Human Generated Questions About AI Assistants

I’ve taken a number of briefings in the last few months that all mention how companies are starting to get into AI by building an AI virtual assistant. In theory this is the easiest entry point into the technology. Your network already has a ton of information about usage patterns and trouble spots. Network operations and engineering teams have learned over the years to read that information and provide analysis and feedback.

If marketing is to be believed, no one in the modern world has time to learn how to read all that data. Instead, AI provides a natural language way to ask simple questions and have the system provide the data back to you with proper context. It will highlight areas of concern and help you grasp what’s going on. Only you don’t need to get a CCNA to get there. Or, more likely, it’s more useful for someone on the executive team to ask questions and get answers without the need to talk to the network team.

I have some questions that I always like to ask when companies start telling me about their new AI assistant that help me understand how it’s being built.

Question 1: Laying Continue reading

Ansible Set Operations Do Not Preserve List Order

Here’s another Ansible quirk, this time caused by Python set behavior.

When I created the initial device configuration deployment playbook in netlab, I wanted to:

  • Be able to specify a list of modules to provision.1
  • Provision just the modules used in the topology and specified in the list of modules.

This allows you to use netlab initial to deploy all configuration modules used in a lab topology or netlab initial -m ospf to deploy just OSPF while surviving netlab initial -m foo (which would do nothing).

Read more …

Ansible Set Operations Do Not Preserve List Order

Here’s another Ansible quirk, this time caused by Python set behavior.

When I created the initial device configuration deployment playbook in netlab, I wanted to:

  • Be able to specify a list of modules to provision.1
  • Provision just the modules used in the topology and specified in the list of modules.

This allows you to use netlab initial to deploy all configuration modules used in a lab topology or netlab initial -m ospf to deploy just OSPF while surviving netlab initial -m foo (which would do nothing).

Read more …

Bridging Packet Walk In VXLAN/EVPN Network

In this post I walk you through all the steps and packets involved in two hosts communicating over a L2 VNI in a VXLAN/EVPN network. The topology below is the one we will be using:

The lab has the following characteristics:

  • OSPF in the underlay.
  • Ingress replication for BUM traffic through the use of EVPN.
  • ARP suppression is enabled.
  • ARP cache is cleared on Server-1 and Server-4 before initating the packet capture.
  • Server-1 is the host sourcing traffic by pinging Server-4.

Server-1 clears the ARP entry for Server-4 and initiates the ping:

sudo ip neighbor del 198.51.100.44 dev ens160
ping 198.51.100.44
PING 198.51.100.44 (198.51.100.44) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 198.51.100.44: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=6.38 ms
64 bytes from 198.51.100.44: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=4.56 ms
64 bytes from 198.51.100.44: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=4.60 ms

Below is packet capture showing the ARP request from Server-1:

Frame 7854: 60 bytes on wire (480 bits), 60 bytes captured (480 bits) on interface ens257, id 4
Ethernet II, Src: 00:50:56:ad:85:06, Dst: ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Address Resolution Protocol (request)
    Hardware type: Ethernet (1)
    Protocol type:  Continue reading

DNS and Truncation in UDP

I’ll press on with another item within an overall theme of some current work in DNS behaviours with a report of a recent measurement on the level of compliance of DNS resolvers with one aspect of standard-defined DNS behaviour: truncation of DNS over UDP responses.

DNS and Truncation in UDP

I’ll press on with another item within an overall theme of some current work in DNS behaviours with a report of a recent measurement on the level of compliance of DNS resolvers with one aspect of standard-defined DNS behaviour: truncation of DNS over UDP responses.

Boat build phase – part2

You can only live for so long on laughing cow, pot noodles, soup and beans on toast, the boat diet is good for losing weight but not for your wellbeing. I got lucky with the weather as winter was pretty mild up until late October but when it turned you certainly did feel the cold on the boat. You would have to be crazy to try and survive on a boat in winter without a stove or some form of heating.

SuzieQ Network Observability

SuzieQ Network Observability

In today’s post, we’re exploring SuzieQ, an open-source network observability platform that’s making waves in the way we monitor and understand our networks. It supports a wide array of devices from top vendors like Arista, Cisco, and Juniper, among others. We’ll start with the fundamentals and finish with a practical example to clearly illustrate how SuzieQ sets itself apart from other automation tools.

What We Will Cover?

  1. What exactly is SuzieQ?
  2. How does SuzieQ work?
  3. How to install SuzieQ?
  4. SuzieQ terminology (Configuration, Inventory, suzieq-cli, poller)
  5. Configuration and Inventory files
  6. Examples using OSPF Topology
  7. Path Analysis

What Exactly is SuzieQ?

I first came across SuzieQ a while back but didn't dive deep into it because tools like Netmiko or Napalm were fitting my needs just fine. That changed when I tuned into a recent Packet Pushers podcast featuring Dinesh Dutt, the brain behind SuzieQ. Hearing him talk about it got me really interested.

After the podcast, I couldn't hold back from giving SuzieQ a try. There have been many times when I found myself writing custom scripts to get things done, only to discover that SuzieQ could have handled those tasks much more smoothly.

So, what is SuzieQ? In simple Continue reading

How do we overcome Imposter Syndrome?

How do we overcome Imposter Syndrome?

I was thinking of writing about Imposter Syndrome for so long but I didn't because I thought someone might figure out I don't know what I am talking about.

This is so real, I'm not even kidding. The feeling of doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It's something many of us experience, especially when we're stepping out of our comfort zones or tackling new challenges. So, I decided to face this head-on and share some ways to deal with it. First, it's important to recognize when we're being too hard on ourselves. We often set unrealistically high standards and then beat ourselves up when we don't meet them. It's okay to not know everything – after all, we're all learning as we go.

Talking to others can also be a big help. You'll often find that many people feel the same way and have their own experiences with Imposter Syndrome. This can be a huge relief to know you're not alone in this.

What Exactly is Imposter Syndrome?

In plain terms, it's when you feel like you're not as competent as others perceive you to be. You might think you're not good enough, despite there being clear signs Continue reading

Weekend Reads 022334


The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that laws requiring crippled encryption and extensive data retention violate the European Convention on Human Rights – a decision that may derail European data surveillance legislation known as Chat Control.


The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) says that “better than 80% of all electronic system failures that are attributed to power anomalies are actually the result of electrical wiring or grounding errors or are generated by other loads within the customer’s facility.”


With research making considerable progress in designing quantum computers, it is time to consider the scenario that usable quantum computing will become a reality in the future. In this post, we discuss the testbed that we are setting up to empirically evaluate the impact of quantum-safe cryptography algorithms on DNSSEC.


Late last year, Congress extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and, in doing so, secured the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers until April 2024. With that month fast approaching, House Republicans have unveiled a new package to reauthorize those same powers, within limits.


Google has announced that it’s open-sourcing Magika, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool to identify file types, to help defenders accurately detect binary Continue reading

Technology Short Take 175

Welcome to Technology Short Take #175! Here’s your weekend reading—a collection of links and articles from around the internet on a variety of data center- and cloud-related topics. I hope you find something useful here!

Networking

Security

  • I attended a local meetup here in the Denver metro area a short while ago and was introduced to sops.
  • AMD processors have been discovered to have multiple security flaws; more details available here.
  • The Linux kernel project has become a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA); Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote a blog post that discusses this in more depth.

Cloud Computing/Cloud Management

Intel: I Was Lostry, But Now I Am Foundry

Pat Gelsinger, current chief executive officer at Intel and formerly the head of its Data Center Group as well as its chief technology officer, famously invented the tick-tock method of chip launches to bring some order and reason to the way the world’s largest chip maker – as it was in the mid-2000s – mitigated risk and spurred innovation in its products. …

Intel: I Was Lostry, But Now I Am Foundry was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

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