Routing Protocol Visualization
Routing, one of the most important features in network world. It’s been at least a two decades since most of ISPs rely on Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) in their core, supported by Interior Gateway Protocols (IGP). Local area networks are running and routing with use…
Discovering First Hop Redundancy Protocol parameters
IP network gateway redundancy has become a very standard high availability solution. In IP Fabric’s platform it’s described as First Hop Redundancy Protocol (FHRP) feature that currently umbrellas HSRP, VRRP and GLBP protocol. I have prepared a little scenario in our virtual lab with a…
IP Fabric 2.2.5: Staying longer in network diagrams
This week we released IP Fabric version 2.2.5 which focuses on improvements of network diagram workflow, significantly improving the depth of information provided in the diagram tooltips, and improving readability of the End to End path diagrams. We’ve also added pseudo-STP links, or MAC edges,…
End to end network path analysis
If a user reports that a certain application is not working for them, especially after a migration or a change, how do you verify the connectivity? Finding a path in a complex network can be hard enough by itself, having to map active switching and…
Spotting Single Points of Failure in a graph
Enterprise networks should never have Single Points of Failure (a.k.a SPOF) in their daily operation. SPOF in general is an element in a system which, if stopped, causes the whole system to stop. Single failure (or maintenance or misconfiguration) of any network device or link…
Dynamic Diagrams part 2: persistence
Network engineer/architect can use diagrams to speed up many of his routine tasks — from overview presentation of the network to the detailed troubleshooting of faulty data flow from the client to server. But regardless of the task type, there is always a requirement that the diagram…
Dynamic Diagrams part 1
The best way to get a quick overview of any network infrastructure is by viewing a diagram (or most likely set of diagrams). The human brain can receive essential information much faster when represented in graphical form. The downside is that manually creating a diagram…
Spanning Tree analytics with the IP Fabric platform v2.0
The IP Fabric platform is a network engineer’s best friend when performing deep network audits. For example, to verify root placement for overlapping VLANs in a LAN, I would normally need to look through the STP roots, and painstakingly trace L2 links, reconstructing the topology…
Network gateway redundancy verification
Each network with multiple users should have a redundant gateway implemented as an exit point. For the end users, some form of first-hop redundancy protocol such as VRRP, GLBP or HSRP should be implemented. But it that really true in your network?