Scott Lowe

AUGUST 6, 2021

Networking. Back in April of this year, Patrick Ogenstad announced Netrasp , a Go package for writing network automation tooling in Go. I saw this blog post about Curiefense , an open source Envoy extension to add WAF (web application firewall) functionality to Envoy. Operating Systems/Applications.

Open Source 105

Open Source Load Balancer WAN Architecture 105

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 31, 2021

Networking. Ivan Pepelnjak has a post on running network automation tools in a container. Tom Hollingsworth likens networking disaggregation to “cutting the cord” and switching away from cable. Operating Systems/Applications. Bring on the content! Well worth reading! Virtualization.

Open Source 94

Open Source Virtualization Applications Security 94

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 27, 2023

I’ve got another collection of links to articles on networking, security, cloud, programming, and career development—hopefully you find something useful! Networking William Morgan’s 2022 service mesh recap captures some of the significant events in service mesh in 2022, although through a Linkerd-colored lens.

Programming 90

Programming Open Source Cloud Devops 90

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 9, 2022

Networking. This article provides a few practical examples of how using VPC Endpoints to reduce network traffic moving through NAT Gateways can help save money. Ricardo Sueiras captured some great links on open source at AWS in this newsletter. Operating Systems/Applications. Curious about what a JWT is?

Devops 87

Devops Virtualization Engineering Storage 87

Scott Lowe

SEPTEMBER 24, 2021

Well, let’s see…stuff on Envoy, network automation, network designs, M1 chips (and potential open source variants!), Networking. Russ White shares some thoughts on the collapsed spine network design. Justin Pietsch talks about simplifying networks and the resulting engineering trade-offs.

Open Source 60

Open Source Cloud Network Storage 60

Scott Lowe

MAY 27, 2022

Networking. network virtualization). Is the relationship between network virtualization and service mesh closer than some folks might wish to admit? now has a follow-up exploit that exposes Aruba and Avaya network switches to remote code execution. Operating Systems/Applications. I certainly hope not!

Virtualization 79

Virtualization Storage Programming Network 79

Scott Lowe

AUGUST 30, 2013

The statement claimed NSX was nothing more than a collection of tools, and that it was possible to get the equivalent of NSX using completely free (as in speech and as in beer) open source tools—specifically, IPTables , StrongSwan , OpenVPN , and Open vSwitch (OVS). That got me thinking: is it true? Here’s why.

Virtualization 60

Virtualization Network Linux Open Source 60

Scott Lowe

OCTOBER 23, 2020

Still, there’s a decent collection of networking, cloud computing, and virtualization articles as well as a smattering of other topics for you to peruse. Networking. ” Ivan Pepelnjak attempts to answer the question, “How much do I need to know about Linux networking?” Operating Systems/Applications.

Open Source 60

Open Source Vmware Disaster Recovery Linux 60

Scott Lowe

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been collecting articles I wanted to share with readers on major areas in technology: networking, security, storage, virtualization, cloud computing, and OSes/applications. Denis Mulyalin shows how to use Nornir, Salt, and NetBox to template your network tests.

Programming 96

Programming Policies Network Cloud 96

Scott Lowe

MARCH 23, 2017

Networking. Biruk Mekonnen has an introductory article on using Netmiko for network automation. Gabriele Gerbino has a nice write-up about Cisco’s efforts with APIs ; his article includes a brief description of YANG data models and a comparison of working with network devices via SSH or via API. Operating Systems/Applications.

Open Source 60

Open Source Storage Vmware Network 60

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 27, 2019

Networking. Ahmet Alp Balkan talks about how the Knative Serving component addresses some key networking challenges within Kubernetes. Geert Baeke walks readers through deploying AKS with Nginx, External DNS, the Helm Operator, and Flux (all using an Azure DevOps pipeline, if I read the article correctly). Servers/Hardware.

Open Source 60

Open Source Vmware Authentication Storage 60

Scott Lowe

MARCH 20, 2020

Networking. Dinesh Dutt of Cumulus Networks writes about the effect of switch port count in Clos topologies. This blending of “traditional” network engineering with containers, Linux, and DevOps tooling is how Matt is setting new trends and directions for the networking industry. Good stuff here!

Linux 60

Linux Vmware Authentication Storage 60

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 6, 2013

Networking. In this post on why networking needs a Chaos Monkey , Mike Bushong applies to the terms to networks—a snowflake network is an intricately crafted network that is carefully tailored to utilize a custom subset of networking features unique to your environment. Here’s a good source.

Vmware 60

Vmware Storage Linux Network 60

Scott Lowe

FEBRUARY 28, 2022

Networking. Koyeb describes , at a high level, the global networking stack for their serverless platform. Components involved include the open source Kuma service mesh (in turn leveraging Envoy), anycast BGP, and mutual TLS (mTLS). A redesign for Apple’s long-stagnant System Preferences app? Yes, please.

Storage 79

Storage Hardware Policies Open Source 79

Scott Lowe

JUNE 24, 2022

Networking. Tetragon is Isovalent’s newly open-sourced security framework. Operating Systems/Applications. Although it isn’t technically specific to storage, there are significant storage themes in this article on what might happen if you lock yourself out of your digital life.

Vmware 74

Vmware Linux Storage Virtualization 74

Scott Lowe

MARCH 1, 2019

Networking. Daniel Dib has a great article on how network engineers need to evolve. The network isn’t going away, it’s just changing. I referenced part 1 of Ajay Chenampara’s series on the Ansible network-engine command parser back in Technology Short Take 102 (July of last year). Go check out part 2.

Operating Systems 60

Operating Systems Authentication Network Open Source 60

Scott Lowe

AUGUST 6, 2021

Networking. Back in April of this year, Patrick Ogenstad announced Netrasp , a Go package for writing network automation tooling in Go. I saw this blog post about Curiefense , an open source Envoy extension to add WAF (web application firewall) functionality to Envoy. Operating Systems/Applications.

Open Source 60

Open Source Load Balancer WAN Architecture 60

Scott Lowe

MAY 25, 2017

Networking. I enjoyed Dave McCrory’s series on the future of the network (see part 1 , part 2 , part 3 , and part 4 —part 5 hadn’t gone live yet when I published this). Michael Kashin has a handy little tool that functions like ssh-copy-id on servers, but for network devices (leveraging Netmiko). Operating Systems/Applications.

Linux 60

Linux Open Source Network Vmware 60

Scott Lowe

MAY 25, 2017

Networking. I enjoyed Dave McCrory’s series on the future of the network (see part 1 , part 2 , part 3 , and part 4 —part 5 hadn’t gone live yet when I published this). Michael Kashin has a handy little tool that functions like ssh-copy-id on servers, but for network devices (leveraging Netmiko). Operating Systems/Applications.

Linux 60

Linux Open Source Network Vmware 60

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 29, 2016

Networking. Ajay Chenampara has some observations about running Ansible at scale against network devices. Andrey Khomyakov shares some information on automating the setup of whitebox switches running Cumulus Linux in part 2 of this series on learning network automation. Operating Systems/Applications.

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Open Source Data Center 60

Scott Lowe

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Networking. Isovalent—the company behind Cilium, the eBPF-powered networking solution for Kubernetes clusters—just launched with a $29M Series A round of funding. Open source has become so critical to so many aspects of our computing infrastructure. Operating Systems/Applications. Virtualization.

Linux 60

Linux Vmware Open Source Examples 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 3, 2016

Networking. Phil Gervasi has an article on fate sharing in the network core , where he discusses some of the advantages—and disadvantages—of centralizing the control plane in network designs. The examples Phil uses include StackWise, Virtual Switching System, and Virtual Port Channels. Operating Systems/Applications.

Vmware 60

Vmware Network Linux Hardware 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 14, 2016

Networking. NAPALM (Network Automation and Programmability Layer with Multivendor support) looks like a really cool tool. Gabriele (the author of that post) also has a nice article on some resources to get you started with network automation. Operating Systems/Applications. Virtualization.

Vmware 60

Vmware Devops Storage Linux 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 19, 2019

Networking. Part 2 of Stark and Wayne’s container-to-container networking for Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes dig deep into CNI workings. Milind Gunjan shares some tips for troubleshooting Linux bridged networking on a KVM host. This article discusses four open source secrets management tools. configurations.

Open Source 60

Open Source Tools Policies Cloud 60

Scott Lowe

FEBRUARY 10, 2015

This time around, the content is a bit heavier on cloud management and applications/operating systems, but still lots of good content all the way around (I hope, anyway). Networking. Matt Oswalt recently wrapped up his 3-part “DevOps for Networking” series. tech preview of virtual networks for Docker.

Open Source 60

Open Source Vmware Network IBM 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 24, 2020

Networking. This isn’t necessarily networking-related, but it does pertain to a very well-known content creator who specializes in networking. Andreas Wittig takes a look at some advanced AWS networking pitfalls to avoid. Operating Systems/Applications. ‘Nuff said.

Storage 60

Storage Tools Architecture Network 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 28, 2016

Networking. The rise of Linux in importance in the networking industry continues, with Arista announcing enhancements to Arista EOS to support—among other things—Docker containers. See this SDx Central article or this Network World article for more details.). The project itself is open source and hosted on GitHub.

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Open Source Devops 60

Scott Lowe

MAY 4, 2017

Networking. There’s lots of talk about applying test-driven development (TDD) principles in various automation contexts, but I like the fact that Ajay Chenampara provides some practical examples in his blog post on applying TDD in network automation using Ansible. If you’re just starting your network automation journey, start small.

Vmware 60

Vmware Storage Network Examples 60

Scott Lowe

MARCH 2, 2020

Networking. Said van de Klundert has a post on screen scraping basics for network engineers. For network engineers just getting started with network automation, I suspect that the information shared here may prove quite useful. For readers who may be new to networking, Daniel Wray has a write-up on network cabling.

Linux 60

Linux Windows Hardware Network 60

Data Center Knowledge

JULY 15, 2013

So the number of companies that really understand the network topology, the data center construction, the server requirements to build this public cloud infrastructure is very, very small.” Microsoft’s ‘Cloud Operating System’ 218,000 Servers in Microsoft Data Centers? Networking. You get Yahoo!

Data Center 276

Data Center Microsoft Data Disaster Recovery 276

Scott Lowe

FEBRUARY 9, 2018

Networking. Matt Oswalt tackles the idea of “intent-driven” or “intent-based” networking—all the rage right now—and outlines how something like this must interact with domains outside of networking in order to be effective. Operating Systems/Applications. Servers/Hardware.

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Network Storage 60

Scott Lowe

OCTOBER 5, 2018

Networking. Brian Boucheron provides a great article on how to inspect and debug Kubernetes network primitives. Sathyajith Bhat covers five open source tools for container security. The folks at Platform9 recently open-sourced a tool called etcdadm (inspired by kubeadm ). Operating Systems/Applications.

Hardware 60

Hardware Open Source Vmware Linux 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 15, 2022

Networking. Want to understand kube-proxy , a key part of Kubernetes networking, a bit better? Operating Systems/Applications. And it’s publicly available on GitHub , although not licensed with a typical open source license. I hope you’re able to find something useful here! Start here.

Linux 74

Linux Load Balancer IPv6 Licensing 74

Scott Lowe

MAY 3, 2019

Networking. Via the Kubernetes blog , Box announced it has open sourced a project called kube-iptables-tailer , which turns packet drops from iptables into Kubernetes events that can be logged for easier troubleshooting. Via BlueCat Networks, John Capobianco shares his network automation journey.

Vmware 60

Vmware Open Source Intel Applications 60

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 8, 2016

Networking. Will Robinson talks about how to structure your Ansible playbooks in the context of using Ansible to control your network gear. This is an interesting project to watch, I think—it’s porting OVN (Open Virtual Network) from a “traditional” OvS back-end to an IOVisor-based back-end (IOVisor implements the data plane in eBPF).

Vmware 60

Vmware Storage Intel Virtualization 60

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Networking. If you’re interested in learning more about OpenFlow and software-defined networking but need to do this on a shoestring budget in your home lab, a number of guides have been written to help out. Also see the “Networking” section above for a related post on the networking aspects involved.

Vmware 109

Vmware Virtualization Storage Hardware 109

Scott Lowe

AUGUST 16, 2017

Networking. I enjoyed Dave McCrory’s series on the future of the network (see part 1 , part 2 , part 3 , and part 4 —part 5 hadn’t gone live yet when I published this). Michael Kashin has a handy little tool that functions like ssh-copy-id on servers, but for network devices (leveraging Netmiko).

Open Source 60

Open Source Network Linux Engineering 60