Getting started with software-defined networking

https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/getting-started-sdn

by jhibbets • 7 years ago

64 13 7 years ago

redhat.com

RickJWagner• 7 years ago

I never would have looked at an article like this 'till just recently.

Kubernetes changes all that. Now I have an interest in SDN.

gioscarab• 7 years ago

See also PJON: https://github.com/gioblu/PJON

superbaconman2• 7 years ago

We need more software engineers in this space (and not just at the edge). The way some of these core networks are maintained just makes me shake my head. There are way too many manual processes and way too much push back whenever software is introduced to standardize configs.

imglorp• 7 years ago

Product opportunities?

hideo• 7 years ago

That's an interesting point. What companies are in this space? VMWare recruiters mentioned (to me) a big SDN investment ~6ish years ago but I haven't heard much after that.

kvm0002• 7 years ago

The company I work for is in the SDN space but specifically around large scale uncompressed (SMPTE 2110, 1.5Gbps per HD stream) video broadcast IP infrastructure rather than related to docker containerization.

We've been deploying larger and larger systems based around our hardware IP switch fabrics (EXE/IPX) and using our SDN controller (https://evertz.com/solutions/magnum) to manage network topology for systems over 150,000 multicast flows with television broadcast critical timing/latency on stream switching.

We're hiring! https://evertz.com/about/careers/

superbaconman2• 7 years ago

I'm not actually aware of many... It's kinda a niche pain point. The only companies who really need innovation in this space are mid-lrg size companies who run or require good sized networks.

The process of manually maintaining the network is easy enough that most people just kinda shrug the cost off and ignore all the crap that accumulates in their configs over time.

The companies who can't shrug the cost off, or who actually consider security do automate their network (think ATT or Google). The thing is they aren't just gonna open source their core business. Plus, their network is special and their software wouldn't help anyone else out (i don't really buy this).

The other problem is that network apis aren't standardized at all. There are a few initiatives out there, but they're unlikely to catch on. Network vendors really only differentiate themselves through their network os, so any configuration software needs to take into account multiple config apis.

So yeah... We need more engineers.

dopylitty• 7 years ago

In general I agree but lately I've been wondering if software defined everything and easy universal reconfiguration actually brings lower reliability (and security?).

For instance software engineers and automated processes apparently brought down Google Cloud's SDN across several regions for several hours a few days ago. They may not have been able to do that if configuration updates were more manual.

The question is whether whatever benefit they gain from SDN worth the additional risk.

vlan0• 7 years ago

This comment really highlights why the term SDN is pointless and needs to die. You are talking about something completely unrelated to topic of the article.

lostmsu• 7 years ago

I did not learn anything useful from this article, as it gives no concrete examples.

Set a goal, optionally explain the need for it, pick one technology from the list, and show how to achieve that goal.

Would be also good to show how is this different from traditional networking.

Getting started with software-defined networking

Related Stories