EVPN: Intro to next gen L2VPN

Introduction: With the ascent of DCI, a new set of requirements emerged which are not fully addressed by current L2VPN technologies like VPLS. There are three major options in deploying VPLS LDP based VPLS (RFC 4762) LDP based VPLS with BGP Auto discovery BGP based VPLS (RFC 4761) Each option has its pros and cons. […]

Author information

Diptanshu Singh

Diptanshu Singh

Diptanshu Singh,(3xCCIE,CCDE) is a Sr. Engineer mostly focused on service providers , data center and security. He is a network enthusiast passionate about network technologies so not only is it his profession, but something of a hobby as well.
LinkedIn

The post EVPN: Intro to next gen L2VPN appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Diptanshu Singh.

U-NII Unlicensed Spectrum Inventory in 5 GHz Bands

Given the recent FCC Report & Order on U-NII (Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure) rule changes in March/April of 2014, I thought it would be helpful to recap the new regulations in the United States regarding the 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum bands. I've put together the following table for quick reference:
U-NII Unlicensed Spectrum in 5 GHz
(Click to Download PDF)

Additionally, here is a graphic of the 5 GHz U-NII bands, both current and proposed, from the NTIA report made in January 2013 (note - this graphic does NOT reflect the change with regards to the extension of U-NII 3 up to 5.850 GHz).

NTIA Graphic of U-NII Unlicensed Spectrum in 5 GHz

Cheers,
Andrew von Nagy

Opening up VXLAN with OpenStack

VXLAN is hot. We constantly hear about VXLAN at conferences, in product announcements, blog posts, and most importantly, we hear about it from our customers.

VXLAN exciting technology that’s been integrated into a number of product offerings from networking and cloud vendors. OpenStack® supports VXLAN via a set of Neutron plugins, and Metacloud OpenStack® has supported VXLAN for a few releases already.

One of the challenges with deploying and scaling VXLAN has been the MAC-to-VTEP learning and BUM (Broadcast, Unknown Unicast, Multicast) packet flooding. The VXLAN spec uses a simple multicast solution to solve this problem. Multicast has its own set of scaling challenges, and reliable multicast routing between network segments isn’t always available. The majority of vendors who have VXLAN support have attempted to solve this problem by implementing their own form of learning and flooding. Some of these solutions work well, but all of them require you to operate in a homogenous network environment or pay expensive per CPU or per VM licensing fees.

Until today…

Metacloud, in partnership with our friends at Cumulus Networks®, have been working together on a solution to these problems for the past year. Starting today, VXFLD is open source and freely Continue reading

EIGRP OTP example

In this post id like to provide an example of a fairly new development to EIGRP which is called EIGRP Over The Top (OTP).

In all its simplicity it establish an EIGRP multihop adjacency using LISP as the encapsulation method for transport through the WAN network.

One of the applications of this would be to avoid relying on the SP in an MPLS L3 VPN. You could simply use the L3 VPN for transport between the interfaces directly connected to the Service Provider and run your own adjacency directly between your CPE routers (without the use of a GRE tunnel, which would be another method to do it)

The topology used for this example consists of 4 routers. All 4 of the routers are using OSPF to provide connectivity (you could take this example and do a L3 VPN using MPLS as an exercise). Im simply taking the lazy path and doing it this way :)

EIGRP-OTP-Topology

EIGRP-OTP-Topology

R1 and R4 are running EIGRP in a named process “test”. This process is in Autonomous system 100 and the Loopback 0 interfaces are advertised into the V4 address-family.

Lets verify that we have connectivity between R1’s g1.102 interface and R4’s g1.304 Continue reading

Case Study: Hootsuite

hootsuite-ansible

Hootsuite, the excellent social media management platform used by over 75% of the Fortune 500, is a big fan of Ansible and uses it for app deployment. Beier Cai, the Director of Technology at Hootsuite was kind enough to speak to us about how Hootsuite uses Asnible to overcome their business challenges.

“Our infrastructure is not scripted, repeatable or immutable. Rebuilding a server relies on limited documentation and mostly memory. Lack of repeatability makes automating our infrastructure and application deployment difficult. 


Read the full case study amd learn how Ansible solves their problems here.

Read more about Ansible and App Deployment.

Training Wheels and Protective Gear

Throughout the development cycle of new features and functions for any network platform (or probably most other products not targeted at the mass market consumer) this one question will always come up: should we protect the user of our product from doing this? And “this” is always something that would allow the user of the product to really mess things up if not done right. As a product management organization you almost have to take a philosophical stand when it comes to these questions.

Protect the user

Sure enough, the question came up last week as part of the development of one our features. When putting the finishing touches on a feature that allows very direct control over some of the fundamental portions of what creates a Plexxi fabric, our QA team (very appropriately) raised the concern: if the user does this, bad things can happen, should we not allow the user to change this portion of the feature?

This balancing act is part of what as made networking as complex as it has become. As an industry we have been extremely flexible in what we have exposed to our users. We have given access to portions of our products Continue reading

VXLAN and OTV: The Saga Continues

Randall Greer left a comment on my Revisited: Layer-2 DCI over VXLAN post saying:

Could you please elaborate on how VXLAN is a better option than OTV? As far as I can see, OTV doesn't suffer from the traffic tromboning you get from VXLAN. Sure you have to stretch your VLANs, but you're protected from bridging failures going over your DCI. OTV is also able to have multiple edge devices per site, so there's no single failure domain. It's even integrated with LISP to mitigate any sub-optimal traffic flows.

Before going through the individual points, let’s focus on the big picture: the failure domains.

Read more ...

Show 208 – So, You Want To Work For A Vendor?

Lauren Malhoit, Paul Stewart, and Ed Henry join Packet Pushers hosts Greg Ferro and Ethan Banks for a discussion about what it’s like to work for a networking vendor. Lauren and Paul recently started working at Cisco in two very different roles, while Ed went the startup route, landing at Plexxi. Why did they do it? What […]

Author information

Ethan Banks

Co-host at Packet Pushers

Ethan Banks, CCIE #20655, has been managing networks for higher ed, government, financials and high tech since 1995. Ethan co-hosts the Packet Pushers Podcast, which has seen over 2M downloads and reaches over 10K listeners. With whatever time is left, Ethan writes for fun & profit, studies for certifications, and enjoys science fiction. @ecbanks
TwitterGoogle+LinkedIn

The post Show 208 – So, You Want To Work For A Vendor? appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Ethan Banks.

Response to Kathy Sierra

People are asking me about this post from Kathy Sierra. It’s inaccurate, twisted, and personally insulting. That Kathy was doxxed and harassed 7 years is indeed an awful thing, but that doesn’t justify her own bad behavior toward others.

I always defend targets of lynch mobs, such as accused Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. To the right is a picture of what appears to be Tsarnaev placing the bomb right behind 9 year old boy Martin Richards who died in the blast. I feel sick to my stomach looking at it. But here’s the thing: Tsarnaev is an American citizen, and I will vigorously defend his rights to due process. When they violated his civil rights, interrogating him for days while he hung near death in his hospital bed, begging for a lawyer, I vocally condemned this. All fruits of that interrogation need to be thrown out, even if it means Tsarnaev goes free. And I have no problem saying this to the face of Martin Richard’s parents.

Weev may be a bad human being, but he’s not as vile as mass bomber. I likewise defend him from lynch mobs. His arbitrary conviction and imprisonment under the CFAA was a gross Continue reading

Blessay: Human Infrastructure Poverty & Over-Capitalisation In The Enterprise – Part 2


Advertise here with BSA

Is Enterprise IT starving its operational process by reducing headcount and overcapitalising on assets ? If so, what arguments can we make for or against this idea ? Part 2 of an essay on investing in people instead of equipment.


Advertise here with BSA

The post Blessay: Human Infrastructure Poverty & Over-Capitalisation In The Enterprise – Part 2 appeared first on EtherealMind.

Internet Regulation: Section 706 vs Title II

At the NANOG meeting in Baltimore this week I listened to a presentation by Patrick Gilmore on “The Open Internet Debate: Section 706 vs Title II”. It’s true that this is a title that would normally induce a comatose reaction from any audience, but don’t let the title put you off. Behind this is an impassioned debate about the nature of the retail Internet for the United States, and, I suspect, a debate about the Internet itself and the nature of the industry that provides it.

A bit of maintenance

I am currently performing a bit of maintenance on the blog (moving host), so there might be some small errors here and there. I apologise for this! – Hopefully everything will be up and running smoothly in a few days time.

Thank you for your patience!

/KP

1 … 3,548 3,549 3,550 3,551 3,552 … 3,694