MPLS “No Label” vs “Pop Label”
I like MPLS. And I don’t necessarily mean as a solution to solve a problem, but as something to configure in the lab. It’s fun to build things that do something when you’re done. Setting up OSPF or EIGRP and being able to traceroute across routers is meh. But configuring MPLS with all the associated technologies — an IGP, LDP, MP-BGP, — and then getting all of them working in unison… when you get the traceroute working, it’s rewarding.
Here’s something to keep an eye out for when you’re troubleshooting MPLS: An LFIB entry (that is, the Label Forwarding Information Base) that states “No Label” versus one that states “Pop Label”. These mean very different things and can be the difference between a working Label Switched Path (LSP) and a non-working LSP.
The Topology
Here’s the topology I’m working with:
Click to Enlarge
R21 and R8 are Customer Edge (CE) routers and they communicate through the MPLS network in the “BRANCHES” VRF. R4 and R7 are Provider Edge (PE) routers and R1, R5, and R6 are Provider (P) routers.
Working State
I’m going to examine traffic going from R8’s 10.1.8.8 address and destined to R21’s 10. Continue reading
Do Networking Vendors Make Their Own Products ?
Not even close. Software & hardware components are multi-sourced to build a product you want to buy.
The post Do Networking Vendors Make Their Own Products ? appeared first on EtherealMind.
Open vSwitch Database Management Protocol (OVSDB) 101
Open vSwitch Database Management Protocol (OVSDB, RFC 7047) is often mentioned together with other semi-magic SDN tools that will bring everlasting peace to the chaotic world of networking. In reality, it’s just a database access/update protocol (think SQL with JSON encoding) with an interesting twist: a client can request notifications about table or row updates, replacing periodic database polling with a pub-sub solution.
Read more ...Some notes about Wassenaar
So #wassenaar has infected your timeline for the past several days. I thought I'd explain what the big deal is.What's a Wassenaar?
It's a town in Europe where in 1996 a total of 41 nations agreed to an arms control treaty. The name of the agreement, the Wassenaar Arrangement, comes from the town. The US, Europe, and Russia are part of the agreement. Africa, Middle East, and China are not.
The primary goal of the arrangement is anti-proliferation, stopping uranium enrichment and chemical weapons precursors. Another goal is to control conventional weapons, keeping them out of the hands of regimes that would use them against their own people, or to invade their neighbors.
Historically in cybersec, we've complained that Wassenaar classifies crypto as a munition. This allows the NSA to eavesdrop and decrypt messages in those countries. This does little to stop dictators from getting their hands on strong crypto, but does a lot to prevent dissidents in those countries from encrypting their messages. Perhaps more importantly, it requires us to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops to export computer products, because encryption is built-in to virtually everything.
Why has this become important recently?
Last year, Wassenaar Continue reading
GNS3 Weekly Development Report: May 25th
Four week ago we launched our first weekly development report in an effort to provide the community with increased transparency on what theFortigate HA cluster Active-Passive LAB
So this is a physical lab which we setup, was quite a task along the way but hopefully this helps if anyone is tring to setup a HAChanging Technology, Changing Customers: The New SDxI Buyers
SDx is changing how infrastructure is bought and sold. We ID the new technical and economic buyers, movers, and shakers of SDxI.
MPLS “No Label” vs “Pop Label”
I like MPLS. And I don't necessarily mean as a solution to solve a problem, but as something to configure in the lab. It's fun to build things that do something when you're done. Setting up OSPF or EIGRP and being able to traceroute across routers is meh. But configuring MPLS with all the associated technologies — an IGP, LDP, MP-BGP, — and then getting all of them working in unison… when you get the traceroute working, it's rewarding.
Here's something to keep an eye out for when you're troubleshooting MPLS: An LFIB entry (that is, the Label Forwarding Information Base) that states “No Label” versus one that states “Pop Label”. These mean very different things and can be the difference between a working Label Switched Path (LSP) and a non-working LSP.