Tech Bytes: Deploying Sovereign Clouds With VMware And Tietoevry

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast, we explore the concept of sovereign clouds with sponsor VMware. Sovereign clouds provide the agility and scale of the cloud while ensuring data resides in a specific country or geography and meets area requirements for security and privacy. We speak with Tietoevry, one of the first VMware partners to offer major sovereign cloud solutions for its Nordic clients.

The post Tech Bytes: Deploying Sovereign Clouds With VMware And Tietoevry appeared first on Packet Pushers.

How Cloudflare Images addressed the aCropalypse vulnerability

How Cloudflare Images addressed the aCropalypse vulnerability
How Cloudflare Images addressed the aCropalypse vulnerability

Acropalypse (CVE-2023-21036) is a vulnerability caused by image editing tools failing to truncate images when editing has made them smaller, most often seen when images are cropped. This leaves remnants of the cropped contents written in the file after the image has finished. The remnants (written in a ‘trailer’ after the end-of-image marker) are ignored by most software when reading the image, but can be used to partially reconstruct the original image by an attacker.

The general class of vulnerability can, in theory, affect any image format if it ignores data written after the end of the image. In this case the applications affected were the ‘Markup’ screenshot editor that shipped with Google Pixel phones from the Pixel 3 (saving its images in the PNG format) and the Windows Snipping tool (with both PNG and JPEG formats).

Our customers deliver their images using Cloudflare Images products and may have images that are affected. We would like to ensure their images are protected from this vulnerability if they have been edited using a vulnerable editor.

As a concrete example, imagine a Cloudflare customer running a social network, delivering images using Cloudflare Images. A user of the social network might Continue reading

Catalyst SD-WAN – Bootstrapping a Catalyst8000v Using a File on Bootflash

Yesterday I showed how to bootstrap a Catalyst8000v from the CLI. Today, I will show how to put a file on bootflash which includes the configuration but also the root certificate and the certificate of the device. This is a bit of a more streamlined process and can also be useful if you don’t know what CLI commands to use as vManage will generate the configuration for you.

Starting out, we have a freshly booted router that is in autonomous mode (non-SD-WAN):

Router#sh ver | i operating
Router operating mode: Autonomous

To generate the bootstrap configuration, the process is to first go through the regular process of attaching a device to a template. Go to Configuration -> Templates and select Attach Devices:

Select the correct device:

Fill in the information needed:

Click Update to reflect the edits:

Then click Next:

Click Configure Devices and vManage will try to push the config but the device is offline:

Once this is done, vManage has all the information it needs to generate the bootstrap. Go to Configuration -> Devices and select the correct device and then Generate Bootstrap Configuration:

Then vManage will disply the following window. Choose Cloud-Init and have the box selected Continue reading

Heavy Networking 689: Prepping For Certification Exams With Mary Fasang

Certifications are a part of life in IT. On today's Heavy Networking we explore preparation strategies with guest Mary Fasang. Her certs run the gamut from CompTIA to MCSE to the CCNP, as well as the PMP and ITIL certs. How should you prepare for a cert in 2023 when there’s so much content, so many training options, as well as home labbing available? How do you handle failure? Which certs have been the hardest? What study materials have proved helpful? Mary shares her strategies.

Heavy Networking 689: Prepping For Certification Exams With Mary Fasang

Certifications are a part of life in IT. On today's Heavy Networking we explore preparation strategies with guest Mary Fasang. Her certs run the gamut from CompTIA to MCSE to the CCNP, as well as the PMP and ITIL certs. How should you prepare for a cert in 2023 when there’s so much content, so many training options, as well as home labbing available? How do you handle failure? Which certs have been the hardest? What study materials have proved helpful? Mary shares her strategies.

The post Heavy Networking 689: Prepping For Certification Exams With Mary Fasang appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Private 5G/LTE growing more slowly than expected

Private 5G/LTE networks for the enterprise are becoming increasingly common, but a new forecast from tech analyst firm IDC has found that several headwinds exist for the technology, which could slow its adoption over the next 18 to 24 months.The report, authored by IDC research manager Patrick Filkins, predicted that private cellular networking infrastructure sales will grow from $2.4 billion in global revenue this year to $5.3 billion in 2027.The use cases for private cellular networks are numerous and varied, according to IDC, encompassing everything from wide-area applications like grid networks for utility systems and transport networks to local networks for manufacturing facilities or warehouses.To read this article in full, please click here

PCI-Express Must Match The Cadence Of Compute Engines And Networks

When system architects sit down to design their next platforms, they start by looking at a bunch of roadmaps from suppliers of CPUs, accelerators, memory, flash, network interface cards – and PCI-Express controllers and switches.

The post PCI-Express Must Match The Cadence Of Compute Engines And Networks first appeared on The Next Platform.

PCI-Express Must Match The Cadence Of Compute Engines And Networks was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

AI is changing server sales but paying off for enterprises

The adoption of artificial intelligence is changing the way servers are being procured while having a quick and positive impact on firms that deploy AI technologies, according to a pair of research reports from Omdia.In its upcoming cloud and data center market report, the research firm predicts a reduction in the number of server shipments for the first time since 2007. However, the server drop in 2007 was due to a global economic crisis. The current shift in server buying has a more positive spin.Omdia found that demand for compute resources remains high. However, it also reports that demand for more expensive servers with specialized hardware for AI model training (translation: GPUs) are being prioritized over the typical enterprise server with just a CPU.To read this article in full, please click here

AI is changing server sales but paying off for enterprises

The adoption of artificial intelligence is changing the way servers are being procured while having a quick and positive impact on firms that deploy AI technologies, according to a pair of research reports from Omdia.In its upcoming cloud and data center market report, the research firm predicts a reduction in the number of server shipments for the first time since 2007. However, the server drop in 2007 was due to a global economic crisis. The current shift in server buying has a more positive spin.Omdia found that demand for compute resources remains high. However, it also reports that demand for more expensive servers with specialized hardware for AI model training (translation: GPUs) are being prioritized over the typical enterprise server with just a CPU.To read this article in full, please click here

Catalyst SD-WAN – Botstrapping a Catalyst8000v in a Virtual Lab

I’m rebuilding my Catalyst SD-WAN lab and thought I would give some quick pointers on how to bootstrap a Catalyst 8000v in your virtual lab. When the router first boots up, it will be in autonomous mode (non-SD-WAN mode):

Router#show version | i operating
Router operating mode: Autonomous

Configure the router to be in controller mode which will cause it to reboot:

Router#controller-mode enable
Enabling controller mode will erase the nvram filesystem, remove all configuration files, and reload the box! 
Ensure the BOOT variable points to a valid image 
Continue? [confirm]
% Warning: Bootstrap config file needed for Day-0 boot is missing
Do you want to abort? (yes/[no]): no

To bootstrap the router, the following is needed:

  • System IP
  • Site ID
  • Organization name
  • vBond name/IP
  • IP address of tunnel interface (if not using DHCP)
  • Tunnel interface name
  • DNS server (if using name resolution)
  • On-premises root cert (if using your own certificates)
  • Certificate

First, verify that the router is now in controller mode:

Router#show version | i operating
Router operating mode: Controller-Managed

Create a small bootstrap configuration with all the required parameters. Mine is below (some information redacted):

config-transaction
system
system-ip x.x.x.x
site-id xxxxxxxxxx
organization-name "sd-wan-lab-daniel"
vbond 192. Continue reading

WISP/FISP Design: Switch Centric (SWC) Topology

IP ArchiTechs switch centric core being built in the Denver DC. Dec 2018

Overview

This is an article i’ve wanted to write for a long time. In the last decade, the work that we have done at iparchitechs.com with WISPs/FISPs in network design using commodity equipment like MikroTik and FiberStore has yielded quite a few best practices and lessons learned.

While the idea of “router on a stick” isn’t new, when we first started working with WISPs/FISPs and MikroTik routers 10+ years ago, we immediately noticed a few common elements in the requests we’d get for consulting:

I’m out of ports on my router…how do I add more?”

“I started with a single router, how do I make it redundant and keep NAT/peering working properly”?

“I have high CPU on my router and I don’t know how to add capacity and split the traffic”


“I can’t afford Cisco or Juniper but I need a network that’s highly available and resilient”

Coming from a telco background where a large chassis was used pretty much everywhere for redundancy and relying on links split across multiple line cards with LACP, that was one of my first inclinations to solve the Continue reading

NXDOMAIN

The DNS is a strange and at times surprising environment. One could take a simple perspective and claim that the aim of the DNS is to translate DNS names into IP addresses. And you wouldn’t be wrong, but it's also so much more. Most of the time when we analyse the behaviour of the DNS we look at the way in which names are resolved by the DNS infrasdtructure, but there is also another view of the DNS. What do we see when we look at DNS queries for names that do not exist in the DNS?

Networking, security initiatives dominate IT spending priorities

Network connectivity and security are key areas for IT investment as well as potential barriers to global success, according to new research.Nearly half of CIOs claim that establishing and managing connectivity in new markets is the single most critical factor when it comes to ensuring successful global expansion, according to Expereo, which surveyed 650 large enterprise and mid-market CIOs across Asia, Europe and North America for its research. In addition, 49% of CIOs report that their board views global connectivity as “a business-critical asset to growth.”To read this article in full, please click here