Enterprise Network on GNS3 – Part 1 – Introduction

Several months ago I had created a simple GNS3 network topology for practicing my networking skills. What had firstly begun as a simple lab, later grew in to a real world enterprise network consisting of a campus, data center, DMZ network blocks and ISPs. During the next several weeks I added new devices into the topology, struggling with no time due to complicated family circumstances. In March 2017 I completely stopped working on this project. Luckily, I was done with the configuration of all devices and I wrote several articles describing my progress. Now, almost a half of the year later, I am ready to share my experience with the blog readers and publish the articles. Below is the list of the articles. I hope you find them useful.

Enterprise Network on GNS3 - Part 1 - Introduction
Enterprise Network on GNS3 - Part 2 - Access Layer
Enterprise Network on GNS3 - Part 3 - Distribution and Core Layers
Enterprise Network on GNS3 - Part 4 - Cisco ASAv-I
Enterprise Network on GNS3 - Part 5 - Data Center
Enterprise Network on GNS3 - Part 6 - Edge Router and ISPs
Enterprise Network on GNS3 - Part 7 - Continue reading

Containers vs. hypervisors: A death knell for hypervisors?

Containers vs. hypervisors: the battle is ongoing, but the two technologies don’t need to be pitted against one another—in fact, they each offer benefits that are more suitable for certain workloads than others.

Containers are considered resilient, in part, because they can be deployed both as classic monolithic applications as well as highly composable microservices. They are portable, and can be scaled up or down and deleted when no longer needed. Among many other benefits, containers pack more applications into a single physical server than a virtual machine (VM) is capable of, which means they are superior if you need the maximum amount of applications on a bare minimum number of servers.

When it comes to hypervisors in our current technology climate, their value seems to be slowly diminishing—and containers continue to enjoy a steady increase in popularity. Part of VM’s decline is due to resource allocation: they use a lot of system resources, requiring a full copy of the OS and a virtual copy of the hardware that the OS needs to run, while containers only need the supporting libraries required to run a specific program.

Furthermore, VM’s don’t provide the same level of portability, consistency, or speed that Continue reading

Mesos Borgs Google’s Kubernetes Right Back

The rivalry between Mesos, Kubernetes, and OpenStack just keeps getting more interesting, and instead of a winner take all situation, it has become more of a take what you need approach. That said, it is looking like Kubernetes is emerging as the de facto standard for container control, even though Google not the first out of the gate in open sourcing Kubernetes and Docker Swam and the full Docker Enterprise are seeing plenty of momentum in the enterprise.

Choice is a good thing for the IT industry, and the good news is that because of architectural choices made by

Mesos Borgs Google’s Kubernetes Right Back was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

New theme on blog.ipspace.net

You might have noticed that my blog looks a bit different than it did a few hours ago thanks to fantastic work by Nils & Mathias from Strandrover.Agency (and a bit of homegrown blogger template hacking). We tested all functionality we could think of, if we missed something, please write a comment (they still work ;).

When reporting a problem, please tell me what browser (and browser version) you're using and whether you're using a web proxy (like Cisco Web Security Appliance).

ISOC Togo Chapter Calls On Togo Government to Restore Internet Access

Today our Internet Society chapter in Togo issued a statement (in French) calling on the government of Togo to restore Internet access. Reports in the media and from our own members there indicate that that the government has shut down Internet access in the wake of protests after their recent election. The president of our ISOC Togo Chapter alerted us today that the shutdown has now even extended to SMS text messages.

Verengai Mabika

25 Under 25: Using the Internet to Make a Difference in Communities

On September 18th in Los Angeles, California, the Internet Society will celebrate a selected group of exceptional young people under the age of 25 who are using the Internet to make a difference in peoples’ lives.

I had the privilege of reading hundreds of submissions and nominations, many of which left me feeling humbled and inspired. The incredible impact these individuals have already had in such a short time is a model for youth around the world and for those of us who already have some years of experience!

Their efforts include creating an anti-cyberbullying youth movement in Australia, providing health education to teens in Tanzania, reducing the gender technology gap in Gambia, and using ICTs to break the cycle of poverty for families in Costa Rica. You can read more about the awardees and honourable mention recipients and their extraordinary work here.

Although the awardees’ stories are as individual as they are compelling, they do share a common theme: an unwavering commitment to solving an identified problem and a passion for using the Internet to shape tomorrow in their communities.

This is the same theme that motivated young innovators, pioneers, and connectors in their twenties and thirties to imagine the Continue reading

Red Hat Ansible Automation: Engine, Tower or Both

Red Hat Ansible Automation

Whether you’re a seasoned veteran of Ansible, or just starting out, the following blog provides experts and newbies with an update to the Red Hat Ansible Automation portfolio of products from Red Hat. You may have seen the official press release, and this blog hopes to answer some of the questions you still have.

Built on open source, backed by Red Hat

The Ansible project is one of the most popular open source projects, with almost 3,000 contributors in just over five years of existence. The Ansible project has always been an important part of the Ansible Tower “built-for-enterprise” story, but over the past few years a pattern has begun to emerge.

The Ansible project has grown over time, moving from just managing Linux servers to managing different types of devices: servers, virtual machines, containers, networking hardware, Windows platforms… even smart light bulbs. With the breadth of abilities to automate highly heterogeneous environments we received more requests for additional Red Hat offerings for diverse automation use cases. Red Hat Ansible Engine is now available for individuals and small teams to receive support for their Ansible environment, even if they do not need enterprise scalability via Ansible Tower.

Deep Dive: Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.2

Red Hat Ansible Tower

We are excited to announce the release of Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.2 for availability soon. Our engineering team has been working hard to enable Ansible Tower to provide the best platform for managing, executing, and delegating your Ansible automation throughout your entire enterprise, whether you’re managing servers, applications, networks, and more.

With Ansible Tower 3.2, we’re continuing to innovate in two main areas:

  • making automation more powerful and more flexible
  • enabling continued enterprise-wide deployment of automation

To do that, we’ve enhanced several areas of Ansible Tower, and I’m happy to talk about them today.

Enhanced Integration with Red Hat Insights

 redhat-ansible-tower-insights-blog-3-2.png


With Ansible Tower 3.1, we built the first step of our integration with Red Hat Insights - allowing you to sync Insights remediation playbooks to Ansible Tower for use as needed. We’ve continued to enhance this integration in Ansible Tower 3.2. Now, we bring the ability to view Insights Actions directly in Ansible Tower. With this, you can more easily see your minor, major, and critical issues, and with just a few clicks, schedule remediation with Insights Plans.

Built-in Fact Caching

Ansible facts give you powerful capabilities to adjust, branch, and conditionalize playbook execution Continue reading

Space-radiated cooling cuts power use 21%

Using the sky as a free heat sink could be a solution to an impending energy crunch caused by increased data use. More data generated in the future will require evermore electricity-intensive cooling — the data centers will be getting bigger.Researchers at Stanford University think they have a solution to cooling creep. They say the way to reel in the cost of getting buildings cold enough for all the servers is to augment land-based air conditioning by sending excess heat into space and chilling it there.+ Also on Network World: 9 tips to turn your data center green + The scientists say cost savings will be in the order of 21 percent through a system they’ve been working on, and up to 70 percent, theoretically, by combining the kit with other, newer radiant systems, according to an article in IEEE Spectrum this week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Space-radiated cooling cuts power use 21%

Using the sky as a free heat sink could be a solution to an impending energy crunch caused by increased data use. More data generated in the future will require evermore electricity-intensive cooling — the data centers will be getting bigger.Researchers at Stanford University think they have a solution to cooling creep. They say the way to reel in the cost of getting buildings cold enough for all the servers is to augment land-based air conditioning by sending excess heat into space and chilling it there.+ Also on Network World: 9 tips to turn your data center green + The scientists say cost savings will be in the order of 21 percent through a system they’ve been working on, and up to 70 percent, theoretically, by combining the kit with other, newer radiant systems, according to an article in IEEE Spectrum this week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ISOC Togo Chapter Calls On Togo Government to Restore Internet Access

Today our Internet Society chapter in Togo issued a statement (in French) calling on the government of Togo to restore Internet access. Reports in the media and from our own members there indicate that that the government has shut down Internet access in the wake of protests after their recent election. The president of our ISOC Togo Chapter alerted us today that the shutdown has now even extended to SMS text messages.

As Dawit Bekele, our Africa Regional Bureau Director, recently wrote, we do not believe Internet shutdowns are the solution for governments in Africa or anywhere in the world. In today’s connected world, network restrictions have wide-ranging economic and social consequences for all people.

We join with our chapters in calling on governments to end Internet shutdowns.

Please share our Togo chapter’s statement widely on social media – and help spread the word that we need to #KeepItOn

 

Update: Norbert Glakpe, the president / chair of the ISOC Togo Chapter, was interviewed on RFI Afrique this morning. His audio can be heard at the end of this article: Au Togo, nouvelle journée de mobilisation à l’appel de l’opposition


Read more:

IDG Contributor Network: What is Dedicated Internet Access?

Question: Remote users, IPsec VPN’s to other sites, Remote Desktop, VoIP, Cloud Apps… What do they all have in common?“Reasons why I keep Tums in my drawer?” … No.Answer: These are data center applications which might require your company to need a Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) circuit, instead of the average, cost-effective business Internet access types, like Fios, U-verse, business-class cable, and DSL.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here