Do We Need LFA or FRR for Fast Failover in ECMP Designs?

One of my readers sent me a question along these lines:

Imagine you have a router with four equal-cost paths to prefix X, two toward upstream-1 and two toward upstream-2. Now let’s suppose that one of those links goes down and you want to have link protection. Do I really need Loop-Free Alternate (LFA) or MPLS Fast Reroute (FRR) to get fast (= immediate) failover or could I rely on multiple equal-cost paths to get the job done? I’m getting different answers from different vendors…

Please note that we’re talking about a very specific question of whether in scenarios with equal-cost layer-3 paths the hardware forwarding data structures get adjusted automatically on link failure (without CPU reprogramming them), and whether LFA needs to be configured to make the adjustment happen.

Updates on Hub Rate Limits, Partners and Customer Exemptions

The gradual enforcement of the Docker Hub progressive rate limiting enforcement on container image pulls for anonymous and free users began Monday, November 2nd. The next three hour enforcement window on Wednesday, November 4th from 9am to 12 noon Pacific time. During this window, the eventual final limit of 100 container pull requests per six hours for unauthenticated users and 200 for free users with Docker IDs will be enforced. After that window, the limit will rise to 2,500 container pull requests per six hours. 

As we implement this policy, we are looking at the core technologies, platforms and tools used in app pipelines to ensure a transition that supports developers across their entire development lifecycle. We have been working with leading cloud platforms, CI/CD providers and other ISVs to ensure their customers and end users who use Docker have uninterrupted access to Docker Hub images. Among these partners are the major cloud hosting providers, CI/CD vendors such as CircleCI, and OSS entities such as Apache Software Foundation (ASF). You can find more information about programs on our Pricing Page as well as links to contact us for information about programs for ISVs and companies with more than 500 Continue reading

Anatomy of a Binary Executable

Even though I’ve developed software for a number of years now, there’s one question that has always been in the back of my mind and I haven’t had the time or patience to really answer, until now: What is a binary executable anyways? For this example, I wrote a brutally simple Rust program that includes a function “sum” to add two integers together, and am invoking it from main(): fn main() { println!

What are data centers, and how are they changing?

A data center is a physical facility that enterprises use to house their business-critical applications and information. As they evolve, it’s important to think long-term about how to maintain their reliability and security.What is a data center? Data centers are often referred to as a singular thing, but in actuality they are composed of a number of technical elements. These can be broken down into three categories: Compute: The memory and processing power to run the applications, generally provided by high-end servers Storage: Important enterprise data is generally housed in a data center, on media ranging from tape to solid-state drives, with multiple backups Networking: Interconnections between data center components and to the outside world, including routers, switches, application-delivery controllers, and more These are the components that IT needs to store and manage the most critical systems that are vital to the continuous operations of a company. Because of this, the reliability, efficiency, security and constant evolution of data centers are typically a top priority. Both software and hardware security measures are a must.To read this article in full, please click here

What are data centers, and how are they changing?

A data center is a physical facility that enterprises use to house their business-critical applications and information. As they evolve, it’s important to think long-term about how to maintain their reliability and security.What is a data center? Data centers are often referred to as a singular thing, but in actuality they are composed of a number of technical elements. These can be broken down into three categories: Compute: The memory and processing power to run the applications, generally provided by high-end servers Storage: Important enterprise data is generally housed in a data center, on media ranging from tape to solid-state drives, with multiple backups Networking: Interconnections between data center components and to the outside world, including routers, switches, application-delivery controllers, and more These are the components that IT needs to store and manage the most critical systems that are vital to the continuous operations of a company. Because of this, the reliability, efficiency, security and constant evolution of data centers are typically a top priority. Both software and hardware security measures are a must.To read this article in full, please click here

What are data centers, and how they are changing?

A data center is a physical facility that enterprises use to house their business-critical applications and information. As they evolve, it’s important to think long-term about how to maintain their reliability and security.What is a data center? Data centers are often referred to as a singular thing, but in actuality they are composed of a number of technical elements. These can be broken down into three categories: Compute: The memory and processing power to run the applications, generally provided by high-end servers Storage: Important enterprise data is generally housed in a data center, on media ranging from tape to solid-state drives, with multiple backups Networking: Interconnections between data center components and to the outside world, including routers, switches, application-delivery controllers, and more These are the components that IT needs to store and manage the most critical systems that are vital to the continuous operations of a company. Because of this, the reliability, efficiency, security and constant evolution of data centers are typically a top priority. Both software and hardware security measures are a must.To read this article in full, please click here

What are data centers, and how they are changing?

A data center is a physical facility that enterprises use to house their business-critical applications and information. As they evolve, it’s important to think long-term about how to maintain their reliability and security.What is a data center? Data centers are often referred to as a singular thing, but in actuality they are composed of a number of technical elements. These can be broken down into three categories: Compute: The memory and processing power to run the applications, generally provided by high-end servers Storage: Important enterprise data is generally housed in a data center, on media ranging from tape to solid-state drives, with multiple backups Networking: Interconnections between data center components and to the outside world, including routers, switches, application-delivery controllers, and more These are the components that IT needs to store and manage the most critical systems that are vital to the continuous operations of a company. Because of this, the reliability, efficiency, security and constant evolution of data centers are typically a top priority. Both software and hardware security measures are a must.To read this article in full, please click here

What are data centers, and gow they are changing?

A data center is a physical facility that enterprises use to house their business-critical applications and information. As they evolve, it’s important to think long-term about how to maintain their reliability and security.What is a data center? Data centers are often referred to as a singular thing, but in actuality they are composed of a number of technical elements. These can be broken down into three categories: Compute: The memory and processing power to run the applications, generally provided by high-end servers Storage: Important enterprise data is generally housed in a data center, on media ranging from tape to solid-state drives, with multiple backups Networking: Interconnections between data center components and to the outside world, including routers, switches, application-delivery controllers, and more These are the components that IT needs to store and manage the most critical systems that are vital to the continuous operations of a company. Because of this, the reliability, efficiency, security and constant evolution of data centers are typically a top priority. Both software and hardware security measures are a must.To read this article in full, please click here

What are data centers, and gow they are changing?

A data center is a physical facility that enterprises use to house their business-critical applications and information. As they evolve, it’s important to think long-term about how to maintain their reliability and security.What is a data center? Data centers are often referred to as a singular thing, but in actuality they are composed of a number of technical elements. These can be broken down into three categories: Compute: The memory and processing power to run the applications, generally provided by high-end servers Storage: Important enterprise data is generally housed in a data center, on media ranging from tape to solid-state drives, with multiple backups Networking: Interconnections between data center components and to the outside world, including routers, switches, application-delivery controllers, and more These are the components that IT needs to store and manage the most critical systems that are vital to the continuous operations of a company. Because of this, the reliability, efficiency, security and constant evolution of data centers are typically a top priority. Both software and hardware security measures are a must.To read this article in full, please click here

Home Network 2020

Recently I moved to a new house and as a lot of reconstruction was done to bring the house up to date. I took the opportunity to have something I’ve always wanted in my home: a server rack! In my previous lab set-ups they were either located in my employers lab location or placed in […]

The post Home Network 2020 first appeared on Rick Mur.

Heavy Networking 548: Automating Multi-DC EVPN With Apstra (Sponsored)

If you’ve been looking at automation for your network, you should listen to this episode. This is one of those discussions that can help you understand whether you should roll your own artisanal automation, lovingly handcrafted with Python scripts flowing from your keyboard, or whether your organization would be better served with a commercially supported tool like Apstra. That’s the choice Beelastic needed to make, and we’re going to discuss why they went the Apstra direction. Apstra customer Beelastic is going to tell their tale of data center fabric, multiple data centers, automation, validation, multi-tenancy, EVPN, and more.

Heavy Networking 548: Automating Multi-DC EVPN With Apstra (Sponsored)

If you’ve been looking at automation for your network, you should listen to this episode. This is one of those discussions that can help you understand whether you should roll your own artisanal automation, lovingly handcrafted with Python scripts flowing from your keyboard, or whether your organization would be better served with a commercially supported tool like Apstra. That’s the choice Beelastic needed to make, and we’re going to discuss why they went the Apstra direction. Apstra customer Beelastic is going to tell their tale of data center fabric, multiple data centers, automation, validation, multi-tenancy, EVPN, and more.

The post Heavy Networking 548: Automating Multi-DC EVPN With Apstra (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Remotely Triggered Black Hole Filtering

Remotely triggered black hole (RTBH) filtering is a technique that provides the ability to drop undesirable traffic before it enters a protected network. It is used for the mitigation of distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) and DoS attacks. We will show configuration of destination and source RTBH for Cisco IOS-XR in a network depicted on the Picture 1. […]
Continue reading...

The Dangers of Flying Pigs (RFC1925, rule 3)

There are many times in networking history, and in the day-to-day operation of a network, when an engineer has been asked to do what seems to be impossible. Maybe installing a circuit faster than a speeding bullet or flying over tall buildings to make it to a remote site faster than any known form of conveyance short of a transporter beam (which, contrary to what you might see in the movies, has not yet been invented).

One particular impossible assignment in the early days of network engineering was the common request to replicate the creation of the works of Shakespeare making use of the infinite number of monkeys (obviously) connected to the Internet. The creation of appropriate groups of monkeys, the herding of these groups, and the management of their output were once considered a nearly impossible task, similar to finding a token dropped on the floor or lost in the ether.

This problem proved so intractable that the IETF finally created an entire suite of management tools for managing the infinite monkeys used for these experiments, which is described in RFC2795. This RFC describes the Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS), which runs on top of the Internet Protocol, the Continue reading

What is an IP address? And what is your IP address?

An IP address is a long string of numbers assigned to every device connected to a network that uses Internet Protocol as the medium for communication; it’s the digital world’s equivalent of the mailing address associated with your home or workplace.The way Internet Protocol works is that information is transmitted over the network in discrete chunks called packets; each packet is mostly made up of whatever data the sender is trying to communicate, but also includes a header, consisting of metadata about that packet.Among other pieces of data stored in the packet header are the IP address of the device that sent the packet and the IP address of device where the packet is heading. Routers and other network infrastructure use this information to make sure the packets get to where they’re supposed to go.To read this article in full, please click here