4th February 2012

What Is the Definition of a Switch Fabric ?

The marketing people in IT tend to be overwhelmed by complexity and deep technology. For many liberal arts graduates, they take the drowning option and latch onto certain terms and then grossly abuse it. The most egregious abuse today is “cloud” but “fabric” comes a close second. In this series of posts I want to look at what is a FABRIC and provide a canonical look at what it does and how it works for us.

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved

Review: HP and Optical Backplanes

There were a lot of cool things at InterOp, but not much that was new from the big vendors. For example, Cisco didn’t announce anything, probably waiting announce at Cisco Live in July where they can control the press and message much more tightly. However, HP announced the A10500 switch (action pictures ) which is a new campus switch and Gnodal arrived with new products.

However in the centre of the HP stand there was something very cool – a prototype E8212 ProCurve switch with a fully optical backplane. Hp procurve optical backplane 1

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved

Citrix Branch Repeater : WCCP or Not to WCCP That Is the Question?

Whether ’tis nobler in the network to suffer un-accelerated traffic during an outage or to take arms in the form of Policy Based Routing. When you decide to†deploy†Citrix Branch Repeaters (CBR) you have to†deploy†at either end of the WAN to accelerate and compress traffic between these endpoints. Therefore it would seem sensible to have some [...]

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved

Cisco ACE – Enterprise Load Balancing on a Stick Using Source NAT – Part 3

A detailed look at configuring a Cisco ACE module to do load balancing on a stick. This time with basic configuration for dual VIPs and dual NATs.

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved

Cisco ACE – Enterprise Load Balancing on a Stick Using Source NAT – Part 2

A detailed look at configuring a Cisco ACE module to do load balancing on a stick. This time with basic configuration for a single VIP.

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved

Cisco ACE – Enterprise Load Balancing on a Stick Using Source NAT – Part 1

A detailed look at configuring a Cisco ACE module to do load balancing on a stick.

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved

Network Design – Creativity and Compromise

Of all the disciplines that are needed by a ëNetwork Consultantí, the one of design is by far the most difficult for me. For years I wondered why I found designing solutions difficult. I’m a CCIE with over 15 years experience; Iíve worked with some great networking people and on some very complex networks. Iíve got a stack of excellent books, Iíve even read some of them, yet I still find it difficult to be decisive and confident when designing.

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved

10 Networking Books to Read Before You DieÖ.

Are all networking books over 10 years old obsolete? Kevin Bovis a Technical Services Director with Cisco Gold Partner provides 10 examples that would suggest that some networking books are worth keeping and can provide a bit of credibility to an ageing Technical Manager.

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved

The Ancient and Noble Art of Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting, itís something we all do. It may be your parents Internet connection, the company photocopier, your kidís car or the core network of a medium sized bank. However, troubleshooting is not like that, itís more like football, years of watching and playing does not guarantee to make you a superstar. However, with troubleshooting, just like football, it does teach you enough so you have an opinion on how it should be done.

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved

Blessay:Cloud Computing Not “Essential Service”, More Like “Public Transport”

I believe that Cloud Computing is unlikely to become Essential Service, but will be more like Public Transport – cheap, mass market, limited function and “acceptable” for some.

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved