Cisco GIR

Cisco NX-OS Graceful Insertion and Removal (GIR)

If you operate a data-center network with Cisco Nexus, you’ve probably already faced the problem of how to perform a maintenance on one of the two switches of a vPC pair, with minimum impact and risks for the production network. Cisco NX-OS contains a feature called “Graceful Insertion and Removal” or GIR to help you for that. Here is how it works.

Linux Networking tips and tricks: ip and nmcli commands

Linux Networking tips and tricks: ip and nmcli commands

We have all heard, at one time or another, a system administrator blaming the network. Then, it is up to the network engineers to prove that the network is not in cause. To do this, a minimum of network troubleshooting skills on Linux systems could be required.

For the first post in the series: many examples of how to use the ip and nmcli commands.

Shutdown thousands access ports with Python and Netmiko

Shutdown thousands access ports with Python and Netmiko

When people ask me “what a network engineer should do to start in network automation?”, my first answer is: start with small things. Try to automate basic and repetitive tasks you do every day. Go after the low-hanging fruits first. Then, step by step, you can do more and more complex things. This is how I learn the best.
In the same vein, I want to share with you my recent experience of automating a very basic and repetitive task: shutdown thousands of unused network access ports.

100Gb-Ethernet

100Gb Ethernet transceivers, modules and form factors on Cisco products

At the time of the 400Gb Ethernet interfaces introduction, here is a summary of the different form-factors, transceivers and modules available for 100Gb Ethernet on Cisco devices.

As you will see below, there are many different types of 100Gb Ethernet transceivers. And each type have its own functional mode. In a next article, I will try to explain the differences between them and will give more details about the most common: the QSFP-28.