The Future of the Distributed Network
Back in December of 2014, I wrote a blog post about the complexities of the network as a distributed system. In it I pointed out that networks have traditionally been built as distributed systems, and that our entire management and knowledge base for networks is based on this. But, is this the best approach for current and future networking needs?
As humans we have our own ideas of how to best solve problems. While we are immensely creative, our solutions aren’t always the best (or will never be). We often look to nature as a guide for how to improve our manmade solutions. When we look at how large complex systems in nature have been created and evolved, perhaps we should look no further than ourselves. The human body is possibly one of the most complex systems we know. If we think of the brain as the centralized control system, it is easy to see that we are, in fact, highly centralized beings.
We live and function, however, in a social environment that has no clearly established central control system. We are organized by different permanent and temporary control systems. We create environments with centralized direction of work to be Continue reading
VMware Creates Its Own Linux OS for Containers
VMware continues to build out its own container infrastructure, including a container-optimized spin on Linux.
Broadcom’s Trident II Gets a VXLAN Booster
Broadcom is announcing a new version of its Trident II Ethernet switch chip family today, with one notable feature being improved performance for VXLAN and other tunneling protocols. The StrataXGS Trident-II+, a drop-in replacement for the Trident II, arrives as Broadcom tries to spread its Ethernet switch franchise into new areas. The recently announced StrataDNX Read more >
Junos export policy not working?
During a project recently, I was promptly reminded about the construction of Junos route export (i.e. route redistribution) policies. Specifically when filtering prefixes during the export/redistribution. The logic goes something like this:
a) Create prefix-list of prefixes to export
b) Create policy which references the protocol and prefix list to export
c) Attach policy to protocol
An example is here:
policy-options {
prefix-list CUST_A {
192.0.2.1/32;
}
policy-statement REDISTRIBUTE_STATICS_CUST_A {
/* FROM PREFIX-LIST TEST TO METRIC TYPE 1 FOR CUST A */
term 1 {
from {
prefix-list CUST_A;
}
to protocol ospf2;
then {
external {
type 1;
}
accept;
}
}
}
}
protocols {
ospf {
export REDISTRIBUTE_STATICS_CUST_A
area 0.0.0.0 {
interface x-x/x/x.x
}
}
}
With Junos export policies for routing, if you want to export more prefixes of the same type, adding an additional policy which also references the same protocol for the export will just not work. If you do the below, then you’re out of luck.
policy-options {
prefix-list CUST_A {
192.0.2.1/32;
}
prefix-list CUST_B {
192.0.2.2/32;
}
policy-statement REDISTRIBUTE_STATICS_CUST_A {
/* FROM PREFIX-LIST TEST TO METRIC TYPE 1 Continue reading
HTIRW: Reality at the Mic (3)
Let’s take one look back over the IETF before we move on to the next piece of the infrastructure of the ‘net. Why does it take so long for a single document to get through the process, and result in a standard? There is, of course, the formal process, which requires the document to proposed, […]
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The post HTIRW: Reality at the Mic (3) appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
What is the real reason behind IP and MPLS Traffic Engineering ?
MPLS traffic engineering has many use cases and it helps to solve the problems in an MPLS enabled networks. These use cases are in general; QoS guarantee, End to End SLA , Fast reroute, Admission control and so on. All of them at the end is done for the COST SAVING. The real reason behind MPLS Traffic… Read More »
The post What is the real reason behind IP and MPLS Traffic Engineering ? appeared first on Network Design and Architecture.
When Did SDN Really Start?
You might remember my blog post claiming we had a system with SDN-like properties more than 20 years ago.
It turns out SDN is older than that – Rob Faulds found an old ComputerWorld ad from 1989 promoting AT&T SDN service, and it seems SDN was in operation as early as 1985.
Cisco Meraki
Cisco acquired Meraki at the end of 2012. I have heard a lot about Meraki and I recently tried to dig deep into what they do. This blog is a result of that. What does Meraki do? Meraki does cloud managed access devices for the edge market. Their primary focus is small/medium enterprises. Meraki now has … Continue reading Cisco Meraki
Enterprise WAN Design & Last Mile Considerations
The connection between your office and the central office is what we call the last mile. The last mile, at least in the US, has one big problem: it’s often owned by a single organization.Running an etcd-Backed Docker Swarm Cluster
In this post, I’ll build on a couple of previous posts and show you how to build your own Docker Swarm cluster that leverages etcd for cluster node discovery. This post builds on the information presented on how to run an etcd 2.0 cluster on Ubuntu as well as the information found in this post on running a Consul-backed Docker Swarm cluster.
To help you follow along, I’ve created a Vagrant environment that you can use to turn up the configuration described in this blog post. These files are found in the “docker-swarm-etcd” directory of my GitHub learning-tools repository. Feel free to use the files in this directory/repository to help with the learning process.
There are 3 major components to this configuration:
- A cluster of three Ubuntu 14.04 systems running etcd 2.0 (specifically, etcd 2.0.9, the last release as of this writing). This etcd cluster serves as a discovery back-end for Docker Swarm.
- A set of hosts running the Docker daemon (version 1.4.0 or higher, as required by Swarm). In this particular instance, I’m using CoreOS Linux (version 557.2.0 from the stable branch).
- A few containers running on the CoreOS hosts; Continue reading