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Data Center Management Best Practices for NetDevOps Transformation

by | Sep 16, 2022 | Data Center Management, Data Center Resilience, DevOps, Increase Productivity, NetDevOps Transformation, Network Automation, Scripting

data center management best practices

The goal of NetDevOps is to take the collaborative, highly efficient processes that work so well in DevOps environments and apply them to networking workflows. The result is a fast, tightly integrated pipeline that delivers high-performance software and services. One of the keys to successful NetDevOps transformation is efficient management of data center and colocation infrastructure, using technologies like Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, orchestration, and environmental monitoring. Let’s discuss how these data center management best practices contribute to NetDevOps.

Data center management best practices for NetDevOps transformation

These best practices will help you manage your data center infrastructure more efficiently, and they enable the application of DevOps principles and practices.

Infrastructure as Code/Network as Code

Often, one of the biggest bottlenecks in a software development pipeline is resource provisioning. Spinning up new VMs or nodes with manual configurations is time-consuming, leaving developers sitting around waiting for new environments before they can begin working. Infrastructure as Code, or IaC, aims to streamline the provisioning process by turning all infrastructure configurations into software code. IaC configurations are stored in a centralized repository and can be deployed over and over again, which saves time and ensures consistent configurations across systems—like development, test, and production environments.

Network as Code uses the same technology to manage network device configurations, such as routers and switches. Probably the most commonly used Network as Code technology is zero touch provisioning (ZTP), which deploys device configuration files over the network and executes them automatically. This enables efficient and remote deployments and updates of large-scale and hyperscale data center networks.

Turning data center configurations into software code makes it easier to integrate these workflows into a DevOps pipeline. It also ensures that networking and operations teams can provision new infrastructure at the velocity needed for fast-paced DevOps release cycles.  

Vendor-neutral automation

Automation is one of the foundational principles of NetDevOps because it speeds up processes while reducing the risk of human error. In the data center, automation tools and scripts are used for device configurations, network and power load balancing, system backups, vulnerability scanning, and more. The challenge is in ensuring all these automated components are compatible with your data center infrastructure, especially in multi-vendor, hybrid, and hyperscale environments.

That’s why vendor-neutrality is a major data center management best practice. Using vendor-neutral hardware will make it easier to deploy your choice of automation tools without modifying your scripts for each device. Even better, a vendor-neutral DCIM (data center infrastructure management) solution provides a unified interface from which to create and deploy automation tools while being able to dig its hooks into every component of your data center infrastructure.

Orchestration

Even in a vendor-neutral environment, keeping track of all your automation workflows can be challenging. Data center orchestration is sometimes defined as “automating your automation,” because it reduces the need for administrators to manually execute automated scripts and workflows. This makes automation even more efficient and reduces the workload for administrators, giving them more time to work on new technology initiatives that bring more business value.

Orchestration solutions can also react to situations in real-time, often much faster than human beings are capable of. For example, DCIM orchestration can monitor for usage spikes and perform automatic load balancing before a network administrator has even had time to read the alert message. Data center orchestration makes it easier to maintain optimal performance and respond to changing network conditions.

Environmental monitoring

The environmental conditions in a data center can have a huge impact on the performance and lifetime of your equipment. However, if your infrastructure is housed in remote colocation facilities, you may not have staff on-site to physically monitor things like temperature, humidity, and air quality. Data center environmental risks can cause system shutdowns, performance issues, and equipment failure, so you need a virtual presence to detect and mitigate these threats.

Environmental monitoring systems use sensors to collect data on temperature, humidity, power, airflow, and other important conditions in the rack. Administrators receive automatic alerts when conditions exceed optimal levels, so they can act quickly to remediate the problem. In addition, some systems include analytics and automated playbooks that make it even easier to optimize data center performance. Environmental monitoring ensures that administrators can keep data center infrastructure performing optimally to support NetDevOps pipelines and services.

How Nodegrid empowers data center management best practices

The Nodegrid DCIM orchestration solution delivers everything you need to follow data center management best practices and achieve NetDevOps transformation. Nodegrid’s vendor-neutral hardware and software can directly host your choice of Infrastructure as Code and Network as Code scripts and supports integrations with any third-party automation solution. ZPE Cloud provides centralized DCIM orchestration that unifies all your automation behind one pane of glass, with the ability to “say yes” to any vendor’s hardware. Plus, with Nodegrid’s cloud-managed environmental sensors, you can keep your infrastructure running at peak efficiency to power your NetDevOps transformation.

Learn more about data center management:

→   Top Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) Trends of 2022
→   Data Center Modernization Strategy: How to Streamline Your Legacy Environment
→   Why Choose Nodegrid as Your Data Center Orchestration Tool

Want to find out more about how Nodegrid can help you with these data center management best practices?

Contact ZPE Systems today!

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What is a Serial Console’s Role in Modern Enterprise Networks?

by | Jul 27, 2022 | Data Center Management, Data Center Resilience, DevOps, Increase Productivity, NetDevOps, NetDevOps Transformation, Network Automation, Out of Band Management, Power Management, Remote Network Management, Scripting, Serial Consoles, Uncategorized

what is a serial console

Serial consoles have been used to manage business networks since the 80s, but things have changed significantly since then. What is a serial console’s role in modern enterprise networks? In this blog, we discuss the history and evolution of serial consoles as well as the exciting functionality provided by the latest generation.

What is a serial console?

A serial console—a console server, terminal server, serial console router, or serial console switch—is a networking device used to manage other devices. It connects to servers, switches, routers, and other equipment using the serial port (hence the name). Network administrators can then use the serial console to access all connected devices in the data center, server room, or network closet in which it’s installed.

Serial consoles allow admins to manage critical infrastructure without needing to log in to each separate device individually. A serial console also provides out-of-band (OOB) management, creating a completely separate network that’s dedicated to infrastructure management and troubleshooting. OOB management allows you to remotely troubleshoot, monitor, and administer your infrastructure, and more.

How serial consoles have evolved over time

A basic serial console—also called a Generation 1 serial console—provides consolidated remote access to critical infrastructure. It uses a secondary network connection (such as a dial-up modem or cellular SIM card) so admins can control and troubleshoot equipment without relying on the main production network. Using a Gen 1 serial console, admins can access each connected device’s CLI (command line interface).

Gen 1 serial consoles are relatively limited in control, security, and automation. For example, many Gen 1 serial consoles can only manage devices from the same vendor (or a small pool of supported manufacturers). A Gen 1 serial console also lacks in-depth security features like hardware encryption, and generally can’t integrate with third-party Zero Trust Security policies and controls. Plus, most Gen 1s completely lack automation capabilities, or limit you to basic CLI scripts for single tasks.

Gen 2 serial consoles

Frustration over these limitations led to significant advancements in the second generation of serial consoles, or Gen 2. With Gen 2 serial consoles, admins get more control, added security features, and expanded automation capabilities.

For instance, most Gen 2 consoles offer management functionality for third-party devices. These serial consoles also have some built-in security features like Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and frequently support advanced authentication methods like AD/LDAP, Kerberos, and RADIUS. Gen 2 serial consoles also allow for greater automation using Python scripts, APIs, and zero touch provisioning (ZTP).

While Gen 2 serial consoles offer more multi-vendor support than their extremely limited predecessors, they still fall short of true vendor neutrality. For instance, managing third-party and legacy devices often requires expensive adapters or complicated configuration tweaks. Many Gen 2 serial consoles also lack support for Zero Trust integrations such as SAML 2.0 (e.g., Okta, Ping, DUO), making it impossible to completely secure your out-of-band network.

Finally, while Gen 2 serial consoles introduce more automation capabilities, their closed architectures make it impossible to implement end-to-end NetDevOps automation. For example, you might only be able to use one specific scripting language or an approved set of playbooks. It’s also common for Gen 2 serial consoles to only support ZTP of connected devices from the same vendor, so you’re either limited in your automated provisioning capabilities or your choice of infrastructure solutions.

Gen 1 serial consoles provide remote, out-of-band management of multiple devices using CLI commands and scripts over a serial connection. Gen 2 evolved to incorporate more devices, more security features, and more automation capabilities. However, the serial console needed to develop even further to handle the needs of a modern enterprise network.

What is a serial console’s role in modern enterprise networks?

Today’s enterprise network is larger, more complex, and more distributed than Gen 1 serial console developers could have possibly imagined. Network administrators and engineers need to monitor, manage, and troubleshoot infrastructure devices from many different vendors in many different locations. Networks are also constantly threatened by cybercriminals using sophisticated hacking techniques and state-of-the-art malware. Plus, modern businesses must ensure near-constant availability and optimal network performance to stay competitive. Gen 1 and Gen 2 serial consoles simply can’t deliver the control, security, and resilience required by enterprise networks today.

The new Gen 3 serial console addresses older generations’ limitations through true vendor neutrality, multi-layered zero trust security, and end-to-end automation capabilities.

Total infrastructure control

Gen 3’s complete vendor neutrality makes it possible to extend your automation capabilities—including zero touch provisioning—to every physical and virtual asset in your environment, regardless of manufacturer. Gen 3 serial consoles also give network administrators a virtual presence in remote network locations (like data centers and branch offices) through which they can monitor environmental conditions in the rack, power-cycle and enter the BIOS menu of devices, manage power load distribution, and more.

This control is delivered via high-speed OOB (such as a 5G/4G cellular SIM card), giving you 24/7 remote access to critical enterprise infrastructure, even during an ISP outage. Plus, Gen 3 serial consoles use centralized cloud management, which means engineers can manage and troubleshoot remote infrastructure from anywhere, anytime.

A Gen 3 serial console is based on an open architecture, x86 OS, that supports integrations with your choice of infrastructure solutions, cloud services, and automation toolkits. It also includes flexible port configurations and legacy pinouts to control a variety of devices, such as PDUs, IPMI devices, and environmental monitoring sensors.

Comprehensive security

On a hardware level, Gen 3 serial consoles use features like encrypted disks, UEFI secure boot, and TPM 2.0 to ensure unauthorized users can’t access management functionality. Additionally, the OS is frequently updated and patched against new security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. The Gen 3 serial console also automatically checks the integrity of all newly integrated hardware and software to ensure there are no backdoor vulnerabilities.

A Gen 3 serial console’s vendor-neutral platform supports easy integrations with a variety of zero trust security controls. For instance, you can manage user access to a Gen 3 serial console through third-party Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions, allowing you to follow zero trust best practices like 2FA, SSO, and dynamic trust verification. A Gen 3 serial console can also integrate with on-premises and cloud-based network security solutions such as next-generation firewalls (NGFW), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), and Security Service Edge (SSE).

A Gen 3 console includes robust onboard security features, which reduces the risk of an attacker using a stolen serial console to access your management network (and ultimately, your production systems and data). Its open architecture also enables integration with zero trust security controls and providers.

End-to-end automation

The open architecture of a Gen 3 serial console makes it possible to integrate with your choice of infrastructure automation and orchestration tools, or directly host VMs and Docker containers so you can run your own tools. With a Gen 3 serial console, you can use solutions like Ansible, Chef, Puppet, or Kubernetes to automate deployments. You can also use any API you want to automate any workload you need to, no matter how complex.

Gen 3’s advanced automation capabilities enable full pipeline automation so you can achieve NetDevOps transformation. Gen 3 serial consoles also facilitate immutable infrastructure, allowing faster and more agile deployments, updates, and replacements of critical network resources.

With a Gen 3 serial console, you can create a fully-automated network environment. This allows engineers to work more efficiently and reduces the risk of human error causing an outage or security breach.

Nodegrid Serial Console Plus (NSCP)

A Gen 3 serial console, like the Nodegrid Serial Console Plus (NSCP), gives you complete remote control over every component of your network infrastructure, regardless of location or manufacturer. Nodegrid also secures your OOB management network using zero trust security best practices and comprehensive onboard features. Finally, the Gen 3 NSCP allows you to automate whatever tools you want to use, so you can efficiently manage a complex enterprise network without sacrificing speed, security, or control.

 

Learn more about Gen 3 serial consoles:

→   Comparing the Best Console Servers for Data Centers in 2022
→   What Makes a Gen 3 Serial Console?
→   Why You Need a Next-Gen OOB Console Server

What is a serial console’s role in modern enterprise networks?

Schedule a demo of the Gen 3 Nodegrid Serial Console Plus to see for yourself!

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Part 2: Immutable Infrastructure: Best Practices for Network Professionals

by | Jun 16, 2022 | Actionable Data, DevOps, Increase Productivity, NetDevOps, Network Automation, Scripting, SD-WAN, Uncategorized

immutable infrastructure best practices
Immutable infrastructure involves servers, network appliances, and other devices which are never updated or changed. In part 1 of our blog series, we discussed the most inherent challenges with the immutable infrastructure paradigm. This post will cover immutable infrastructure best practices that you should follow to overcome these challenges and fully embrace immutable principles in your enterprise.

Immutable infrastructure best practices for network professionals

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Infrastructure as code, or IaC, uses software abstraction to separate infrastructure configurations from the underlying hardware, allowing you to write configurations as repeatable scripts that you can deploy to many different devices. It also facilitates automation and orchestration through tools like RedHat Ansible, which stores and automatically executes configuration scripts according to predefined playbooks.

IaC is used traditionally for physical and virtual server configurations, but you can also use it to create and maintain virtualized network device configurations. This is sometimes called network infrastructure as code or software-defined networking (SDN). SDN goes beyond just abstracting configurations from the underlying networking hardware. It virtualizes your entire network, creating an overlay for managing and optimizing network routing, load balancing, segmentation, and more.

IaC is an immutable infrastructure best practice because it allows you to create and deploy configurations quickly and at scale. It enables truly immutable infrastructure that you can copy, delete, and replace at will. Without IaC, you must provision each new and updated instance manually. Even with a large team of engineers, updates could take a long time, and intermediate periods during which different versions of the same server or network configuration were active simultaneously will appear. Plus, manual configurations are error-prone, and mistakes could create vulnerabilities in your network.

Infrastructure as code and network infrastructure as code allow you to deploy virtual configurations programmatically and automatically. For immutable infrastructure, IaC is frequently used to deploy and configure images for containers and other virtualized environments.

Golden images

A golden image is a standardized template for physical or virtualized infrastructure. You start with a base image with only the software and settings required universally across all instances of that device. Then, you install any agents or services needed for monitoring, threat detection, analysis, etc. Finally, you harden the image with security policies and tools, and patch any known security vulnerabilities. Once the golden image is complete, you freeze it so no further changes can be made.

Best practices for creating, securing, and updating golden images for immutable infrastructure include:

  • Incorporate as many dependencies and settings as possible in your golden image to reduce the amount of configuration that needs to happen at deployment. This will ensure that the golden image you’ve tested and validated is as close as possible to the final production configuration. It will also make it faster and easier to scale.
  • Continuously scan and analyze golden images for new security vulnerabilities. That way, you can create and deploy patched versions as soon as possible, hopefully before a malicious actor has time to exploit those vulnerabilities.
  • Fully decommission old images once they’ve been replaced with newer, more secure versions. This will ensure a consistent and secure environment, and decrease the risk of accidentally spinning up new instances with old images.
  • Store golden images in multiple locations on a micro-segmented network. Use zero trust security to create granular policies and build  customized micro-perimeters around your golden images. This will protect your images from exfiltration or unauthorized modifications. It will also ensure access to golden images for recovery purposes even if you must isolate particular micro-segments during a breach.

Golden images for virtualized servers and network devices can be deployed, modified, and updated through IaC orchestration platforms—Like AWS, Azure, etc. This further streamlines the provisioning of immutable infrastructure, ensures consistent configurations across instances, and facilitates fast and easy scaling.

Stateful and persistent data

You should strive to make infrastructure and data as ephemeral as possible. Still, there are cases where you’ll need data to persist as you’re creating, deleting, and copying immutable resources. For stateful and persistent data, you should use mountable storage attachable to new instances when old ones are terminated.

Make sure you separate the ephemeral data from stateful/persistent data, so you only keep what you absolutely need to. This will help you reduce storage costs and simplify your overall operations. In addition, you should ship log files off immutable instances and send them to a centralized monitoring server as frequently as possible to ensure they persist.

Implementing immutable infrastructure best practices in your enterprise

Many of these immutable infrastructure best practices rely on modern, software-defined technology stacks, making it challenging to apply them to legacy infrastructure. You also need clear, centralized orchestration to see and control every piece of your immutable infrastructure, even across highly distributed networks with remote branch and edge locations. Finally, all of your immutable infrastructure solutions must work together seamlessly regardless of vendor or ecosystem.

ZPE Systems can solve all these challenges with the Nodegrid network orchestration solution. Nodegrid supports network functions virtualization (NFV), which turns your physical networking appliances into virtualized solutions you can configure and manage through IaC and SDN. Nodegrid’s vendor-neutral serial console servers also support legacy pinouts, so you can bring your legacy physical infrastructure under your immutable orchestration umbrella.

The ZPE Cloud network orchestration platform can also control remote data center, branch, and edge infrastructure. You can host your choice of SD-WAN (software-defined wide area networking) solution on your Nodegrid devices or use ZPE Cloud’s SD-WAN app. This technology allows you to extend the reach of your virtualized network orchestration to your WAN architecture. To dig even deeper, you can use the SD-Branch app to control branch and edge LANs as well.

The ZPE Cloud platform and all Nodegrid devices are truly vendor-neutral, allowing integrations with leading third-party IaC, SDN, and security providers. Nodegrid empowers you to create a tightly-integrated, seamless immutable infrastructure solution for total network control.

See how Nodegrid can help you implement immutable infrastructure best practices in your enterprise.

Call 1-844-4ZPE-SYS to view a free demo.

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How Nodegrid Improves Network Automation in the Test Lab

by | Sep 22, 2020 | Increase Productivity, Network Automation, Scripting

Is Your Test Lab Lacking Network Automation? Is Manual Testing Still Taking Up Resources?

Without network automation, you’re familiar with having to spend time and resources on manual testing. You need highly technical staff to be on-hand, who then spend days or weeks going through testing procedures. Even with basic automation, you’re left with limited capabilities and plenty of time-consuming, manual work. Here’s a look at different lab environments showing how manual testing compares to automated processes.

The Automation-Free Test Lab

If you haven’t implemented any automation solutions, your test lab eats up your time and resources. Every procedure must be performed manually. Because of this, you constantly face issues like:

  • Having to invest lots of time — Each test must be initiated manually, which means many working hours spent in the lab. This can take days or weeks (or even longer) depending on your network needs.
  • Having to tie up critical staff — You can’t just assign unspecialized staff to follow through with testing. With manual procedures, you need to put your most knowledgeable people on the job, which pulls them away from more critical functions.
  • Being vulnerable to human error — A simple typo can result in catastrophe (i.e. Amazon AWS outage of 2017). Human error is more prominent than you’d think, and is actually the biggest contributor to downtime. Without automation, you’re vulnerable to human-induces mistakes both big and small.
  • Lacking analysis — When errors occur, you need to log data for analysis. Because this needs to be done manually, you might not prioritize this task, leaving issues without analyses. If you do store this data, you’re open to human errors that could affect any analyses you perform.

The Somewhat Automated Test Lab

If you have implemented some automation solutions, you’re on your way to a more efficient lab experience. However, there are still issues you may face, like:

  • Lacking concurrent sessions — Legacy console servers aren’t capable of handling many concurrent sessions, which reduces the number of devices and connections you can support during testing.
  • Crashing — Your console servers have serial ports that can’t use high baud rates (such as 115200bps) in all ports. As more sessions are established, users experience slowdowns due to limited session capacity. Ultimately, the solution crashes.
  • Frequent tweaking — Without a full automation solution, you need to tweak scripts regularly to accommodate any changes you make. Delays and disruptions can occur when, say, you need to replace devices or add new hardware.
  • Unsupported scripting — Some offerings only support certain scripting languages, leaving you to adapt. You either need to spend time and money to learn the supported languages, or add new team members who are familiar with the supported tools.

Ask yourself: Does your automation solution require you to monitor script/command execution? If so, can you really call it ‘automation’?

The Advanced Test Lab Using Nodegrid

For network automation you dream of, Nodegrid delivers without compromise. The Nodegrid hardware and software support unlimited automation, testing, and data collection.

  • Save time — Nodegrid allows you to push configurations, software/firmware upgrades, and tests in bulk. And for a little extra time savings, Nodegrid devices boot more than a minute faster than competitor appliances.
  • Make deployments effortless — Use zero touch provisioning to automate the deployment process.
  • Get full automation — The Linux OS running on Intel x86 64-bit architecture means faster processing, support for Docker & Kubernetes applications, and support for common scripting languages like Python, Bash, Perl, and others.
  • Handle many concurrent sessions — You can support 20 concurrent sessions per port in all 48 ports, or 10 sessions per port in all 96 ports. And the reservation system allows users to reserve ports.
  • Tailor port settings — You can customize serial port settings so connecting is easy (i.e. require no additional text information or authentication).
  • Get full analyses — For data logging and auditing, you can capture and save serial data logs to a local file, NFS file, and/or Syslog server.
  • Set up groups — Create authorization permissions for certain groups, so they can efficiently access their own devices.

Download our ebook to learn more: How Automation is Transforming the Datacenter Landscape

Are you ready to let Nodegrid work for you? Schedule a demo today and see how you can benefit from network automation in your test lab.