Using an Inventory Plugin from a Collection in Ansible Tower

Many IT environments grow more and more complex. It is more important than ever that an automation solution always has the most up to date information about what nodes are present and need to be automated. To answer this challenge, the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform uses inventories: lists of managed nodes.

In its simplest form, inventories can be static files. This is ideal when getting started with Ansible, but as the automation is scaled, a static inventory file is not enough anymore:

  1. How do we update and maintain a list of all of our managed nodes if something changes, if workloads are spun up or teared down?
  2. How do we classify our infrastructure so that we can be more selective in what managed nodes we automate against?

The answer to both of these questions is to use a dynamic inventory: a script or a plugin that will go to a source of truth and discover the nodes that need to be managed. It will also automatically classify the nodes by putting them into groups, which can be used to more selectively target devices when automating with Ansible.

Inventory plugins allow Ansible users to use external platforms to Continue reading

RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) on Cisco Nexus 9300

RoCE - Rocky

On a previous post, I made an introduction about NVMe, NVMe-oF and RDMA for network engineers. In this post, I’m going to talk about RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) and more specifically how to implement and configure the QoS part of RoCEv2 on the Cisco Nexus 9300 series. What is RoCE? RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE – pronounced “Rocky”) is a network protocol that allows Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over an Ethernet network. It does this by an encapsulation of an InfiniBand transport packet over Ethernet. There are two…

The post RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) on Cisco Nexus 9300 appeared first on AboutNetworks.net.

NVMe, NVMe over Fabrics and RDMA for network engineers

HDD

In the past, the evolution of network-based storage was not really a problem for network engineers: the network was fast and the spinning hard drives were slow. Natural network upgrades to 10Gb, 40Gb, and 100Gb Ethernet were more than sufficient to meet the networking needs of storage systems. But now, with the introduction of ultra-fast solid-state disks (SSDs) and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe), this is no longer true! Storage teams now have the ability to potentially saturate the network with incredibly fast devices. Network-based storage (SANs) using NVMe technology –…

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Organic data-transfer technology holds promise for IoT

Visible light communications (VLC) systems are an alternative to radio-based wireless networks and serve a dual purpose: They provide in-building lighting, and they use light waves for data transmission. VLC uses modulated light as a data carrier, while the visible spectrum provides light.Using VLC for data transmission has some advantages. It offers decent bandwidth; it offers security because walls, floors and roofs obstruct the data-carrying wavelengths, which reduces the risk of eavesdropping; and it's inexpensive since it's simply incorporated into light fixtures or, in emerging developments, worked into displays and other surfaces.To read this article in full, please click here

Organic data-transfer technology holds promise for IoT

Visible light communications (VLC) systems are an alternative to radio-based wireless networks and serve a dual purpose: They provide in-building lighting, and they use light waves for data transmission. VLC uses modulated light as a data carrier, while the visible spectrum provides light.Using VLC for data transmission has some advantages. It offers decent bandwidth; it offers security because walls, floors and roofs obstruct the data-carrying wavelengths, which reduces the risk of eavesdropping; and it's inexpensive since it's simply incorporated into light fixtures or, in emerging developments, worked into displays and other surfaces.To read this article in full, please click here

DevAsc – List Consisting of Dictonaries

I was going through Nick Russo’s course Getting Started with Software Development Using Cisco DevNet at Pluralsight and one thing he went through was interacting with the DNA Center API. Using a call to /intent/api/v1/network-device, DNA-C will return a JSON object consisting of an array of objects, or in Python speak, a list of dictionaries. This looks something like below, snipped for brevity:

{
    "response": [
        {
            "memorySize": "3735220224",
            "family": "Wireless Controller",
            "type": "Cisco 3504 Wireless LAN Controller",
            "macAddress": "50:61:bf:57:2f:00",
            "softwareType": "Cisco Controller",
            "softwareVersion": "8.8.111.0",
            "deviceSupportLevel": "Supported",
            "platformId": "AIR-CT3504-K9",
            "reachabilityFailureReason": "",
            "series": "Cisco 3500 Series Wireless LAN Controller",
            "serialNumber": "FCW2218M0B1",
            "inventoryStatusDetail": "<status><general code=\"SUCCESS\"/></status>",
            "hostname": "3504_WLC",
            "lastUpdateTime": 1596457941780,
            "errorDescription": null,
            "interfaceCount": "0",
            "lastUpdated": "2020-08-03 12:32:21",
            "lineCardCount": "0",
            "lineCardId": "",
            "locationName": null,
            "managementIpAddress": "10.10.20.51",
            "reachabilityStatus": "Reachable",
            "snmpContact": "",
            "snmpLocation": "",
            "tagCount": "0",
            "tunnelUdpPort": "16666",
            "waasDeviceMode": null,
            "apManagerInterfaceIp": "",
            "associatedWlcIp": "",
            "bootDateTime": "2020-03-12 16:08:21",
            "collectionStatus": "Managed",
            "errorCode": null,
            "roleSource": "AUTO",
            "upTime": "143 days, 20:24:58.00",
            "location": null,
            "role": "ACCESS",
            "collectionInterval": "Global Default",
            "instanceTenantId": "5e5a432575161200cc4ac95c",
            "instanceUuid": "72dc1f0a-e4da-4ec3-a055-822416894dd5",
            "id": "72dc1f0a-e4da-4ec3-a055-822416894dd5"
        },
        {
            "memorySize": "NA",
            "family": "Switches and Hubs",
            "type": "Cisco Catalyst 9300 Switch",
            "macAddress": "00:72:78:54:d1:00",
            "softwareType": "IOS-XE",
            "softwareVersion": "16.6.4a",
            "deviceSupportLevel": "Supported",
            "platformId": "C9300-48U",
            "reachabilityFailureReason": "",
             Continue reading

What Is Generic Programming?

This year, my journey to learn Rust (and actively use it in a few side projects) has been a treasure trove of learning experiences. Lately, I’ve been finding myself trying to wrap my head around not just new syntax, but entirely new software programming paradigms that I simply haven’t been exposed to before. In my career thus far, I’ve mainly used two languages professionally: Python, and Go. It turns out this forms a pretty interesting story arc, since these two languages paint a wide spectrum of approaches to enabling the developer to be expressive and productive while managing the runtime tradeoffs of doing so.

Tech Bytes: Fortinet’s SASE Is More Than Just The Cloud (Sponsored)

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is an emerging market category. On today's Tech Bytes episode, we examine SASE with sponsor Fortinet, including how Fortinet's flexible consumption model differentiates its SASE offering. Our guest is John Maddison, Executive VP of Products at Fortinet.

The post Tech Bytes: Fortinet’s SASE Is More Than Just The Cloud (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

My living room intern experience at Cloudflare

My living room intern experience at Cloudflare
My living room intern experience at Cloudflare

This was an internship unlike any other. With a backdrop of a pandemic, protests, and a puppy that interrupted just about every Zoom meeting, it was also an internship that demonstrated Cloudflare’s leadership in giving students meaningful opportunities to explore their interests and contribute to the company’s mission: to help build a better Internet.

For the past twelve weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of working as a Legal Intern at Cloudflare. A few key things set this internship apart from even those in which I’ve been able to connect with people in-person:

  • Communication
  • Community
  • Commingling
  • Collaboration

Ever since I formally accepted my internship, the Cloudflare team has been in frequent and thorough communication about what to expect and how to make the most of my experience. This approach to communication was in stark contrast to the approach taken by several other companies and law firms. The moment COVID-19 hit, Cloudflare not only reassured me that I’d still have a job, the company also doubled down on bringing on more interns. Comparatively, a bunch of my fellow law school students were left in limbo: unsure of if they had a job, the extent to which they’d be able to do it Continue reading

The 4D Network

I think we can all agree networks have become too complex—and this complexity is a result of the network often becoming the “final dumping ground” of every problem that seems like it might impact more than one system, or everything no-one else can figure out how to solve. It’s rather humorous, in fact, to see a lot of server and application folks sitting around saying “this networking stuff is so complex—let’s design something better and simpler in our bespoke overlay…” and then falling into the same complexity traps as they start facing the real problems of policy and scale.

This complexity cannot be “automated away.” It can be smeared over with intent, but we’re going to find—soon enough—that smearing intent on top of complexity just makes for a dirty kitchen and a sub-standard meal.

While this is always “top of mind” in my world, what brings it to mind this particular week is a paper by Jen Rexford et al. (I know Jen isn’t on the lead position in the author list, but still…) called A Clean Slate 4D Approach to Network Control and Management. Of course, I can appreciate the paper in part because I agree with a Continue reading

Network Break 295: Arista CloudEOS Edge Joins Multi-Cloud Portfolio; Juniper Announces AI-Powered WAN Assurance

Today's Network Break podcast explores a new multi-cloud offering from Arista, Juniper's WAN Assurance service that leverages Mist AI, and Marvell's Ethernet ASIC line. We also discuss financial results from Juniper, A10 Networks, and F5, plus a space networking update and more.

The post Network Break 295: Arista CloudEOS Edge Joins Multi-Cloud Portfolio; Juniper Announces AI-Powered WAN Assurance appeared first on Packet Pushers.

The Week in Internet News: U.S. Lawmakers Skewer Big Tech Firms

Attacking the big guys: During an antitrust hearing, U.S. lawmakers – both Democrats and Republicans – heaped criticism on Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google about their market power, the Washington Post reports. “Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy,” said Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat. Republicans complained about alleged anti-conservative bias in online services, while many Democrats talked about how the companies’ market power was being used against competitors, NPR says.

Encryption laws vs. the economy: Laws in Australia creating law enforcement access to encrypted communications are hurting the tech sector in the country, tech giant Atlassian told lawmakers there, the Guardian reports. The anti-encryption laws have discouraged talent from working in Australia and may limit economic growth during the post-COVID-19 recovery, the company said.

Paying for news: Also in Australia, the government there has released the world’s first draft law to force Google and Facebook to pay traditional news media to publish their material, Al Jazeera reports. Under the plan, the tech companies would have to negotiate with Australian media companies to use their content.

Jailed for TikToking: An Egyptian court has ordered two-year Continue reading

Measuring USB with bpftrace

File usb-bw.b:

#include <linux/usb.h>

interval:s:1 {
  printf("--------------------------\n");
  print(@total);
  print(@sum);
  clear(@sum);
  clear(@total);
}

kprobe:__usb_hcd_giveback_urb {
  $urb = (struct urb*)arg0;
  $dev = $urb->dev;
  @total = stats((uint64)$urb->actual_length);
  @sum[$dev->descriptor.idVendor,
       $dev->descriptor.idProduct,
       str($dev->product),
       str($dev->manufacturer)] = stats((uint64)$urb->actual_length);
}

Example run with a USB stick idling (appears to be probed once every two seconds), and starting and stopping some GNURadio sniffing with an USRP B200 at 10Msps:

$ sudo bpftrace usb-bw.b
Attaching 2 probes...
--------------------------
@total: count 317, average 20, total 6641

@sum[9472, 32, USRP B200, Ettus Research LLC]: count 315, average 20, total 6597
@sum[4871, 357, USB Mass Storage Devie, USBest Technology]: count 2, average 22, total 44

--------------------------
@total: count 6807, average 20, total 136552

@sum[9472, 32, USRP B200, Ettus Research LLC]: count 6807, average 20, total 136552

--------------------------
@total: count 8507, average 20, total 170852

@sum[9472, 32, USRP B200, Ettus Research LLC]: count 8505, average 20, total 170808
@sum[4871, 357, USB Mass Storage Devie, USBest Technology]: count 2, average 22, total 44

--------------------------
@total: count 979, average 20, total 20288

@sum[9472, 32, USRP B200, Ettus Research LLC]: count 979, average 20, total 20288

--------------------------
@total: count 2141, average 7319, total 15670428

@sum[4871, 357, USB Mass Storage Devie, USBest Technology]:  Continue reading

Nutrition Innovations You Shouldn’t Miss

With the passage of time, the entire world continues to change – bringing about different innovations that were previously never known to humans. These innovations arise in various fields and are extremely noteworthy, because not only do they contain benefits, but they are also extremely convenient as compared to older measures.

Similar is the case for nutrition. Previously, to gain different health benefits and strength in various areas, one would have to combine a number of different fruits, vegetables, or any type of food and combine them together to get some form of nutrients for the body. However, these ways would consume an immense amount of time.

There is no doubt that in today’s world, the only thing everyone is short on is time. For this reason, some natural health brands are known for bringing about various nutrition innovations over the years, which can boost your health to a great extent.

These are the latest innovations, which you need to incorporate into your lifestyle so that you can feel more energized and healthier, each step of the way!

Improve Your Sleep Cycle

One of the greatest fight’s humans have with themselves is with their inner need for sleep. The time Continue reading

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