Network Design Challenge – Small Little Clouds
At work, we’ve been getting ready to deploy a few different cluster technologies. One is a set of KVM hosts to offer VMaaS functionality to end users. Another is a CEPH cluster (http://ceph.com/) which is smart distributed storage. The third is a Hadoop cluster. Each of these initiatives popped up around the same time and […]
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The post Network Design Challenge – Small Little Clouds appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Mike Kantowski.
Programming 101 for Network Engineers – Basic Language Elements & Concepts 2
Welcome to the fourth part of the Programming 101 for Network Engineers series and part two of the Basic Language Elements and Concepts article. The following overview of programming language elements and those found in part three will provide a good foundation that can be built upon as we move into other topics and the detail […]
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The post Programming 101 for Network Engineers – Basic Language Elements & Concepts 2 appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Continue reading
Build a Career with Relationships
Your job hunt traditionally starts with websites like monster.com or dice.com. However, some surveys suggest that between 70 to 80 percent of jobs are found through personal contacts and relationships. So why not spend your efforts building your relationships instead of surfing jobs sites? I can sense some of you getting uncomfortable already. Dont worry, […]
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The post Build a Career with Relationships appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by John Harrington.
[Virtual Routing] Part 4 – The Use Case
Moving along in my “Virtual Routing” series, I’d like to switch gears and talk a little more “big picture”. In the previous posts, we’ve discussed a few different things: Part 1 - A first look at the CSR 1000v from Cisco Part 2 - An examinations of using FHRPs in a virtual environment Part 3 - A comparison of virtual routing redundancy options Seeing as these were all pretty technical configuration-oriented posts, I wanted to take a step back and think about some of the reasons why one would want to perform routing in a virtual environment.[Virtual Routing] Part 4 – The Use Case
Moving along in my “Virtual Routing” series, I’d like to switch gears and talk a little more “big picture”. In the previous posts, we’ve discussed a few different things: Part 1 - A first look at the CSR 1000v from Cisco Part 2 - An examinations of using FHRPs in a virtual environment Part 3 - A comparison of virtual routing redundancy options Seeing as these were all pretty technical configuration-oriented posts, I wanted to take a step back and think about some of the reasons why one would want to perform routing in a virtual environment.[Virtual Routing] Part 4 – The Use Case
Moving along in my “Virtual Routing” series, I’d like to switch gears and talk a little more “big picture”. In the previous posts, we’ve discussed a few different things: Part 1 - A first look at the CSR 1000v from Cisco Part 2 - An examinations of using FHRPs in a virtual environment Part 3 - A comparison of virtual routing redundancy options Seeing as these were all pretty technical configuration-oriented posts, I wanted to take a step back and think about some of the reasons why one would want to perform routing in a virtual environment.Review: ScienceLogic – One Network Management Tool To Rule Them All?
ScienceLogic has been getting the right kind of press recently – e.g. they were a winner of Best of Interop 2013 – Management & Monitoring, and Infoworld had some rather nice things to say. They’ve got some high-profile customers too, such as Fasthosts and Equinix. But what exactly is their product all about, and is it any […]
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The post Review: ScienceLogic – One Network Management Tool To Rule Them All? appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Lindsay Hill.
Quiz #14 – Default Originate into OSPF
Your network follows a standard 3 tier hierarchical design (Core, Distribution, Access) and has two WAN circuits with eBGP sessions with the ISPs. You want to push the default route down to the Distribution routers, but something goes wrong. Where is the mistake?
Mrs. Y’s Rules for Security Bloggers
Recently Greg Ferro published an e-book for bloggers, “Arse First Method of Technical Blogging.” It has some great suggestions (although I’m not sure what an arse is), but after reading it, I realized it really doesn’t apply to security blogging. Without further ado, here are some of my tips for good infosec blog posts. 1. […]
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The post Mrs. Y’s Rules for Security Bloggers appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Mrs. Y.
Nexus – iBGP with BFD
I’ve been trying to setup a BFD neighbor for a link connecting two important sites on a Nexus 7010. That link is only using iBGP for routing. This seems like a really easy thing to, unless you run into bad documentation with few key missing facts.
I was reading the Nexus 7000 Cisco Configuration Guide for Enabling BFD for BGP at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/6_x/nx-os/interfaces/configuration/guide/if_bfd.html. The document specifies that all you have to do to enable BFD for BGP is :
1. enable the bfd feature,
2. enable bfd on an interface
3. enable bfd under the BGP neighbor.
See below for the configuration as specified by Cisco.
feature bfd interface Ethernet1/10 bfd interval 100 min_rx 100 multiplier 5 router bgp 65100 neighbor 172.16.2.1 remote-as 65100 bfd
The problem with this feature is that BFD won’t see each other as neighbors. You won’t see any debug messages or keepalives or any other bfd packets. When I was troubleshooting it, I noticed that by specifying a source and destination IP address for BFD neighbors (under the interface) brought up the adj. The problem with that was that BGP didn’t recognize that IP address and during testing, BFD Continue reading
Eventually – My JNCIE-ENT Success!
Finally… it was bound to happen. My three year journey is complete.
It was about this time last year that I posted about my second JNCIE-ENT lab attempt, and sadly it didn’t go the way I wanted it to! Due to work commitments I was not going to be prepared to sit the 2012 Q3 round of lab offerings, so I resolved to sit the December / January round.
I picked up my studies again and worked on my weak areas noted during my first two attempts. I paid particular attention to areas of multicast and switch security as these two topics were areas of weakness for me last time. I was lucky enough to work on a project at the end of last year that included nearly 1000 ports of 802.1x with dynamic VLAN allocation, so that proved to be an excellent “lab environment” for me.
After a need to reschedule for March, as the January exams were cancelled in Sydney, I knew I was going to do everything in my control to pass this time around. I didn’t want to face the thought of making attempt #4!
Long story short this time around I felt Continue reading
How Taco Bell Taught Me About Converged Networks
I would make the argument that the term “converged networks” is not really a buzzword the way it used to be, since the world now generally understands the concept. Rather than have isolated physical networks, lets make a very popular network topology more robust in terms of capacity, but also features. After all, the networks and protocols we’re combining have some pretty stringent requirements, and we want to make sure that this transition actually works.Moving Forward, Changing Focus
The past two years have been nothing short of a whirlwind for me. I had the privilege of helping to create the Data Center practice for a technology startup in Cincinnati, and as a result, I’ve figuratively been drinking from a fire hydrant non stop. In the past two years I’ve learned more about technology than I could have ever imagined, part of which was the fact that what I have learned only scratches the surface of what’s likely in store for me in the rest of my career.Moving Forward, Changing Focus
The past two years have been nothing short of a whirlwind for me. I had the privilege of helping to create the Data Center practice for a technology startup in Cincinnati, and as a result, I’ve figuratively been drinking from a fire hydrant non stop. In the past two years I’ve learned more about technology than I could have ever imagined, part of which was the fact that what I have learned only scratches the surface of what’s likely in store for me in the rest of my career.How Taco Bell Taught Me About Converged Networks
I would make the argument that the term “converged networks” is not really a buzzword the way it used to be, since the world now generally understands the concept. Rather than have isolated physical networks, lets make a very popular network topology more robust in terms of capacity, but also features. After all, the networks and protocols we’re combining have some pretty stringent requirements, and we want to make sure that this transition actually works.SDN: Savior or Grifter?
Grift’s like anything else, Roy. You don’t stand still. You either go up or down. Usually down, sooner or later. Lilly Dillon from “The Grifters” At Interop this month, every vendor had product sheets that claimed, “Now with SDN!” It’s the latest industry buzzword and I started to recall some previous one-hit wonders from the past. Remember […]
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The post SDN: Savior or Grifter? appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Mrs. Y.
Packet Design Appoints Andy McFarland as Vice President of Customer Care
Expands Management Team with New Executive Role Focused on Customer Success
SANTA CLARA, CA — May 21, 2013 — Packet Design, the leading provider of IP network route analytics software, announced today that it has added another industry veteran to its management ranks. Andy McFarland has been appointed to build and lead the new Customer Care function and will be responsible for customer success and satisfaction.
McFarland joins Packet Design from CA Technologies where he held various customer success leadership roles, including Vice President of Customer Support. Before that, he was Vice President of Customer Care at NetQoS and helped the company achieve industry-leading Net Promoter Scores. Earlier in his career, Andy help Internet Engineering and Operations management positions at Sprint and Broadwing Communications (now Level 3), and was Director of Carrier Relations and Access Strategy at MegaPath. Andy began his career as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy.
“Andy McFarland understands the importance of customer enablement after the sale to ensure full value is received from the products and services acquired," said Scott Sherwood, CEO of Packet Design. "Furthermore, he has years of experience in our market implementing measurable customer care programs that promote customer success Continue reading
WCCPv2 and Squid-cache v3.1, a nice couple.
WCCP protocol can be much more interesting than the two commands needed for the CCIE exam. In this lab we will deploy a basic end-to-end solution using IOS 15.2S and the well known open-source solution Squid v3.1 as the content engine. WCCP version2 is deployed in the lab. 1-Topology WCCP enables the router to transparently intercept client […]