New LibSSH Connection Plugin for Ansible Network Replaces Paramiko, Adds FIPS Mode Enablement

As Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform expands its footprint with a growing customer base, security continues to be an important aspect of organizations’ overall strategy. Red Hat regularly reviews and enhances the foundational codebase to follow better security practices. As part of this effort, we are introducing FIPS 140-2 readiness enablement by means of a newly developed Ansible SSH connection plugin that uses the libssh library. 

 

Ansible Network SSH Connection Basics

Since most network appliances don't support or have limited capability for the local execution of a third party software, the Ansible network modules are not copied to the remote host unlike linux hosts; instead, they run on the control node itself. Hence, Ansible network can’t use the typical Ansible SSH connection plugin that is used with linux host. Furthermore, due to this behavior, performance of the underlying SSH subsystem is critical. Not only is the new LibSSH connection plugin enabling FIPS readiness, but it was also designed to be more performant than the existing Paramiko SSH subsystem.

Screen Shot 2020-11-20 at 8.52.53 AM

The top level network_cli connection plugin, provided by the ansible.netcommon Collection (specifically ansible.netcommon.network_cli), provides an SSH based connection to the network appliance. It in turn calls the Continue reading

Leading from the Front: How the Internet Society’s Training Efforts Are Helping to Upskill Africa’s Future Digital Champions

Tech skills are important for digital transformation in Africa. To realize this transformation, the Internet Society is supporting work-ready digital skills development with local talent.

By 2030, over 230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills. With the fourth industrial revolution taking shape, we are helping to build a community of digital champions in Africa who will fill the skills gap on the continent.

African governments are already banking big on the contributions that digital technologies will provide to this transformation. For example, the African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy (2020-2030) wants to create a “Digital Single Market” for the continent, while national governments are increasingly embracing digitalization in several sectors of their economies.

But the continent needs the right talent for its ambitious economic agenda to succeed. Though more learners are taking interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects, school curricula in Africa primarily focus on theoretical learning with scarce engagement with digital subjects. This is one of the main reasons a skills gap exists for jobs that require digital skills.

To play a role in positively changing these circumstances, the Internet Society developed the Introduction to Network Operations course, which equips novice and intermediate level Continue reading

Welcome Canonical to Docker Hub and the Docker Verified Publisher Program

Today, we are thrilled to announce that Canonical will distribute its free and commercial software through Docker Hub as a Docker Verified Publisher. Canonical and Docker will partner together to ensure that hardened free and commercial Ubuntu images will be available to all developer software supply chains for multi-cloud app development. 

Canonical is the publisher of the Ubuntu OS, and a global provider of enterprise open source software, for all use cases from cloud to IoT. Canonical Ubuntu is one of the most popular Docker Official Images on Docker Hub, with over one billion images pulled. With Canonical as a Docker Verified Publisher, developers who pull Ubuntu images from Docker Hub can be confident they get the latest images backed by both Canonical and Docker. 

The Ideal Container Registry for Multi-Cloud 

Canonical is the latest publisher to choose Docker Hub for globally sharing their container images. With millions of users, Docker Hub is the world’s largest container registry, ensures Canonical can reach their developers regardless where they build and deploy their applications. 

This partnership, which covers both free and commercial Canonical LTS images, so developers can confidently pull the latest images straight from the source without concern Continue reading

Fast Failover: Hardware and Software Implementations

In previous blog posts in this series we discussed whether it makes sense to invest into fast failover network designs, the topologies you can use in such designs, and the fault detection techniques. I also hinted at different fast failover implementations; this blog post focuses on some of them.

Hardware-based failover changes the hardware forwarding tables after a hardware-detectable link failure, most likely loss-of-light or transceiver-reported link fault. Forwarding hardware cannot do extensive calculations; the alternate paths are thus usually pre-programmed (more details below).

Read more …

Fast Failover: Hardware and Software Implementations

In previous blog posts in this series we discussed whether it makes sense to invest into fast failover network designs, the topologies you can use in such designs, and the fault detection techniques. I also hinted at different fast failover implementations; this blog post focuses on some of them.

Hardware-based failover changes the hardware forwarding tables after a hardware-detectable link failure, most likely loss-of-light or transceiver-reported link fault. Forwarding hardware cannot do extensive calculations; the alternate paths are thus usually pre-programmed (more details below).

Read more …

Pyenv Install Centos 8

cuction Pyenv is a similar tool to rbenv, where you can easily install and use mulitple versions of python. This allows you to test across multiple versions of python as well as pin an app to a specific release. Software Versions Used Centos - 8.2.2004 Pyenv - 1.2.21 Pre-requisites ...

Advanced Threat Intelligence Begins with Network Visibility

The current reality has pushed users, applications, and data to the edge of the network —where traditional perimeter security solutions have historically fallen short. Threat actors know this, of course, and have spent the past nine months targeting the weakest link in the security stack: the user. 

Email and web browsing continue to be popular attack vectors. Security vendors have beefed up web and email security, but issues with legacy architectures are letting some attacks slip through. Information and context derived from advanced threat intelligence remain the most powerful weapons in a security team’s arsenal. Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning can help scan, detect, and warn at scale, but they’re not bulletproof. Increasingly sophisticated threat actors, powered by AI and ML, are finding ways to evade threat detection.

Security professionals interested in learning more about the current state of advanced threat inspection, threat intelligence, and the emerging technologies that power these capabilities should check out the following sessions: 

The Promise and Peril of AI for Cybersecurity (ISNS2794) 

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are powerful, indeed essential, components of security  Continue reading

Many ways to sort file content on Linux

The Linux sort command can arrange command output or file content in a lot more ways than you might realize--alphabetically, numerically, by month and randomly are only some of the more interesting choices. In this post, we take a look at some of the more useful sorting options and explain how they differ.The default The default sort might seem fairly straightforward. Digits come first, followed by letters and, for each letter, lowercase characters precede uppercase characters. You can expect to see this kind of ordering:012345aAbBcCdDeEASCII order Looking at the numeric byte values for each of these letters, you may note that what you see above is not the "natural order" as far as ASCII is concerned.To read this article in full, please click here

Tech Bytes: Palo Alto Networks Pushes For The Next Generation Of SD-WAN (Sponsored)

On today's Tech Bytes, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, we discuss advances in Palo Alto's CloudGenix SD-WAN capabilities, explore two new SD-WAN appliances, and talk about where the technology is headed. Our guest is Kumar Ramanchandran, SVP of Products at Palo Alto and a CloudGenix co-founder.

The post Tech Bytes: Palo Alto Networks Pushes For The Next Generation Of SD-WAN (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

The Senior Trap

How do you become a “senior engineer?” It’s a question I’m asked quite often, actually, and one that deserves a better answer than the one I usually give. Charity recently answered the question in a round-a-bout way in a post discussing the “trap of the premature senior.” She’s responding to an email from someone who is considering leaving a job where they have worked themselves into a senior role. Her advice?

Quit!

This might seem to be counter-intuitive, but it’s true. I really wanted to emphasize this one line—

There is a world of distance between being expert in this system and being an actual expert in your chosen craft. The second is seniority; the first is merely .. familiarity

Exactly! Knowing the CLI for one vendor’s gear, or even two vendor’s gear, is not nearly the same as understanding how BGP actually works. Quoting the layers in the OSI model is just not the same thing as being able to directly apply the RINA model to a real problem happening right now. You’re not going to gain the understanding of “the whole ball of wax” by staying in one place, or doing one thing, for the rest of Continue reading

How To Improve Your Networking Capability When It Comes To Your Career

When it comes to working, networking capability becomes extremely important. No matter what is your profession, you need to improve your networking capability if you want to increase your worth and efficiency. With great networking capabilities, you will not only be able to learn from the people you meet, but it will also benefit the company in which you are working. Additionally, you will also get chances to increase your authority. Thus, networking capability works as a fuel that aids your success. This is why you should always look for chances to improve your networking capabilities. 

So, if you are not sure where to start or how to improve your networking capability, then continue reading. You will find everything that you need to know here.

Set Up Networking Goals

The most important thing that you need to do if you want to improve your networking capability is to set goals for yourself. You need a purpose or a goal for networking. These goals can be anything such as getting business cards from potential suppliers. You can also set a goal to find out what are the competitors doing in the market. You can also set a goal to secure Continue reading

Gordon Bell Prize Winners Leverage Machine Learning For Molecular Dynamics

For more than three decades, researchers have used a particular simulation method for molecular dynamics called Ab initio molecular dynamics, or AIMD, which has proven itself to be the method most accurate for analyzing how atoms and molecules move and interact over a fixed time period. …

Gordon Bell Prize Winners Leverage Machine Learning For Molecular Dynamics was written by Jeffrey Burt at The Next Platform.

Docker Captain Take 5 – Ajeet Singh Raina

Docker Captains are select members of the community that are both experts in their field and are passionate about sharing their Docker knowledge with others. Today, we’re introducing “Docker Captains Take 5”, a regular blog series where we get a closer look at the Docker experts who share their knowledge online and offline around the world. A different Captain will be featured each time and we will ask them the same broad set of questions ranging from what their best Docker tip is to whether they prefer cats or dogs (personally, we like whales and turtles over here). To kick us off we’re interviewing Ajeet Singh Raina who has been a Docker Captain since 2016 and is a DevRel Manager at Redis Labs. He is based in Bangalore, India.  

How/when did you first discover Docker?

It was the year 2013 when I watched Solomon Hykes for the first time presenting “The Future of Linux Containers” at PyCon in Santa Clara. This video inspired me to write my first blog post on Docker and the rest is history.

What is your favorite Docker command?

The docker buildx CLI  is one of my favorite commands. It allows you to Continue reading

Network Break 311: Apstra Gets Loud About SONiC; VMware Sinks More Hooks Into Networking

Each week Network Break runs vendor press releases through our patented ML algorithms to strip out the marketing & buzzwords. It doesn't leave us much to work with, but we do our best. Today's episode covers Apstra's IBN support for the SONiC NOS, IBM's purchase of APM newcomer Instana, VMware's furthering of its networking ambitions, a startup building 5G chips for the edge, and more.

Network Break 311: Apstra Gets Loud About SONiC; VMware Sinks More Hooks Into Networking

Each week Network Break runs vendor press releases through our patented ML algorithms to strip out the marketing & buzzwords. It doesn't leave us much to work with, but we do our best. Today's episode covers Apstra's IBN support for the SONiC NOS, IBM's purchase of APM newcomer Instana, VMware's furthering of its networking ambitions, a startup building 5G chips for the edge, and more.

The post Network Break 311: Apstra Gets Loud About SONiC; VMware Sinks More Hooks Into Networking appeared first on Packet Pushers.

The Week in Internet News: Siberian Student Climbs Tree to Get Internet Access

Great heights: As his classes move online, Russian student Alexei Dudoladov has to climb a birch tree to get Internet access, Reuters reports. The student at the Omsk Institute of Water Transport, which is nearly 1,400 miles east of Moscow, says his home Internet service is not strong enough to connect to online classes. “I need to go into the forest 300 meters from the village and climb a birch tree that is eight-meters high … and I get on Zoom to speak to professors and prove that I am not skipping class for no reason.”

Even greater heights: Meanwhile, the Ector County Independent School District in Odessa, Texas, is hoping that the new SpaceX satellite Internet service will help give students and teachers better Internet access, Education Dive says. The district is the first in the U.S. to work with SpaceX’s Starlink Internet service. A pilot project in early 2021 will include 45 families with students or teachers in the district.

Cybersecurity boss fired: U.S. President Donald Trump, who continues to insist he was the victim of massive nationwide voting fraud in his recent election loss to Joe Biden, has fired Christopher Krebs, who led the federal Continue reading

How to Overcome the Impostor Syndrome as Network Engineer

imposter-syndrome

Many network engineers, myself included, sometimes feel like they don’t belong and don’t deserve to be here. Here are a few tips to combat the impostor syndrome. Sometimes, do you feel like an impostor? This is quite common in IT: you feel like an impostor. Even when you’ve got THE dream job, or when you’ve earned this recognition, or when you’ve passed that famous certification… You can’t get rid of the feeling that it’s just smoke, that you must have fooled everyone and that at any moment you will be…

The post How to Overcome the Impostor Syndrome as Network Engineer appeared first on AboutNetworks.net.

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