Just brewed my first cup from my @aeropresscoffee brewer. It uses more coffee grounds and requires time and precision but I am very impressed with the flavor in the americano it has produced.
JUNOS - Using The 'chassisd' Log To Determine Boot Times
You can use “show system uptime” to determine the time that the system last booted but if you need to know about how long the system was up prior to the last boot you have to dig a bit deeper.
fluong@re0.mx960-1.eng> show system uptime
Feb 01 11:26:13
Current time: 2013-02-01 11:26:13 EST
System booted: 2013-01-04 10:34:28 EST (4w0d 00:51 ago)
Protocols started: 2013-02-01 11:17:44 EST (00:08:29 ago)
Last configured: 2013-02-01 11:17:45 EST (00:08:28 ago) by root
11:26AM up 28 days, 52 mins, 1 user, load averages: 0.02, 0.15, 0.13
The “messages” log, though handy, is also very noisy. Because of this, we can try to use the “chassisd” log instead and look for the “built by” string, which occurs each time the chassis control process initiates itself.
That line, unfortunately, is on the line after the timestamp, so we need some other nearby log messages to determine the rough time of system startup.
Also important to note is that the “built by” string occurs when you “restart chassis-control”, so we need to inspect those logs to see if a SIGTERM occurred within seconds of chassisd restarting. If it is a few minutes apart, that is probably a reboot. If it is seconds apart, that means someone triggered a process restart.
fluong@re0.mx960-1.eng> show log chassisd | match "(built by|rtsock_init s|sigterm)"
Feb 01 11:28:45
Dec 19 11:14:52 CHASSISD_TERM_SIGNAL: Received SIGTERM request, shutting down
Dec 19 11:14:58 CHASSISD_TERM_SIGNAL: Received SIGTERM request, shutting down
CHASSISD release 10.4R3.4 built by builder on 2011-03-19 21:10:47 UTC
Dec 19 11:22:37 rtsock_init synchronous socket
Jan 4 10:27:25 CHASSISD_TERM_SIGNAL: Received SIGTERM request, shutting down
Jan 4 10:27:31 CHASSISD_TERM_SIGNAL: Received SIGTERM request, shutting down
CHASSISD release 11.4R6.5 built by builder on 2012-11-28 21:35:45 UTC
Jan 4 10:35:54 rtsock_init synchronous socket
Feb 1 11:17:31 CHASSISD_TERM_SIGNAL: Received SIGTERM request, shutting down
CHASSISD release 11.4R6.5 built by builder on 2012-11-28 21:35:45 UTC
Feb 1 11:17:32 rtsock_init synchronous socket
We can tell from looking at these logs:
- System was rebooted and chassisd started on Dec 19 11:22:37. Ditto, Jan 4 10:35:54.
- “restart chassis-control” was invoked on Feb 1 11:17:31
JNCIE-SP Notes on Configuring BGP for IPv6 Unicast NLRI over an IPv4 Peering session
When configuring MP-BGP over an ipv4 peering session, you probably already know that you have to enable family inet6 on your interface. But you also have to make sure to configure an ipv4-mapped inet6 address for your interface because your Juniper device will probably be setting the next-hop to that address unless you’re running older code.
Here is an example of config to get you going.
Diagram
R2 Config
set interfaces ge-0/0/0 description “Connection to R1”
set interfaces ge-0/0/0 unit 0 family inet address 172.27.0.2/30
set interfaces ge-0/0/0 unit 0 family inet6 address ::ffff:172.27.0.2/126
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 type external
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 family inet unicast
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 family inet6 unicast
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 peer-as 1
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 neighbor 172.27.0.1
R1 Config
set interfaces ge-0/0/0 description “Connection to R2”
set interfaces ge-0/0/0 unit 0 family inet address 172.27.0.1/30
set interfaces ge-0/0/0 unit 0 family inet6 address ::ffff:172.27.0.1/126
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 type external
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 family inet unicast
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 family inet6 unicast
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 peer-as 2
set protocols bgp group R1-R2 neighbor 172.27.0.2
One Last Note
You may need an extra bit of config to get your router to forward packets addressed to ipv4-mapped-addresses:
set system allow-v4mapped-packets
IPv4-Compatible Addressing… A Possible Pitfall
Older versions of JUNOS used IPv4-Compatible addresses for the next-hop field of a BGP update. This would have been something like “::172.27.0.1”.
If you try to configure IPv4-compatible addresses on your interfaces, you will probably see a log message which looks like this:
Jan 16 13:19:02 mrgarrison rpd[1197]: bgp_nexthop_sanity: peer 172.27.0.1 (External AS 701) next hop ::ffff:172.27.0.1 unexpectedly remote, ignoring routes in this update.
Do yourself a favor and check your logs for sanity messages if it looks like you’re not receiving any IPv6 routes that the other route claims it is advertising.
See also: JNCIE-SP: IPv6 NLRIs over IPv4 BGP Peering When You’re Not Using Mapped Addresses.
JNCIE-SP Notes on BGP Troubleshooting
General tips
- Get to know the diagram/topology. Mark it up: add notes and draw AS boundaries so that you don’t get your numbers mixed up.
- Read the requirements carefully and, as you are reading, start forming a list of requirements to validate.
- Traceoptions will probably take too long to be useful so if you can use show commands, the messages log, or “monitor traffic…” you are better off.
Getting Established - IBGP
- Check pings from all loopbacks, to all other loopbacks. Remember to specify the loopback address as the source or “set system default-address-selection”.
- Be prepared to troubleshoot the IGP and protocol-independent routing configs.
- For adjacency issues, check the messages log and grep on the host IP.
- Misconfigured authentication may cause problems.
Getting Established - EBGP
- As with IBGP, check pings and look in the messages log for entries matched against the peer address.
- Make sure multihop is configured where needed and supporting static routes are active.
- Prefix limits can make for problems staying established. These are logged in “messages”.
- Look for mismatched AS configurations.
Verifying Policy and Routing
- Hopefully you took good notes on which peers must be preferred over others because that will come in handy now.
- Use “show route receive-protocol bgp <neighbor_addr> all” to identify key routes that you can use to verify that prefixes are received and reachable from your whole network. Make sure you check against the requirements so that you don’t pick a route that is supposed to be filtered.
- Use “show route resolution unresolved” to deal with problems with unresolvable next-hops.
- Use “show route receive-protocol bgp <neighbor_addr> hidden” to verify that the policy is not filtering routes which should be permitted per the requirements.
- Verify that advertisements to customers are as expected:
* Summary Aggregates may need to be advertised, possibly with specific routes suppressed.
* a missing address-family configuration in BGP may mean that you are not advertising IPv6 when you need to. ditto IPv4.
JNCIE-SP / JNCIP-SP - Notes on OSPF Area types using Juniper's Vernacular
Notes from studying and discussion of OSPF Areas for the JNCIE-SP and JNCIP-SP exams.
Stub Areas
Stub - Do not permit OSPF External routes (Type 5 LSAs) into the area. Re-generate OSPF Internal routes as Summary Type 3 LSAs.
Stub w/ default metric XXX - Same as above, but advertise a Type 3 Summary default-route into the area with metric XXX to reach external routes.
Stub, no-summaries, default metric XXX (aka Totally Stubby Area) - Do not permit OSPF internal or external routes into the area. Instead, advertise a Type 3 Summary default-route with metric XXX.
===
Not-So-Stubby-Areas
NSSA - Fundamentally similar to Stub Area (see above), but ASBR can reside within the area and generates an NSSA External Type 7 LSA for each route exported into OSPF. Type 7s are regenerated as Type 5s into the backbone area by the ABR.
NSSA w/ default-lsa default-metric XXX - Same as above, but advertise a Type 3 Summary default-route into the area with metric XXX to reach external routes.
NSSA, no-summaries, default metric XXX - Do not permit OSPF internal or external routes into the area. Instead, advertise a Type 3 Summary default-route with metric XXX. ASBR can reside within the area…
Optional configuration for NSSA: -
default-lsa {
default-metric XXX;
metric-type YYY;
type-7;
}
NSSA default-routes can be generated as Type 7 for backward compatibility. This affords you the opportunity to set the external metric-type as “1” if you want one to be preferred when available.
==
References
How to Enable Emoji Smileys on iPhone →
Tip: Update Your Online Billpay When You Get a New Credit Card Number
There will be times in your life when you need to get a new credit card number because your existing one has been compromised. You might think you’re done when you receive your new card and activate it but there are some additional steps you should think of after you’re done activating your new shining spending card.
Chief lesson I learned today: Remember to update your online billpay and e-bill delivery if this happens or you might miss a bill like I did. I tend to be very habit driven when it comes to bills and I rely on the online billpay to let me know when I have an unpaid bill. Until I can get that set back up, I will have to get these statements outside of that system. I’ve updated my monthly calendar reminders to pay bills with a note to make sure that I try to get statements for bills that are not in online Billpay.
My statement from Chase this month included a late fee and finance charge. Chase was willing to waive charges with little hassle given the circumstances involved. Don’t be afraid to ask politely for them to work with you in a case like this.
(Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6280507539/)
For Juniper Network Connect on Linux Make Sure You Have Xterm
Juniper’s Network Connect SSL-VPN client is a bit quirky on linux. I’ve had to set this up a few times so I know my way around them but if you don’t it helps to know a few things:
- You need Oracle’s version of Java. For Ubuntu, I installed it using info from this ubuntugeek.com.
- You need xterm. Why? because when you try to start NC, it want to prompt you for your sudo password and it uses xterm to do so. If your system doesn’t have it, it just falls to pieces without much of an explanation. Install it using: “sudo apt-get xterm”
Some Dude Named Kerstein Doesn't Think Much of Chomsky. Says Interesting Things While Elaborating →
- …I think you’ll agree that, of all the bad things people are capable of, their refusal to think is one of the worst, mainly because it leads to most of the other bad things of which they are capable.
- I think its impossible to understand Chomsky’s politics without understanding that, to him, the US is morally equivalent to Nazi Germany and needs to be dealt with accordingly.
Dr. Hurd on Love →
Good thoughts from the Doctor:
- Live life fully and leave room for a relationship.
- It sounds paradoxical, but the people who cherish their own lives tend to be the best lovers. They have the most to give because they have given the most to themselves.
- … make yourself the person you want to be, by having the kind of life you want to have – and always leaving room for a relationship, when you find the right one.
- (on ‘mending’ a broken heart) You cannot actively “mend” it. You have to let it heal.
- Anything a couple enjoys sharing together is intimate.
Believe you can change" by Aaron Swartz →
Two mindsets on ability: Fixed-ability and growth mindsets. Interesting quotes follow:
- “I think intelligence is something you have to work for…it isn’t just given to you… Most kids, if they’re not sure of an answer, will not raise their hand… But what I usually do is raise my hand, because if I’m wrong, then my mistake will be corrected. Or I will raise my hand and say… ‘I don’t get this. Can you help me?’ Just by doing that I’m increasing my intelligence.”
- In relationships, growth-mindset people looked for partners who would push them to be better, fixies just wanted someone who would put them on a pedestal
The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown →
Interesting reading on essentializing, decluttering, and saying no to perfectly good things. Interesting quotes follow:
- Curiously, and overstating the point in order to make it, success is a catalyst for failure.
- If we ask, “Do I absolutely love this?” then we will be able to eliminate the clutter and have space for something better.
- Tom Stafford describes a cure for this that we can apply to career clarity: Instead of asking, “How much do I value this item?” we should ask “If I did not own this item, how much would I pay to obtain it?” And the same goes for career opportunities. We shouldn’t ask, “How much do I value this opportunity?” but “If I did not have this opportunity, how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it?”
Kickstarting My Quest to Discover My Statement of Purpose
I’m devoting a bit of time tonight and in the nights to come to studying and thinking about how I can develop a coalesced statement of purpose which can serve as an integrating guide for my actions and investments. I spend a lot of time doing a lot of things. And many of them are worth doing. But I feel that the products of my efforts are a bit scattered and I would be interested do see what might happen if I can apply some focus.
So… how am I to begin? Well, I have studied Objectvism a lot, and thus I’ve read a lot of writings by others who have worked through some of the same curiosities questions I have had. This has yielded interesting writers such as John Drake and Burgess Laughlin.
I’ve also been following the work of some bloggers and podcasters who focus on personal development and who are not obviously readers of Rand. Steever Robbins, who blogs and podcasts at Get it Done Guy, and Steve Pavlina.
These are some of the tour guides I have selected to try to find my way through how to get started with what feels like asking oneself an enormously huge question, which understandably risks causing a sudden onset of writer’s block.
I have started tonight by re-reading Burgess Laughlin’s piece on what is a central purpose in life.
This is a concept that comes directly from Ayn Rand in her discussions of her own relationship to her work, which she documents in The Romantic Manifesto, and Laughlin does some interesting treatment of it in this post to break it down and identify what a CPL is and what it is not. My sense of it after re-reading is that a CPL is a broad and abstract personal statement of action describing what ambitious but achievable thing you wish to do. As a further note, this should be a joy to do and hopefully can be a source of income, though that is not always feasible.
Laughlin does a lot of follow-up in the comments section of his blog to expand on this discussion including treatment of how a person might approach discovering his own CPL statement. This, I think will be quite valuable to me. The basic version was described as: what have you done, what are you doing, what do you want to do? The more complex version was broken down into observation, abstraction, and testing/experimentation.
I’ve run out of time for the night but I’ll definitely be looking to spend some time itemizing for myself what I have been doing in professional life and in my personal time. I would invite any of you are interested to chat about this with me to reach out to me because I’d certainly be glad to have smart people to toss ideas back and forth with on this matter.
-Franco
(photo credit: Ready, Set, Go! by Prescott Pym via Flickr)
Francis Luong Employment Information
Francis Luong is a Resident Engineer with Juniper Networks. He is assigned directly to a client as a subject matter expert for Juniper systems and IP/MPLS network implementations in order to improve the quality and outcomes of support interactions between the client and Juniper Networks to the benefit of both parties.
Francis Luong →
Just setup a BrandYourself profile for myself! :)
Dell U2711 Uses a newer DVI-Dual Cable
Found out the hard way that text won’t display correctly with the Dell U2711 panel if you’re using DVI and you try to re-use your existing cable. It comes with a cable marked “DVI Dual”. Better make sure to use it.
Also worth noting: your GPU must also support DVI-D.
Reference: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3515/t/19339634.aspx answer by “xprt"
Regular Expressions →
I often forget syntax details on regular expressions and this guide is quite handy for a tutorial or refresher.
Juniper Stuff: When you need to know about your pluggable optics
I had a guy ask me today about some funky output he was seeing on his router when he was trying to get info on his SFP optics from “show chassis hardware”. I directed him instead to check out “show chassis pic fpc-slot <#> pic-slot <#>”. It’s a lot more detailed and reliable.
–
user@host> show chassis pic fpc-slot 4 pic-slot 1
FPC slot 4, PIC slot 1 information:
Type 10x 1GE(LAN)
State Online
PIC version 0.0
Uptime 18 days, 5 hours, 41 minutes, 54 seconds
PIC port information:
Fiber Xcvr vendor
Port Cable type type Xcvr vendor part number Wavelength
0 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-D SM SumitomoElectric SBP6H44-J3-BW-49 1490 nm
1 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-D SM SumitomoElectric SBP6H44-J3-BW-49 1490 nm
2 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-D SM SumitomoElectric SBP6H44-J3-BW-49 1490 nm
3 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-D SM OCP TRXBG1LXDBVM2-JW 1490 nm
4 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-D SM OCP TRXBG1LXDBVM2-JW 1490 nm
5 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-U SM SumitomoElectric SBP6H44-J3-BW-31 1310 nm
6 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-U SM SumitomoElectric SBP6H44-J3-BW-31 1310 nm
7 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-U SM OCP TRXBG1LXDBBMH-J1 1310 nm
8 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-U SM OCP TRXBG1LXDBBMH-J1 1310 nm
9 SFP-1000BASE-BX10-U SM SumitomoElectric SBP6H44-J3-BW-31 1310 nm
Extracting Userpic from Mac OSX
I had a devil of a time figuring out how to extract my account picture from my Mac to a JPEG. Then I found an article which had the answer. Man… it’s ugly.
If you wish to extract a 320x320 version of your account picture you can do so by running the following command:
dscl . -read /Users/short_username JPEGPhoto | tail -1 | xxd -r -p > /PATH/TO/accountImage.jpg
Two Recommendations On Linked-In
I honor integrity and justice. It’s part of who I have chosen to be. And as a part of my attempts to come to closure with my recent job change, I have devoted some time this morning to expressing my gratitude for the people who contributed to my thriving at Verizon, both by their examples, and in our professional interactions.
I present to you, my words about Dante Pacella:
Dante Pacella is the full package. In my time working with him, I have come to characterize him as a brilliant and long-sighted engineer whose memory for detail is incredible, and whose ability to integrate those data into systems is, to me, simply stunning. He also navigates negotiations within the company bureaucracy with incredible skill.
I was in the Systems Integration Testing group when I worked with Dante, and every experience with him was an immense privilege. He produces the best and most detailed test requirements that I have ever seen, which incidentally also demonstrated his deep understanding of the systems we were evaluating for deployment, and an understanding of how to be concise by focusing on fundamentals. He was the spiritual author for many of the best tests that I ended up automating and building upon.
I can never possibly repay Dante for everything I have learned from him. It’s impossible. And that’s some serious praise. But I come to work with an active mind and hopefully, that at least makes me worthy of that privilege. Thanks, Dante.
And my words about Jim Koskulitz:
Jim Koskulitz is a man that I credit directly with my thriving at Verizon. Under his management, we began an initiative to systematically automate repetitive and time-consuming testing to make the entire process more efficient, more consistent, and to leverage non-working hours.
This had been attempted by managers prior to Jim. Jim made it a priority and gave me and a couple of teammates a lot of freedom and guidance on how to go about building it. These are important things, as is the time risk involved in possibly having project deadlines slip. It was a calculated gamble and it paid off in big ways for Verizon, and for me personally.
I would like to thank Jim for his leadership and his continued inquisitiveness and attentiveness for the half-decade or so that I worked with him. He’s a great technical contributor and a damn good manager.