Design Patterns

Circumventing Coder's block and starting a new project

Aug 26, 2023 · 3 min read · Network Automation Programmability Design Patterns ·

It's difficult to start a new software project Documentation Depending on how a software project starts, it can either be the easiest or the hardest aspect of a new project. Documentation suffers from a similar issue, so a good place to get things moving would be to simplify the basics of repository management. Here's …

Why wait? Eventual Consistency and Reliability

Jul 16, 2023 · 3 min read · Network Automation Programmability Design Patterns FOSS/Linux Unearned Uptime ·

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Why wait? Eventual Consistency and Reliability

Patience is tough when deploying automated code; Here's why it is important Reliability-centric infrastructure engineers need to focus on careful, procedural, validated workflows; the systems we're responsible are simply too important to casually "toss" infrastructure requests at a common API gateway. We …

Escape Plato's Cave to build better IT infrastructure

Apr 9, 2023 · 6 min read · Unearned Uptime Design Patterns ·

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Escape Plato's Cave to build better IT infrastructure

Let's be honest, most IT engineers are autodidacts out of necessity. Our industry isn't mature compared to most of the professions that exist today. Computer Science was first offered as a degree in 1962 in the US, and Network Science is flatly ancient, but generalized IT infrastructure support only became a schooled …

Why Automate? Programmability is about solving new problems without fear of failure.

Dec 3, 2022 · 6 min read · Programmability Design Patterns ·

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Have you ever heard someone say "I'm not a coder" at work? The IT industry is changing again. Our humble origins began as polymaths moved from adjacent industries and created a new world from scratch. The pioneering phase led to unique opportunities, creating our transport protocols, programming languages, …

Track Certificate Expiration with Jenkins and Python 3!

Oct 23, 2022 · 5 min read · Linux Python FOSS/Linux Jenkins Continuous Delivery Design Patterns Information Security ·

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CI/CD tools aren't just for automatically deploying apps! Jenkins excels at enabling an engineer to automatically execute and test code - but, it has a hidden super-power: Automating boring and intensive IT tasks(removing toil). Let's take a common and relatable IT problem - it doesn't matter if you're a DevOps …

Gathering and Using Data from Cisco NX-OS with Ansible Modules

Oct 15, 2022 · 5 min read · Cisco NX-OS Datacenter Networking Continuous Delivery Ansible Design Patterns Network Automation ·

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Reliably executing repetitive tasks with automation is easy (after the work is done) Given enough work, self-built automation can be easy to consume. Non-consumers (engineers) need to focus on reliability and repeatability, but occasionally there's an opportunity to save time and simplify lives directly. Information …

Scale datacenters past the number of VLAN IDs with NSX-T Tier-0 and Q-in-X

May 22, 2022 · 4 min read · VMWare Layer 2 Datacenter Networking Routing & Switching Studies NSX-T Design Patterns Network Automation ·

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VMware introduced the ability to double-encapsulate layer 2 frames in via the "Access VLAN" option for VRF instances in NSX Data Center: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-T-Data-Center/3.2/administration/GUID-4CB5796A-1CED-4F0E-ADE0-72BF7B3F762C.html Q-in-VNI provides a capable infrastructure engineer the …

Different Methods to carry 802.1q tags with VMware vDS and NSX-T

May 6, 2022 · 3 min read · VMWare Home Lab NFV Datacenter Networking NSX-T Programmability Design Patterns Network Automation ·

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VMware's vDS is a bit of a misnomer In a previous post, I covered the concept of transitivity in networking - but in Layer 2 (Ethernet) land, transitivity is critically important to understanding how VMware's Virtual Distributed Switch (vDS) works. The statement "VMware's Virtual Distributed Switch is not a …

Vendor interoperability with multiple STP instances

Apr 17, 2022 · 5 min read · Home Lab Layer 2 Datacenter Networking Spanning-Tree Routing & Switching Studies Design Patterns ·

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Spanning Tree is the all-important loop prevention method for Layer 2 topologies and source of ire to network engineers worldwide. Usually IT engineers list the Dunning-Kruger Effect in a negative context, depicting an oblivious junior or an unaware manager, but I like to focus on the opposite end of the curve with …

Cisco Modeling Labs

Mar 26, 2022 · 3 min read · Linux Home Lab Cisco NX-OS NFV Datacenter Networking Routing & Switching Studies Programmability Design Patterns Network Automation ·

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Ever wonder what it would be like to have a platform dedicated to Continuous Improvement / Testing / Labbing? Cisco's put a lot of thought into good ways to do that, and Cisco Modeling Labs(CML) is the latest iteration of their solutions to provide this as a service to enterprises and casual users alike. CML is the …