Network Automation with CUE – Working with YANG-based APIs

In the previous post, I mentioned that CUE can help you work with both “industry-standard” semi-structured APIs and fully structured APIs where data is modelled using OpenAPI or JSON schema. However, there was an elephant in the room that I conveniently ignored but without which no conversation about network automation would be complete. With this post, I plan to rectify my previous omission and explain how you can use CUE to work with YANG-based APIs. More specifically, I’ll focus on OpenConfig and gNMI and show how CUE can be used to write YANG-based configuration data, validate it and send it to a remote device.

Automating YANG-based APIs with CUE

Working with YANG-based APIs is not much different from what I’ve described in the two previous blog posts [1] and [2]. We’re still dealing with structured data that gets assembled based on the rules defined in a set of YANG models and sent over the wire using one of the supported protocols (Netconf, Restconf or gNMI). One of the biggest differences, though, is that data generation gets done in one of the general-purpose programming languages (e.g. Python, Go), since doing it in Ansible is not feasible due to the Continue reading

Gartner: What to do to make data centers more sustainable

Just a few weeks ago Gartner analysts said that sustainability and issues around it  would transcend all of the strategic technology trends for 2023.This week at its IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference Gartner described how corporate data centers might make sustainability a practical reality.“IT leaders must avoid wasting value through the premature replacement of IT infrastructure,” said Philip Dawson, vice president and analyst at Gartner, at the conference. “They can do that by using real-time health analytics to maximize the useful life of data-center assets.”To read this article in full, please click here

Gartner: What to do to make data centers more sustainable

Just a few weeks ago Gartner analysts said that sustainability and issues around it  would transcend all of the strategic technology trends for 2023.This week at its IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference Gartner described how corporate data centers might make sustainability a practical reality.“IT leaders must avoid wasting value through the premature replacement of IT infrastructure,” said Philip Dawson, vice president and analyst at Gartner, at the conference. “They can do that by using real-time health analytics to maximize the useful life of data-center assets.”To read this article in full, please click here

Ransomware attack knocks Rackspace’s Exchange servers offline

Cloud services and hosting provider Rackspace Technology acknowledged Tuesday that a recent incident that took most of its Hosted Exchange email server business offline was the product of a ransomware attack. The company shut the service down last Friday.It was not, initially, clear what had caused the outage, but Rackspace quickly moved to shift Exchange customers over to Microsoft 365, as this part of the company’s infrastructure was apparently unaffected.Rackpsace offers migration to Microsoft 365 Rackspace said today that there is “no timeline” for a restoration of Exchange service, but it is offering Exchange users technical assistance and free access to Microsoft 365 as a substitute, though it acknowledged that migration is unlikely to be a simple process for every user. Rackspace said that, while the migration is in progress, customers can forward email sent to their Hosted Exchange inboxes to an external server, as a temporary workaround.To read this article in full, please click here

Ransomware attack knocks Rackspace’s Exchange servers offline

Cloud services and hosting provider Rackspace Technology acknowledged Tuesday that a recent incident that took most of its Hosted Exchange email server business offline was the product of a ransomware attack. The company shut the service down last Friday.It was not, initially, clear what had caused the outage, but Rackspace quickly moved to shift Exchange customers over to Microsoft 365, as this part of the company’s infrastructure was apparently unaffected.Rackpsace offers migration to Microsoft 365 Rackspace said today that there is “no timeline” for a restoration of Exchange service, but it is offering Exchange users technical assistance and free access to Microsoft 365 as a substitute, though it acknowledged that migration is unlikely to be a simple process for every user. Rackspace said that, while the migration is in progress, customers can forward email sent to their Hosted Exchange inboxes to an external server, as a temporary workaround.To read this article in full, please click here

New! Free self-paced workshops for containers and Kubernetes 

There’s no better way to learn something than to get hands-on. Tigera is excited to present its brand new (and completely free!) self-paced workshops for containers and Kubernetes. Each workshop comes with your own provisioned sample application (Hipstershop) and Calico Cloud lab environment for a limited time.

The first self-paced workshop we’ve launched is on compliance for containers and Kubernetes. Let’s take a closer look at why you should enroll in our compliance workshop and what you’ll gain.

Why get hands-on with achieving compliance?

From the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), most industries must meet certain compliance requirements when it comes to handling personal data. This could mean implementing resource access control, isolating workloads with sensitive data, or enforcing more advanced security controls such as logging all customer confidential data transactions. No matter what sort of controls you need to implement, the compliance auditor will require proof of compliance, such as what security controls are currently in place, whether control changes can be detected, and if compliance can be verified on demand. The ephemeral nature of Kubernetes can make it Continue reading

12 killer (and free) tools for network engineers

The job of a network engineer just keeps getting more complicated. Mission critical applications are competing for bandwidth. The sheer number of devices is exploding, driven by IoT. And the network itself if being extended to the cloud, the edge and to the home office.  And then there’s cybersecurity to worry about. Attacks are on the rise across the board, and attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities or backdoors, upping the need for solid and secure networking to act as an early warning system for cybersecurity defenses.Thankfully, there are many great tools available to help network engineers complete their never-ending tasks. And many of them are available for free. Here’s our list of 12 killer network tools that won’t break the bank. To read this article in full, please click here

12 killer (and free) tools for network engineers

The job of a network engineer just keeps getting more complicated. Mission critical applications are competing for bandwidth. The sheer number of devices is exploding, driven by IoT. And the network itself if being extended to the cloud, the edge and to the home office.  And then there’s cybersecurity to worry about. Attacks are on the rise across the board, and attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities or backdoors, upping the need for solid and secure networking to act as an early warning system for cybersecurity defenses.Thankfully, there are many great tools available to help network engineers complete their never-ending tasks. And many of them are available for free. Here’s our list of 12 killer network tools that won’t break the bank. To read this article in full, please click here

Project signing and verification

Project signing card

Project signing is a new feature developed for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform that came out in the latest 2.3 release. It enables users to sign project-based content (think playbooks, workflows, inventories, etc.) and verify whether or not that content has remained secure. It also features a new CLI tool, ansible-sign. This blog post will explain how it works, illustrate how to implement it, and highlight a few scenarios.

 

Why we need signing capabilities

Organizations need to make sure their automation is tested and performing the intended tasks.  However, what if someone deploys untested automation, or worse yet, someone intentionally tries to automate something nefarious?  It might not even be intentional, but can simply be an organization using a community collection whose author removes a feature that they were using.

When organizations start adopting automation at the enterprise level, there may be hundreds to thousands of tasks being performed every hour across thousands of infrastructure nodes. How do you make sure the automation content that is being executed can be trusted? How do you know your automation is doing what you think it is? Is your organization pulling content from various sources outside of Continue reading

BrandPost: How AI-driven Networks Can Ramp Up Operational Efficiencies

Automation represents perhaps the clearest embodiment of Benjamin Franklin’s legendary “time is money” aphorism -- and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven networks are one area where it’s relatively easy to see the near-term benefits that give new meaning to Franklin’s simple phrase.Network automation simplifies operations for network teams and reduces configuration errors. So, it stands to reason that greater automation through AI will deliver a more predictable and reliable network that seemingly can speed up time while saving lots of money. We turned to the CIO Experts Network of IT professionals and industry analysts to collect their views on AI-driven networks and how the technology is likely to change the lives of network teams.To read this article in full, please click here

BrandPost: Successful AI Implementations Hinge on Trust

Business spending on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is growing by leaps and bounds as organizations strive to improve efficiency, simplify, and automate processes, and build more proactive capabilities. Global spending on AI-centric systems is on track to surpass $300 billion in 2026, with the U.S. accounting for more than 50% of the total, according to IDC forecasts. But the success of these investments may ultimately hinge on trust.A National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) study points out that “determining that the AI system is trustworthy because it meets its system requirements won’t ensure widespread adoption of AI. It is the user, the human affected by the AI, who ultimately places their trust in the system.”To read this article in full, please click here

AWS suffers outage at its US East 2 cloud region

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday suffered an outage at one of its four regions in the US, just days after the close of its annual re:Invent conference where it announced a multitude of new and updated services.The outage, which according to the company lasted for about 75 minutes between 11:34 AM and 12:51 PM Pacific Time, resulted in internet connectivity issues to and from the US-East 2 region.The loss in connectivity for certain instances at the Ohio region, which was identified by AWS around 12:26, also saw several people taking to Twitter to complain about it.To read this article in full, please click here

Running Routing Protocols over MLAG Links

It took vendors like Cisco years to start supporting routing protocols between MLAG-attached routers and a pair of switches in the MLAG cluster. That seems like a no-brainer scenario, so there must be some hidden complexities. Let’s figure out what they are.

We’ll use the familiar MLAG diagram, replacing one of the attached hosts with a router running a routing protocol with both members of the MLAG cluster (for example, R, S1, and S2 are OSPF neighbors).

Read more …

Running Routing Protocols over MLAG Links

It took vendors like Cisco years to start supporting routing protocols between MLAG-attached routers and a pair of switches in the MLAG cluster. That seems like a no-brainer scenario, so there must be some hidden complexities. Let’s figure out what they are.

We’ll use the familiar MLAG diagram, replacing one of the attached hosts with a router running a routing protocol with both members of the MLAG cluster (for example, R, S1, and S2 are OSPF neighbors).

Read more …

The DNS at the IGF

I was invited to participate in a session at IGF 2022 that was devoted to the workings of the DNS. I’d like to share my contribution to this session with my thoughts on where the DNS is headed.

Troubleshooting Live Training

My next live training course is coming up on the 16th of December: Troubleshooting. This is one of those classes where I’m taking formal training from a former life (electronic engineering) and applying it to the networking world. From the description—

Troubleshooting is a fundamental skill for all network engineers, from the least to most experienced. However, there is little material on correct and efficient troubleshooting techniques in a network engineering context, and no (apparent) live training in this area. Some chapters in books exist (such as the Computer Networking Problems and Solutions, published in December 2017), and some presentations in Cisco Live, but the level of coverage for this critical skill is far below what engineers working in the field to develop solid troubleshooting skills.

This training focuses on the half-split system of troubleshooting, which is widely used in the electronic and civil engineering domains. The importance of tracing the path of the signal, using models to put the system in context, and the use of a simple troubleshooting “loop” to focus on asking how, what, and why are added to the half-split method to create a complete theory of troubleshooting. Other concepts covered in this course are the Continue reading

Converting numbers on Linux among decimal, hexadecimal, octal, and binary

You might not be challenged very often to convert numbers from one numbering system to another but, when you are, you can do it with either of two fairly easy commands on the Linux command line.Converting in your head can be taxing, especially for longer numbers. While the decimal numbering system allows any digit in a number to have any of ten values (0-9), digits in hexadecimal numbers can have 16 (0-F), digits in octal numbers only eight (0-7) and digits in binary numbers only two (0-1).And, whether you like it or not, from time to time you are likely to run into numbers displayed in hex or octal, and knowing how to convert them from one number base to another can come in handy.To read this article in full, please click here

1 … 355 356 357 358 359 … 3,807