gurfin gurf1n

This weekend I started setting up the core of the provider network. This mainly consisted of configuring MPLS and MP-BGP to run L3VPNs between provider nodes. I also setup a secondary internet connection, which will primarily be used to run active-active tunnels from sites into the MPLS core. One big goal of this new setup is to allow access from a site to any allowed VRF in the provider network. Each site is to have their own VRF, which automatically allows access from the provider core into all networks for a given customer.

I recently ran into a case where a customer wanted to be able to monitor their primary and secondary WAN-links in order to determine if they are up. We owned the primary WAN-link, which served the primary router at the site. The secondary link was a DIA running DMVPN across the interwebz. In order for them to have an IP-address that they can ping to ensure reachability from the CE-router to our PE-router we needed to setup a loopback which was not redistributed into the L3VPN for the customer.

I have a lot of tech stuff floating around at home and at friends houses. Some things are in “production” while others are legacy tests that have been left and forgotten. With this in mind I have begun the journey of building a datacenter at home! The most important aspect of doing greenfield is do have a clear purpose, which can then be broken down into goals, requirements and steps. The more good calls you can make early on, the less trouble you’ll run into down the road.

Hello, This is the first post on the new blog. My hopes are to use this place as a sort of public notebook for ideas, projects and studying. I find that I far too often research a subject and then loose all the research that I have done once I have found the most elegant solution for the issue at hand. The result of my research usually sticks in my memory, but I would like a collection of the underlying material for future reference.