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Stable: GNS3 2.2.17 + VMware Fusion 12.1.0 + macOS 11.1 (Build 20C69)

Even with minor caveats, I seem to be in a better place with macOS 11.1 Big Sur versus macOS 10.15.7 Catalina. And I'll take being able to run GNS3 labs without kernel panics as a big win.

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Preempting Gray Failures With AI/ML

The network was definitely up, and had been up. There was nothing in the logs indicating link flaps, spanning-tree convergence events, or routing process adjacency changes. The packets had been, were...

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Buying Used Cisco Gear From eBay For Your Lab

While most of the lab work I do is with virtualized networking gear, once in a while, I need actual hardware. For instance, to fully explore QoS, hardware is key. Many QoS commands won’t be available...

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Is It Illegal To Be Called “Engineer” Without Having An Engineering Degree?

Some engineers are called engineers because they went through a rigorous process recognized in their industry. The stuff they do tends to affect lives, and so the title of engineer is not awarded until...

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Free Networking Lab Images From Arista, Cisco, nVidia (Cumulus)

This post was originally published on 30-March-2021. It needs to be updated. Let Ethan know on Slack if you’d like to see this article freshened up. Here’s my current list of no cost, minimal headache,...

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When Stretching Layer Two, Separate Your Fate

On the Packet Pushers YouTube channel, Jorge asks in response to Using VXLAN To Span One Data Center Across Two Locations… if stretching the layer 2 is not recommended, then what is the recommendation...

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What Makes A Senior IT Engineer “Senior”?

Ravi asks the following… I’m trying to figure out what makes a network engineer truly a “senior” engineer. What skills, mostly non-technical, do they possess in order to bring value to the work place?...

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How To Pass API Query Parameters In A Curl Request

If you’re using CLI tool curl to retrieve data from a remote API, you might send forth a command like so. curl -H "Authorization: Bearer access_token_goes_here" \...

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What Does An ‘R’ Before A String Mean In Python?

R Means ‘Raw String’ An ‘r’ before a string tells the Python interpreter to treat backslashes as a literal (raw) character. Normally, Python uses backslashes as escape characters. Prefacing the string...

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How To Blackhole (Null Route) An IPv6 Block On Linux Using ‘ip -6 route’

If there’s an IPv6 netblock you’d like your host to stop responding to, one tactic is to blackhole the traffic. That is, send any traffic from your host destined to the troublesome IPv6 netblock into a...

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How To Create A Python Function You Can Call From Other Scripts

Python gives you the ability to write a bit of code and the call that code as a function. You can call the function from within the same script where the function is defined, or you can save the...

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How To Use Grep + Regex To Match Non-200 HTTP Status Codes In Apache Server Logs

When parsing Apache web server logs on Linux, I find it interesting to monitor access requests resulting in HTTP status codes other than 200s. An HTTP status code in the 200s means the request was...

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Your First REST API Call In Python

This post originally appeared on the Packet Pushers’ Ignition site on June 10, 2020. Introduction In many automation scripts, you’ll be retrieving information via some sort of interface and then doing...

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Embedding Client IP In DNS Requests: EDNS Client Subnet (ECS)

This post originally appeared on the Packet Pushers Ignition site on December 10, 2019.   DNS is sometimes used to optimize traffic between client and server. That is, a client needs to connect to a...

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How To Reference Nested Python Lists & Dictionaries

This post originally appeared in the Packet Pushers’ Ignition site on March 10, 2020. When getting data back from API queries in Python, the data is often delivered in JSON format. Python libraries...

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Put In The Work

Would you like to stand out from your peers? Would you like to impress the people you work for, or perhaps the people you’d like to work for? Put in the work. Putting in the work to achieve a goal is a...

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Formatted CLI Data Is Not Good Enough For Automation

If you're learning to interact with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), you'll need to get accustomed to structured data, which is different from formatted data you're likely accuomsted to with the CLI....

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Understanding OSPF Router ID (RID) Assignment

This post originally appeared on the Packet Pushers’ Ignition site on March 24, 2020. In both OSPFv2 (IPv4) and OSPFv3 (IPv6), the router ID (RID) is a 32-bit number assigned to the router. The RID...

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Marketing Docs Are Not Written For Engineers

When reading marketing literature as an engineer, you must always be careful to parse the words correctly. For example, I was reviewing a vendor’s pitch deck on a new hardware switch. The switch was...

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Setting Up Public-Private Keys For SSH Authentication

The more pedantic in the tech community argue about the merits of public-private key authentication vs. simple password authentication when logging into an SSH host. I have no strong opinion regarding...

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Improving DNS Privacy With QNAME Minimization (RFC7816)

This post originally appeared on the Packet Pushers’ Ignition site on October 1, 2019.   When a host doesn’t know the IP address for a hostname, what does it do? It asks its configured DNS server to...

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Meet FullCtl: For All Your IXP & BGP Peering Automation Needs

The Packet Pushers recently had a briefing with Chris Grundemann about startup FullCtl. FullCtl is all about network automation for internet exchanges, service providers, large enterprises, and anyone...

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CLIs Are In My Way – Abstract All The Things

Network automation: How much has actually changed over 10 years? Ethan Banks revisits his 2014 blog post about trying to move past the CLI.

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Career Advice I’d Give To 20-, 30- and 40-Something Year Old Me

Ethan Banks gives career advice to his 20, 30, and 40 year old self.

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SD-WAN Gives Us The Best Path We Always Wanted

SD-WAN changed not only the face of wide area networking, but of networking as a whole.

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Postpone Inbox Procrastination

I think of inbox management like cleaning the catbox. Doing it every day is best. If I miss a day, it’s tolerable, but sort of gross.

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Open Source Networking Projects: A Current List

The goal of this massive list of open source networking projects is to spread awareness of tools that might make your IT job easier. Compiled by Packet Pushers.

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Classful Routing Has Little Meaning In Modern Networking

Classful routing is a point of historical interest only. If I was preparing course material on this myself, I’d cover classful vs. CIDR in an intro module as it offers context for the terminology...

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SD-WAN, SASE, and SSE Vendors: A Reference List

Looking to compare SD-WAN vendors, along with SSE and SASE vendors? Hit up our massive reference list.

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The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Just Ran

The Cisco of 2024 isn’t the Cisco that made the Catalyst 6500. But we remember. And many of us believe that this purchase, this gear, this time… we’ll have the 6500 back again. The new thing will just...

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The Fat Pipe Is Going On a Diet

Packet Pushers is pulling out several of the shows we’ve been stuffing in the Fat Pipe. If you want to keep listening to these shows, subscribe to them directly.

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Briefing Report: CloudZero Makes Sure Your Cloud Spend Isn’t Wasteful

Bring engineering and finance together using a common language of unit economics to deeply analyze costs and drive more efficient solutions. How do you get this done? In part with CloudZero's SaaS...

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Briefing Report: Drut’s DX3.0 Maximizes GPU Hardware Utilization For AI...

The folks at Drut (pronounced “droot”, supply your own I am Droot jokes) have created an AI compute environment for the rest of us. Who’s the rest of us? Anyone that’s doing AI-related work–training...

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Briefing Summary: Netos Builds A Bridge Between Networking & Finance

Netos startup founder Richard Foster reached out to brief Packet Pushers about what he and his team have built. In short, Netos is a financial modeling engine for networks that rides on NetBox. That...

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Briefing Summary: Commvault’s Cloud Rewind Is More Than Data Restoration

Cloud Rewind is the new name of Appranix, which Commvault acquired in April 2024. Cloud Rewind is a key component of Commvault's "continuous business" concept. Cloud Rewind's promise is to recover your...

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Developing Content & Gathering Research For Your Tech Blog

I've found that writing has been the absolute best tool for me to learn a concept. There's nothing quite like trying to explain something technical in a blog that reveals the holes in my knowledge. I...

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The Problem With Network Automation Certifications

As I’ve reviewed network automation certs, I find that they are teaching products and techniques specific to a vendor ecosystem or tool environment. There's nothing wrong with those certs. You'll learn...

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AutoCon2 Talk Summary: AI Driven Advanced Network Observability – Jeremy...

At the Network Automation Forum's AutoCon2 conference held the week of November 18, 2024, Jeremy Schulman from Major League Baseball took the stage to discuss where they are currently in their network...

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AutoCon2 Talk Summary: Comprehensive Infrastructure Automation (CIA) – Dinesh...

If network automation is a journey, are we all going to the same place? Do we want the same things? Maybe, maybe not. We need a map--a systematic way of thinking. A lexicon. Our words are not the same....

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AutoCon2 Talk Summary: Intent-Based MPLS Router and WAN Provisioning –...

At the Network Automation Forum‘s AutoCon2 conference held the week of November 18, 2024, Matthew Deibel from Southern California Edison, a large American power company, took the stage to discuss their...

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AutoCon2 Talk Summary: Step 0: Test the Network! – Danny Wade

At the Network Automation Forum‘s AutoCon2 conference held the week of November 18, 2024, Daniel Wade took on testing for network automation. Sure, you want to push a network configuration change. That...

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Drut.io’s 2500 Series Launches With Co-packaged Optics & 32×100G On A Card

Drut is answering questions about dynamic system composability and maximizing GPU utilization without overbuying. Those matter to any data center operator. But from a networking standpoint, offloading...

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AutoCon2 Talk Summary: Building The Business Case For Automation Using...

At the Network Automation Forum‘s AutoCon2 conference held the week of November 18, 2024, Alkira's William Collins took on building the business case for automation using informal channels. That is,...

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AutoCon2 Talk Summary: Everything Everywhere All At Once – Rajiv Gupta (The...

At the Network Automation Forum‘s AutoCon2 conference held the week of November 18, 2024, Rajiv G. from Genentech demonstrated his Gather tool. He kicked off the talk by observing, "It seems like a lot...

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AutoCon2 Talk Summary: The Human Factor Of Using LLMs In Network Operations –...

At the Network Automation Forum‘s AutoCon2 conference held the week of November 18, 2024, Phillip Gervasi from Kentik discussed using large language models (LLMs) in network operations. Phil’s promise?...

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AutoCon2 Talk Summary: Total Network Operations (TNOps): Navigating...

At the Network Automation Forum‘s AutoCon2 conference held the week of November 18, 2024, Scott Robohn (a NAF organizer) took the stage for an automation-adjacent talk: Total Network Operations...

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Startup Radar: Bowtie Security Delivers SD-WAN + SASE/SSE Services Without...

If you browse the Packet Pushers SD-WAN/SASE/SSE resource page, you’ll notice a repeating theme in the vendors’ offerings. Almost every product listed delivers some or all of the solution via the...

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How To Enable YAML Linting In Vim On Ubuntu

1. sudo apt install vim-ale 2. edit /etc/vim/vimrc 3. Append packadd! ale to the " Plugins section 4. Go forth with vim linting!

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Landing Your First Network Engineering Role

Landing your first role as a network engineer isn't just about technology. It's also about your human network & broader skill set.

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WayFi Wireless Provides Seamless Cellular Coverage Via Wi-Fi Passpoint

WayFi Wireless is all about enabling your Wi-Fi network with Passpoint to create a frictionless guest network experience. No captive portal. No punching in of Wi-Fi passwords to facilitate the Wi-Fi...

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