Brocade BNA API
Brocade Network Advisor (BNA) has a REST API for accessing Fibre Channel-related data. The documentation includes a sample Python script showing how to connect to the API to retrieve Fabric info. The script given only works with Python 3.x. It’s also a pain to copy out of the documentation as you end up with a few extra characters in there. Here’s a version that will work with Python 2.7. I’ve also made a few other modifications – in this one, you can set the BNA IP, Username & Password at the top of the script. I’ve also made it PEP8-compliant.
#!/usr/bin/env python
import httplib
import json
import sys
BNAServer = "10.200.5.181"
BNAUsername = "Administrator"
BNAPassword = "password"
# Create HTTPConnection object and connect to the server.
connection = httplib.HTTPConnection(BNAServer)
###########################
# Log in to Network Advisor
###########################
# Send login request
connection.request(
'POST',
'/rest/login',
headers={
"WSUsername": BNAUsername,
"WSPassword": BNAPassword,
"Accept": "application/vnd.brocade.networkadvisor+json;version=v1"}
)
print()
print("Sending login request to Network Advisor...")
# Get the response
response = connection.getresponse()
# Display the response status print()
print ("Status= ", response.status)
# If successful (status = 200), display the returned session token
if response.status Continue reading
Intelligent Bandwidth Decisions at the WAN Edge
Business Critical Applications and Intelligent Decision Making at the WAN Edge….. these are the things I’ve been focusing on in the past few blogs. To me, PfRv3 and DMVPN are the dynamic duo of Cisco’s IWAN that help you learn about and avoid impairments (delay, loss, jitter) along the path that business critical traffic takes.
Let’s take this even further though. How else can IWAN’s Intelligent Path Control help us apply the mentality of the 7Ps (“Prior proper preparation prevents piss poor performance”) to our network and to business critical traffic?
Knowledge… information gathering… awareness. These are the first steps. Once you have the knowledge you can make intelligent decisions based on that knowledge at the WAN edge.
What knowledge? 
How about the bandwidth of your WAN links? Wouldn’t it be nice to have facts, such as what their current bandwidth utilization is, be a part of the Intelligent decision making at the WAN edge?
We can do that for you now. We can use what your current egress utilization is on your WAN links in the intelligent decision making process that PfRv3 does for you at Continue reading
MikroTik CCR1072-1G-8S+ Review – Part 3 – 80 Gbps Throughput testing
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[metaslider id=249]
The 80 Gbps barrier has finally been broken (and yes we are rounding up) !!!!
Well at least it has been reached by someone other than MikroTik. It’s taken us quite a while to get all the right pieces to push 80 Gbps of traffic through the CC1072 but with the latest round of servers that just got delivered to our lab, we were able to go beyond our previous high water mark of 54 Gbps all the way to just under 80 Gbps. There have been a number of questions about this particular router and what the performance will look like in the real world. While this is still a lab test, we are using non-MikroTik equipment and iperf which is considered an extremely accurate performance measuring tool for TCP and UDP.
Video of the CCR1072-1G-8S+ in action (Turn up your volume to hear the roar of the ESXi servers as they approach 80 Gbps)
How we did it – The Hardware
CCR1072-1G-8S+ – Obviously you can’t have a test of the CCR1072 without one to test on. Our CCR1072-1G-8S+ is a pre-production model so there are some minor differences between it and the Continue reading
MikroTik CCR1072-1G-8S+ Review – Part 3 – 80 Gbps Throughput testing
[adrotate banner=”5″]
[metaslider id=249]
The 80 Gbps barrier has finally been broken (and yes we are rounding up) !!!!
Well at least it has been reached by someone other than MikroTik. It’s taken us quite a while to get all the right pieces to push 80 Gbps of traffic through the CC1072 but with the latest round of servers that just got delivered to our lab, we were able to go beyond our previous high water mark of 54 Gbps all the way to just under 80 Gbps. There have been a number of questions about this particular router and what the performance will look like in the real world. While this is still a lab test, we are using non-MikroTik equipment and iperf which is considered an extremely accurate performance measuring tool for TCP and UDP.
Video of the CCR1072-1G-8S+ in action (Turn up your volume to hear the roar of the ESXi servers as they approach 80 Gbps)
How we did it – The Hardware
CCR1072-1G-8S+ – Obviously you can’t have a test of the CCR1072 without one to test on. Our CCR1072-1G-8S+ is a pre-production model so there are some minor differences between it and the Continue reading
Xirrus Offers New Security Option For Public Wi-Fi
Xirrus is launching a new security feature to encrypt wireless connections between a device and an AP on a public Wi-Fi network. While it's easy to use, it does have limitations.
The post Xirrus Offers New Security Option For Public Wi-Fi appeared first on Packet Pushers.
Dispelling the myths of hybrid hosting
This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.
When the Amazon Web Services platform failed recently some of the internet’s biggest sites -- including Netflix and Tinder – suffered extended outages. The culprit? AWS's NoSQL database DynamoDB, where increased error rates led to increased errors and latency in more than 20 AWS services.
These and other sites wouldn’t have had a problem if they used hybrid hosting, the best way to architect modern apps. Hybrid hosting lets businesses set up their databases on dedicated servers, put their front-end Web apps in the cloud, then tie everything together with a single click.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
AWS Wants an Even Bigger Piece of IoT
IoT has already come to AWS. Amazon wants to take advantage by making the Internet of Things even easier.
Webinar Q&A: Docker Overview
Thanks everyone who joined us during our Docker Overview webinar. During this webinar, we gave a high level introduction to Docker, and let the audience see the platform in action during a live demo. The recording of the webinar is available … ContinuedWLAN Spending Fuels Enterprise Network Market Growth
Companies are upgrading their networks to increase wireless capacity while moving cautiously with SDN, new market research shows.NetDevOps: Networking Methods with a DevOps Mindset
DevOps brings together software developers and IT operations through mutual and organic cooperation and collaboration. In legacy IT shops, the roles of developers and IT operations are logically segregated, which stifles progress and prohibits progressive integration efforts. Products that leverage DevOps provide developers self-service capabilities they’ve never had before — eliminating provisioning bottlenecks and adapting to changes quickly. The platform becomes highly scalable and flexible, removing much of the “red tape” in getting things done.
This is all well and good, and is often sufficient for most, but networking is often neglected as a part of the DevOps model. Common questions that arise include the following:
- Is your current networking strategy holding you back from scaling new projects quickly?
- Is your network topology designed to quickly add and remove compute infrastructure?
- How can your network integrate in a DevOps orchestrated world?
This is where including DevOps for networking comes in, or “NetDevOps.” Traditional networking infrastructure can be difficult to manage when requiring agility with updated tools. If your organization is already implementing DevOps principles or has an organization that is flat or non-siloed, integrating networking into your framework may be right for you.
NetDevOps extends what you’re already doing Continue reading
Feature Spotlight: System Tracking
During the second installment of our webinar series about Ansible Tower features, we highlighted system tracking, a functionality which was just added to Tower with our 2.2. release.
System Tracking was created to give administrators the necessary tools to audit and verify that machines are in compliance. Use the tool to see how a machine has changed over time, or compare machines in your cluster to see how they are different.
For example, you may need to determine whether a set of machines had a security patch applied, or determine when a patch was applied. The System Tracking tools can help you do that. They can also help you evaluate your infrastructure for compliance against specific requirements, and periodically examine machines for unexpected changes.
When you run a scan, you’ll be able to see packages, services, and Ansible facts side-by-side for comparison. All differences in Ansible facts are highlighted in red for easy reference.
You can also expand this function by writing your own Ansible module that gathers the custom facts you want to see. Simply implement a module that returns the “ansible_facts” key, as described in the Ansible documentation.
Our goal with system tracking was to empower you Continue reading
PQ 58: Alibi Routing With UMD’s Dave Levin
In this podcast, Packet Pushers co-host Ethan Banks gets a bit into the weeds with University of Maryland's Dave Levin in this detailed discussion of Alibi Routing, a privacy-driven research project to prove that traffic flowing between a particular source and destination did not traverse a specific geographic region.
The post PQ 58: Alibi Routing With UMD’s Dave Levin appeared first on Packet Pushers.
