From the Desk of Jarrod Mills :: Updated R&S Material is on the Way!

Over the next few months, several enhancements and upgrades to the CCIE Routing and Switch product line will be rolled out. I am currently doing a thorough review of the Volume 1 Workbook to ensure that every topic within the Version 5 Blueprint is thoroughly tested and validated. Shortly thereafter, I will be editing and compiling the complete Volume 2 Mock Lab workbook with 5 full 8-hour labs. These labs will fully prepare students for success on the rigorous Cisco CCIE lab exam.

After listening to the feedback of current and prospective students, I realized that the Troubleshooting and Diagnostic Sections were a stumbling block for many and that these sections were under-represented in the current training program. As a result, new Troubleshooting and Diagnostic workbooks are currently under development with a target completion date within the next 2 months. The Troubleshooting workbook will contain 50 tickets that are similar in difficulty to the tickets the student will experience in the Cisco lab exam. Similarly, the Diagnostic workbook will also contain 50 issues and be designed to allow students to hone their skills, and become confident in their ability to identify and choose the correct solution(s) in this section of Continue reading

Vagrant Box for Learning Open vSwitch

As you may have picked up from some of my recent posts, I’m focused on building content and tools that will help others learn new projects, products, and technologies that I think will be very relevant in the future. One such project is Open vSwitch (OVS), which I’ve written about quite a bit (you can see all OVS-related posts here). To help others work with and learn about Open vSwitch, I’ve published a new Vagrant base box.

(In the event you’re not familiar with Vagrant, take a look at this quick introduction.)

The new Vagrant box I’ve created is running Ubuntu 14.04.1 and has Open vSwitch 2.3.1—the latest available release—pre-installed. To install this Vagrant box for use in your Vagrant environments, simply run this command:

vagrant box add slowe/ubuntu-1404-x64-ovs

Vagrant will download and install the box. (Note that this box is formatted for the “vmware_desktop” provider, which means you’ll need VMware Fusion or VMware Workstation as well as the Vagrant plugin for VMware.) Once the box is installed on your system, then you can begin using it in a Vagrantfile by just referencing the box name. As with the other Vagrant boxes Continue reading

Twitter improves security for shared accounts

Twitter is giving users what it thinks is a safer way to handle shared access to an account without compromising the login.Users of TweetDeck, the popular dashboard system for the site, will be able to share access to Twitter accounts without sharing passwords. That adds a useful layer of security for businesses that use Twitter, by eliminating the need to disseminate passwords among employees.Some high-profile Twitter accounts like those belonging to Newsweek magazine and the U.S. military’s Central Command have been hacked in recent months. Shared passwords are an obvious weak point for corporate social media accounts, as they increase the likelihood of unauthorized access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tell us what you want from Docker.com!

Most memorable SNL tech skits & bits

In the wake of SNL celebrating its 40th anniversary this past weekend (complete with a free SNL 40 iOS app), we take a trip back through some of Saturday Night Live's most memorable techie skits and bits. Feel free to hit me up if there are good ones I missed (I purposely left out a few NSFW ones).With smartphones, computers and the Internet going mainstream in recent years, tech has become a much more prevalent subject on the late night show.Google Glass Tech's diversity problemTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: Nvidia’s Android-powered Shield tablet is actually great for gaming

Over the past few years, I have become increasingly reliant on Android-powered tablets for a large majority of my daily activities: general browsing, social media and email, and even for the majority of my entertainment (music and movie watching).But gaming…gaming is the one area in which Android has just never really embedded itself in my home. Sure, I play some Android games here and there, but I still own dedicated, non-Android powered consoles. Part of the reason is the lack of big, Triple-A quality games available for Android; there are some, but not as many as competing gaming platforms. The other part is the lack of great gaming hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Networking Field Day at Cumulus Networks – Recap

Networking Field Day is not your typical event; it is an interactive forum where vendors present to selected networking industry experts.

Feb 11, 2015 was our first Networking Field Day at Cumulus Networks and as many have commented, it was “very informational” and an “excellent” presentation. So, for those of you that could not make it, here is the recap with the recordings.

Being an atypical event, #NFD9 had to start off differently with…. a grandiose entrance from the delegates in a limo and some first-class espressos powered by the Cumulus Networks team before getting off to an exciting 2hours forum.

Cumulus Networks Overview

Kicking off the session was JR Rivers (@JRCumulus), Co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Networks for a straight conversation and great anecdotes on Cumulus Networks and what makes Cumulus Linux different. “Cumulus Linux is fundamentally & unashamedly Linux!” What sets Cumulus Networks apart from others? The responsibility to take patches upstream, the real partnerships, being an enabler rather than a gatekeeper.

Data Center Architectures

What architectures are best suited for today’s date center network? And how does Cumulus Networks make it easier to build networks? Dinesh Dutt (@ddcumulus), Chief Continue reading

Let’s Meet at Interop Las Vegas 2015

The Buzz About NetBeez

Microsoft adds HTTP Strict Transport Security support to Internet Explorer

Starting with Windows 10, Internet Explorer will allow users to access some websites only over SSL-encrypted connections, if those websites have opted into a new security mechanism.Users can test the new feature, known as HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) in Internet Explorer on Windows 10 Technical Preview. In the future, it will also be added to the Project Spartan browser, said Microsoft program managers Mike Bell and David Walp in a blog post.HSTS is a standard defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force in RFC6797. It was designed to prevent SSL stripping attacks, where hackers in a position to intercept a user’s traffic can downgrade connections from HTTPS (HTTP and SSL encryption) to plain HTTP.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft adds HTTP Strict Transport Security support to Internet Explorer

Starting with Windows 10, Internet Explorer will allow users to access some websites only over SSL-encrypted connections, if those websites have opted into a new security mechanism. Users can test the new feature, known as HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) in Internet Explorer on Windows 10 Technical Preview. In the future, it will also be added to the Project Spartan browser, said Microsoft program managers Mike Bell and David Walp in a blog post. HSTS is a standard defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force in RFC6797. It was designed to prevent SSL stripping attacks, where hackers in a position to intercept a user’s traffic can downgrade connections from HTTPS (HTTP and SSL encryption) to plain HTTP.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Quick Thought About Mesos-DNS

A colleague recently pointed me to the recent Mesosphere announcement of Mesos-DNS, a DNS-based service discovery mechanism for Apache Mesos clusters. A comment made in the announcement got me thinking, and I wanted to briefly share my thoughts.

The comment that got me thinking was this:

Mesos-DNS is simple and stateless. Unlike Consul and SkyDNS, it does not require consensus mechanisms, persistent storage, or a replicated log.

If you’ve been following along here on my site, you know that I’ve written about Consul before (see here), and I have more Consul content planned. I’m reasonably familiar with Consul’s architecture and requirements. Likewise, although I haven’t specifically written about SkyDNS, it’s based on etcd, which I have talked about (see here). The Mesos-DNS article seems to imply that Mesos-DNS is somehow less complex than either of these two solutions because it doesn’t require consensus mechanisms, persistent storage, or a replicated log.

However, in my mind that’s a misleading statement. Yes, Consul does require a consensus mechanism (it uses Raft, like etcd). SkyDNS (as I understand it, at least) simply leverages etcd, so technically SkyDNS itself doesn’t require a consensus mechanism. And the assertion that SkyDNS itself Continue reading

Apple orders 5-6 million Apple Watch units; Gold model may cost more than $4000

The Apple Watch will finally hit store shelves in April and we're finally starting to get more information regarding a) Apple's expectations for the device and b) just how expensive some of the models might be.Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal published an article relaying that Apple has ordered upwards of 6 million Apple Watch units from suppliers for the device's initial run. Apple has asked its suppliers in Asia to make a combined five to six million units of its three Apple Watch models during the first quarter ahead of the product’s release in April, according to people familiar with the matter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Peering with Route Servers

Original content from Roger's CCIE Blog Tracking the journey towards getting the ultimate Cisco Certification. The Routing & Switching Lab Exam
As your network grows bigger and your internet traffic grows, it starts to make sense to peer directly with other networks rather than simply pay an ISP to deliver all that traffic. Peering is one of the areas in life where the Pareto principle, also known as the 80-20 rule applies: 20% of your potential... [Read More]

Post taken from CCIE Blog

Original post Peering with Route Servers

2 totally predictable iPhone trends that demonstrate Apple’s power

A pair of fascinating yet utterly predictable news items crossed my desk last week. Both concerned how Apple's product decisions affected the behavior of millions of mobile users—and others—around the world.I'll explain why they're fascinating in a moment, but it's easy to show how predictable they were. I pretty much predicted both them myself!The two items I'm talking about are: iPhone thefts drop after "kill switches" installed iPhone 6 Plus owners use twice as much data as iPhone 6 users Kill switches change potential thieves' behaviorTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SEGMENT ROUTING

Segment routing is a source routing mechanism which provides Traffic Engineering , Fast Reroute, MPLS VPNs without LDP or RSVP-TE. Very simple but powerful solution,when you read the post you will ask more information, because it solves the complex problems with some extensions to existing protocols. MPLS provides BGP free core, VPN services (Layer2 and… Read More »

The post SEGMENT ROUTING appeared first on Network Design and Architecture.

IoT: Don’t fret about the world of tomorrow

The Internet of Things is a big deal. But – as CIMI Corp. President Tom Nolle wrote in a recent blog post titled “My Thermostat Doesn’t Want to Talk to You” – it is probably not going to be a big deal for network management. 

We’ve heard all sorts of applications of smart technology, such as refrigerators that know when you’re running low on milk and can send a text to your smartphone when you’re in the vicinity of a supermarket; thermostats that know when you’re working late at the office so you don’t have to have the heat turned on exactly at 6pm, etc. Early adopters already have all these things. But other than the basic Internet connectivity needed to send these little pieces of data back and forth, network management – as an industry and as a profession – is probably going to be almost unaffected by it. 

Think about it. For many purposes, the Internet of Things provides the most value coordinating between different items in your home. 

In our “world’s fair house-of-the-future,” much of Continue reading

Fanny superworm likely the precursor to Stuxnet

The Stuxnet computer worm that was used to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program was likely preceded by another sophisticated malware program that used some of the same exploits and spread through USB thumb drives to computers isolated from the Internet.The USB worm is called Fanny and is part of a sophisticated malware toolset used by a cyberespionage group that researchers from Russian antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab have dubbed Equation.Kaspersky published a detailed report Monday about Equation, which it considers the most advanced group of attackers to date and whose activity spans back to 2001 and possibly even to 1996. Even though the company stopped short of directly linking the group to the U.S. National Security Agency, there are significant details that point to such links.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell XPS 13 vs. MacBook Air: A closer look at battery life

The MacBook Air's battery life is legendary. Colleagues who drive MacBook Airs claim they can get all-day battery life, and that no similarly sized PC can do the same. But now we have a real contender: The Dell XPS 13. Time to test those claims.Before we dig in, it's important to note that there's no single test that can compare PC and MacBook battery life directly. We have to arrive at comparable numbers through reasoned use of similar tests. I'll also be discussing other reviewers' tests to help paint a more detailed picture.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Brocade improves data center agility with new VDX fabric switch

While the networking industry has gone crazy over software defined networks (SDNs), Brocade has been one of the few vendors that have continued to evolve their fabric portfolio. Customers looking to improve the agility and level of automation do not need to make the jump to an SDN – instead, an Ethernet fabric can be used to accomplish these goals and provide an excellent foundation for a future SDN deployment.Earlier this month, Brocade announced a new fabric switch, the VDX 6940. The new switch set the current high water mark in the industry with respect to port density for a fixed form factor switch. The 6940-36Q is a 1RU switch with 36x40 Gig-E connections or 144x10 Gig-E connections (assuming breakouts are used). The 6940-144S is a 2RU switch with 96x10-Gig-E ports and either 12x40 Gig-E or 4x100 Gig-E ports. Both switches have a massive amount of capacity, making them ideal for on-demand scaling of a fabric by adding capacity to a spine horizontally as the number of leaf switches increases.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here