lake Crest” status to an actual product.

In that time, Nvidia, which owns the deep learning training market by a long shot, has had time to firm up its commitment to this expanding (if not overhyped in terms of overall industry dollar figures) market with new deep learning-tuned GPUs and appliances on the horizon as well as software tweaks to make training at scale more robust. In other words, even with solid technology at a reasonable …

Intel, Nervana Shed Light on Deep Learning Chip Architecture was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

Is Networking a Commodity?

Is networking becoming a commodity? Do we all need to worry about losing our jobs as network engineers because no-one cares about how a commodity is created or provided? Maybe it is time to take a second look at the commodity craze.

IDG Contributor Network: Will China start blocking SD-WAN traffic…today?

More than a decade ago, I launched the forerunner to SD-WAN Experts, MPLS Experts, on a project to China. Back then finding out telecom services in another country, let alone another continent, seemed like a mission impossible. China was among the most difficult.Much has changed in our industry. MPLS has given way to SD-WAN, but some things remain the same. We still need global connectivity and China continues to remain a mystery. My story about China blocking VPN traffic – and potentially SD-WAN traffic – caused quite a stir in the industry, in large part because, like so many things when dealing with China, concrete information remains scarce (particularly for non-native speakers).To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Will China start blocking SD-WAN traffic…today?

More than a decade ago, I launched the forerunner to SD-WAN Experts, MPLS Experts, on a project to China. Back then finding out telecom services in another country, let alone another continent, seemed like a mission impossible. China was among the most difficult.Much has changed in our industry. MPLS has given way to SD-WAN, but some things remain the same. We still need global connectivity and China continues to remain a mystery. My story about China blocking VPN traffic – and potentially SD-WAN traffic – caused quite a stir in the industry, in large part because, like so many things when dealing with China, concrete information remains scarce (particularly for non-native speakers).To read this article in full, please click here

SSH tunnelling from OSX

In certain situations, I need to connect to a remote network via a bastion host but only have SSH available to me.   To get around installing some kind of VPN gateway, the easiest thing to do is to create an SSH tunnel.

In this situation, what happens is that you set up local port-forwarding.   Local port numbers are forwarded to the remote host via an SSH tunnel to the intermediate host.

The command format to do this on OSX is:

ssh -C -L <LOCAL-PORT>:<REMOTE-IP>:<REMOTE-PORT> <USERNAME>@<BASTION-HOST>

So for example, I can forward local port 1000 on my Mac to the remote device’s port 23 using this command (sudo has to be used for local ports lower than 1024):

sudo ssh -C -L 1000:10.200.0.1:23 [email protected]

Once authenticated, I can open another terminal window and type:

telnet localhost 1000

and hey-presto, I get connected to a remote router via telnet through an encrypted SSH tunnel!   The -C parameter is for compression and isn’t actually necessary.

If you need to create a number of local port-forwards, this can be done in a config file instead.   By default SSH reads /etc/ssh/sshd_config for system-wide parameters, and also Continue reading

We’ve Added a New AWS Certified Solutions Architect Course to Our Video Library!

Last week, we added an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Level course to our video library. The course is available for streaming via your All Access Pass members account and also available for purchase at ine.com.

 

Why Study AWS?
An AWS certification will put you in an elite group of cloud engineers, and could lead to better employment opportunities. Amazon Web Services are used by thousands of companies around the world, therefore, AWS certified engineers are highly valued by many employers. AWS certifications show the potential employer that you have the skills to design, deploy and manage scalable and secure systems on AWS platform.

About the Course:
This course is designed to help you prepare for the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate exam. Even if you do not have a lot of IT experience, and have never used any Amazon Web Services, this course is the best starting point for AWS certifications.

This class is taught by Miles Karabas, and includes 5 hours and 43 minutes of in-depth lectures, plus numerous practice questions similar to those on the exam.

Areas Focused On:

  • Compute
  • Storage
  • Databases
  • Security, Identity & Compliance
  • Management Tools
  • Networking & Content Continue reading

Worth Reading: BGP in 2017

Measurements of the size of the routing table have been taken on a regular basis since the start of 1988, although detailed snapshots of the routing system only date back to early 1994. Figure 1 shows a rather unique picture of the size of the routing table, as seen by all the peers of the Route Views route collector on an hourly basis. Several events are visible in the plot, such as the busting of the Internet bubble in 2001, and if one looks closely, the effects of the global financial crisis in 2009. —Geoff Huston @ potaroo

Get 25% Off H&R Block’s Federal & State Tax Software, Plus a 5% Amazon Bonus

If you're a tax time do-it-yourselfer, this is a deal that will save you money, and potentially make you some money as well.H&R Block's popular tax software is fully updated for 2018 and designed to make your 2017 tax prep easier and more convenient. Step-by-step interviews guide you through a customized experience relevant to your tax situation, so you know everything is accounted for. This version contains everything you need to prepare your federal and state taxes in one complete program, and everything can be handled electronically (including the PC or Mac software download). Right now the tax software's price is reduced 25% on Amazon to $33.74.To read this article in full, please click here

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