Like “orchestration”, compliance is a frequently overloaded phrase in IT -- it means very different things to different people. Ansible is frequently used in all sorts of compliance use cases, which we’ll expand on below.
Compliance can mean checking to see if a system has “drifted” from a known state, pushing a system back into line from a different state, or making it conform with a very specific set of (often security related) standards.
I wish my life was like this dashboard where I could turn all the knobs to ten but I can't.
The post Poster: Life Dashboard appeared first on EtherealMind.
I had a shorter version of my IPv6 High Availability talk @ Slovenian IPv6 summit this spring. The video is online, but wouldn’t be of much use to anyone but both Slovenian readers of this blog.
The English version of that same talk is now available on NIL TV (or you could decide to go for the full webinar or whole IPv6 track).
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. […]
The post EVPN: Intro to next gen L2VPN appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Diptanshu Singh.
 |
| U-NII Unlicensed Spectrum in 5 GHz (Click to Download PDF) |
 |
| NTIA Graphic of U-NII Unlicensed Spectrum in 5 GHz |
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
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
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
A constant refrain from vendors and software makers is that OpenFlow technology doesn't scale, is too complex, and doesn't work in hardware. Startups like Corsa are proving them wrong.
The post Corsa Adds BGP, Proves OpenFlow In Hardware Scales appeared first on EtherealMind.
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.
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.
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
There are many people who are dissatisfied with the social media platforms. I am too. I'm challenging myself to blog 30 times in 30 days to highlight the blog as the best social media platform.
The post I Challenge Me And You To 30 Blogs in 30 days appeared first on EtherealMind.
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 ...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 […]
The post Show 208 – So, You Want To Work For A Vendor? appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Ethan Banks.
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.
The post Blessay: Human Infrastructure Poverty & Over-Capitalisation In The Enterprise – Part 2 appeared first on EtherealMind.
