Monitoring/Management

The Networking ABC's - Z is for Zone

Joe Pruitt — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:57:42 GMT

Today's word in the Networking ABC's starts with the letter Z. This entry will round out the 26 entries in the Networking ABC's series so I wanted to make sure I got a good one for Z. When one thinks about computer networking, switches and routers come to mind. But what makes the whole internet thing work resolves around resolving user friendly domain names into network addresses. Products such as F5's Global Traffic Manager do all the hard work so your users can get to your site regardless of the geographic location. The information where these domain entries are stored are called Zones and that just so happens to be my pick for today.

"Z" is for Zone

Zone

Pronounced: Zohn

A DNS zone is a portion of the global Domain Name System (DNS) namespace for which administrative responsibility has been delegated.

The most tangible expression of a DNS zone are the database elements that are used to technically administer a zone in a DNS management software system. Traditionally, each zone was stored in a separate database file, the Zone file, containing specification for host addressing, name aliasing, electronic mail routing, backup server systems, geographic location, administrative contacts, and many other pieces of information (cf. List of DNS record types), with an extensible design that has scaled well with the growth of the Internet.

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Socializing the Network

Joe Pruitt — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:07:04 GMT

A while ago I wrote a little app that listened to the BIG-IP for status change notifications and logged them to disk. I showed this to Robert Scoble and the Channel 9 crew when they visited the F5 headquarters and he asked if he could get those results in his RSS reader. I answered that by writing the BigipBlogging sample that I submitted to the DevCentral CodeShare

I'm an early adopter in most web based tools so naturally I was a early member on Twitter. Last year I blogged about an extension to the original program that listened for notification messages and in addition to writing them to disk, the messages could be proxied to my BIG-IP's Twitter acccount. This has the added benefit of giving me access to a free SMS gateway to allow status messages to go to my cell phone - which is GREAT for a demo BTW!

Fast-Forward to earlier this week... I received an email from Lori asking if I'd ever released the source for the application as she thought this was a great time to do it. I could have sworn I did but it seems I kept it all to myself as I could not find heads or tails of it anywhere on DevCentral. I guess since there was no request for it, it slipped by. Lori said when I posted this in May last year, Twitter was for a niche audience, but now it's mainstream.

And who am I to say no to my fellow blogger...

So, here you go. Check out the PerlTwitterProxy sample added to the iControl CodeShare. Usage is pretty simple if you set it up on your BIG-IP. If so, then all you have to customize is the Twitter credentials you'd like to use for message posting.

Oh and Lori, we'll see how many downloads this thing gets and if Twitter has reached mainstream in the networking community.

-Joe

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The Networking ABC's - V is for VIP

Joe Pruitt — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:17:21 GMT

The letter for the day in the Networking ABC's is the letter "V". Vary headers, verification, and VLAN's find a home with the letter V, but I opted for a word that enables scaling of websites by virtualizing the resources. Todays word is the word "VIP"

"V" is for VIP

VIP

Pronounced: vip

VIP, not be confused with V.I.P. or Very Important Person, stands for Virtual IP. A Virtual IP is a mechanism to allow for scalaing and maintenance no a physical resource by virtualizing the access to that device. A server is accessed by it's network address. By configuring a virtual address to an application (say www.f5.com), a company is able to install many physical servers behind the virtual address that provide access to the requested application while exposing it through a single network address. Even with the advances in computing power, active websites cannot be supported by a single computer and rely on some form of virtualization, also known as load balancing.

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The Networking ABC's - R is for RTSP

Joe Pruitt — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:21:32 GMT

Today's letter in the Networking ABC's is the letter "R". I could have went with redundancy, RADIUS, rate class, router, or round robin, but I opted for a term that has to do with optimizing media transmission across the network and that's really important for us here at DevCentral as we are all about media! The word for today is RTSP or Real Time Streaming Protocol

"R" is for RTSP

RTSP

Pronounced: Ahr-Tee-Es-Pee

RTSP, not to be confused with RSTP or SCTP, stands for Real Time Streaming Protocol. RTSP, developed by the IETF and defined in RFC 2326, is a protocol for use in streaming media systems which allows a client to remotely control a streaming media server, issuing VCR-like commands like "Play" and "Pause" as well as allowing time based access to files on a server. Unlike the HTTP protocol, RTSP is a stateful protocol. A session ID is used to keep track of sessions when needed reducing the need for a permanent TCP connection. RTSP commands include DESCRIBE, SETUP, PLAY, PAUSE, RECORD, and TEARDOWN. RTSP is supported in many popular streaming media servers including Apple's Quicktime Streaming Server, as well as Microsoft's Windows Media Services.

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The Networking ABC's - Q is for QoS

Joe Pruitt — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:25:21 GMT

The letter for today in the Networking ABC's is the letter "Q". There wasn't a big selection of Q words with regards to the networking world. I could have went with queue or query, but those didn't have the umph that Quality of Service does. So, the word for today is the abbreviation for Quality of Service: QoS

"Q" is for QoS

QoS

Pronounced: Kyoo-on-es

The Quality of Service (QoS) level is a means by which network equipment can identify and treat traffic differently based on an identifier. QoS is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a given data flow. When the Internet was first deployed it lacked the ability to provide QoS guarantees due to limits in router computing power. It thus ran at a default QoS level of "best effort". With the support of QoS within routers, inelastic applications such as streaming multimedia, IP telephony, and video conferencing have come to require a certain minimum level of bandwidth and a certain maximum latency to function.

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The Networking ABC's - F is for Firewall

Joe Pruitt — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:57:38 GMT

Today's letter of the day in the ABC's of Networking is "F". "F" starts some great networking terms such as Failover, Floating addresses, Filters, FQDNs, Forwarding, and Flooding. But none of those were exciting enough, so I opted to go with the "F" word of Firewall since a Firewall is a requirement in any modern network.

"F" is for Firewall

Firewall

Pronounced: fīr'wôl

A Firewall is used to represent any number of security schemes that prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to a computer network. Typically a firewall is implemented as a device or set of devices configured to permit, deny, encrypt, or proxy between differing security domains based upon a set of rules or policies. Firewalls come in the form of transparent hardware appliances as well as software that runs directly on end user devices.

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The Networking ABC's - D is for Dynamic Ratio Load Balancing

Joe Pruitt — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:20:40 GMT

Welcome to the continuing series on the ABC's of Networking. For Today's letter of "D", I picked a core component in the scaling of websites and application servers. Today's word is a load balancing method that deals with dynamically changing application servers.

"D" is for Dynamic Ratio Load Balancing

Dynamic Ratio Load Balancing

Pronounced:
Dahy-nam-ik Rey-shoh Lohd Bal-uhns-ing

The ratio method of load balancing distributes connections across an array of servers in a server farm in proportion to the static ratio weights assigned to each individual server. The Dynamic Ratio mode is like the Ratio method, except that ratio weights are based on continuous monitoring of the servers and are therefore continually changing. The Dynamic Ratio method makes use of an agent on the server to report health metrics that are used to feed the dynamic ratio.

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Show your Ninja-e-ness

Joe Pruitt — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:37:06 GMT

While some folks here at DevCentral like to think that they are all knowing with regards to folks in our community, the facts are that we only get a small glimpse into what challenges you face in your day to day lives while keeping your network and applications working like a well oiled machine.

A while back I posted about becoming an iRule Ninja. I'm assuming everyone has read that post and taken the challenge to heart and now it's your opportunity to share with the DevCentral team how you've been kicking butt with the programming support with your F5 gear (iControl and iRules) as well as unique and creative ways you have used the core features of our products to make you a "Hero" in your day job.

So, how do you do this? We've got a couple of ways that we've setup for you to get your info back to us:

Plain Old Email: You can always email the team directly at devcentraleditor -at- f5 -dot- com.

Voicemail: Let's face it, email is a great way to pass along information, but it's pretty informal. In line with pushing the possibilities, we've setup a voicemail box for folks to submit your testimonials to. If you are inspired to share your Ninja-e-ness (yes, I made up that word), pick up the phone and give 206-201-2258 a call. Be warned, the voice on there is a little bit scary B-). Sorry, there's no toll-free option right now.

Skype: For those who don't want to pay the toll and have a headset lying around, we've got a Skype account that goes into the voicemail system as well. Add "f5recorder" to your Skype contact list and initiate a voice call to leave us a testimonial as well.

The Grand Scheme

Ideally, I'd love to get to the caliber of Ravensmoon Replicas, where users like Bill W (above) are enthusiastic enough to post a pictures of themselves in Jedi costumes with quotes from their kids. Priceless.

We'll take these calls and build out a testimonial section on DevCentral that propel you to stardom as the closet tech Ninja that you know you are.

So what are you waiting for, get in touch and let us know how you've solved that tough problem and get your 15 minutes of stardom. And don't forget, the voicemail prompt is a bit scary, don't hang up B-) Oh, and for those with "real" testimonials (related to F5 gear - sorry Bill W), we might have some goodies (t-shirts, etc) to pass along in return for your time.

-Joe

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F5 Enterprise Manager v1.6.0 released

Joe Pruitt — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:23:57 GMT

Just got news from the product teams that Enterprise Manager has been released. As if you didn't know what EM is or does, here's the marketing blurb:

Enterprise Manager is a centralized device-management appliance that significantly lowers the cost and complexity of managing F5 devices. With Enterprise Manager, you can decrease day-to-day operational errors and reduce the time to complete deployment. Your return on investment can be quickly calculated by the hours saved through significantly reduced deployment times and quick recovery from operational errors.

Here's the list of new features that were added in the upcoming v1.6.0 release (expect it to hit manufacturing in April 08).

Support ability to push non-specific product/version upgrades or hot fixes (any IM package)
Support data collection for F5 support for troubleshooting
Provide the ability to license a new F5 device “out of the box” and to RMA a device
Provide an audit report showing all configuration changes made via EM
Enhance the high availability solution to support active/passive pairs (scheduled synch)
Provide ability to check for changes to signature files and push to ASM devices
Add support for the Medusa release (BIG-IP SAM)
Provide the ability to search for devices across the entire infrastructure, including nodes, VIPS, etc.

The software and release notes for EM v1.6.0 are now available on http://support.f5.com.

Lots of new goodies in this release. If you are a customer, enjoy. If not, then give the sales folks a call and tell them Joe sent you B-).

-Joe

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VIPRION - Blown Away

Joe Pruitt — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:34:29 GMT

A few weeks ago I blogged about a new search kid in town. Well, the F5 town is getting a little bit bigger every day!

You have have noticed our subtle blog posts these past few weeks. Lori kicked it off with her "Imagine" posts on Performance, Manageability, and Intelligence. And Jeff hinted at things to come with his post on Disruption.

Hopefully these have got you thinking...

Just as it was when BIG-IP v9.0 was introduced, The playing field has now changed. Performance issues are a thing of the past! Manageability is simple, intuitive and smart! The network is highly intelligent!

Enter VIPRION!

VIP-RI-ON [VIP-REE-ON]

-noun

A chassis-based application delivery controller.
Pretty darn fast.
Pretty darn easy.
Pretty darn smart.

[Origin: 2008]

VIPRION is a multi-blade chassis application delivery controller that is going to blow your socks off. It's modular design allows for starting small with a single blade (which is somewhat equivalent to our high end BIG-IPs). If you find you need to increase your capacity, just buy another blade and hot-plug it in and you are up and running with double the capacity. The ability start small and easily grow and scale to unmatched performance means that there's a little VIPRION for everyone out there.

Be on the lookout for an "Unboxing" video we shot as well as more blog posts and tech articles about just what this amazing piece of hardware intelligence can do for you and your applications!

There is going to be a lot of commentary on this revolutionary product. The only response I'm going to give is the following:

Despite how awesome other products claim to be, VIPRION is no 10-year old or video game version like the competitors, it's the real deal.

Sit back and be blown away!

-Joe

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