Multigigabit Ethernet 2.5 / 5.0Gbps NBASE-T Alliance

Ethernet 2.0

The title above may seem a little odd given Ethernet’s long and healthy life. Keeping conversation to more recent Ethernet standards (10/100/1000/10000/40000/100000 Mbps) the transmission technology and encoding standards have come a very long way for Ethernet. I remember when 100Mbps ports were the absolute norm and when 1Gbps ports were spared for very special (high paying) customers often on a single line card on a router!!! A router!!!

Wind the clock forward about ten years and where are we? 10Gbps access ports to servers, 40Gbps uplink ports from top of rack switching and 1Gbps ports to wireless access points, vending machines and home devices such as printers and coffee machines. Wireless technology is flourishing and with the advent of 802.11ac (Gigabit wireless) the access layer is seeing rolling upgrades.

So if we imagine our access tier is formed of 1Gbps access ports to wireless access points, multiple 10Gbps uplinks often in a multi-chassis Ethernet LAG (MLAG/MEC/vPC/) bundle and core speeds at least at multiple 10Gbps if not 40Gbps speeds, what happens when wireless plays catch up? Introducing The 802.11ac Wave 2 standard which sees speeds that could exceed 6.8 Gbps. This unbelievable wireless speed Continue reading

Response: Whats New in systemd, 2015 Edition

Summary of a presentation at FOSDEM about systemd is very interesting. Lots of improvements and practical changes from what I can see that would Linux more usable and viable. But this caught my eye about replacing syslog with HTTP: journald-remoting: the binary logger now has remote support (aka: remoting) via HTTP (instead of the syslog […]


The post Response: Whats New in systemd, 2015 Edition appeared first on EtherealMind.

text2pcap – How to convert ASCII packet dumps to .pcap files?

Nothing in my experince is better at telling the real story than a packet capture. They tell exactly what is really going on and whether the configuration or changes are working  as expected or not. Sometimes an engineer needs to look at packet captures taken from devices that don’t generate .pcap files directly. Although with [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Eycalyptus – cloud introduction and auto-scaling tutorial

For best article visual quality, open Eycalyptus – cloud introduction and auto-scaling tutorial directly at NetworkGeekStuff.

In this article, I will show how to do a very simple auto-scaling system on eucalyptus cloud using the wonderful eucalyptus fast start image. Afterwards you will appreciate how easy and configurable the Eucalyptus cloud is in regards to configuring customization scripts on systems that are booted dynamically inside auto-scaling triggers (like low CPU, RAM, etc… ).

A little history, last year (2014), HP has requisitioned a company called Eucalyptus, what I must admit surprised me after spending so much time with OpenStack. So I tried to get an idea why this move has happened and what are the main differences that immediately come to mind to compare these two.

So let me went with you on the first example exposure to Eucalyptus.

eucalyptus-logo… demo experience

Prerequisites:

  1. Physical system with Intel-V or AMD-x virtualization on CPU
  2. Virtual server running in hypervisor that supports nested virtualization (KVM or vmWare)

The target requirements

1)      Have a cloud system with capability to deploy a server quickly
2)      Test basic systems like load-balancing
3)      Check the network forwarding inside the cloud
4)      Demonstrate auto-scaling system of Eucalyptus on Continue reading

Big Cloud Fabric: Scaling OpenFlow Fabric

I’m still convinced that architectures with centralized control planes (and that includes solutions relying on OpenFlow controllers) cannot scale. On the other hand, Big Switch Networks is shipping Big Cloud Fabric, and they claim they solved the problem. Obviously I wanted to figure out what’s going on and Andy Shaw and Rob Sherwood were kind enough to explain the interesting details of their solution.

Long story short: Big Switch Networks significantly extended OpenFlow.

Read more ...

LXC Containers

This blog is part of my ongoing series on Docker containers. In this blog, I will take a deviation from Docker and focus on LXC. LXC manages Containers like Docker, there are some differences, I will cover the differences in a later blog. LXC is an Opensource Linux container project from Linuxcontainers.org that provides an user space … Continue reading LXC Containers →

CCIE Renewed – Exam 400-101

The problem with obtaining certifications is that you need to renew them. CCIE is no different – I first passed the lab in September 2012, and I was overdue for renewing it. I’m pleased to report that I have now done that, and it is now current until September 2016. Here’s some of my impressions of the 400-101 exam.

I had planned on using the CCDE written exam to renew my R&S CCIE, and then decide if I would go on to attempt the CCDE practical exam. But it seems that the CCDE exam writers and I just don’t share the same mindset. I tried, but it wasn’t working for me, and I wasn’t making progress. So I went back to R&S for my re-cert.

New Blueprint

I originally passed version 4, exam number 350-101. This has been updated to version 5. The written exam is now 400-101. Of course, this doesn’t mean that everything changes. Core L2 & L3 protocols don’t change that much. BGP, OSPF and EIGRP and still BGP, OSPF and EIGRP.

There are some key changes though, such as:

  • Frame relay gone, DMVPN in
  • IS-IS back in – theory only
  • New EIGRP features, such as named mode
  • More MPLS Continue reading

PQ Show 45 – Talking About PR & Marketing

I was lucky enough to attend the Powering the Cloud Conference in October last year. While I was there I say down with  Federica Monsone from A3 Communications to talk about the role of PR, Marketing and Social media. While we poke fun at marketing it is a deadly serious business. We need our vendors […]

Author information

Greg Ferro

Greg Ferro is a Network Engineer/Architect, mostly focussed on Data Centre, Security Infrastructure, and recently Virtualization. He has over 20 years in IT, in wide range of employers working as a freelance consultant including Finance, Service Providers and Online Companies. He is CCIE#6920 and has a few ideas about the world, but not enough to really count.

He is a host on the Packet Pushers Podcast, blogger at EtherealMind.com and on Twitter @etherealmind and Google Plus.

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The post PQ Show 45 – Talking About PR & Marketing appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Greg Ferro.

Happy Birthday SR629007199!

It is with disappointment and frustration that I'm celebrating the 1st birthday of an unresolved Cisco support case. I'm not happy about it, plan to do some complaining in this post.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think the people at Cisco TAC are great. They're an absolutely first class support organization, the standard by which other vendors are judged, and they consistently give me great service.

In spite of their efforts, sometimes things just don't work out. This is one of those times.

I opened SR629007199 on January 31st 2014 after noticing a peculiar problem with an ISR G2 router: Servers couldn't receive packets intended for them because the router was screwing up their traffic. The Ethernet frames carrying these packets included the wrong destination MAC address, so the servers ignored them.

Specifically, the router was screwing up the IP->L2 address mapping required for IPv4 multicast packets. Instead of using 23 bits of the multicast group in the L2 header, that portion of the L2 header was all zeros. It looked like this:

Bogus dMAC on most of these frames

Those two HSRP packets originated by the router looked okay, and traffic from local sources was okay, but every Continue reading

Securing Your Connection Anywhere You Go

We all know that there are a lot of incomplete security models. Firesheep made this fact painfully obvious to those who regularly work from public hotspots. Although this issue extends beyond insecure wireless deployments, unencrypted hotspots are an easy target. When network traffic isn’t secured in the application layers AND that same traffic is not secured in the network or datalink layers, bad things can and do happen.

TLDR–This article solves this problem by utilizing a Meraki MX60 and the VPN client Native on OSX. To skip to the good stuff, click here.

One approach that some people decide to employ is utilizing a VPN connection for their Internet traffic when connected to untrusted networks. For years, enterprises have utilized these controls to allow secure access to corporate resources. A common trend to day includes utilizing “the cloud” for sensitive enterprise and personal data. While these systems *should* be appropriate resilient, we know that is not always the case. In addition to that, federated authentication schemes and password reuse can also pose additional risk to broken systems and less security conscious users.

Having easy access to some gear, I have been using a Meraki MX60 for a few months. This device makes the configuration Continue reading

iPexpert’s Newest “CCIE Wall of Fame” Additions 1/30/2015

Please join us in congratulating the following iPexpert client’s who have passed their CCIE lab!

This Week’s CCIE Success Stories

  • Nouman Khan, CCIE #19730  (Data Center)
  • Madhav Bhardwaj, CCIE #44772 (Collaboration)
  • Theogene Nishimwe, CCIE #44776 (Collaboration)

We Want to Hear From You!

Have you passed your CCIE lab exam and used any of iPexpert’s self-study products, or attended a CCIE Bootcamp? If so, we’d like to add you to our CCIE Wall of Fame!

Dell celebrates disaggregation’s first anniversary

Dell is celebrating the first anniversary of its Open Networking initiative, an effort to offer customers a choice of operating systems and applications on standard, merchant silicon-based hardware.Dell was one of, if not the first major vendor to disaggregate switching – separating the interdependencies of hardware and software so customers, in this case, can run a variety of operating systems on Dell switches. Juniper followed suit with an Open Compute Platform-based switch that can run its Junos operating system, or another that’s ported to the OCP-based hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

PlexxiPulse—Partnering with Cloudera

This week, we announced that we’ve partnered with Big Data platform provider Cloudera. Cloudera’s data management platform enables enterprises to use Apache’s open source Hadoop software to better manage their data. The Plexxi Switch, now certified with Cloudera’s Enterprise 5 platform, is the first SDN-based Ethernet switch and the only truly single-tier, scale-out networking solution. We’re excited to have Cloudera on board to provide network operators a solution to address their Big Data needs.

Below you will find our top picks for stories in the networking space this week. Have a great weekend!

In this week’s PlexxiTube of the week, our own Dan Backman identifies how Plexxi’s Big Data fabric solution applicable beyond Big Data.

TechTarget: SDN to support Internet of Things devices
By David Geer
Software-defined networking will meet the Internet of Things (IoT) at the crossroads of VPN exhaustion, uptime challenges and limited network resources. The expected result is that SDN will help drive the expansion of IoT-enabled devices, enable more efficient network resource sharing and improve IoT service-level agreements (SLAs). In return, many vendors expect IoT will support SDN decisions and feed hungry policy engines. It’s still early days in terms of looking for use cases Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: It’s my network and I’ll binge watch if I want to

In my first blog post I discussed the gap that exists between what consumers want and what the network can feasibly provide – what I referred to as the "agility gap." In just the four months since that post, we have seen a variety of new examples of the acceleration in technology advances for the consumer and end user, while the network chugs along trying to keep up.The most intriguing of these was Sony's unveiling of PlayStation Now at CES 2015, a cloud-based gaming subscription service that gives players unlimited streaming access to more than 100 games.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Thanks Michael!

3 years ago, Michael DeHaan started the Ansible open source project. Michael has worked tirelessly and done a great job leading the Ansible vision of simple IT automation, and his efforts led to some amazing achievements.  Ansible is now a mature open source project and vibrant community, with over 900 contributors (a new contributor almost every day!), thousands of users and millions of downloads.  Ansible was recently named a Top 10 Open Source project for 2014, alongside projects like Hadoop, Docker, and OpenStack.

As of today, Michael will be transitioning from his daily operational involvement with Ansible, Inc. to an advisory capacity supporting the community and the Ansible team as needed.  You can read more about Michael’s thoughts on the transition here.

As for Ansible, we are grateful for Michael’s vision and efforts and look forward to his continued contributions. He and the Ansible community have set a new standard for simple, agentless automation, and we will continue to build great things on that strong foundation.
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