Why I gave up Networking for Software

It's now been 3 months since I transitioned from Networking to Software. This is a retrospective piece on my reasons for giving up on Networking.

Introduction

You might be reading this thinking:

"another networking guy moving to software... network engineering is doomed".

If you are, stop thinking right now. There is one important thing about my story that is very different. I've been writing software for longer than I have been doing networking albeit not in a professional capacity. Software Engineering is where my passion lies right now and let me explain why...

My Reasons

1. DevOps

DevOps for Networking is still, very slowly, becoming reality. Elsewhere DevOps is very much in full swing. Tools like:

Vagrant, Packer, Puppet, Chef, SaltStack, Ansible, Fig, Docker, Jenkins/TravisCI, Dokku, Heroku, OpenShift (the list goes on)...

have redefined how I work and being in an environment where I can build things with them day to day is a dream come true for me.

I get gersburms just thinking about building Continous Integration/Continous Delivery Pipelines, Automated creation of Dev/Test environments and Configuration as Code.

2. SDN

Software-Defined Networking was the turning point in my career. It enabled me to make the switch in career paths Continue reading

Rant: VMware vCheese Becomes vChAir – Logo Parody

VMware announced the vCloud Hosted Services a while back and it was mostly known as vCheese for short. This week it was rebranded as "vCloud Air Network" and that is too much of a mouthful to keep saying as well. Don't these marketing people live in the real world ? Lets me share my suggestion .......

The post Rant: VMware vCheese Becomes vChAir – Logo Parody appeared first on EtherealMind.

Is SDN API directionality absurd?

I was finally catching up on a number of posts I'd saved to read later and noticed the prevalent use of "Northbound" and "Southbound". I'm now starting to question whether these terms are necessary or accurate.

Is SDN API directionality absurd?

I was finally catching up on a number of posts I'd saved to read later and noticed the prevalent use of "Northbound" and "Southbound". I'm now starting to question whether these terms are necessary or accurate.

Dictionary definition

Let's start with the Oxford English Dictionary definition of these terms.

northbound | ˈnɔːθbaʊnd | adjective travelling or leading towards the north: northbound traffic.

southbound | ˈsaʊθbaʊnd | adjective travelling or leading towards the south: southbound traffic | the southbound carriageway of the A1.

As our interfaces are static and can't travel one can assume the intent of these adjectives in our context is to indicate that the interfaces are leading in the specified direction.

On Directionality as a descriptor

Categorizing an API by directionality is rather perplexing IMHO.

Specify directionality without a reference point is misleading For example, OVSDB is a northbound API for Open vSwitch but southbound API for an SDN controller.

For SDN controllers, there are two types of interfaces:

User-Facing or Application-Facing (formerly Northbound) This API is designed to expose higher-order functions in such a way that they can easily be consumed by humans and programmers. By this logic, we can include any " API's" or language bindings Continue reading

Community Show – CCNA Data Center Part1 with Anthony Sequeira and Orhan Ergun

[player] In this first part of CCNA Datacenter sessions , Anthony Sequeira and Orhan Ergun are talking about the topics in the blueprint. They identify all the technologies which you should know for the CCNA Datacenter exam. Topics include : DCICN exam which is the first exam. DCICT exam which is the second exam. Datacenter […]

The post Community Show – CCNA Data Center Part1 with Anthony Sequeira and Orhan Ergun appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Community Show – CCNA Data Center Part1 with Anthony Sequeira and Orhan Ergun

In this first part of CCNA Datacenter sessions , Anthony Sequeira and Orhan Ergun are talking about the topics in the blueprint. They identify all the technologies which you should know for the CCNA Datacenter exam. Topics include : DCICN exam which is the first exam. DCICT exam which is the second exam. Datacenter Fundamentals, […]

Author information

Orhan Ergun

Orhan Ergun, CCIE, CCDE, is a network architect mostly focused on service providers, data centers, virtualization and security.

He has more than 10 years in IT, and has worked on many network design and deployment projects.

In addition, Orhan is a:

Blogger at Network Computing.
Blogger and podcaster at Packet Pushers.
Manager of Google CCDE Group.
On Twitter @OrhanErgunCCDE

The post Community Show – CCNA Data Center Part1 with Anthony Sequeira and Orhan Ergun appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Orhan Ergun.

Interview: Reduce Costs and Gain Efficiencies with SDDC

A few days ago I had an interesting interview with Christoph Jaggi discussing the challenges, changes in mindsets and processes, and other “minor details” one must undertake to gain something from the SDDC concepts. The German version of the interview is published on Inside-IT.ch; you’ll find the English version below.

Is SDN API directionality absurd?

I was finally catching up on a number of posts I'd saved to read later and noticed the prevalent use of "Northbound" and "Southbound". I'm now starting to question whether these terms are necessary or accurate.

Why I gave up Networking for Software

It's now been 3 months since I transitioned from Networking to Software. This is a retrospective piece on my reasons for giving up on Networking.

A Quick Look at MPLS-TE

Introduction

I’m currently designing and implementing a large network which will run MPLS.
This network will replace an old network that was mainly L2 based and did not
run MPLS, only VRF lite. There are a few customers that need to have diverse
paths in the network and quick convergence when a failure occurs.
This led me to consider MPLS-TE for those customers and to have plain MPLS
through LDP for other customers buying VPNs. What is the usage for MPLS-TE?

Weaknesses of IGP

When using normal IP forwarding a least cost path is calculated through an IGP,
such as OSPF or ISIS. The problem though is that only the least cost path will
be utilized, any links not on the best path will sit idle, which is a waste of
bandwidth. IGP metrics can be manipulated but that only moves the problem to
other links, it does not solve the root cause. Manipulating metrics is cumbersome
and prone to error. It’s difficult to think of all the traffic flows in the network
and get all the metrics correct. IGPs also lack the granularity in metrics to
utilize all the bandwidth in the network.

RSVP-TE

RSVP in the past was Continue reading

Finally: a Virtual Switch Supports BPDU Guard

Nexus 1000V release 5.2(1)SV3(1.1) was published on August 22nd (I’m positive that has nothing to do with VMworld starting tomorrow) and I found this gem in the release notes:

Enabling BPDU guard causes the Cisco Nexus 1000V to detect these spurious BPDUs and shut down the virtual machine adapters (the origination BPDUs), thereby avoiding loops.

It took them almost three years, but we finally have BPDU guard on a layer-2 virtual switch (why does it matter). Nice!

Response – Do We Need To Redefine Open?

Tom Hollingsworth wrote a great post on whether or not we need to redefine "Open". My response was too long for a comment, so here it is!

Response – Do We Need To Redefine Open?

Tom Hollingsworth wrote a great post on whether or not we need to redefine "Open". My response was too long for a comment, so here it is!

Open Source vs Free Software

The first item is just a point of clarification. While the terms "Open Source" and "Free Software" are often used interchangeably there is a difference.

The two terms describe almost the same category of software, but they stand for views based on fundamentally different values. Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement. - Richard Stallman

You can read the full article here but the TL;DR version is that while a high percentage of Open Source software is Free Software, the definition of Open Source is less strict about guaranteeing freedoms.

...with that out of the way, let's move to "open"

On "open" and "openness"

I like the Wikipedia description of "openness":

Openness is an overarching concept or philosophy that is characterized by an emphasis on transparency and free unrestricted access to knowledge and information as well as collaborative or cooperative management and decision making rather than a central authority. - Wikipedia

It highlights some key terms which our "open" things should be adhering Continue reading

Response – Do We Need To Redefine Open?

Tom Hollingsworth wrote a great post on whether or not we need to redefine "Open". My response was too long for a comment, so here it is!

Fun with Fig (and Docker)

I first heard of Fig when I read about Docker acquiring Orchard, a container hosting service, back in July. Last week I finally got to read a little more about it and it just so happens it is the missing piece of the puzzle in a couple of projects that I am working on right now!

Fun with Fig (and Docker)

I first heard of Fig when I read about Docker acquiring Orchard, a container hosting service, back in July. Last week I finally got to read a little more about it and it just so happens it is the missing piece of the puzzle in a couple of projects that I am working on right now!

Fun with Fig (and Docker)

I first heard of Fig when I read about Docker acquiring Orchard, a container hosting service, back in July. Last week I finally got to read a little more about it and it just so happens it is the missing piece of the puzzle in a couple of projects that I am working on right now!

What does Fig do?

The best way I would describe Fig is like Vagrant for Docker containers. If you don't know what Vagrant is, or aren't using it then you are missing out!

Fig lets you bring up and tear down docker containers (single or multiple) with a simple command. To do this, you express the desired configuration in a YAML file, fig.yml.

Getting started

On OSX, you'll need to have an accessible Docker environment. The easiest way to do this is with Homebrew and boot2docker

brew install docker
brew install boot2docker
boot2docker init
boot2docker start
export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://$(boot2docker ip 2>/dev/null):2375
# Install Fig
pip install fig

If you don't have Python and/or pip installed you may want to install the fig binary

Writing a Fig file for Open vSwitch

Let's say you are doing some integration Continue reading

Replacing Traditional TV & DVR with Little Streaming Boxes

Flowcontrol, port buffers and dropped packets

Vocus Acquisition of FX: Good for Customers?

Consolidation is happening in the New Zealand wholesale ISP market, with Vocus acquiring FX. Consolidation can lead to less competition, or it can strengthen it, by making players stronger and more viable. This acquisition should strengthen the market, and hopefully open up new service offerings.

In July Vocus Communications announced its intention to acquire FX Networks. From the press release:

FX owns a unique and high quality fibre optic network consisting of 4,132 kms of modern ducted fibre cable covering both the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The company has 365 customers including 43 of the Top 100 companies in New Zealand.

Vocus will acquire FX for an enterprise value of NZ$115.8m (~A$107.7m). The FX business is expected to deliver NZ$13.5-$14.5m of EBITDA in the first 12 months post acquisition (excluding transaction and integration expenses).

The combination of Vocus and FX strengthens both businesses. Vocus will emerge as the third largest network operator in NZ and the clear leader in trans-Tasman telecommunications and data centres.

Vocus has their own fibre network around Australia, and has a significant international network, with high-level peering. In 2012 they purchased Maxnet, a New Zealand ISP and Data Center Continue reading