Underlay

In this episode we (Brandon, Phil, and Vince) introduce ourselves and share what drives our passion for network visibility and performance.  While we are all from Riverbed, this is not your typical vendor podcast.  We have a lot planned to discuss around why visibility is a key that networks must focus on today.  We talk about cloud and what that overused blanket term really means to us, and how migrations to the cloud are a key time to ensure that we have visibility into apps that have been forgotten, where our data is, what’s leaving the cloud, and what the performance looks like, before, during, and after. We touch on Security, AI/ML, and performance as well, as we setup shop and plan to discuss these areas in further detail.

Reference Links:

• https://community.riverbed.com
• https://riverbed.com

Brandon Carroll Host Phil Gervasi Host Vince Berk Host

The post Introduction To The Riverbed Technical Podcast appeared first on Network Collective.

Running and building a regional provider network is a challenging proposition. When your network is your profit center, every decision is made through a different lens. Add a global pandemic on top and you’re certainly going to walk away with a few lessons learned. In this episode we talk with Marek Isalski about his experiences building and operating a regional provider network in the UK.

Show Notes

• • Faelix Overview 
    • How did Faelix get started?
    • What services does Faelix offer?
    • How many people are on your team?
  • Move from Mikrotik to VyOS
    • Motivated by a few factors, including CVE-2018-19299
  • Using NetBox as a single source of truth
    • How do we do logical topology stuff, like OSPF, BGP, in netbox?
    • Have open-sourced our project for mixing saltstack + netbox + vyos
  • Recent bugs encountered:
    • FRR (RPKI crash in early 2020)
    • FRR (ospfv3 crash in late 2020)
    • Intel i40e NIC drivers (late 2020)
  • Standing up three new POPs in the height of travel restrictions of 2020
  • Presentations/Recordings
    • UKNOF:
    • NetMCR: Networkers in & around the Manchester
    • etc…

Links

• https://www.uknof.org.uk/
• https://www.netmcr.uk/
• https://twitter.com/maznu

Marek Isalski Guest Tony Efantis Host Jordan Martin Host

Outro Music: Danger Storm Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The post Lessons Learned From A Regional Provider Network appeared first on Network Collective.

In today’s episode we’re talking about IPv6. More specifically, we discuss what it takes to run an IPv6 only network. Why now? And why not dual stack? Well, in the middle of November (2019), the US government put out a memo outlining their updated guidelines and expectations for IPv6. In it, they mandate a future vision of 80% of devices connected to IPv6 only networks by 2025. That’s not that far away. So, as many of our peers who work in US federal organizations are preparing for a world that is IPv6 only, we figured it might be time for us to do the same. 

Show Notes

• Impact of OMB memo (is this the same as last time or not?)
• Other IPv4 Flag days (turn off IPv4)
  • Washington State Policy 300, IPv4 decommissioned Dec. 31, 2025
    • https://ocio.wa.gov/policy/statewide-migration-ipv6
  • China 100% by 2025 
    • https://blog.apnic.net/2019/06/06/100-by-2025-china-getting-serious-about-ipv6/ 
  • IPv4 Flag Day (February 1st, 2030)  
    • https://ipv4flagday.net/
• Benefits of running an IPv6-only network
• IPv6 has the potential to perform better than IPv4
• Prevailing recommendation for IPv6 adoption has been dual stack. This memo mandates IPv6 only network adoption. What are some of the additional considerations that need to be considered when jumping straight from IPv4 to IPv6. 
• What is the current state of IPv6 networking hardware today? 
  • Data Plane
  • Management Plane
  • Orchestration?
• What are some of the biggest hurdles to adopting IPv6 exclusive networks, as compared to a dual-stack approach?
• Other challenges of IPv6-only
  • Disabling IPv4-stack on hosts, how to signal to them that this is an IPv6-only access network

 

Thank you to BlueCat Networks for sponsoring today’s episode. BlueCat is putting together some great content and a great community surrounding the topics of DNS, DHCP, and IPAM. You can join the Network VIP community and register for the next roundtable by going to bluecatnetworks.com/certainty. Thank you to Unimus for sponsoring today’s episode. Unimus is a fast to deploy and easy to use Network Automation and Configuration Management solution. You can learn more about how you can start automating your network in under 15 minutes at unimus.net/nc. Nick Buraglio Guest Scott Hogg Guest Tony Efantis Host Jordan Martin Host

Outro Music: Danger Storm Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The post Running IPv6 Only Networks appeared first on Network Collective.

In this episode, we talk with Damien Garros from Network to Code. Damien works with clients on a daily basis architecting and implementing Source of Truth strategies for network automation solutions.  We spend time talking through how to best approach source of truth, how to solve the age-old problem of populating the source of truth, and talk about several open source projects that can help you on your source of truth journey.

Reference Links:

• https://github.com/networktocode/ntc-netbox-pluginonboarding
• https://github.com/networktocode/network-importer
• https://github.com/networktocode/diffsync
• https://github.com/networktocode/ntc-netbox-plugin-metrics-ext

Damien Garros Guest Jason Edelman Host

Outro Music: Danger Storm Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The post NTC – Damien Garros – Source Of Truth appeared first on Network Collective.

All you have to do is take a look around you and it becomes obvious that people just simply don’t like change. Conversely, all you have to do is look around you and it becomes obvious that our industry is in almost a constant state of change. How do we reconcile these things? How can we adapt to the ever changing world around us, and how can we utilize this knowledge to be more effective influencers of change within our organizations and within our jobs.

Links

• YouTube Live Stream: https://tnc.li/youtube 
• Nick Buraglio’s Website: https://forwardingplane.net/
• Kevin Myer’s / IP Architechs: https://iparchitechs.com/

Show Notes

Now this topic, like many of the topics that have become episodes on Network Collective lately, was prompted by a conversation in the Network Collective Slack. It has an IPv6 bend to it, as IPv6 seems to be the change the industry continually likes to avoid, but the avoidance of change isn’t something new. Nick, I’m going to start with you. Do you think the aversion to change in our industry is just a reflection of being human, or do you think there is more to it than that.

• What are some examples of where reluctance to change is causing us challenges
  • IPv6
  • L2 adjacency dependence (legacy applications)
  • The SDN “revolution”
  • Automation (cattle vs. pets)

• Are there justifiable reasons for networkers to be resistant to change
  • Everything depends on the network so stability is key
  • We’re constantly being sold change as the answer to every problem – sometimes mature/proven solutions are the way to go
  • Marketing fluff
  • Money/ROI

• What are some of your tips for navigating change 
  • Attitude (cynicism, snark is killing us)
  • Confidence
    • Specifically in fundamentals
    • Fear of failure
  • Stop firefighting
  • Stop being the victim
  • Try to make data based decisions (remove emotion from the equation)

• What are some of your tips for influencing change
  • Take the time to understand motivations
  • Understand it’s natural to fear change
  • Communicate, communicate, communicate
  • Build trust

 

Thank you to BlueCat Networks for sponsoring today’s episode. BlueCat is putting together some great content and a great community surrounding the topics of DNS, DHCP, and IPAM. You can join the Network VIP community and register for the next roundtable by going to bluecatnetworks.com/certainty. Thank you to Unimus for sponsoring today’s episode. Unimus is a fast to deploy and easy to use Network Automation and Configuration Management solution. You can learn more about how you can start automating your network in under 15 minutes at

A conversation in the Network Collective Slack prompted some conversation about how to build a network. No, not the packet switched networks that we’re all so familiar with, but rather a personal network of peers. Not everyone has the privilege to attend trade shows and conferences throughout the year, and all of us have lacked that privilege for a while now due to Covid, so how does one build a pervasive network without in-person events. We also discuss some methods to set yourself apart from the crowd in ways that don’t include peer relationships.

Links:

• YouTube Live Stream: https://tnc.li/youtube 

 

Thank you to BlueCat Networks for sponsoring today’s episode. BlueCat is putting together some great content and a great community surrounding the topics of DNS, DHCP, and IPAM. You can join the Network VIP community and register for the next roundtable by going to bluecatnetworks.com/certainty. Thank you to Unimus for sponsoring today’s episode. Unimus is a fast to deploy and easy to use Network Automation and Configuration Management solution. You can learn more about how you can start automating your network in under 15 minutes at unimus.net/nc. Tony Efantis Host Jordan Martin Host

Outro Music: Danger Storm Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The post Building A Network (no, the other kind) appeared first on Network Collective.

From working in unbelievable environments to dealing with unexpected bugs, the longer that you do networking for a career the more likely it is that you have a story or two from the trenches to share. Listening to other’s adventures can serve both as a cathartic release and as a warning for roads to leave untraveled. In today’s episode we talk with some experienced engineers about their stories. If nothing else, you as the listener can have some laughs at our expense. Enjoy!

 

Thank you to BlueCat Networks for sponsoring today’s episode. BlueCat is putting together some great content and a great community surrounding the topics of DNS, DHCP, and IPAM. You can join the Network VIP community and register for the next roundtable by going to bluecatnetworks.com/certainty. Thank you to Unimus for sponsoring today’s episode. Unimus is a fast to deploy and easy to use Network Automation and Configuration Management solution. You can learn more about how you can start automating your network in under 15 minutes at unimus.net/nc. Amy Arnold Guest Chris Cummings Guest Tony Efantis Host Jordan Martin Host

Outro Music: Danger Storm Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The post War Stories – The Trilogy appeared first on Network Collective.

In this podcast, we sit down with Daren Fulwell.  Daren is a long-time network engineer, CCIE and CCDE, and is now a network automation evangelist.  Tune in to hear about not only Daren’s journey, but a great discussion dissecting the intersection of SDN, intent-based networking, and how we need more focus on understanding operational processes and workflows to really make a dent within a network automation journey.

Reference Links:

• https://ipfabric.io/
• https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-irtf-nmrg-ibn-concepts-definitions-02

Daren Fulwell Guest Jason Edelman Host

Outro Music: Danger Storm Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The post NTC – A Conversation With Daren Fulwell appeared first on Network Collective.

Every few years the industry takes a significant step towards a more holistic and capable security model. At the beginning, everything and everyone was trusted, and for good reason. You knew every operator and every machine that was connected to the network. But as networks have become ubiquitous, that level of trust is simply unreasonable. So we’ve built firewalls, and differing levels of inspection, but all of these tools still allow for some implicit level of trust between a machine and those machines closest to them. That is changing and that is what we’re here to talk about today. The newest trend in security is the concept of zero trust, and while it’s suffering the common plight of any new trend with multiple vendors trying to shape the definition, removing implicit trust in our networks is the next logical step towards a truly secure infrastructure.

• Additional Resources
  • NIST special publication 800-207
    • Takes a pragmatic approach
    • Probably the best doc on zero trust arch today
    • https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-207-draft2.pdf
  • Gilman, E., Barth, D. (2017). Zero Trust Networks : building secure systems in untrusted networks. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.
    • This is a great book on implementing zero trust in a cloud native application environment.
  • No More Chewy Centers : Introducing The Zero Trust Model Of Information Security
    • The rosetta stone of zero trust
    • https://media.paloaltonetworks.com/documents/Forrester-No-More-Chewy-Centers.pdf
  • Kindervag, J. (2010). Build Security Into Your Network’s DNA: The Zero Trust Network Architecture
    • Good doc for understand the logic of big honking firewall
    • http://www.virtualstarmedia.com/downloads/Forrester_zero_trust_DNA.pdf

 

Network Collective thanks NVIDIA for sponsoring today’s episode. NVIDIA is positioned as the leader in open networking and provides end-to-end solutions at all layers of the software and hardware stack. You can experience NVIDIA Cumulus in the Cloud for free!  Head on over to:

https://cumulusnetworks.com/ncpod to see what a modern open network operating system looks like for yourself.

Steve McNutt Guest Darrel Clute Guest Tony Efantis Host Jordan Martin Host

Outro Music: Danger Storm Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The post What Is A Zero Trust Network Architecture appeared first on Network Collective.

In this episode, we sit down and talk with Przemek Rogala, creator of J2Live, and look at his journey from network engineer to network automation engineer.  We talk about Interop, up and coming technologies in this space like Batfish, the network automation community, and understanding the business value related to network automation. Przemek has a blog that is all about network automation at https://ttl255.com/ and has a great tutorial on learning Jinja2 templating that you can find there too.

Links:

* NetDevOps Survey:  http://bit.ly/netdevops-survey-2020

* Przemek’s Blog:  https://ttl255.com/

* Online Jinja2 Parser and Renderer built by Przemek:  https://j2live.ttl255.com/

Outro Music:

Danger Storm Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/