In Part 1 and Part 2 we covered everything from initial device provisioning to the continuous deployment of changes to our network. We ended with a very simplistic example that barely scratched the surface of the corner cases and scaling challenges that can be encountered along the way. From a process perspective however, now that we have this…
Archives for July 2017
Packet Pushers Link Propagation 81
Welcome to Link Propagation, a Packet Pushers newsletter. Link Propagation is included in your free membership. Each week we scour the InterWebs to find the most relevant product announcements, industry news, and must-read posts. We drink from the fire hose so you can sip from a coffee cup. Blogs IPv6 anycast possibly done better –…
Cisco’s SD-Access: All The Pieces
Here’s an overview of all the pieces and parts you’ll need to get Cisco’s SD-Access up and running.
Infrastructure As Code For The Network – Part 2 – Day 1 Operations And Beyond
In Part 1 of our look into the feasibility of infrastructure as code for the network stack, we laid the foundation for device provisioning. Now comes the challenge of operating our newly built or converted infrastructure and incorporating it into our change control processes. Day 1 & Beyond: Daily Operations & Change Management Version Control :…
Video: Talking with Russ White on OpenFabric, Models and the BGP trash can.
I sat down with Russ during the IETF99 conference to dig into OpenFabric drafts that look to build an automated, self-configuring Leaf/Spine ( or multistage CLOS) IP Fabric. OpenFabric is based on IS-IS protocol and with some minor changes. Oh, and the fact that BGP is a trash can for IETF activity 🙂 The work…
Flash Will Be EOL in 2020
FINALLY
What To Learn Next? Survey Snapshot
Python and Ansible topped the list of what network engineers want to learn in the Packet Pushers’ latest Human Infrastructure survey.
Infrastructure As Code For The Network – Part 1 – Introduction And Day 0 Provisioning
Automate, orchestrate, disable the CLI, fire your entire network team… The message has been pretty universal over the past couple of years, whether catching up on your favorite blogs, listening to the latest podcast, or engaging with other engineers on social media. While no one will deny its importance or even its inevitability (sort of), why…
Cloud Images with cloud-init Demystified
If you build multi-VM test clusters and have downloaded generic images from CentOS/RHEL/Ubuntu/Fedora you will have encountered the bootstrapping system known as cloud-init. The purpose of the post is to demystify cloud-init and tips on how to use it effectively. There is a benefit to using these pre-built VM images: they are typically a minimal…
Link Propagation 80
Welcome to Link Propagation, a Packet Pushers newsletter. Link Propagation is included in your free membership. Each week we scour the InterWebs to find the most relevant product announcements, industry news, and must-read posts. We drink from the fire hose so you can sip from a coffee cup. Blogs The mystery of the hanging S3…
Acid – ACI Configuration Tool
If you have ever gone through the process of setting up ACI, then you probably know how confusing and slow this process can be. Many people turn to faster solutions like Postman + JSON scripts which is prone to errors and difficult to maintain. I wrote Acid to help in this process and speed up…
Journey into container orchestration — 5 Socks!
Previously we had completed the installation of an SDN add-on, weave, in our kubernetes cluster. At this stage we have only one application pod running on the pod network, viz., kube-dns. In this transcript, 02-sock-shop.md, we will add many more application pods by trying out the the sock-shop demo. The sock-shop demo is a mock-up…
The Salary Talk
Visualize something with me fellow Pushers. You log into whichever of your myriad free email accounts you’ve shunted job board traffic to, and, to your shock and delight, you have four emails from various recruiters for jobs in your niche! Dutifully, you open each and read the list of job requirements, reminding yourself as you…
Annoying Vendor Practices: Survey Snapshot
Complex licensing tops the Packet Pushers’ survey snapshot list of the most annoying vendor practices.
Cisco’s Viptela Challenge: Integration without alienation
When Cisco announced its intent to acquire leading SD-WAN vendor Viptela in May of 2017, the network industry buzzed with conversation. Now, we’re in the quiet purgatory while we wait for regulatory approval. Since the deal hasn’t been finalized yet, neither company can say much about their plans for integration. But it’s clear that a…
New Cisco UCS Software Leverages Turbonomic For Workload Optimization
Cisco’s newest generation of UCS servers includes workload optimization software from Turbonomic.
Managing Fortigate device configuration via REST API using python
Lately I have been growing tired of using CLI to configure network devices, so when I was faced with the project to deploy about 100 of Fortigate firewalls, I have decided that I am not that interested in copy-pasting configs via CLI and I want to do something different. Luckily for me, Fortigate did roll…
Journey into container orchestration — 4 kubeadm network
We install a network add-on to kubernetes, and join the three workers. Finally, we get a working multi-node cluster. Previous posts: part 1, part 2, part 3. The transcript to follow along for this post can be found here: 01-network.md. Many of the network add-ons such as Weave, or Flannel, are SDNs in their own…
Packet Pushers Link Propagation 79
Packet Pushers Link Propagation 79
Journey into container orchestration — 3 kubeadm init
Our first transcript is ready! It is a walk-through of kubeadm init and this will build a cluster up to but not including a network. The transcript for this blog post can be found here: 00-install.md. kubeadm builds the kubernetes cluster by running one host service (kubelet), and six pods on the master node. This…
Journey into container orchestration — 2 kubeadm lab setup
In the next few posts we will setup a multi-host kubernetes toy lab using the kubeadm tutorial. This post itself will cover the lab setup and basic smoke tests. The kubeadm tutorial leaves the network as an exercise for the reader, so we will fill that in using weave. There is indeed an embarras de…
Cisco’s New UCS Servers: Whitebox By Any Other Name
Understanding the future of vendor Ethernet whitebox through an x86 server lens.
Journey into container orchestration — 1 Introduction
In my current job, I have the need to introduce container orchestration into our backend. While we have the classic VM orchestration system in place, it is time to move our smattering of standalone docker (moby?) hosts into a more coherent whole. Thus begins my journey into container orchestration starting with Kubernetes. In this series…
Take The Packet Pushers Audience Survey
The Packet Pushers annual audience survey is posted. If you can spare some time, we’d really appreciate your feedback.
Startup Radar: Volta Networks Puts The Router Control Plane In The Cloud
Startup Volta Networks is decomposing the traditional router by moving the control plane to the cloud.
