Worth Exploring: bgpstuff.net
Darren O’Connor put together a BGP looking glass with web GUI. Nothing fancy so far… but he also offers REST API interface (because REST API sounds so much better than HTTP).
The REST API calls return text results, so you can use them straight in a Bash script. For example, here’s a simple script to print a bunch of details about your current IP address:
Worth Exploring: bgpstuff.net
Darren O’Connor put together a BGP looking glass with web GUI. Nothing fancy so far… but he also offers REST API interface (because REST API sounds so much better than HTTP).
The REST API calls return text results, so you can use them straight in a Bash script. For example, here’s a simple script to print a bunch of details about your current IP address:
My Journey Towards the Cisco Certified DevNet Specialist – Service Provider by Nick Russo
On 14 October 2020, I took and passed the Automating Cisco Service Provider Solutions (SPAUTO) exam on my first attempt. This is the fifth DevNet exam I’ve passed and was a topic area in which I was already strong. Many people know me for my CCIE Service Provider Comprehensive Guide where I cover advanced SP technology. Others know me for my Pluralsight Ansible and Python network automation courses that implement an “infrastructure as code” solution to manage MPLS L3VPN route-targets. Suffice it to say that I’ve been doing SP stuff for a while.
Compared to the other concentration exams I’ve passed (ENAUTO and SAUTO), SPAUTO was about the same level of difficulty. The exam has a fair amount of carryover from DEVASC, DEVCOR, and ENAUTO, given the similarities of their blueprints, but is still quite heavy on SP products. Fortunately, there are only a few key products listed on the blueprint, making it narrower than SAUTO (which tested about 15 different APIs). Like ENAUTO, strong Python and network automation skills are important for this exam, and I’d strongly recommend having real-life SP design, implementation, and operations experience before attempting it.
Unlike DEVASC, DEVCOR, ENAUTO, and Continue reading
Docker at SnykCon 2020
We are excited to be a gold sponsor of the inaugural SnykCon virtual conference, a free online event from Snyk taking place this week on October 21-22, 2020. The conference will look at best practices and technologies for integrating development and security teams, tools, and processes, with a specific nod of the secure use of containers, from images used as a starting point to apps shared with teams and the public.
At Docker, we know that security is vital to successful app development projects, and automating app security early in the development process ensures teams start with the right foundation and ship apps that have vulnerability scanning and remediation included by default. This year we announced a broad partnership with Snyk to incorporate their leading vulnerability scanning across the entire Docker app development lifecycle. At Snykcon, attendees will learn how to successfully incorporate security scanning into their entire Docker app delivery pipeline.
Some of the highlights from Docker at this event include:
- Docker CEO Scott Scott Johnston will join Snyk CEO Peter McKay in the keynote fireside chat on Thursday, October 22 at 8:30am PDT. Scot and Peter will talk about the partnership between Docker and Snyk and share Continue reading
Tech Bytes: Integrating Automation And Whitebox With Apstra And SONiC (Sponsored)
Today's Tech Bytes podcast, sponsored by Apstra, dives into the integration between Apstra’s AOS data center automation platform and the SONiC Enterprise distribution, a Dell-supported version of the open-source SONiC network OS.Tech Bytes: Integrating Automation And Whitebox With Apstra And SONiC (Sponsored)
Today's Tech Bytes podcast, sponsored by Apstra, dives into the integration between Apstra’s AOS data center automation platform and the SONiC Enterprise distribution, a Dell-supported version of the open-source SONiC network OS.
The post Tech Bytes: Integrating Automation And Whitebox With Apstra And SONiC (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.
The case for a learned sorting algorithm
The case for a learned sorting algorithm, Kristo, Vaidya, et al., SIGMOD’20
We’ve watched machine learning thoroughly pervade the web giants, make serious headway in large consumer companies, and begin its push into the traditional enterprise. ML, then, is rapidly becoming an integral part of how we build applications of all shapes and sizes. But what about systems software? It’s earlier days there, but ‘The case for learned index structures’(Part 1 Part 2), SageDB and others are showing the way.
Today’s paper choice builds on the work done in SageDB, and focuses on a classic computer science problem: sorting. On a 1 billion item dataset, Learned Sort outperforms the next best competitor, RadixSort, by a factor of 1.49x. What really blew me away, is that this result includes the time taken to train the model used!
The big idea
Suppose you had a model that given a data item from a list, could predict its position in a sorted version of that list. 0.239806? That’s going to be at position 287! If the model had 100% accuracy, it would give us a completed sort just by running over the dataset and Continue reading
Hints and Principles: Applied to Networks
While software design is not the same as network design, there is enough overlap for network designers to learn from software designers. A recent paper published by Butler Lampson, updating a paper he wrote in 1983, is a perfect illustration of this principle. The paper is caleld Hints and Principles for Computer System Design. I’m not going to write a full review here–you should really go read the paper for yourself–but rather just point out some useful bits of the paper.
The first really useful point of this paper is Lampson breaks down the entire field of software design into three basic questions: What, How, and When (or who)? Each of these corresponds to the goals, techniques, and processes used to design and develop software. These same questions and answers apply to network design–if you are missing one of these three areas, then you are probably missing some important set of questions you have not answered yet. Each of these is also represented by an acronym: what? is STEADY, how? is AID, and when? is ART. Let’s look at a couple of these in a little more detail to see how Lampson’s system works.
STEADY stands for simple, timely, efficient, Continue reading
National Lab Supercomputing Sites Pick SambaNova for AI System Dance
The Department of Energy has formed a partnership between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and AI chip startup, SambaNova to deliver systems with acceleration for AI and HPC workloads. …
National Lab Supercomputing Sites Pick SambaNova for AI System Dance was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.
HPE And AMD Bag The Big Supercomputer Deal Down Under
Speaking very generally, investment in capability-class supercomputers by national governments tends to scale with gross domestic product. …
HPE And AMD Bag The Big Supercomputer Deal Down Under was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.
The Week in Internet News: Seven Countries Repeat Calls for Encryption Backdoors
Here we go again: Seven countries, including the U.S., U.K., Japan, and India, are again pushing tech companies to provide encryption backdoors for law enforcement, The Verge reports. The new international statement says encryption poses “significant challenges to public safety.” The U.S. and allies have long pushed for backdoors, even as security advocates have warned that criminals will find ways to exploit holes in encryption.
ISPs protest: ISPs in Dhaka, Bangladesh, are threatening to shut down service for three hours a day over a dispute on overhead wire replacement, Dhaka Tribune reports. The city is planning to move the wires underground, but ISPs are concerned about potential problems during the switch. Threatening a blackout to protest potential blackouts seems counterproductive.
Decency police: The government of Pakistan has banned short video app TikTok over “immoral and indecent” content, Al Jazeera says. It’s unclear what TikTok content the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority found offensive. A kickboxer in the country, hoping to market his training services on TikTok, challenged the ban, however, Reuters reports. “If TikTok can be banned even though it has millions of videos because of a few offensive ones, why can’t the whole internet be shut Continue reading