Tag blog

You Are Being Watched

A few weeks ago, I commented on Twitter that I was thinking about migrating from one product to a newly released product. It’s the sort of thing you do all the...

Technical Writing Home

Some of you may know me from my writings at northlandboyandhisgirl.com. That site works well for my travel writing, but right now I want to do a lot more technical...

Tag writing

Technician vs Consultant Writing

Many engineers struggle with business writing. They get easily lost in detail, and produce tortured documents that are technically correct, but of little business value. This is classic “technician” or...

Technical Writing Home

Some of you may know me from my writings at northlandboyandhisgirl.com. That site works well for my travel writing, but right now I want to do a lot more technical...

Tag certification

How Long Before CCIE SDN?

Cisco made some announcements about SDN certifications at Cisco Live US, in June this year. These didn’t seem to get a lot of attention at the time, perhaps due to...

HP: Submit Proof of Certification

If you currently hold Cisco CCNA, CCNP or CCIE certification, you can use this as credit towards HP AIS, ASE and Master ASE certifications.

ITIL 2011 Foundation Certification

I recently passed the ITIL 2011 Foundation Certification. After all the stress and time-suckage that was CCIE study, this was remarkably pain-free. Ridiculously easy really - most of the study...

Tag ITIL

War Stories: ITIL Process vs Practice

This article is Part 9 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

Christmas Change Freeze - Good or Bad?

We’re approaching Christmas, and for many of us, that means we’re about to enter an extended change freeze. This means an extended period when we shouldn’t change anything, hoping to improve stability. ITIL Change Management...

ITIL 2011 Foundation Certification

I recently passed the ITIL 2011 Foundation Certification. After all the stress and time-suckage that was CCIE study, this was remarkably pain-free. Ridiculously easy really - most of the study...

Tag study

Using OmniFocus for CCDE Study

A reader asked how I use OmniFocus to help with studying for certification exams. Here’s how I’m using OmniFocus to help with CCDE study. This may not be the ‘best’...

HP Simware - Comware OS Simulator

HP recently released “Simware”, a Comware network simulator that lets you create test networks of emulated Comware switches and routers. This can be used to create “virtual” networks, ideal for...

CCIE Preparation: Bootcamps

This article is Part 5 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors...

CCIE Preparation: Lab Equipment

This article is Part 4 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors...

CCIE Preparation: Vendors and Workbooks

This article is Part 3 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - This Article Part...

CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling

This article is Part 2 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - This Article Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors and Workbooks Part 4...

CCIE Preparation: Commitment

This article is Part 1 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - This Article Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors and...

CCIE Version 5 Update

UPDATE 4/12/13 - this is now official - see https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-22703. Once I’ve had a chance to digest the changes, I’ll post some thoughts.

Certifications - Should I Renew Them?

Getting a certification isn't like a degree - it expires. Each renewal cycle, you need to decide if it's worth putting in the effort to renew it. My advice: Think...

CCIE R&S v5 Rumours and Speculation

Update: We’re getting closer to an official announcement, and this post is attracting a lot of hits - you probably want to read my latest post, which contains more info....

HP Master ASE: HP0-Y37

I have just passed the HP exam “HP0-Y37: Migrating and Troubleshooting Networks.” This means I I have now passed all required exams for “HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure 2011.”...

HP: Submit Proof of Certification

If you currently hold Cisco CCNA, CCNP or CCIE certification, you can use this as credit towards HP AIS, ASE and Master ASE certifications.

HP0-Y32 Exam Review

I have to pass two exams to complete HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure. I recently passed the first of these, “HP0-Y32: Designing and Troubleshooting Open Standard Networks.”

Maintaining Order: Tools and Tips

I’ve had a couple of questions come up about how I organise my life around work/study. I can’t promise all the answers, but I can relate what I’ve done over...

HP0-Y32 Study Guide - Review and Errata

As part of my preparation for the “HP0-Y32: Designing and Troubleshooting Open Standard Networks” exam, I used the official study guide from HP Press: “HP ASE Network Infrastructure Official Certification...

HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure

What is the “HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure” certification?

CCIE: Success!

This is from my post on northlandboy.com, shortly after passing the CCIE R&S lab on my second attempt:

CCIE Study: Narbik Bootcamp

From an earlier post on northlandboy.com, this was my review of the boot camp I attended as part of my CCIE study.

CCIE - First Lab Attempt Experience

This is from a post on northlandboy.com, shortly after my failed first CCIE lab attempt:

ITIL 2011 Foundation Certification

I recently passed the ITIL 2011 Foundation Certification. After all the stress and time-suckage that was CCIE study, this was remarkably pain-free. Ridiculously easy really - most of the study...

Tag hp

Time to move away from HPE Software

If you are still using HPE Software, you should actively plan to migrate away. The recent divestiture does not look good to me - I think existing customers are going...

Add Brocade MLX & VDX Support to HP IMC

HP IMC 7.1 E0303P13 does not support configuration backups for Brocade MLX & VDX devices. But they do have an extensible model, so it’s easy to add support. Here’s how...

HP IMC Adapter Directory Naming

This week’s lesson: Be consistent with your vendor naming when working with HP IMC Custom Device Adapters. When you create the new adapter directory, use exactly the same vendor name...

HP IMC Silent Installation

HP IMC installation is normally a manual process, with plenty of clickey clickey clickey. This is OK for production systems, as most sites will only have one or maybe two IMC servers....

Resources for learning HP Comware

HP is making more resources available to help with learning Comware. They’ve added free labs and courses to the already published simulators and virtual routers. This is a good resource for those looking...

Operations Manager to OMi Migration Path

HP has finally announced a migration path for Operations Manager to OMi. It’s about time too. This looks like a good path. If you want to stick with HP Software for managing...

HP SDN App Store Launches

HP’s SDN App Store has finally seen the light of day. This is intended to be a common platform for users and developers, to find and distributed real-world, practical SDN applications....

HP OMW: Still Kicking, But Only Just

A year ago I asked “Has HP Abandoned Operations Manager?” There had been no significant development for a long time, and the signs were that HP was moving away from...

HP NNMi 10.00 Released

HP NNMi version 10.0 has been released. This is a good release, with many usability enhancements. I’m pleased to see continued development, as the future nirvana of all-powerful software defined networks...

HP2910al - Memory Leak with W.15.14.0007?

I have an HP 2910al switch in my lab. I was running firmware version W.15.12.0012, but needed to upgrade, to fix a bug where “~” gets added to the snmp...

HP Network Simulator - VirtualBox Version Issue

HP has released an updated Network Simulator. This uses VirtualBox to provide a hypervisor, as opposed to QEMU in earlier versions. When I tried it previously, it was unusably slow....

HPN Script Repository on GitHub

Dobias van Ingen is working to get an HP Networking scripting community together. This is to take advantage of various HPN scripting capabilities, such as:

HP IMC 7.0 E0202: Steady Improvements

When I’m evaluating products, I’m more interested in their progression and development, than the exact feature list currently shipping. I like products that have a frequent release cycle, with a...

How Not to Publish Documentation

Good documentation is critical to the success of any product. Write clear deployment & configuration information, and you’ll have a higher project success rate. Detailed command references and troubleshooting information...

HP Master ASE VIP Support

HP has announced that HP Master ASE holders can now get VIP support. This is supposed to give me:

Best of Interop - Look at the Categorisation

The “Best of Interop 2014 Finalists” have been announced. Pretty much all the products and technologies that you would expect, but I found the categorisation interesting. As you’d expect, there’s...

HP Simware - Comware OS Simulator

HP recently released “Simware”, a Comware network simulator that lets you create test networks of emulated Comware switches and routers. This can be used to create “virtual” networks, ideal for...

HP VSR Portal Redirection

When implementing HP IMC UAM, you may need to redirect users to the IMC webserver, for device registration & configuration, and obtaining user 802.1x certificates. One method of doing this...

Software Support - Are You Getting Value?

Companies pay a lot of money for software support. But do they always get value for it, and do vendors sometimes prolong the “supported” life of a product simply to...

Can't Start HP IMC on Linux?

I was recently asked about how to start IMC on a Linux server. After the initial installation, the system had been restarted, and now IMC wasn’t running. How to start...

HP Restricting Access to Server Firmware Updates

HP has announced that they will only provide firmware updates to customers with a valid warranty, Care Pack or support agreement. HP says:

HP Wireless Future: Reading the Tea Leaves

Recently I posted some speculation about where HP is going with their Comware and ProCurve networking lines. But what about the wireless gear? Where’s that going? As before, I have...

HP Comware vs ProCurve: Reading the Tea-Leaves

HP acquired 3Com in 2009. This added a large range of routing, switching and wireless networking to HP - but they already had existing ProCurve wired and wireless hardware. Clearly...

HP NNMi Licensing Changes

HP has made some changes to the way Network Node Manager (NNMi) is licensed. These changes are a Good Thing, as they address two key pain points - license calculation,...

The HP SDN APP Store - It Might Just Work

HP has been laying out their SDN vision over the last few months. They want to develop a complete SDN ecosystem, including an Open Standards-based network that can integrate with...

SDN App Stores - My Network is not a Phone

I’ve been thinking a lot about HP’s SDN App Store approach. In case you missed it, HP’s vision is to deliver an App Store for SDN applications, similar to Apple’s...

HP-RAMS Relationship Ending

HP is discontinuing support for HP Route Analytics Management Software, aka RAMS. RAMS is an extremely powerful system for managing large networks, but it always struggled to fit in with...

HP VSR1000 - Getting Started

HP’s “VSR1000 Virtual Services Router” is now generally available. This was first announced at Interop Las Vegas in May, but it wasn’t until Interop NYC in September that it started...

HP Communities - Enabling Full Post Content Email

The HP Communities forums offer email subscriptions for threads you’ve participated in, or all posts for a specific message board. By default these emails only contain the subject of the post,...

Has HP Abandoned Operations Manager?

HP Operations Manager has been around a long time in the Enterprise server management space. I first started working with it around 2001, and I’ve always had a soft spot...

IMC or NNMi - Which One is For Me?

This is a companion post to my review of the technical differences between NNMi and IMC. That one tried to stay focused on technical matters, but this post is more opinion-based....

HP IMC vs HP NNMi - Technical Differences

It can be hard to understand the differences between HP's NNMi and IMC. Both offer a great range of network management capabilities. Here I outline the technical similarities and differences...

HP SIM 7.2 Upgrade - SNMP polling fails

Recently I upgraded an HP SIM system from 7.1 to 7.2 on Windows 2008 R2. After the upgrade, SNMP discovery and data collection failed for all systems - servers, switches,...

HP Discover Thoughts

I attended HP Discover in Las Vegas this year as a blogger and speaker, courtesy of HP. HP Discover is HP’s main technology conference. It’s held once a year in Las...

The Right People

In an age of instant world-wide communications, some might ask why we still need IT conferences. It turns out that no matter what people say, nothing beats being in the...

HP ASE - Network Architect v1

I’ve just passed the HP0-Y45 exam, which means I have completed the requirements for “HP ASE - Network Architect v1.”

NNMi Free Edition

HP has recently released a free version of HP NNMi. This gives you a perpetual license to run NNMi, with some limitations. It’s not completely crippled freeware, and may be...

NNMi and Operations Manager integration issues

Watch out if you have HP NNMi integrated with HP Operations Manager, and you’re upgrading to the latest Operations Agent. I have a customer using HP Network Node Manager 9.22,...

Loop detection - without STP

If you have a strong Cisco background, then you immediately think of Spanning Tree Protocol when you think of Layer 2 loop protection. Or if you’re keeping abreast of the...

HP2910al - fails to boot due to corrupt boot.ini

Recently I was upgrading an HP 2910al switch from 14.70 to 15.08.0012. I used IMC to load the new firmware, rebooted the device, waited…and nothing. Device went offline, and never...

HP Master ASE: HP0-Y37

I have just passed the HP exam “HP0-Y37: Migrating and Troubleshooting Networks.” This means I I have now passed all required exams for “HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure 2011.”...

HP: Submit Proof of Certification

If you currently hold Cisco CCNA, CCNP or CCIE certification, you can use this as credit towards HP AIS, ASE and Master ASE certifications.

Speaking at HP Discover 2013

HP Discover is HP’s showcase technology conference, bringing together speakers, presentations, partners and products from right across HP’s product line. It covers everything from laptops to servers and software. It’s...

HP's Free Network Utilities - Why?

HP Software recently released 6 free network utilities and tools. Free stuff is good right? We all like free. But HP doesn’t do things out of the goodness of its...

HP IMC - Edition Comparison

HP IMC was originally offered in two editions - Standard and Enterprise. As of v5.2, there is also a “Basic” edition. The new “Basic” edition is feature-limited, aimed at smaller customers with...

HP0-Y32 Exam Review

I have to pass two exams to complete HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure. I recently passed the first of these, “HP0-Y32: Designing and Troubleshooting Open Standard Networks.”

HP0-Y32 Study Guide - Review and Errata

As part of my preparation for the “HP0-Y32: Designing and Troubleshooting Open Standard Networks” exam, I used the official study guide from HP Press: “HP ASE Network Infrastructure Official Certification...

HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure

What is the “HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure” certification?

IMC - Backups not working via Telnet?

Recently I was involved in a discussion on HP’s IMC Forum, where MohammadH needed help with IMC. One of the problems he had was switch backups not working properly. It...

HP Learner ID

For HP exams, you need a “Learner ID.” Apparently your HP Passport account is not enough, and they like to maintain separate databases. Just to confuse things. You will need...

HP IMC 5.1 Review

I wrote a review of HP’s Intelligent Management Center (IMC), at Packetpushers.net. I like the product, but it was not all glowing:

Tag imc

Add Brocade MLX & VDX Support to HP IMC

HP IMC 7.1 E0303P13 does not support configuration backups for Brocade MLX & VDX devices. But they do have an extensible model, so it’s easy to add support. Here’s how...

HP IMC Adapter Directory Naming

This week’s lesson: Be consistent with your vendor naming when working with HP IMC Custom Device Adapters. When you create the new adapter directory, use exactly the same vendor name...

HP IMC Silent Installation

HP IMC installation is normally a manual process, with plenty of clickey clickey clickey. This is OK for production systems, as most sites will only have one or maybe two IMC servers....

HP IMC 7.0 E0202: Steady Improvements

When I’m evaluating products, I’m more interested in their progression and development, than the exact feature list currently shipping. I like products that have a frequent release cycle, with a...

HP VSR Portal Redirection

When implementing HP IMC UAM, you may need to redirect users to the IMC webserver, for device registration & configuration, and obtaining user 802.1x certificates. One method of doing this...

Can't Start HP IMC on Linux?

I was recently asked about how to start IMC on a Linux server. After the initial installation, the system had been restarted, and now IMC wasn’t running. How to start...

Help: IMC Doesn't Support My New Cisco Switch!

I’ve recently been asked about using IMC to backup newer Cisco devices, such as the 4500X, or 3850. HP has not yet validated the backup process for these devices, so...

IMC Compliance - Testing Rules

This article is Part 7 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling...

IMC Compliance - Display Commands

This article is Part 6 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling...

IMC Compliance - Recovery Commands

This article is Part 5 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling...

IMC Compliance - Advanced Policies

This article is Part 4 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling...

IMC Compliance - Scheduling Tasks

This article is Part 3 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - This Article Part 4...

IMC Compliance - Walkthrough

This article is Part 2 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - This Article Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling Tasks Part...

IMC Compliance - Overview

This article is Part 1 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - This Article Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling Tasks Part...

HP IMC 7.0 New Features Roundup

HP has released Version 7.0 of Intelligent Management Center. This is a significant upgrade from 5.2, and greatly modernises the interface. (In case you’re wondering, version 6 was never publicly...

HP IMC: Troubleshooting Device Backup Problems

HP IMC is great at backing up your switch configurations, but it can be very frustrating when it doesn’t work. Here’s a list of steps I go through when debugging...

IMC - Changing Predefined Device Model Definitions

IMC has a predefined list of over 6,000 devices. This list maps sysOIDs to devices, so when you add a new device to IMC, it will say “this is a...

Managing Hybrid Networks

The most interesting talk I attended at HP Discover in Las Vegas this year was Ken Gott’s talk on “Management of Software Defined Networks and Hybrid Environments with HP IMC.”...

IMC - Clearing up Misconceptions about Templates

I’d just like to clear up a little confusion that people have about HP IMC templates, and how they are used. Templates can be used to define credentials for different...

IMC - Network Discovery Methods

Auto-discovery can help you populate your NMS, and keep it up to date. HP IMC supports several methods of adding devices - either by manually adding them, or getting IMC...

IMC NTA Licensing - Watch the Fine Print

HP IMC has an optional add-on module for NetFlow/sFlow Analysis called “Network Traffic Analyzer (NTA).” This comes in 10-, 20- or 50-node license packs. Based on the license names, you...

IMC or NNMi - Which One is For Me?

This is a companion post to my review of the technical differences between NNMi and IMC. That one tried to stay focused on technical matters, but this post is more opinion-based....

HP IMC vs HP NNMi - Technical Differences

It can be hard to understand the differences between HP's NNMi and IMC. Both offer a great range of network management capabilities. Here I outline the technical similarities and differences...

Public Speaking - Could Do Better

I spoke at HP Discover in Las Vegas this year, on IMC Customisation, with Chris Young, Aaron Paxson, and Rick Kauffman. Overall I felt it was OK, but we could...

IMC - test script for Cleanup_Parser

When developing IMC adapters, sometimes you have problems with parsing the output correctly. Adapters that use the CLI to retrieve a backup will have extra lines that creep in, such...

IMC - Device Adapters for Mikrotik and Netscaler

I’ve written basic versions of Device Adapters for IMC, to allow configuration backup of Miktrotik RouterOS-based systems, and Citrix Netscaler-based systems. I’ve also posted a modified Juniper adapter, with a...

Speaking at HP Discover 2013

HP Discover is HP’s showcase technology conference, bringing together speakers, presentations, partners and products from right across HP’s product line. It covers everything from laptops to servers and software. It’s...

HP IMC - Edition Comparison

HP IMC was originally offered in two editions - Standard and Enterprise. As of v5.2, there is also a “Basic” edition. The new “Basic” edition is feature-limited, aimed at smaller customers with...

IMC - Backups not working via Telnet?

Recently I was involved in a discussion on HP’s IMC Forum, where MohammadH needed help with IMC. One of the problems he had was switch backups not working properly. It...

HP IMC 5.1 Review

I wrote a review of HP’s Intelligent Management Center (IMC), at Packetpushers.net. I like the product, but it was not all glowing:

Tag packetpushers

HP IMC 5.1 Review

I wrote a review of HP’s Intelligent Management Center (IMC), at Packetpushers.net. I like the product, but it was not all glowing:

Tag squid

Squid with Dynamic SSL Cert and Kerberos Authentication

If you implement a proxy server for security reasons, you must implement SSL Intercept, or anyone can waltz on past your anti-virus, filtering, and content restrictions. For a previous employer,...

Tag SSL

Squid with Dynamic SSL Cert and Kerberos Authentication

If you implement a proxy server for security reasons, you must implement SSL Intercept, or anyone can waltz on past your anti-virus, filtering, and content restrictions. For a previous employer,...

Tag CCIE

CCIE Renewed Once More - Exam 400-101 v5.1

I’ve given in to the Sunk Cost Fallacy once more: I’ve renewed my CCIE. There was a lot of foot dragging this time around, and I only had four months...

CCIE - Should I Renew?

It is 6 years since I passed the CCIE Lab Exam. The dreaded email has arrived:

CCIE Renewed Again - Exam 400-101 v5.1

It came around again: CCIE renewal. Last time I renewed, I wasn’t sure if I should do it again. But I gave in, passed the CCIE R&S Written Exam, and...

You can't put the future on hold

This article is Part 7 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors...

CCIE Renewed - Exam 400-101

The problem with obtaining certifications is that you need to renew them. CCIE is no different - I first passed the lab in September 2012, and I was overdue for...

Using OmniFocus for CCDE Study

A reader asked how I use OmniFocus to help with studying for certification exams. Here’s how I’m using OmniFocus to help with CCDE study. This may not be the ‘best’...

CCIEv5 DIAG Thoughts

The CCIE Routing & Switching v5 blueprint introduces a new module in the lab exam: DIAG. This section does not have any direct device access, but instead uses a variety...

CCIE Preparation: How Deep Do I Go?

This article is Part 6 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors...

CCIE Preparation: Bootcamps

This article is Part 5 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors...

CCIE Preparation: Lab Equipment

This article is Part 4 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors...

CCIE Preparation: Vendors and Workbooks

This article is Part 3 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - This Article Part...

CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling

This article is Part 2 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - This Article Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors and Workbooks Part 4...

CCIE Preparation: Commitment

This article is Part 1 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - This Article Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors and...

CCIE Version 5 Update

UPDATE 4/12/13 - this is now official - see https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-22703. Once I’ve had a chance to digest the changes, I’ll post some thoughts.

CCIE: One Year On

Today marks one year since I passed CCIE Routing and Switching, and was branded number 36708. This is supposed to be a huge achievement, bringing fame and fortune, right? You’re supposed...

How Long Before CCIE SDN?

Cisco made some announcements about SDN certifications at Cisco Live US, in June this year. These didn’t seem to get a lot of attention at the time, perhaps due to...

CCIE R&S v5 Rumours and Speculation

Update: We’re getting closer to an official announcement, and this post is attracting a lot of hits - you probably want to read my latest post, which contains more info....

Maintaining Order: Tools and Tips

I’ve had a couple of questions come up about how I organise my life around work/study. I can’t promise all the answers, but I can relate what I’ve done over...

CCIE: Success!

This is from my post on northlandboy.com, shortly after passing the CCIE R&S lab on my second attempt:

CCIE Study: Narbik Bootcamp

From an earlier post on northlandboy.com, this was my review of the boot camp I attended as part of my CCIE study.

CCIE - First Lab Attempt Experience

This is from a post on northlandboy.com, shortly after my failed first CCIE lab attempt:

Tag bootcamp

CCIE Study: Narbik Bootcamp

From an earlier post on northlandboy.com, this was my review of the boot camp I attended as part of my CCIE study.

Tag narbik

CCIE Study: Narbik Bootcamp

From an earlier post on northlandboy.com, this was my review of the boot camp I attended as part of my CCIE study.

Tag mase

HP ASE - Network Architect v1

I’ve just passed the HP0-Y45 exam, which means I have completed the requirements for “HP ASE - Network Architect v1.”

HP Master ASE: HP0-Y37

I have just passed the HP exam “HP0-Y37: Migrating and Troubleshooting Networks.” This means I I have now passed all required exams for “HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure 2011.”...

HP: Submit Proof of Certification

If you currently hold Cisco CCNA, CCNP or CCIE certification, you can use this as credit towards HP AIS, ASE and Master ASE certifications.

HP0-Y32 Exam Review

I have to pass two exams to complete HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure. I recently passed the first of these, “HP0-Y32: Designing and Troubleshooting Open Standard Networks.”

HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure

What is the “HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure” certification?

HP Learner ID

For HP exams, you need a “Learner ID.” Apparently your HP Passport account is not enough, and they like to maintain separate databases. Just to confuse things. You will need...

Tag NMS

IXP Graphs are an Eyesore

Too many IXPs (and networkers in general) are using horrible outdated methods of graphing data. These are an ugly eyesore, and should be updated to something from this century. Big...

TruView Live Application Monitoring

Fluke Networks recently released TruView Live, a subscription-based service for monitoring internal & external applications. Tests can run from Fluke-managed cloud locations, your own systems, or from dedicated hardware appliances. I’ve been...

Accurate Dependency Mapping - One Day?

Recently I’ve been thinking about Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and how it’s not perfect, but there may be hope for the future.

APIs Alone Aren't Enough

Yes, we know: Your product has an API. Yawn. Sorry for not getting excited. That’s just table stakes now. What I’m interested in is the pre-written integrations and code you...

Root Cause Analysis - It's Not Perfect

Automated Root Cause Analysis promises a lot. High-end network monitoring systems promise that they can automatically isolate network problems, and only tell you about the thing that needs fixing. This sounds...

SNMP Counters - Collection Interval Variation

Counter data types are commonly used in SNMP monitoring. They are extremely useful, but there’s a couple of caveats around how to use them. Here’s a couple of issues I’ve...

Cisco Prime Lack of Multivendor Support: Who Loses?

Recently I’ve been thinking about Cisco Prime Infrastructure, and Cisco’s continued resistance to supporting non-Cisco equipment. I’ve been wondering if this is good for Cisco, and if they should face...

HP IMC 7.0 New Features Roundup

HP has released Version 7.0 of Intelligent Management Center. This is a significant upgrade from 5.2, and greatly modernises the interface. (In case you’re wondering, version 6 was never publicly...

NMS Primer 7: Going Beyond

This article is Part 7 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 6: Ongoing Feeding

This article is Part 6 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 5: Implementation

This article is Part 5 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 4: Main NMS Players

This article is Part 4 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 3: Choosing an NMS

This article is Part 3 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work?

This article is Part 2 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - This Article Part 3 - NMS Primer 3:...

NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS?

This article is Part 1 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - This Article Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part 3 - NMS Primer 3:...

Top 10 tips for Network Management

Many network faults I see are quite preventable, or could have been fixed far sooner, if basic network ‘hygiene’ had been maintained. Major faults are often the result of multiple...

Review: ScienceLogic

I’ve posted a review of ScienceLogic EM7 up at Packet Pushers: Review: ScienceLogic - One Tool to Rule Them All.

IMC - Backups not working via Telnet?

Recently I was involved in a discussion on HP’s IMC Forum, where MohammadH needed help with IMC. One of the problems he had was switch backups not working properly. It...

Tag errata

HP0-Y32 Study Guide - Review and Errata

As part of my preparation for the “HP0-Y32: Designing and Troubleshooting Open Standard Networks” exam, I used the official study guide from HP Press: “HP ASE Network Infrastructure Official Certification...

Tag omnifocus

Using OmniFocus for CCDE Study

A reader asked how I use OmniFocus to help with studying for certification exams. Here’s how I’m using OmniFocus to help with CCDE study. This may not be the ‘best’...

Maintaining Order: Tools and Tips

I’ve had a couple of questions come up about how I organise my life around work/study. I can’t promise all the answers, but I can relate what I’ve done over...

Tag tools

Formatting Matters

Using proper formatting can make it much easier to read code and log samples. Yet so many people don’t bother putting proper formatting around blocks of text. Take some time...

Let People Choose Their Own Tools

Why is it that people will pay a lot of money for a consultant’s time and expertise, but then hobble them by limiting the tools they can use?

HP's Free Network Utilities - Why?

HP Software recently released 6 free network utilities and tools. Free stuff is good right? We all like free. But HP doesn’t do things out of the goodness of its...

Maintaining Order: Tools and Tips

I’ve had a couple of questions come up about how I organise my life around work/study. I can’t promise all the answers, but I can relate what I’ve done over...

Tag exam

HP0-Y32 Exam Review

I have to pass two exams to complete HP Master ASE - Network Infrastructure. I recently passed the first of these, “HP0-Y32: Designing and Troubleshooting Open Standard Networks.”

Tag network

HP's Free Network Utilities - Why?

HP Software recently released 6 free network utilities and tools. Free stuff is good right? We all like free. But HP doesn’t do things out of the goodness of its...

Tag nnmi

Time to move away from HPE Software

If you are still using HPE Software, you should actively plan to migrate away. The recent divestiture does not look good to me - I think existing customers are going...

HP NNMi 10.00 Released

HP NNMi version 10.0 has been released. This is a good release, with many usability enhancements. I’m pleased to see continued development, as the future nirvana of all-powerful software defined networks...

HP NNMi Licensing Changes

HP has made some changes to the way Network Node Manager (NNMi) is licensed. These changes are a Good Thing, as they address two key pain points - license calculation,...

NNMi - replacing LDAP SSL Certificate

NNMi can use LDAP for authenticating users, with or without SSL. Recently a customer changed the SSL certificate used on their LDAP server, which broke NNMi authentication. NNMi trusts one...

IMC or NNMi - Which One is For Me?

This is a companion post to my review of the technical differences between NNMi and IMC. That one tried to stay focused on technical matters, but this post is more opinion-based....

HP IMC vs HP NNMi - Technical Differences

It can be hard to understand the differences between HP's NNMi and IMC. Both offer a great range of network management capabilities. Here I outline the technical similarities and differences...

NNMi Free Edition

HP has recently released a free version of HP NNMi. This gives you a perpetual license to run NNMi, with some limitations. It’s not completely crippled freeware, and may be...

NNMi and Operations Manager integration issues

Watch out if you have HP NNMi integrated with HP Operations Manager, and you’re upgrading to the latest Operations Agent. I have a customer using HP Network Node Manager 9.22,...

HP's Free Network Utilities - Why?

HP Software recently released 6 free network utilities and tools. Free stuff is good right? We all like free. But HP doesn’t do things out of the goodness of its...

Tag hpdiscover

Speaking at HP Discover 2013

HP Discover is HP’s showcase technology conference, bringing together speakers, presentations, partners and products from right across HP’s product line. It covers everything from laptops to servers and software. It’s...

Tag app store

Rate my IOS?

Review schemes are useful for identifying good consumer products and applications. But that doesn’t mean that everything needs to prompt me to leave a review. Cisco has started prompting for reviews for IOS versions, but...

Apple's Mac App Store - Change Needed

When Apple launched the Mac App Store, I was quite interested in how it would work out. The App Store for iOS has been hugely successful, even if it is...

Tag apple

Apple's Mac App Store - Change Needed

When Apple launched the Mac App Store, I was quite interested in how it would work out. The App Store for iOS has been hugely successful, even if it is...

Tag opinion

Ansible - Don't be Afraid of a Little Python

This year I’ve written several Ansible modules. It wasn’t that hard, yet some people claimed they had been waiting “years” for those modules. There was nothing stopping anyone else doing...

CCIE - Should I Renew?

It is 6 years since I passed the CCIE Lab Exam. The dreaded email has arrived:

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child

It takes a village to raise a child. Or so the old saying goes. Creating a product is the same. It takes more than small group of developers (or parents)...

SREcon, DevOpsDays and Seattle vs Sillicon Valley

I am the Product Manager for StackStorm. This gives me the opportunity to attend several industry events. This year I attended SREcon in San Francisco, and devopsdays Seattle. I found...

GCP, and Regaining Trust

Google is telling us they’re serious about the cloud. They’re hiring the right people, spending the big bucks, and even (gasp!) talking to customers! (Oh how that must stick in...

Networking Pioneers, Settlers and Town Planners

Can we broadly separate Networking into Pioneers, Settlers, and Town Planners? I’ve been thinking about how to apply Simon Wardley’s PST model to networking. This leads to thinking about how...

SiteHost - Top-Notch Service

We needed a hosting provider that could deliver a platform to run a Virtual Appliance on. The issue was that we needed a reasonably high level of RAM, and we...

Asking Questions on Forums the Right Way

I’ve spent a lot of time on technical and non-technical forums over the last 10+ years. I’ve written thousands of posts on places like CPUG, CPshared, Thorntree, Packetpushers, NetOps, HP...

Website Survey Popups - Please Make it Stop

Years ago, I was working at a large bank. It was a large site, with a lot of employees, so there was a staff member working full-time in the mail...

You Are Being Watched

A few weeks ago, I commented on Twitter that I was thinking about migrating from one product to a newly released product. It’s the sort of thing you do all the...

Apple's Mac App Store - Change Needed

When Apple launched the Mac App Store, I was quite interested in how it would work out. The App Store for iOS has been hugely successful, even if it is...

Tag twitter

You Are Being Watched

A few weeks ago, I commented on Twitter that I was thinking about migrating from one product to a newly released product. It’s the sort of thing you do all the...

Tag surveys

Website Survey Popups - Please Make it Stop

Years ago, I was working at a large bank. It was a large site, with a lot of employees, so there was a staff member working full-time in the mail...

Tag forums

Formatting Matters

Using proper formatting can make it much easier to read code and log samples. Yet so many people don’t bother putting proper formatting around blocks of text. Take some time...

Too Many Communities

I have come to realise that I’ve tried to take part in too many communities, and it’s getting me down. Too many forums filled with too much noise, too many...

HP Communities - Enabling Full Post Content Email

The HP Communities forums offer email subscriptions for threads you’ve participated in, or all posts for a specific message board. By default these emails only contain the subject of the post,...

Asking Questions on Forums the Right Way

I’ve spent a lot of time on technical and non-technical forums over the last 10+ years. I’ve written thousands of posts on places like CPUG, CPshared, Thorntree, Packetpushers, NetOps, HP...

Tag custom adapters

IMC - Device Adapters for Mikrotik and Netscaler

I’ve written basic versions of Device Adapters for IMC, to allow configuration backup of Miktrotik RouterOS-based systems, and Citrix Netscaler-based systems. I’ve also posted a modified Juniper adapter, with a...

Tag juniper

Monitoring IPv6 vs IPv4 Traffic on Juniper SRX

I use a Juniper SRX 110 at home, and my ISP is enlightened enough to offer IPv6 by default to all customers. My devices are dual-stack, and I know that a...

DHCPv6 on Juniper SRX-110 - Progress

Last year I posted about my frustrations with getting the DHCPv6 client working on a Juniper SRX-110. I am pleased to report that Juniper has now released 12.1X46-D10.2, which resolves...

DHCPv6 Client on Juniper SRX-110

Juniper recently released 12.1X45-D10 for the SRX-110. The key new feature for me was DHCPv6 Client support - finally! It’s still new, and buggy, and I wouldn’t rush it into...

IMC - Device Adapters for Mikrotik and Netscaler

I’ve written basic versions of Device Adapters for IMC, to allow configuration backup of Miktrotik RouterOS-based systems, and Citrix Netscaler-based systems. I’ve also posted a modified Juniper adapter, with a...

Tag mikrotik

IMC - Device Adapters for Mikrotik and Netscaler

I’ve written basic versions of Device Adapters for IMC, to allow configuration backup of Miktrotik RouterOS-based systems, and Citrix Netscaler-based systems. I’ve also posted a modified Juniper adapter, with a...

Tag netscaler

IMC - Device Adapters for Mikrotik and Netscaler

I’ve written basic versions of Device Adapters for IMC, to allow configuration backup of Miktrotik RouterOS-based systems, and Citrix Netscaler-based systems. I’ve also posted a modified Juniper adapter, with a...

Tag perl

IMC - test script for Cleanup_Parser

When developing IMC adapters, sometimes you have problems with parsing the output correctly. Adapters that use the CLI to retrieve a backup will have extra lines that creep in, such...

Tag vmware

SiteHost - Top-Notch Service

We needed a hosting provider that could deliver a platform to run a Virtual Appliance on. The issue was that we needed a reasonably high level of RAM, and we...

VMware EVC Mode

Recently I’ve been doing more VMware work. It’s been a while, but it makes a nice change. At this site, we have 100+ hosts, and thousands of VMs. Recently we...

Tag procurve

HP Wireless Future: Reading the Tea Leaves

Recently I posted some speculation about where HP is going with their Comware and ProCurve networking lines. But what about the wireless gear? Where’s that going? As before, I have...

HP Comware vs ProCurve: Reading the Tea-Leaves

HP acquired 3Com in 2009. This added a large range of routing, switching and wireless networking to HP - but they already had existing ProCurve wired and wireless hardware. Clearly...

Service Timestamps - make your log timestamps readable

The default logging style for Cisco IOS-based devices is to insert the system uptime in the log entry. This makes it basically useless. Here’s some typical log output:

Configuring Timezones on IOS, ProVision and Comware

Timezones can be complicated things - every country has its own set of rules around how to decide what time it currently is - and those rules change, frequently. Modern...

Loop detection - without STP

If you have a strong Cisco background, then you immediately think of Spanning Tree Protocol when you think of Layer 2 loop protection. Or if you’re keeping abreast of the...

HP2910al - fails to boot due to corrupt boot.ini

Recently I was upgrading an HP 2910al switch from 14.70 to 15.08.0012. I used IMC to load the new firmware, rebooted the device, waited…and nothing. Device went offline, and never...

Tag sciencelogic

What Happens When 20 Programs Poll The Network?

Packetpushers show 198 was a great episode about Network Automation. At one point, Greg asks:

ScienceLogic Global Network Manager

ScienceLogic 7.5 includes many enhancements and new features. One I’m interested in is “Global Manager” which can be used to massively scale out the ScienceLogic architecture. Here’s some more detail on...

Using Paramiko/Python with FortiMail

Fortinet makes an email security/anti-spam appliance called FortiMail. I wanted to collect spam and virus statistics from it, to integrate with our Network Monitoring Systems. Unfortunately the data is not exposed via SNMP or API,...

Polling XML Values with ScienceLogic

Most Network Management Systems are built to make it easy to poll data via SNMP. But ‘interesting’ data is not always available via SNMP. Sometimes it’s in another format, such...

ScienceLogic Database HA & DR

Previously I’ve looked at the overall ScienceLogic architecture, and HA options for the Collectors and UI. This post looks at DR and HA options for the core Database layer - the...

ScienceLogic - Collector and UI HA

Earlier I looked at the basics of ScienceLogic EM7 architecture. I didn’t cover how to achieve HA or DR with ScienceLogic. The architecture offers a few options for doing this,...

ScienceLogic Architecture Overview

This is a basic overview of the ScienceLogic EM7 system architecture, describing the various components, their functions, and how they can be combined or split across multiple systems. I’ve been...

Network Monitoring Design Choices - Polling Distribution

Network monitoring systems poll devices periodically, and then calculate average rates across the poll interval. Selecting the right polling interval is important - too frequently, and low-end devices can’t keep...

ScienceLogic: Manually Running Dynamic Apps

ScienceLogic Dynamic Applications are policies that describe what data should be collected from managed systems, how it should be collected (SNMP, WMI, API, SQL, etc), how it should be presented,...

Review: ScienceLogic

I’ve posted a review of ScienceLogic EM7 up at Packet Pushers: Review: ScienceLogic - One Tool to Rule Them All.

Tag review

Review: Arse First Guide to Technical Blogging

Greg Ferro, of Etherealmind.com fame, has published a book on blogging: “The Arse First Method of Technical Blogging.” This covers his

Tag cisco

Rate my IOS?

Review schemes are useful for identifying good consumer products and applications. But that doesn’t mean that everything needs to prompt me to leave a review. Cisco has started prompting for reviews for IOS versions, but...

Network Gear Pricing - Software vs Hardware

Network equipment pricing has traditionally been based around hardware, even though most of the cost comes from the software. Trends such as bare-metal switching will clarify this cost/price relationship. But are we...

Who Said Comments Are Dead?

We don’t see as many comments on blog posts these days, as most discussion has moved to other forums, such as Twitter or Google+. But this doesn’t mean that comments...

Cisco Political Comments - Why?

I freely admit to not truly understanding the American political/economic system. Sure, I get the general mechanics of it, but I don’t understand the subtle plays, and why people do certain...

Is Cisco Struggling with Their ACI Messaging?

Cisco ACI represents a significant shift in the way we approach networking. This sort of shift will need massive customer education to explain their new vision. I’m getting the impression...

How Not to Publish Documentation

Good documentation is critical to the success of any product. Write clear deployment & configuration information, and you’ll have a higher project success rate. Detailed command references and troubleshooting information...

IOS-XR: Stuck between SNMP and SDN

SNMP may be outdated, and is definitely unloved, but it still serves a purpose. We’re moving to a new world, with new methods and data structures for interrogating and configuring...

Help: IMC Doesn't Support My New Cisco Switch!

I’ve recently been asked about using IMC to backup newer Cisco devices, such as the 4500X, or 3850. HP has not yet validated the backup process for these devices, so...

CCIE Version 5 Update

UPDATE 4/12/13 - this is now official - see https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-22703. Once I’ve had a chance to digest the changes, I’ll post some thoughts.

Logging source-interface with VRFs

Some Cisco routers I work with use multiple VRFs. A specific VRF is used for management, and the loopback interface is in that VRF. All SNMP + SSH access is...

Cisco Prime Lack of Multivendor Support: Who Loses?

Recently I’ve been thinking about Cisco Prime Infrastructure, and Cisco’s continued resistance to supporting non-Cisco equipment. I’ve been wondering if this is good for Cisco, and if they should face...

Service Timestamps - make your log timestamps readable

The default logging style for Cisco IOS-based devices is to insert the system uptime in the log entry. This makes it basically useless. Here’s some typical log output:

CCIE R&S v5 Rumours and Speculation

Update: We’re getting closer to an official announcement, and this post is attracting a lot of hits - you probably want to read my latest post, which contains more info....

Tag conference

Public Speaking - Could Do Better

I spoke at HP Discover in Las Vegas this year, on IMC Customisation, with Chris Young, Aaron Paxson, and Rick Kauffman. Overall I felt it was OK, but we could...

Tag SIM

HP SIM 7.2 Upgrade - SNMP polling fails

Recently I upgraded an HP SIM system from 7.1 to 7.2 on Windows 2008 R2. After the upgrade, SNMP discovery and data collection failed for all systems - servers, switches,...

Tag ldap

NNMi - replacing LDAP SSL Certificate

NNMi can use LDAP for authenticating users, with or without SSL. Recently a customer changed the SSL certificate used on their LDAP server, which broke NNMi authentication. NNMi trusts one...

Tag omw

Operations Manager to OMi Migration Path

HP has finally announced a migration path for Operations Manager to OMi. It’s about time too. This looks like a good path. If you want to stick with HP Software for managing...

HP OMW: Still Kicking, But Only Just

A year ago I asked “Has HP Abandoned Operations Manager?” There had been no significant development for a long time, and the signs were that HP was moving away from...

Has HP Abandoned Operations Manager?

HP Operations Manager has been around a long time in the Enterprise server management space. I first started working with it around 2001, and I’ve always had a soft spot...

Tag citrix

WMI Corruption on Citrix XenApp Servers

The Windows WMI repository can become corrupted on Windows 2008 R2 servers being used with XenApp. WMI corruption can cause problems for monitoring systems, and potentially some applications. Here's how...

Tag wmi

WMI Corruption on Citrix XenApp Servers

The Windows WMI repository can become corrupted on Windows 2008 R2 servers being used with XenApp. WMI corruption can cause problems for monitoring systems, and potentially some applications. Here's how...

Tag netflow

Andrisoft Wanguard: Cost-Effective Network Visibility

Andrisoft Wansight and Wanguard are tools for network traffic monitoring, visibility, anomaly detection and response. I’ve used them, and think that they do a good job, for a reasonable price....

IMC NTA Licensing - Watch the Fine Print

HP IMC has an optional add-on module for NetFlow/sFlow Analysis called “Network Traffic Analyzer (NTA).” This comes in 10-, 20- or 50-node license packs. Based on the license names, you...

Tag discovery

IMC - Network Discovery Methods

Auto-discovery can help you populate your NMS, and keep it up to date. HP IMC supports several methods of adding devices - either by manually adding them, or getting IMC...

Tag Comware

HP Simware - Comware OS Simulator

HP recently released “Simware”, a Comware network simulator that lets you create test networks of emulated Comware switches and routers. This can be used to create “virtual” networks, ideal for...

HP Wireless Future: Reading the Tea Leaves

Recently I posted some speculation about where HP is going with their Comware and ProCurve networking lines. But what about the wireless gear? Where’s that going? As before, I have...

HP Comware vs ProCurve: Reading the Tea-Leaves

HP acquired 3Com in 2009. This added a large range of routing, switching and wireless networking to HP - but they already had existing ProCurve wired and wireless hardware. Clearly...

Service Timestamps - make your log timestamps readable

The default logging style for Cisco IOS-based devices is to insert the system uptime in the log entry. This makes it basically useless. Here’s some typical log output:

Configuring Timezones on IOS, ProVision and Comware

Timezones can be complicated things - every country has its own set of rules around how to decide what time it currently is - and those rules change, frequently. Modern...

Tag IOS

Configuring Timezones on IOS, ProVision and Comware

Timezones can be complicated things - every country has its own set of rules around how to decide what time it currently is - and those rules change, frequently. Modern...

Tag logs

Getting More Information From Your Logs

Packet Pushers normally focuses on networking, but episode 192 covered “Logging Design and Best Practices.”  I often think about logging in the context of network management, so it was good...

Scalyr - More than Just Logs

Earlier this year I came across Scalyr, a newer player in the cloud-based log management scene. They’re taking a slightly different approach to products like Loggly and Splunk. I’ve been...

nxlog - Convert any text file to Syslog

Recently I’ve been converting a network from an agent-based monitoring system to an agentless system. One challenge was handling custom application logfiles. Most agent-based monitoring systems make it very easy...

Logging source-interface with VRFs

Some Cisco routers I work with use multiple VRFs. A specific VRF is used for management, and the loopback interface is in that VRF. All SNMP + SSH access is...

Splunk Overview

This is a quick overview of Splunk - what it is, how it works, what makes it good, and how you might use it. I like Splunk, and I think...

Loggly - Responsive Log Management

Cisco recently announced they have invested $10M into Loggly, a Cloud-based log management service. I had vaguely heard of Loggly before, but never properly investigated it. Let’s dive in and...

Log Management - Overview

What is Log Management, and why should I care? Can’t I just grep through logs when I need to? Isn’t syslog on its own enough? This post will give an overview of...

Configuring Timezones on IOS, ProVision and Comware

Timezones can be complicated things - every country has its own set of rules around how to decide what time it currently is - and those rules change, frequently. Modern...

Tag NTP

Configuring Timezones on IOS, ProVision and Comware

Timezones can be complicated things - every country has its own set of rules around how to decide what time it currently is - and those rules change, frequently. Modern...

Tag hybrid

Managing Hybrid Networks

The most interesting talk I attended at HP Discover in Las Vegas this year was Ken Gott’s talk on “Management of Software Defined Networks and Hybrid Environments with HP IMC.”...

Tag OpenFlow

OpenFlow implications for network monitoring

I’ve been reading more about OpenFlow recently, and something that was pointed out to me was that OpenFlow offers features that could give us deeper insights into our traffic flows,...

Managing Hybrid Networks

The most interesting talk I attended at HP Discover in Las Vegas this year was Ken Gott’s talk on “Management of Software Defined Networks and Hybrid Environments with HP IMC.”...

Tag SDN

Efficiency vs Effectiveness

I’ve been wondering about how we’re approaching networking change. We know we need to make things better. Are we changing the ‘right’ things? I’ve got a feeling that we’re not,...

Brocade PyNOS Python Libraries

PyNOS v1.1 has been published. This is a python library that simplifies automating Brocade VDX systems. It is built on top of ncclient, and uses NETCONF to communicate with the VDX...

Networking Pioneers, Settlers and Town Planners

Can we broadly separate Networking into Pioneers, Settlers, and Town Planners? I’ve been thinking about how to apply Simon Wardley’s PST model to networking. This leads to thinking about how...

Brocade Certified vRouter Engineer

If you’ve visited the Brocade website recently, you’ve probably seen the “Free NFV Certification” banner. I signed up for this several months ago, but had put off completing the course. I...

The Next Step: Brocade

I am happy to announce that I am now a Product Manager at Brocade. This is a big move for me, and one I am very excited about. I will get to work...

You can't put the future on hold

This article is Part 7 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - CCIE Preparation: Commitment Part 2 - CCIE Preparation: Study Processes and Scheduling Part 3 - CCIE Preparation: Vendors...

VeloCloud & Information Brokerage

VeloCloud was the first presenter at Network Field Day 9. They are one of the new breed of SD-WAN vendors. I’m impressed by what they’re doing, and and the potential it...

NFD9: Cumulus Networks

Cumulus Networks gave a great presentation at Network Field Day 9. They presented their vision of how they’re working to improve networking. But they were also clear about what they...

NFD9 Prep: SD-WAN

Software Defined WAN, or SD-WAN, looks to be a theme of Network Field Day 9, with presenters such as CloudGenix and VeloCloud showing us their offerings. At first glance, SD-WAN...

Updated Big Switch Labs

Just a quick note to say that Big Switch have updated their demo lab system. This is an entirely virtual lab environment that simulates a Big Switch network. You can...

Big Switch Chaos Monkey Network Testing

Whenever you build a complex system, you need to test that it works as expected, including properly handling failures. It’s easy enough to do simple component failure testing, but harder to...

Cumulus in the Campus?

Recently I’ve been idly speculating about how campus networking could be shaken up, with different cost and management models. A few recent podcasts have inspired some thoughts on how Cumulus Networks might fit...

Using Firewalls for Policy Has Been a Disaster

Almost every SDN vendor today talks about policy, how they make it easy to express and enforce network policies. Cisco ACI, VMware NSX, Nuage Networks, OpenStack Congress, etc. This sounds...

HP SDN App Store Launches

HP’s SDN App Store has finally seen the light of day. This is intended to be a common platform for users and developers, to find and distributed real-world, practical SDN applications....

The Chassis Switch is Dead

The Chassis Switch is Dead. For most networks, chassis-based switches are no longer appropriate due to cost, inflexibility and risk. I see this as similar to servers, in that server...

Screen Scraping: Still Sucks

I’ve written before about “Why Screen Scraping Sucks.” Well, I can report that nothing has changed. It still sucks. This time I got caught out by the changed behaviour of...

Who Said Comments Are Dead?

We don’t see as many comments on blog posts these days, as most discussion has moved to other forums, such as Twitter or Google+. But this doesn’t mean that comments...

Is Cisco Struggling with Their ACI Messaging?

Cisco ACI represents a significant shift in the way we approach networking. This sort of shift will need massive customer education to explain their new vision. I’m getting the impression...

SDN for Enterprise

SDN is the buzzword du jour in the networking industry, but it’s hard to make sense of what it might mean for “normal” people. Here’s my take on what SDN...

Best of Interop - Look at the Categorisation

The “Best of Interop 2014 Finalists” have been announced. Pretty much all the products and technologies that you would expect, but I found the categorisation interesting. As you’d expect, there’s...

Certs vs Code: SDN Culture Clash?

SDN career certifications are starting to emerge. Network engineers are well-used to certifications, and use them as a badge of marking progress. But developers prefer to focus on code, not...

Network Automation - Stop Fighting It

Network Engineers should be embracing the idea of automating away the drudgery of running a network. They should be looking for ways to ensure the network can dynamically change its...

The HP SDN APP Store - It Might Just Work

HP has been laying out their SDN vision over the last few months. They want to develop a complete SDN ecosystem, including an Open Standards-based network that can integrate with...

SDN App Stores - My Network is not a Phone

I’ve been thinking a lot about HP’s SDN App Store approach. In case you missed it, HP’s vision is to deliver an App Store for SDN applications, similar to Apple’s...

Why Screen Scraping Sucks

There’s a lot of over-blown talk these days about APIs. Everyone wants one, everyone’s promising one. You might ask: “What’s the difference between using an API to put a port...

OpenFlow implications for network monitoring

I’ve been reading more about OpenFlow recently, and something that was pointed out to me was that OpenFlow offers features that could give us deeper insights into our traffic flows,...

How Long Before CCIE SDN?

Cisco made some announcements about SDN certifications at Cisco Live US, in June this year. These didn’t seem to get a lot of attention at the time, perhaps due to...

Managing Hybrid Networks

The most interesting talk I attended at HP Discover in Las Vegas this year was Ken Gott’s talk on “Management of Software Defined Networks and Hybrid Environments with HP IMC.”...

Tag SQL

IMC - Changing Predefined Device Model Definitions

IMC has a predefined list of over 6,000 devices. This list maps sysOIDs to devices, so when you add a new device to IMC, it will say “this is a...

Tag IPv6

IPv6 Trends, SixXS Sunset and Project Planning

Native IPv6 availability continues to increase, leading to the sunset of SixXS services. But it looks like we don’t like starting any major IPv6 rollouts around Christmas/New Years, but instead...

When the IPv6 Data Changes, so Should Your Opinion

Sky UK recently completed their rollout of IPv6. The uptake statistics are quite remarkable. If you think that people don’t have IPv6-capable devices, or that their home routers can’t handle...

NZ IPv6 & DNSSEC Update

A year ago I published a table of New Zealand ISP IPv6 support. At the time support was fairly poor. I’m pleased to report that things have gotten better over the...

IPv6-based Wi-Fi Hotspots

Apple’s 2015 WWDC event included a great session on IPv6 & TCP changes coming with iOS 9. There is a related post to the IETF v6ops mailing list here. The...

IPv6-test.com and SRX firewall policies

ipv6-test.com is a useful site for testing IPv4 & IPv6 connectivity. It checks that v4 & v6 are working as expected, and reports your browser v4/v6 preferences. It does have one...

It's 2015: 'Supports IPv6' should mean full support

It’s 2015. ARIN is finally out of IPv4 addresses, more than 20% of Google users in the US are using IPv6…and vendors are still doing a half-assed job with IPv6...

IPv4 Address Transfer Prices Down?

Last year I wrote about the IPv4 Address Transfer Process. Recently I was involved in another IPv4 transfer. I was surprised to see that IPv4 prices have fallen in the...

The Year of IPv6?

IPv6 adoption has been slow. But I think it’s reaching a tipping point. I’m very close to calling 2015 “The year of IPv6.” There’s plenty of people who won’t believe...

IPv6 availability in New Zealand

IPv6 has been around a fair while, and we’re constantly encouraged to learn it and use it. I agree with the sentiment, but it’s been hard for most users when...

CloudFlare: That Was Easy

I switched this blog over to using CloudFlare a few days ago. It’s all been pretty painless, and I highly recommend it to others.

APNIC - final 'final' /22 now available

APNIC entered their “final /8” phase in April 2011. From that time, new and existing APNIC members could request a maximum of one IPv4 /22 prefix. Once you had requested...

IPv4 Address Transfer Process

IPv4 exhaustion is a real issue for large parts of the world. IPv6 is the long-term solution, but it doesn’t solve today’s problems facing ISPs. Alternatives are needed - either...

DHCPv6 on Juniper SRX-110 - Progress

Last year I posted about my frustrations with getting the DHCPv6 client working on a Juniper SRX-110. I am pleased to report that Juniper has now released 12.1X46-D10.2, which resolves...

DHCPv6 Client on Juniper SRX-110

Juniper recently released 12.1X45-D10 for the SRX-110. The key new feature for me was DHCPv6 Client support - finally! It’s still new, and buggy, and I wouldn’t rush it into...

Tag SRX

IPv6-test.com and SRX firewall policies

ipv6-test.com is a useful site for testing IPv4 & IPv6 connectivity. It checks that v4 & v6 are working as expected, and reports your browser v4/v6 preferences. It does have one...

F5 APM, SRX and DTLS NAT Timeout

I have been having issues using the F5 APM client behind a Juniper SRX-110 using hide NAT. I believe I’ve tracked it down to the default timeout settings used for...

Juniper SRX-110H EoL

Somehow I missed this when it was announced, but the Juniper SRX-110H-VA is End of Life, and is no longer supported for new software releases.

Monitoring IPv6 vs IPv4 Traffic on Juniper SRX

I use a Juniper SRX 110 at home, and my ISP is enlightened enough to offer IPv6 by default to all customers. My devices are dual-stack, and I know that a...

DHCPv6 Client on Juniper SRX-110

Juniper recently released 12.1X45-D10 for the SRX-110. The key new feature for me was DHCPv6 Client support - finally! It’s still new, and buggy, and I wouldn’t rush it into...

Tag microsoft

'Black Tuesday' - Isn't it Just Business as Usual?

Microsoft patches are released on a (mostly) monthly cycle, and other vendors have started following suit. When this first happened, people treated it like a major event. But I think...

Tag patching

'Black Tuesday' - Isn't it Just Business as Usual?

Microsoft patches are released on a (mostly) monthly cycle, and other vendors have started following suit. When this first happened, people treated it like a major event. But I think...

Tag security

Security - Just Another Risk

I made a conscious decision to move away from full-time information security work. I retain an interest, and try to keep up with developments, but I don’t want to be...

Using Check Point Identity Awareness with NAT

Check Point Identity Awareness is problematic in environments that have multiple customers, overlapping private address space, and NAT. It can be done, if you understand the traffic flows, the connections needed,...

DNSSEC - Moving the Needle

The New Zealand ISP market is dominated by Spark, Vodafone & CallPus/Orcon. A side effect of this is that if one player does the Right Thing™, it really moves the...

Complexity vs Security

Many of the ‘security’ measures in our networks add complexity. That may be an acceptable tradeoff, if we make a meaningful difference to security. But often it feels like we...

Shellshock: One Month On

Shellshock was released a little over a month ago, to wide predictions of doom & gloom. But somehow the Internet survived, and we lurch on towards the next crisis. I...

Kiwicon 7

Kiwicon 7 has just wrapped up in Wellington, New Zealand. Kiwicon is “New Zealand’s own Hacker Conference.” It’s a top-notch event that’s been running for 7 years now, and highly recommended...

'Black Tuesday' - Isn't it Just Business as Usual?

Microsoft patches are released on a (mostly) monthly cycle, and other vendors have started following suit. When this first happened, people treated it like a major event. But I think...

Tag sales

Network Gear Pricing - Software vs Hardware

Network equipment pricing has traditionally been based around hardware, even though most of the cost comes from the software. Trends such as bare-metal switching will clarify this cost/price relationship. But are we...

Pricing, Discounts and Support Costs

Pricing for Enterprise IT hardware and software can be a strange process, and settling on a vendor quote is a complicated dance. Junior engineers normally are more focused on technology,...

Openness Isn't Just About Code

When talking about “Open” in the context of technology, most people think about Open Source, Open APIs, Open documentation, etc. But there’s another facet too: being open about where your business...

Product Selection: It's Not Always The Best Technology

Many engineers assume that product selection is as simple as finding the product with the best combination of features that still comes in under budget. Should be easy, right? Err…so...

Help Me Do Business With You

A good customer of mine needs to replace their Service Desk system. Having a fair idea of their requirements, I asked them if they had looked at $(insert very well-known...

Tag monitoring

Indeni, Smart Advisors and Crowd-Sourcing

Monitoring needs to move on from traditional fault and performance polling. It should include identifying common misconfigurations and known faults. We’re all using the same technologies, so we’ve all got the...

Should I Monitor My Service Provider?

How much monitoring should I do for services that I’ve outsourced? This question comes up frequently with my clients. They’ve paid someone else to manage a service for them, and...

Tag outsourcing

Outsourcing Mistakes

Outsourcing is complex, and there are lots of ways it can go wrong, or simply fail to deliver. I’ve put together a list of things that I see going wrong...

Should I Monitor My Service Provider?

How much monitoring should I do for services that I’ve outsourced? This question comes up frequently with my clients. They’ve paid someone else to manage a service for them, and...

Tag backups

HP IMC: Troubleshooting Device Backup Problems

HP IMC is great at backing up your switch configurations, but it can be very frustrating when it doesn’t work. Here’s a list of steps I go through when debugging...

Tag SSH

HP IMC: Troubleshooting Device Backup Problems

HP IMC is great at backing up your switch configurations, but it can be very frustrating when it doesn’t work. Here’s a list of steps I go through when debugging...

Tag Telnet

HP IMC: Troubleshooting Device Backup Problems

HP IMC is great at backing up your switch configurations, but it can be very frustrating when it doesn’t work. Here’s a list of steps I go through when debugging...

Tag cloud

Cloud: Not Just Someone Else's Computer

Cloud computing is a lot more than “someone else’s computer” and it annoys the hell out of me when people keep trotting out this tired old excuse. There is much...

Accounting Models and Cloud Service

Everyone talks about how moving to Cloud-based services can reduce CapEx, and that you only “pay for what you need.” People seem to assume this is a Good Thing, and...

Tag series

NMS Primer 7: Going Beyond

This article is Part 7 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 6: Ongoing Feeding

This article is Part 6 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 5: Implementation

This article is Part 5 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 4: Main NMS Players

This article is Part 4 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 3: Choosing an NMS

This article is Part 3 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part...

NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work?

This article is Part 2 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS? Part 2 - This Article Part 3 - NMS Primer 3:...

NMS Primer 1: What is an NMS?

This article is Part 1 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - This Article Part 2 - NMS Primer 2: How Do They Work? Part 3 - NMS Primer 3:...

Tag career

Relocated at last

Just a quick note to let you know that I am now based in the San Francisco Bay Area. After much preparation, and administrative hassle, everything is now sorted. My...

The Next Step: Brocade

I am happy to announce that I am now a Product Manager at Brocade. This is a big move for me, and one I am very excited about. I will get to work...

Headwinds, or Uphill?

As some of my readers know, I’ve done a fair bit of bike touring. Two of the challenges of bike touring are riding uphill, and riding into headwinds.

Don't Be Afraid of Changing Jobs

Some people are corporate survivors, sticking with one company for decades. Some people move around when it suits, while others would like to move, but are fearful of change. Here’s...

CCIE: One Year On

Today marks one year since I passed CCIE Routing and Switching, and was branded number 36708. This is supposed to be a huge achievement, bringing fame and fortune, right? You’re supposed...

Tag Loggly

Loggly - Responsive Log Management

Cisco recently announced they have invested $10M into Loggly, a Cloud-based log management service. I had vaguely heard of Loggly before, but never properly investigated it. Let’s dive in and...

Tag Splunk

Savvius Insight and the use of Elastic

Last week Savvius announced upgraded versions of its Insight network visibility appliances. These have the usual performance and capacity increases you’d expect, and fill a nice gap in the market....

Splunk Overview

This is a quick overview of Splunk - what it is, how it works, what makes it good, and how you might use it. I like Splunk, and I think...

Tag upgrades

HP IMC 7.0 New Features Roundup

HP has released Version 7.0 of Intelligent Management Center. This is a significant upgrade from 5.2, and greatly modernises the interface. (In case you’re wondering, version 6 was never publicly...

Tag Avaya

Why Screen Scraping Sucks

There’s a lot of over-blown talk these days about APIs. Everyone wants one, everyone’s promising one. You might ask: “What’s the difference between using an API to put a port...

Tag VSR

Resources for learning HP Comware

HP is making more resources available to help with learning Comware. They’ve added free labs and courses to the already published simulators and virtual routers. This is a good resource for those looking...

HP VSR Portal Redirection

When implementing HP IMC UAM, you may need to redirect users to the IMC webserver, for device registration & configuration, and obtaining user 802.1x certificates. One method of doing this...

HP VSR1000 - Getting Started

HP’s “VSR1000 Virtual Services Router” is now generally available. This was first announced at Interop Las Vegas in May, but it wasn’t until Interop NYC in September that it started...

Tag Compliance

IMC Compliance - Testing Rules

This article is Part 7 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling...

IMC Compliance - Display Commands

This article is Part 6 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling...

IMC Compliance - Recovery Commands

This article is Part 5 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling...

IMC Compliance - Advanced Policies

This article is Part 4 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling...

IMC Compliance - Scheduling Tasks

This article is Part 3 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - This Article Part 4...

IMC Compliance - Walkthrough

This article is Part 2 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - IMC Compliance - Overview Part 2 - This Article Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling Tasks Part...

IMC Compliance - Overview

This article is Part 1 in a 7-Part Series. Part 1 - This Article Part 2 - IMC Compliance - Walkthrough Part 3 - IMC Compliance - Scheduling Tasks Part...

Tag community

CPUG, and The Risk of Single-Admin Communities

CPUG, a Check Point user forum, is near death. The owner has been forced to get rid of it, but rather doing a graceful handover, it has been shut down...

Building Strong Product Communities

Strong communities can make an enormous difference to the success or failure of a product or technology. Look at Linux, or VMware as good examples of a strong community. But...

Tag SolarWinds

Choosing the Best Product for the Client or the Best for Me?

A Miktrotik course was held in my area recently, and I thought “They make some really cool stuff, and it’s amazing value. Maybe I should go on the course?” But then...

SolarWinds DPI - Looks Interesting

[UPDATE 26/6/14] This code is now available as a Release Candidate.

Openness Isn't Just About Code

When talking about “Open” in the context of technology, most people think about Open Source, Open APIs, Open documentation, etc. But there’s another facet too: being open about where your business...

Tag dynamic apps

ScienceLogic: Manually Running Dynamic Apps

ScienceLogic Dynamic Applications are policies that describe what data should be collected from managed systems, how it should be collected (SNMP, WMI, API, SQL, etc), how it should be presented,...

Tag RAMS

HP-RAMS Relationship Ending

HP is discontinuing support for HP Route Analytics Management Software, aka RAMS. RAMS is an extremely powerful system for managing large networks, but it always struggled to fit in with...

Tag war stories

War Stories: Always Check Your Inputs

The extremely irregular War Stories series returns, with an anecdote from 15 years ago, investigating a problem with a web app that only seemed to crash when one particular person...

War Stories: Backup NICs, DNS and AD

This article is Part 11 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

War Stories: Closing out Projects

This article is Part 10 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

War Stories: ITIL Process vs Practice

This article is Part 9 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

War Stories: Unix Security

This article is Part 8 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

War Stories: Cursed VLANs

This article is Part 7 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

War Stories: Gratuitous ARP and VRRP

This article is Part 6 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

War Stories: Proxy ARP Auto-Configuration

This article is Part 5 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

War Stories: Dual-Vendor Firewall Strategy

This article is Part 4 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

War Stories: Check Point Meltdown

This article is Part 3 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches

This article is Part 2 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - This Article Part 3 - War Stories:...

War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network

This article is Part 1 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - This Article Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches Part 3 - War Stories: Check...

Tag wireless

Meraki AP Trial

Cisco Meraki offers a free wireless AP to anyone who registers for a webinar about their products. I had given up on receiving my AP, but after a moan on...

HP Wireless Future: Reading the Tea Leaves

Recently I posted some speculation about where HP is going with their Comware and ProCurve networking lines. But what about the wireless gear? Where’s that going? As before, I have...

HP Comware vs ProCurve: Reading the Tea-Leaves

HP acquired 3Com in 2009. This added a large range of routing, switching and wireless networking to HP - but they already had existing ProCurve wired and wireless hardware. Clearly...

Tag support

In Praise of Support Lifecycles

If you’re just starting out working with ‘Enterprise’ products, you may not have come across Support Lifecycles. It’s important to know what these are, and how it affects you. They...

Software Support - Are You Getting Value?

Companies pay a lot of money for software support. But do they always get value for it, and do vendors sometimes prolong the “supported” life of a product simply to...

Tag meraki

Meraki AP Trial

Cisco Meraki offers a free wireless AP to anyone who registers for a webinar about their products. I had given up on receiving my AP, but after a moan on...

Tag APNIC

IPv4 Address Transfer Prices Down?

Last year I wrote about the IPv4 Address Transfer Process. Recently I was involved in another IPv4 transfer. I was surprised to see that IPv4 prices have fallen in the...

APNIC - final 'final' /22 now available

APNIC entered their “final /8” phase in April 2011. From that time, new and existing APNIC members could request a maximum of one IPv4 /22 prefix. Once you had requested...

IPv4 Address Transfer Process

IPv4 exhaustion is a real issue for large parts of the world. IPv6 is the long-term solution, but it doesn’t solve today’s problems facing ISPs. Alternatives are needed - either...

Tag HA

ScienceLogic Database HA & DR

Previously I’ve looked at the overall ScienceLogic architecture, and HA options for the Collectors and UI. This post looks at DR and HA options for the core Database layer - the...

ScienceLogic - Collector and UI HA

Earlier I looked at the basics of ScienceLogic EM7 architecture. I didn’t cover how to achieve HA or DR with ScienceLogic. The architecture offers a few options for doing this,...

Tag Check Point

Using Check Point Identity Awareness with NAT

Check Point Identity Awareness is problematic in environments that have multiple customers, overlapping private address space, and NAT. It can be done, if you understand the traffic flows, the connections needed,...

Check Point SmartLog - Recommended

Trigger warning for Check Point haters: I’m about to say nice things about Check Point.

Check Point - Don't Use the 'Install On' Column

I got caught out by Check Point’s “Install On” column recently. Most people don’t need this setting any more, but it’s still there for legacy reasons. Time to re-evaluate.

Check Point - Upgrade Without Dropping Connections

Check Point firewall upgrades have always been painful. The loss of connection state is a big part of this. Existing connections stop working, and many applications need restart. It looks like...

Disappointed With Check Point

I have recently started working with Check Point products again, after a 5-year break. This has given me a different perspective on how they are progressing. It has been disappointing to...

CPUG, and The Risk of Single-Admin Communities

CPUG, a Check Point user forum, is near death. The owner has been forced to get rid of it, but rather doing a graceful handover, it has been shut down...

War Stories: Check Point Meltdown

This article is Part 3 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

Tag snmp

Using Telegraf, InfluxDB and Grafana to Monitor Network Statistics

Two years ago I wrote about how to use InfluxDB & Grafana for better visualization of network statistics. I still loathe MRTG graphs, but configuring InfluxSNMP was a bit of...

VRF-Aware SNMP on Brocade VDX

SNMP was not designed with VRFs in mind. Querying the routing table via SNMP did not take into account the idea of having multiple routing tables. But clearly it’s something...

Brocade VDX SNMP Changes

Brocade tightened up some SNMP settings with NOS 6.0.x. This improves security, but it also means that you will need to modify your configuration if you upgrade. If you don’t,...

Using InfluxDB + Grafana to Display Network Statistics

I loathe MRTG graphs. They were cool in 2000, but now they’re showing their age. We have much better visualisation tools available, and we don’t need to be so aggressive...

Accurate Dependency Mapping - One Day?

Recently I’ve been thinking about Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and how it’s not perfect, but there may be hope for the future.

No Alarms May Not Mean No Problems

Network monitoring is often a reactive process. Engineers see an alarm, and take action. Alarms mean someone broke something, and it needs attention. Deal with the alarms, and all will...

SNMP Counters - Collection Interval Variation

Counter data types are commonly used in SNMP monitoring. They are extremely useful, but there’s a couple of caveats around how to use them. Here’s a couple of issues I’ve...

Monitoring IPv6 vs IPv4 Traffic on Juniper SRX

I use a Juniper SRX 110 at home, and my ISP is enlightened enough to offer IPv6 by default to all customers. My devices are dual-stack, and I know that a...

IOS-XR: Stuck between SNMP and SDN

SNMP may be outdated, and is definitely unloved, but it still serves a purpose. We’re moving to a new world, with new methods and data structures for interrogating and configuring...

SNMP Community Strings - Don't Use '@'

A quick reminder - do not use the symbol ‘@’ in SNMPv1/2 community strings. I came across this again this week - it causes issues with monitoring some equipment, and...

Tag rant

GCP, and Regaining Trust

Google is telling us they’re serious about the cloud. They’re hiring the right people, spending the big bucks, and even (gasp!) talking to customers! (Oh how that must stick in...

Networking's not so bad

Ivan’s post this week was a good reminder that other parts of IT aren’t perfect either. It’s not all roses on the other side of the fence. Networking has done...

Networking Pioneers, Settlers and Town Planners

Can we broadly separate Networking into Pioneers, Settlers, and Town Planners? I’ve been thinking about how to apply Simon Wardley’s PST model to networking. This leads to thinking about how...

Doing Community Programs Right

You know I’m not the biggest fan of vendor clubs (or influencer marketing programs, call them what you like). But if you’re going to do it, you might as well do...

Don't Underestimate Your Users

The “consumerisation of IT” has an interesting side-effect. Historically people mainly used computers for work. But now that many people have smartphones, tablets and laptops at home, their perception and understanding of technology...

Keep an Open Mind

We all know that IT changes rapidly, but we still don’t always accept what that means. Companies and technologies change over time, and good engineers recognise this. Poor engineers cling...

Vendor Clubs: Watch Your Independence

Vendor ‘clubs’ or programs have troubled me for some time. They are not all bad, but I am concerned about the influence that vendors are trying to exert, and the...

Tag NFD

The Next Step: Brocade

I am happy to announce that I am now a Product Manager at Brocade. This is a big move for me, and one I am very excited about. I will get to work...

NetBeez Review

NetBeez presented at Network Field Day 9, where they showed us their solution for distributed network performance monitoring. They gave the delegates a NetBeez agent to take home and test....

VeloCloud & Information Brokerage

VeloCloud was the first presenter at Network Field Day 9. They are one of the new breed of SD-WAN vendors. I’m impressed by what they’re doing, and and the potential it...

NFD9: Cumulus Networks

Cumulus Networks gave a great presentation at Network Field Day 9. They presented their vision of how they’re working to improve networking. But they were also clear about what they...

NFD9 Prep: SD-WAN

Software Defined WAN, or SD-WAN, looks to be a theme of Network Field Day 9, with presenters such as CloudGenix and VeloCloud showing us their offerings. At first glance, SD-WAN...

Updated Big Switch Labs

Just a quick note to say that Big Switch have updated their demo lab system. This is an entirely virtual lab environment that simulates a Big Switch network. You can...

NFD9 Prep: NetBeez

I’m reviewing the presenters for Network Field Day 9, in particular looking at those I’m not familiar with. NetBeez is one of those making their first Tech Field Day appearance....

Network Field Day 9

I had a fantastic time at Network Field Day 8, and now I’ve been lucky enough to be invited back to NFD9 this February.

Big Switch Chaos Monkey Network Testing

Whenever you build a complex system, you need to test that it works as expected, including properly handling failures. It’s easy enough to do simple component failure testing, but harder to...

APIs Alone Aren't Enough

Yes, we know: Your product has an API. Yawn. Sorry for not getting excited. That’s just table stakes now. What I’m interested in is the pre-written integrations and code you...

Knowing Your Audience...and Showing It

We all know that you’re supposed to “Know Your Audience.” Doing so improves engagement, and avoids faux pas like “Suggested Tweets.” But recently I realised that this doesn’t have to be subtle....

No More Single Panes of Glass

The term “Single Pane of Glass” became something of a running joke during Network Field Day 8. The term has become over-used & abused, and it’s time we stopped using...

ThousandEyes - NOC for the Internet?

ThousandEyes is a network monitoring company that provides application performance visibility across the Internet. They don’t just show how an application is performing, but can identify where across the Internet issues...

Network Field Day 8 - I'm Going!

I am lucky enough to be invited to attend Network Field Day 8 this September, in Silicon Valley. For 3 days, I get to hang out with some of the smartest people...

Dell Fabric Manager & The Future for CCIEs

Network Field Day 7 had many interesting presentations and discussions. I’m still working through them all, but one from Dell caught my eye, where they declared that CCIEs were no...

Tag certs

Certs vs Code: SDN Culture Clash?

SDN career certifications are starting to emerge. Network engineers are well-used to certifications, and use them as a badge of marking progress. But developers prefer to focus on code, not...

Tag interop

Best of Interop - Look at the Categorisation

The “Best of Interop 2014 Finalists” have been announced. Pretty much all the products and technologies that you would expect, but I found the categorisation interesting. As you’d expect, there’s...

Tag projects

Working with Project Managers

Technical people often have problems with Project Managers. It doesn’t have to be this way though - if you can each recognise the other’s strengths and weaknesses, you can work...

Tag fibre

Juniper SRX-110H EoL

Somehow I missed this when it was announced, but the Juniper SRX-110H-VA is End of Life, and is no longer supported for new software releases.

The Fibre Future is Coming

In New Zealand, one company controls the copper cabling delivered to houses. They sell access to Retail ISPs, at a fixed price. Individual customer connections are mapped through to the...

Tag UFB

Juniper SRX-110H EoL

Somehow I missed this when it was announced, but the Juniper SRX-110H-VA is End of Life, and is no longer supported for new software releases.

The Fibre Future is Coming

In New Zealand, one company controls the copper cabling delivered to houses. They sell access to Retail ISPs, at a fixed price. Individual customer connections are mapped through to the...

Tag onePK

IOS-XR: Stuck between SNMP and SDN

SNMP may be outdated, and is definitely unloved, but it still serves a purpose. We’re moving to a new world, with new methods and data structures for interrogating and configuring...

Tag caching

Transparent Caching Won't Save Us

A recent Gigaom article asks: “Will transparent caching reshape the future of video on the internet?”

Tag worklife

GitHub & Microsoft - It's OK

Microsoft buys GitHub, and most of the press has been pretty positive, even from those you might not expect.

Don't Rely on Long Support Lifecycles

I hate long support lifecycles for hardware and software. Yes, you should be able to buy a new iPhone or switch and use it for 3+ years. But some people...

Culture Shifts and Work Travel Learnings

I’ve seen a few Twitter threads recently about learning to live with the sudden plenty of working for tech companies. If you didn’t grow up that way, the adjustment takes...

War Stories: Always Check Your Inputs

The extremely irregular War Stories series returns, with an anecdote from 15 years ago, investigating a problem with a web app that only seemed to crash when one particular person...

SREcon, DevOpsDays and Seattle vs Sillicon Valley

I am the Product Manager for StackStorm. This gives me the opportunity to attend several industry events. This year I attended SREcon in San Francisco, and devopsdays Seattle. I found...

No Dress Code? AHAHAHAHAHA

Dress codes are funny things. Everyone in Silicon Valley likes to make out they are super-relaxed, and you can wear whatever you like. “We don’t have a dress code.” But...

Don't Trust Hotel Currency Conversion

Experienced travelers will already know this, but it bears repeating: Don’t trust your hotel to perform currency conversions for credit card transactions. They will rip you off. Leave it to...

Travel Badge of Shame

All frequent flyers strive to the top tier of their program. Qantas Platinum, BA Gold, KrisFlyer Elite Gold, United Premier 1K. They all want that extra level of benefits, those...

War Stories: Backup NICs, DNS and AD

This article is Part 11 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

Learning to Love Codenames

One of the things I struggled with when starting at a vendor was dealing with project codenames. There is no secret decoder ring - you have to learn the names the...

Sit Stand Desk Setup

I work from home these days. Therefore it’s important that I have a decent desk setup. My previous setup was pretty crappy, but I only worked from home part-time. I’ve...

Considering On-Call Pay

Let’s say you’ve been offered a new job. $70k base salary, with up to $20k per year extra for on-call duties. Great! $90k! That’s $10k more than my salary now! Sign me...

The Next Step: Brocade

I am happy to announce that I am now a Product Manager at Brocade. This is a big move for me, and one I am very excited about. I will get to work...

Musing: Generalist to Specialist and Back Again

Recently I’ve been musing on IT Generalists vs Specialists. We used to have more generalist roles, covering all parts of the stack. ITIL then pushed us towards greater specialisation. I...

What's In My Bag (Hint: not much)

Recently @BobMcCouch posted a photo of the contents of his bags. He’s got a lot of gear, including a hammer, and a dent-puller. He assures us that it’s for lifting tiles, but...

Rolling out Change

We all know that “Change is Hard.” But often we, as engineers, focus on the technical aspects of that change. How do I minimise customer impact while upgrading those routers?...

Headwinds, or Uphill?

As some of my readers know, I’ve done a fair bit of bike touring. Two of the challenges of bike touring are riding uphill, and riding into headwinds.

Rewarding Effort vs Results

Sometimes we confuse effort with outcome. We think that hours spent are more important than outcomes achieved. Or we unintentionally create a system where effort is rewarded, rather than outcomes....

BYOD: Just another money-grab?

BYOD policies sound alluring. No more forced use of a crappy old corporate laptop - “hey look, we’ll let you choose whatever you want!” But I think it is a way to...

Comparing Employment Relationships

I periodically re-evaluate my career, and my current position, and try to decide A) Should I change, and B) What sort of change should I make? One part of evaluating...

Keeping Calm: Don't Lose Face

I got angry and swore and shouted during a business meeting recently, when I felt someone was doing a poor job. Ultimately this reflected poorly on me, not the other...

Tag consulting

Fixed-Price, or T&M?

Recently I posted about Rewarding Effort vs Results, how different contract structures can have different outcomes. This post covers Time & Materials vs Fixed-Price a little more, looking at pros & cons,...

Non-Functional Requirements

I’m currently reading and enjoying “The Practice of Cloud System Administration.” It doesn’t go into great depth in any one area, but it covers a range of design patterns and implementation...

Let People Choose Their Own Tools

Why is it that people will pay a lot of money for a consultant’s time and expertise, but then hobble them by limiting the tools they can use?

Choosing the Best Product for the Client or the Best for Me?

A Miktrotik course was held in my area recently, and I thought “They make some really cool stuff, and it’s amazing value. Maybe I should go on the course?” But then...

Tag checkpoint

War Stories: Dual-Vendor Firewall Strategy

This article is Part 4 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

Tag ARP

War Stories: Gratuitous ARP and VRRP

This article is Part 6 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

Proxy ARP Sucks

Proxy ARP was often used in network designs 10–15 years ago, to enable NAT. It helped get around some specific challenges, but it was always an administrative hassle, and caused...

Tag ACI

Is Cisco Struggling with Their ACI Messaging?

Cisco ACI represents a significant shift in the way we approach networking. This sort of shift will need massive customer education to explain their new vision. I’m getting the impression...

Tag Python

What Happens When 20 Programs Poll The Network?

Packetpushers show 198 was a great episode about Network Automation. At one point, Greg asks:

HPN Script Repository on GitHub

Dobias van Ingen is working to get an HP Networking scripting community together. This is to take advantage of various HPN scripting capabilities, such as:

Using Paramiko/Python with FortiMail

Fortinet makes an email security/anti-spam appliance called FortiMail. I wanted to collect spam and virus statistics from it, to integrate with our Network Monitoring Systems. Unfortunately the data is not exposed via SNMP or API,...

Tag blogging

Who Said Comments Are Dead?

We don’t see as many comments on blog posts these days, as most discussion has moved to other forums, such as Twitter or Google+. But this doesn’t mean that comments...

Tag CCDE

Using OmniFocus for CCDE Study

A reader asked how I use OmniFocus to help with studying for certification exams. Here’s how I’m using OmniFocus to help with CCDE study. This may not be the ‘best’...

Tag API

APIs Alone Aren't Enough

Yes, we know: Your product has an API. Yawn. Sorry for not getting excited. That’s just table stakes now. What I’m interested in is the pre-written integrations and code you...

Screen Scraping: Still Sucks

I’ve written before about “Why Screen Scraping Sucks.” Well, I can report that nothing has changed. It still sucks. This time I got caught out by the changed behaviour of...

Tag FX

Vocus Acquisition of FX: Good for Customers?

Consolidation is happening in the New Zealand wholesale ISP market, with Vocus acquiring FX. Consolidation can lead to less competition, or it can strengthen it, by making players stronger and...

Tag ISP

Vocus Acquisition of FX: Good for Customers?

Consolidation is happening in the New Zealand wholesale ISP market, with Vocus acquiring FX. Consolidation can lead to less competition, or it can strengthen it, by making players stronger and...

Tag Vocus

Vocus Acquisition of FX: Good for Customers?

Consolidation is happening in the New Zealand wholesale ISP market, with Vocus acquiring FX. Consolidation can lead to less competition, or it can strengthen it, by making players stronger and...

Tag TFTP

Rant: Just stop it with the TFTP

TFTP was first defined in 1980. That is a very long time ago in IT, and while it’s had a good run, it’s time for network engineers to stop using...

Tag TFD

No More Single Panes of Glass

The term “Single Pane of Glass” became something of a running joke during Network Field Day 8. The term has become over-used & abused, and it’s time we stopped using...

ThousandEyes - NOC for the Internet?

ThousandEyes is a network monitoring company that provides application performance visibility across the Internet. They don’t just show how an application is performing, but can identify where across the Internet issues...

Tag ThousandEyes

ThousandEyes - NOC for the Internet?

ThousandEyes is a network monitoring company that provides application performance visibility across the Internet. They don’t just show how an application is performing, but can identify where across the Internet issues...

Tag design

Utility-Based Pricing Troubles Me

Utility, or Consumption-Based pricing models offer an interesting way of matching costs to revenues. But if they’re not managed well, customer costs could blow out just trying to keep the...

The Chassis Switch is Dead

The Chassis Switch is Dead. For most networks, chassis-based switches are no longer appropriate due to cost, inflexibility and risk. I see this as similar to servers, in that server...

Tag Brocade

Extreme Transition At Last

It is now almost 12 months since the first announcement that Broadcom was to acquire Brocade, and sell off the IP parts of the business. It took another 6 months...

News at Last: It's Extreme

We have news at last: Extreme Networks is acquiring Brocade’s Data Center Networking business. This includes the SLX, VDX and MLXe routing and switching product lines, Network Visibility and Analytics...

Brocade Update: No Update

This blog has been quiet since my last post in November 2016, covering the announcement that Broadcom is acquiring Brocade, and selling off my part of the business. That was...

Brocadecom

The news is public: Broadcom is acquiring Brocade, my employer. Official announcement here, and some (unofficial) commentary here. What’s happening, and what does it mean for me? There’s limits to...

VRF-Aware SNMP on Brocade VDX

SNMP was not designed with VRFs in mind. Querying the routing table via SNMP did not take into account the idea of having multiple routing tables. But clearly it’s something...

netmiko support for Brocade ICX and MLXe

netmiko is a “Multi-vendor library to simplify Paramiko SSH connections to network devices,” written by Kirk Byers. It doesn’t solve all of your pain with dealing with CLI-only network devices,...

Configure the Brocade NOS REST API to use HTTPS

Brocade VDX switches have REST and NETCONF interfaces. The REST API uses the built-in HTTP server. By default, this uses plain-text HTTP. As of NOS 6.0, you can (and should!)...

Brocade VDX SNMP Changes

Brocade tightened up some SNMP settings with NOS 6.0.x. This improves security, but it also means that you will need to modify your configuration if you upgrade. If you don’t,...

Brocade BNA API

Brocade Network Advisor (BNA) has a REST API for accessing Fibre Channel-related data. The documentation includes a sample Python script showing how to connect to the API to retrieve Fabric info....

Brocade PyNOS Python Libraries

PyNOS v1.1 has been published. This is a python library that simplifies automating Brocade VDX systems. It is built on top of ncclient, and uses NETCONF to communicate with the VDX...

Unsupported BNA Hacks

Here’s a couple of quick hacks for working with Brocade Network Advisor. It’s unsupported, but you can run BNA on Ubuntu. You can also suppress the client-side JRE version mismatch...

Add Brocade MLX & VDX Support to HP IMC

HP IMC 7.1 E0303P13 does not support configuration backups for Brocade MLX & VDX devices. But they do have an extensible model, so it’s easy to add support. Here’s how...

Brocade Certified vRouter Engineer

If you’ve visited the Brocade website recently, you’ve probably seen the “Free NFV Certification” banner. I signed up for this several months ago, but had put off completing the course. I...

Knowing Your Audience...and Showing It

We all know that you’re supposed to “Know Your Audience.” Doing so improves engagement, and avoids faux pas like “Suggested Tweets.” But recently I realised that this doesn’t have to be subtle....

Tag Spirent

Knowing Your Audience...and Showing It

We all know that you’re supposed to “Know Your Audience.” Doing so improves engagement, and avoids faux pas like “Suggested Tweets.” But recently I realised that this doesn’t have to be subtle....

Tag costs

Utility-Based Pricing Troubles Me

Utility, or Consumption-Based pricing models offer an interesting way of matching costs to revenues. But if they’re not managed well, customer costs could blow out just trying to keep the...

Tag ISIG

Shellshock: One Month On

Shellshock was released a little over a month ago, to wide predictions of doom & gloom. But somehow the Internet survived, and we lurch on towards the next crisis. I...

Tag presentation

Shellshock: One Month On

Shellshock was released a little over a month ago, to wide predictions of doom & gloom. But somehow the Internet survived, and we lurch on towards the next crisis. I...

Tag software

In Praise of Support Lifecycles

If you’re just starting out working with ‘Enterprise’ products, you may not have come across Support Lifecycles. It’s important to know what these are, and how it affects you. They...

Tag BYOD

BYOD: Just another money-grab?

BYOD policies sound alluring. No more forced use of a crappy old corporate laptop - “hey look, we’ll let you choose whatever you want!” But I think it is a way to...

Tag policy

Using Firewalls for Policy Has Been a Disaster

Almost every SDN vendor today talks about policy, how they make it easy to express and enforce network policies. Cisco ACI, VMware NSX, Nuage Networks, OpenStack Congress, etc. This sounds...

Tag PagerDuty

Increased MTTR is Good?

In Episode 167 of The Cloudcast - “Bringing Advanced Analytics to DevOps”, Dave Hayes brings up an interesting point about Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). At about 8:30 in, he...

Tag architecture

Non-Functional Requirements

I’m currently reading and enjoying “The Practice of Cloud System Administration.” It doesn’t go into great depth in any one area, but it covers a range of design patterns and implementation...

Tag operations

Ops Work vs Project Work

There’s a constant tension between delivering new services, and running the existing services well. How do you figure out how to prioritise work between Operations tasks and Project work? Skewing...

Non-Functional Requirements

I’m currently reading and enjoying “The Practice of Cloud System Administration.” It doesn’t go into great depth in any one area, but it covers a range of design patterns and implementation...

Tag DDoS

Andrisoft Wanguard: Cost-Effective Network Visibility

Andrisoft Wansight and Wanguard are tools for network traffic monitoring, visibility, anomaly detection and response. I’ve used them, and think that they do a good job, for a reasonable price....

Tag RTBH

Andrisoft Wanguard: Cost-Effective Network Visibility

Andrisoft Wansight and Wanguard are tools for network traffic monitoring, visibility, anomaly detection and response. I’ve used them, and think that they do a good job, for a reasonable price....

Tag Cumulus

Cumulus in the Campus?

Recently I’ve been idly speculating about how campus networking could be shaken up, with different cost and management models. A few recent podcasts have inspired some thoughts on how Cumulus Networks might fit...

Tag meetings

Meeting Rules

Years ago a wise engineer gave me these rules for meetings:

Tag switching

War Stories: Cursed VLANs

This article is Part 7 in a 12-Part Series. Part 1 - War Stories: Loops that Permanently Broke the Network Part 2 - War Stories: Switches Lying about Duplex Mismatches...

Tag complexity

Complexity vs Security

Many of the ‘security’ measures in our networks add complexity. That may be an acceptable tradeoff, if we make a meaningful difference to security. But often it feels like we...

Tag F5

F5 APM, SRX and DTLS NAT Timeout

I have been having issues using the F5 APM client behind a Juniper SRX-110 using hide NAT. I believe I’ve tracked it down to the default timeout settings used for...

F5 Data Groups, Wildcards and tmsh

Just a quick note about a problem I ran into with adding data groups to an F5 system using tmsh. I wanted to add a string data group containing a list...

iRules/Tcl - Watch the Comments

It’s pretty common practice to ‘comment out’ lines in scripts. The code stays in place, but doesn’t get executed. Perfect for testing, when you might need more debug output, or you want...

Tag programming

iRules/Tcl - Watch the Comments

It’s pretty common practice to ‘comment out’ lines in scripts. The code stays in place, but doesn’t get executed. Perfect for testing, when you might need more debug output, or you want...

Tag TCL

iRules/Tcl - Watch the Comments

It’s pretty common practice to ‘comment out’ lines in scripts. The code stays in place, but doesn’t get executed. Perfect for testing, when you might need more debug output, or you want...

Tag wipebook

Wipebook - A Portable Whiteboard

It is a stereotype, but engineers really do like whiteboards. Problem is, you can’t carry one around with you. Plus there’s still a few unenlightened employers who don’t provide whiteboards....

Tag NetBeez

NFD9 Prep: NetBeez

I’m reviewing the presenters for Network Field Day 9, in particular looking at those I’m not familiar with. NetBeez is one of those making their first Tech Field Day appearance....

Tag Big Switch

Updated Big Switch Labs

Just a quick note to say that Big Switch have updated their demo lab system. This is an entirely virtual lab environment that simulates a Big Switch network. You can...

Tag indeni

Indeni, Smart Advisors and Crowd-Sourcing

Monitoring needs to move on from traditional fault and performance polling. It should include identifying common misconfigurations and known faults. We’re all using the same technologies, so we’ve all got the...

Tag DNS

DNSSEC - Moving the Needle

The New Zealand ISP market is dominated by Spark, Vodafone & CallPus/Orcon. A side effect of this is that if one player does the Right Thing™, it really moves the...

Tag Ansible

CircleCI, Docker and Systemd

I have been battling to get the combination of CircleCI, Docker and systemd to play together. After much frustration, I have a workable solution. Machine Executor, privileged: true, cgroup passthrough,...

More Ansible Modules for Extreme

We published Ansible modules for Extreme SLX devices earlier this year. Now we have modules covering all the main Extreme Switching & Routing product families - SLX, VDX, MLX, EXOS,...

Ansible - Don't be Afraid of a Little Python

This year I’ve written several Ansible modules. It wasn’t that hard, yet some people claimed they had been waiting “years” for those modules. There was nothing stopping anyone else doing...

HP IMC Silent Installation

HP IMC installation is normally a manual process, with plenty of clickey clickey clickey. This is OK for production systems, as most sites will only have one or maybe two IMC servers....

Tag automation

Configure the Brocade NOS REST API to use HTTPS

Brocade VDX switches have REST and NETCONF interfaces. The REST API uses the built-in HTTP server. By default, this uses plain-text HTTP. As of NOS 6.0, you can (and should!)...

Help! My Boss is Scared of Automation!!!

A reader asked “What can I do if my boss won’t let me automate my tasks?” Sadly some people still have a fear of automating even common, well-understood tasks. They’re worried about...

Automate All The Things? Maybe Not

I’m fundamentally lazy. That’s why automation appeals: less work for me. Get the machine to do it instead. But automating everything isn’t always the right answer. Sometimes you need to...

Tag putty

Reminder: Solarized for Better Terminals

I have used the ”Solarized” colour scheme on my Mac for several years. This is:

Tag NAT

Using Check Point Identity Awareness with NAT

Check Point Identity Awareness is problematic in environments that have multiple customers, overlapping private address space, and NAT. It can be done, if you understand the traffic flows, the connections needed,...

Tag IoT

Think Bigger

I get frustrated by those who take a narrow view of technology, and progress in general. They see things in terms of where they are now, and where they were....

Tag NFV

Brocade Certified vRouter Engineer

If you’ve visited the Brocade website recently, you’ve probably seen the “Free NFV Certification” banner. I signed up for this several months ago, but had put off completing the course. I...

Tag money

Considering On-Call Pay

Let’s say you’ve been offered a new job. $70k base salary, with up to $20k per year extra for on-call duties. Great! $90k! That’s $10k more than my salary now! Sign me...

Tag CLI

/bin/sh - checking for bash vs dash incompatibilities

I have been investigating a problem where an application would install on RHEL/CentOS, but not on Ubuntu. I tracked it down to a problem with shell scripts that assumed that /bin/sh...

Tag BNA

Brocade BNA API

Brocade Network Advisor (BNA) has a REST API for accessing Fibre Channel-related data. The documentation includes a sample Python script showing how to connect to the API to retrieve Fabric info....

Unsupported BNA Hacks

Here’s a couple of quick hacks for working with Brocade Network Advisor. It’s unsupported, but you can run BNA on Ubuntu. You can also suppress the client-side JRE version mismatch...

Tag TruView

TruView Live Application Monitoring

Fluke Networks recently released TruView Live, a subscription-based service for monitoring internal & external applications. Tests can run from Fluke-managed cloud locations, your own systems, or from dedicated hardware appliances. I’ve been...

Tag Containers

Stretching the Container Metaphor

The Docker/shipping container metaphor is overdone. I don’t think people have fully thought through what it might mean if containers do the same thing to computing as they did to shipping....

Tag Grafana

Using Telegraf, InfluxDB and Grafana to Monitor Network Statistics

Two years ago I wrote about how to use InfluxDB & Grafana for better visualization of network statistics. I still loathe MRTG graphs, but configuring InfluxSNMP was a bit of...

Using InfluxDB + Grafana to Display Network Statistics

I loathe MRTG graphs. They were cool in 2000, but now they’re showing their age. We have much better visualisation tools available, and we don’t need to be so aggressive...

Tag InfluxDB

Using Telegraf, InfluxDB and Grafana to Monitor Network Statistics

Two years ago I wrote about how to use InfluxDB & Grafana for better visualization of network statistics. I still loathe MRTG graphs, but configuring InfluxSNMP was a bit of...

Using InfluxDB + Grafana to Display Network Statistics

I loathe MRTG graphs. They were cool in 2000, but now they’re showing their age. We have much better visualisation tools available, and we don’t need to be so aggressive...

Tag tcpdump

Modifying Packet Captures with tcprewrite

Recently I wanted to look at the structure of sFlow packets. Of course I can read the specs, but it’s often easier to look at some real packets. So I set...

Tag networking

CLI Still Sucks for Automation

Using network CLI for automation has always been fragile. But it keeps surprising me with the way it breaks. This time, it was a combination of Ansible, Arista, replace: config...

Ansible for Extreme Devices

Here’s something I’ve been working on recently: Ansible modules for Extreme SLX switches & routers. Ansible is a popular automation framework, and with good reason: it has a low barrier...

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child

It takes a village to raise a child. Or so the old saying goes. Creating a product is the same. It takes more than small group of developers (or parents)...

VRRP Skew Time (and always be learning...)

It’s funny how you can work with something for years, but miss a small detail. This week I learnt about Skew Time for VRRP. The reason for it is completely...

Tag VoIP

Stop using mobiles for conference calls

Stop using legacy mobile audio, especially for conference calls. There are better alternatives. You’re doing your customers and colleagues a disservice by using mobile audio. It’s time we moved on....

Tag Extreme

More Ansible Modules for Extreme

We published Ansible modules for Extreme SLX devices earlier this year. Now we have modules covering all the main Extreme Switching & Routing product families - SLX, VDX, MLX, EXOS,...

Extreme Transition At Last

It is now almost 12 months since the first announcement that Broadcom was to acquire Brocade, and sell off the IP parts of the business. It took another 6 months...

News at Last: It's Extreme

We have news at last: Extreme Networks is acquiring Brocade’s Data Center Networking business. This includes the SLX, VDX and MLXe routing and switching product lines, Network Visibility and Analytics...

Tag Blog

Netlify Migration

This blog is now hosted via Netlify, rather than GitHub Pages. It is still built using Jekyll, but I updated the theme to Mediumish.

Website Migration Complete

I have completed migrating my website to GitHub Pages. URLs and RSS feed location should remain the same.

Tag Savvius

Savvius Insight and the use of Elastic

Last week Savvius announced upgraded versions of its Insight network visibility appliances. These have the usual performance and capacity increases you’d expect, and fill a nice gap in the market....

Tag Linux

RPM Post-Upgrade Scripts

Something different today: Here’s something I learnt about RPM package management, and post-upgrade scripts. It turns out that they don’t work the way I thought they did. Post-uninstall commands are...

Tag RPM

RPM Post-Upgrade Scripts

Something different today: Here’s something I learnt about RPM package management, and post-upgrade scripts. It turns out that they don’t work the way I thought they did. Post-uninstall commands are...

Tag Coding

The Difference Between Proper Devs and Me

I spend a lot of time poking around with code, and I can figure out most integration challenges, and simple code fixes. But I do not call myself a developer....

Tag GitHub

The Difference Between Proper Devs and Me

I spend a lot of time poking around with code, and I can figure out most integration challenges, and simple code fixes. But I do not call myself a developer....

Tag Worklife

New Role with Valve

I have started a new role as a Network Engineer with Valve Corporation. My period of unemployment was short-lived, and I am gainfully employed once more.

Our Green Card Journey

We are now Lawful Permanent Residents of the United States - aka Green Card Holders. It took a few years to get to this point. Here’s our timeline, why we...

Replacement Strips for Screen Privacy Filter

I use a Privacy Filter on my laptop screen when traveling. I’m doing a bit of time on planes these days, and it makes a big difference. Most of my...

New Year, New Home

We have left the Bay Area, and headed North. We have moved to the Greater Seattle area - specifically the Eastside, between Bellevue and Redmond. We’ve given up the old...

Sorry, Network Jobs Are Changing

There’s a lot of angst in the networking community about programming, SDN, automation, and what it means for networking careers. Plenty of people will tell you don’t worry about it,...

Everything Has a Cost

Everything comes at a cost: steak dinners & pre-sales engineering has to get paid for somehow. That should be obvious to most. Feature requests also come at a cost, both...

Recruiters: Must Try Harder

Right now, it’s an employee’s market in the Bay Area. Technology firms are growing, and they’re always trying to hire more people. So I regularly receive emails from recruiters. This...

Tag Telegraf

Using Telegraf, InfluxDB and Grafana to Monitor Network Statistics

Two years ago I wrote about how to use InfluxDB & Grafana for better visualization of network statistics. I still loathe MRTG graphs, but configuring InfluxSNMP was a bit of...

Tag ansible

CLI Still Sucks for Automation

Using network CLI for automation has always been fragile. But it keeps surprising me with the way it breaks. This time, it was a combination of Ansible, Arista, replace: config...

Ansible for Extreme Devices

Here’s something I’ve been working on recently: Ansible modules for Extreme SLX switches & routers. Ansible is a popular automation framework, and with good reason: it has a low barrier...

Tag IXP

IXP Graphs are an Eyesore

Too many IXPs (and networkers in general) are using horrible outdated methods of graphing data. These are an ugly eyesore, and should be updated to something from this century. Big...

Tag CircleCI

CircleCI, Docker and Systemd

I have been battling to get the combination of CircleCI, Docker and systemd to play together. After much frustration, I have a workable solution. Machine Executor, privileged: true, cgroup passthrough,...

Tag Career

New Role with Valve

I have started a new role as a Network Engineer with Valve Corporation. My period of unemployment was short-lived, and I am gainfully employed once more.

Tag Juniper

Why Single-Port LAGs?

I recommend always using LACP for external connections. It will make your life easier, even when you only have a single connection. Here’s why we do it.

Enforcing First AS in BGP

The BGP RFCs state that external BGP peers should insert their own AS into the AS PATH advertised to eBGP peers. Some peers strip their AS, generally for commercial gain....

Juniper Version Selection

Picking the right Junos version is important. If you’re not familiar with Juniper, finding and downloading the right software package is confusing. Here’s some guidance on picking the right version....

New Juniper Rack Mount Kit

Juniper has a new enhanced four-post rack mount kit “JNP-4PST-RMK-1U-E” for their 1RU datacenter devices. It works with devices like the QFX5120 and PTX10001-36MR. It is much improved over the...

EX3400 Disk Space and Upgrades

The Juniper EX3400 switch series is a decent access switch. But a Product Manager chose to save $0.50 on COGS by choosing a 2GB disk. That’s just not enough space...

Juniper ARP Policer on PTX

I’ve written before about the default ARP policer on Juniper MX. It can create some odd failure conditions when you’re connected to noisy networks such as large Internet Exchanges. Junos...

Juniper i40e NVM Firmware Upgrade

Juniper Routing Engines with VM Host need an i40e NVM firmware upgrade. The procedure is a pain in the ass, and documentation is not great. But you can’t avoid the...

Juniper Direct vs Local Routes

Juniper routers consider a directly configured IP as a “direct” route, except when you use a /32 mask (for IPv4). Then it is a “local” route. This caused me some...

Juniper Default ARP Policer

Juniper devices have a default ARP policer that drops ARP requests and responses over 150kbps. By default, this is an aggregate policer that applies to all interfaces. This can lead...

Juniper Branch SRX LACP Weirdness

Juniper SRX 300 Series firewalls may stop forwarding traffic in some situations. The firewall says it is forwarding the traffic, but it doesn’t work. Monitoring traffic looks OK, ARP entries...

Juniper QFX10K IPFIX Gotchas

IPFIX is problematic on the Juniper QFX10K switches. Documentation is sparse, and doesn’t have a complete configuration. Behavior changes between versions in undocumented ways. Here’s a couple of things I...

Juniper MX Upgrades Causing Overheating

Juniper changed the way they do temperature management on MX240 and MX480 chassis devices, somewhere between 15.1 and 17.3. The net result is that your chassis might run hotter after...

QFX Upgrades - Check Host Version

I came across a situation where a software upgrade failed for some members in a Juniper QFX Virtual Chassis. There is a known issue with upgrades with a certain configuration...

Junos SNMP via Routing Instance

Juniper routing instances are very useful when you need separate routing tables on the one device, for example to separate customers. Junos lets you configure SNMP polling of routing instances,...

Tag SNMP

Junos SNMP via Routing Instance

Juniper routing instances are very useful when you need separate routing tables on the one device, for example to separate customers. Junos lets you configure SNMP polling of routing instances,...