Building Modern Networks will brush up your knowledge of modern networking concepts and help you apply them to your software-defined infrastructure. Modern networking revolves around the construction, design, and usage of network. What describes a modern network? The latest development is that networking is the concept of Next Generation Networks (NGNs), which is the USP of this book. The book further allows you to study different types of NGNs with a deeper understanding.
As you master the NGN concepts, you will slowly move toward one of the major concepts of networking: understanding OpenFlow. As rightly stated by the Open Networking Foundation, OpenFlow is the first standard communications interface defined between the control and forwarding layers of an SDN architecture. OpenFlow allows direct access to and manipulation of the forwarding plane of network devices such as switches and routers, both physical and virtual. You will not only learn OpenFlow but also explore the Thrift and REST API in order to comprehend and control switches.
After OpenFlow, we will move on to grasp VMware NSX and ACI ideas. These concepts are like the building blocks of modern network. Eventually, we will move to the best part of learning all these concepts: implementing them! As we complete our take on initial concepts, we will move to actually building a modern network! In the last section of the book, we will apply all the notions of a modern network and design a NGN. As you learn how to build a modern network, we will also secure the network while working on its quality.
Chapter 1, Open and Proprietary Next Generation Networks, starts our journey from with concepts of NGNs, including hardware, software, and controllers. Here, we will also explore concepts such as open hardware, Open Source Network Operating Systems (ONOS), proprietary hardware, proprietary Network Operating Systems (NOS), and open source and proprietary software controllers.
Chapter 2, Networking Hardware and Software, discusses the multitude of open and closed hardware and software systems available to network architects. We will discuss the Open Compute Project (OCP), its goals, and members including Juniper Networks and Cisco, who are both mostly in the proprietary networking space.
Chapter 3, Exploring OpenFlow, talks about programmable networks. Specifically, it discusses how OpenFlow works, the different OpenFlow controllers available, and the hardware that can use OpenFlow.
Chapter 4, Using REST and Thrift APIs to Manage Switches, discusses the API-driven routing/switching applications. This concept allows you to have easier automation and management. Instead of programming systems box by box, you will now be able to use a central server or application to manage multiple systems.
Chapter 5, Using Postman for REST API Calls, teaches how to install Postman, use it to configure, and get the configuration from a switch running SnapRoute's FlexSwitch software. You will also consider how to program FlexSwitch using some of the extra features of Postman.
Chapter 6, OpenFlow Deep Dive, teaches the history of OpenFlow, why it was invented, and what issues it solves. We will also consider how OpenFlow works internally and how an OpenFlow agent and controller work together. Finally, we will set up ODL and ONOS.
Chapter 7, VMware NSX, gives you an idea about VMware NSX, its history, features, and use cases. You will now have a general understanding of what VMware NSX is and how you can integrate it into an existing or new SDDC.
Chapter 8, Cisco ACI, talks about Cisco ACI and how to navigate the CLI, GUI, and RESTful interfaces. We will also discuss how to set up a new APIC-driven network; configure the management network, users, tenants, and interfaces; and add a BGP ASN to the configuration.
Chapter 9, Where to Start When Building a Next Generation Network, talks about choosing between open and proprietary hardware and software. We will cover the support levels that can be expected and how your support needs may guide your decisions. We will cover the RFI and PoC concepts and how to handle them.
Chapter 10, Designing a Next Generation Network, teaches about determining the size and type of installation the equipment will be going in to. You will also learn about designing the network hardware layout based on the RFI/RFQ information and finally, you will understood how to assemble a final list of equipment to construct the NGN.
Chapter 11, Example NGN Designs, discusses designs using OpenFlow, SnapRoute, Cisco ACI, and NSX to design and build networks. We refer back to the chapters examining each to see how to do the deep configuration.
Chapter 12, Understanding and Configuring Quality of Service, explains QoS, how it works and how to use it with NGN technologies. Examples of simple QoS on both Linux and Windows will be shown along with the basic concepts of QoS in both OpenFlow and VMware NSX. We will cover both flat and hierarchical QoS and their uses in both enterprise and service provider networks.
Chapter 13, Securing the Network, teaches about general security concepts and how to apply them to different next generation systems. Using the OPNFV project, we will look at configuring switches using OpenFlow and virtual firewalls.
To practice the examples and best practices explained in the book, you should have the following:
- Postman
- Access VirtualBox or another pc based hypervisor running Linux(r) to work with
- OpenDaylight
- ONOS
- OVS
- Cisco Nexus switch running NX-OS
- Indigo (included with Broadcom OF-DPA)
- Floodlight
- Access to a non-production VMware system running NSX
- Access to a non-production Cisco network using APIC
This book is for network engineers and network administrators who are taking their first steps when deploying software-defined networks. Network architects will also find this book useful when designing and building modern networks.
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning. Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows:
"In Rescue mode, you can run the onie-nos-install command to install an image from a web server or the onie-self-update command to upgrade ONIE".
A block of code is set as follows:
"NextHopList": [
{
"NextHopIntRef": "fpPort3",
"NextHopIp": "192.168.30.2",
"Weight": 0
}
]
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
"NextHopList": [
{
"NextHopIntRef": "fpPort3",
"NextHopIp": "192.168.30.2",
"Weight": 0
}
]Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
curl -X GET http://10.1.1.1:8080/public/v1/state/BGPGlobal | python -m json.tool New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Once you click on Send, you should be logged in to the APIC server."
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