I have deployed RANCID, a popular open-source network device config backup utility, in our environment. It works great especially when configured to svnsync to a master repository. The recent trouble I have found is RANCID doesnt support multi-context firewalls. There is no way to configure RANCID to detect multi-context mode, go to each context and download the config. Changing the Firewall so that each context has an admin address is seriously not going to work. So my only resolution was to create a script.
Category: Network Administration
In an effort to provide a more secure way to access our network equipment in the event of an outage we setup a console server. We didnt purchase anything from a vendor but built a Cisco Console server. There is little documentation for creating this online so I am going to go through the steps of creating one.
Equipment used: below is the list of equipment needed to get started with the project
- Cisco 2621xm router
- NM-32a Async network module
- cab-octal-sync Async octal set of cables (68pin connector terminated with 8 RJ45 async console ports)
- cat5 cables of appropriate length and color (In my environment, color signifies function. This may not apply in your setup)
Connectivity Setup:
To start we are going to setup the devices, power it and assume the switches have been setup appropriately.
Continue reading »
I haven’t posted in awhile as life is pretty busy. I am almost done with the DataCenter Migration and we are greatly busy with looking for a Condo in the Bay Area (Perfect time to Buy). We found one condo that we are really interested in but it already has a few offers on it. So we can just hope and pray that they all fall through. My Wife got a new job recently too. Lawyers Assistant for a law firm, working her way to a Paralegal.
As for my new project, I am going to start working on a IT Assets Database. Mostly for the server side. This will be used to inventory all servers, predict average power consumption per server and site and hopefully find a good way to integrate it into a PXE/Kickstart setup. I have a few ideas on the most efficient way to do this. I also partially want to the develop this as a Rails/Ruby app. I may end up developing a PHP app first as the guys here are so afraid of Ruby & Rails.
Updates will be more frequent in the future as work is slowing down a bit and the project is coming to a close.
Part of my tasks for the Data center Move is to rack, build, config the networking equipment. We have racked 99% of the network equipment and are now configuring everything. Part of the problem is the network hasn’t been accurately planned and the Firewall rules are for the most part incomplete. We have a lot of work ahead of us.
I keep saying I’ll get some pics up soon but I haven’t had the time to sit down and collect them all and post to flickr/Picasa (still haven’t picked which one I want to use).
Not sure how to say this but… Apple sucks sometimes!
I, being the dutiful Applite that i am, purchased the Airport Extreme for my home. I bought it so that I get the most out of my 802.11 N experience. Being this is acting as my home router i have found some weird anomalies with its routing table. Sometimes it will “forget” the routing table. At these times, I am able to communicate to the internet via the default gateway, but am unable to communicate to other systems on my network. This greatly disturbs me as there is much that I am running on my home network.
In my glee brought upon by the hope of a brighter future without my Airport serving as the router, I purchased a Cisco 2611 with a few ADSL & T1 WICs. This handy device will give me the ability to vlan, single point of NATing (Double Natting errors suck…). Presently i am programming it to authenticate my DSL account then I can setup my network. Properly.
Another interesting thing I found. When running the Airport extreme with a Mixed environment (my wife’s laptop and my iphone are not N-capable), network efficiency is greatly reduced. My task after moving everything over to the Cisco is to configure two wifi networks one for N, other for G.