Entries

See Packet. See Packet Sit. cPacket Run! —– Fun with cPacket Networks cVu 1000
Layer 0 Security —– Axis communications
Lantronix —– Summer of Lantronix Lovin’
Clearly Communicating —– Avaya’s Voice Solutions
Open for Business —– Expo Floor — Day 1
Spread the News! —– Interop is in New York!
Lone Wolf —– Coyote Point Equalizer 450si

It Came From SPACE! —– Xirrus WiFi Array

Purple Roach Motel —– The Sentriant – by Extreme Networks
NAV: Network Attached Voyeur —– Axis Communications made me do it!
The Boneyard —– What happens AFTER the show?
Warehouse Madness —– How I learned to stop worrying and love the warehouse
A Funny Thing Happened —– The ghost of Interop Past
It’s TOO Quiet —– Where is everybody?
Bring It! —– So it Begins

Posted by Padre @ 12:02am

For most system administrators, network monitoring is like car insurance: we know we should have it — we know we’ll regret doing without it — we know that it can provide all sorts of

interesting and useful purposes — and yet somehow the muss and fuss involved in getting it right and understanding its utility is overcome by the desire to “get in and go.” The usefulness of

network monitoring tools is eclipsed only by the difficulty in getting many of those tools running, or in the learning curve to decipher the information coming off those same tools.

The cVu1000 on Paper

• Transparent monitoring
• Real-Time Traffic Analysis
• Interactive trafic Administration and Filtering
• Zero Latency Taps
• Intuitive “Drill Down” menu
• SFP Interfaces for GigE and Fiber on all ports
• Traffic Passthrough and Mirroring
• Distributed Monitoring with centralized Storage and Analysis

Backstory
cPacket Networks was a relatively late arrival to Interop NY ‘06. They came into the Belmont warehouse in the waning days of hotstage with four

of their cVu 1000 Distributed Appliances. It was my responsibility to find those units appropriate homes where they could tap and monitor the traffic running through the more interesting parts of

our network. After a quick tutorial on how the devices worked, we agreed to use the cVu 1000s to monitor four particular segments of the eNet: show floor, classrooms, registration and press.

Installation was straighforward — we use Systimax QDs to connect fiber umbilicals from the core switches to the show floor racks. The cVu 1000 came populated with GigE copper modules, but since

they use standard SFP ports, we were able to swap the GigE copper modules for fiber units. Placing the units inline was a simple matter of plugging the fiber that originally went from the QD to the

switch into the “A” port of the cVu and running the “B” passthrough back to the switch. Installation didn’t necessitate any changes in our network topology and we immediately began seeing trafic

statistics on the built-in LCD screen on the front of the unit.

I like the cVu 1000s — they’re small, easy to install, feature-packed on paper, and cPacket’s engineers are hard-working, honest uberGeeks. They claim that their custom-developed ASIC allows

for deep inspection of every packet at linespeed without adding latency to the network. Still, with monitoring vendors like Fluke, Network Physics, Network General, Gigamon, Groundworks, and others

already on the Interop train, I didn’t know what to expect from cPackets and their little black box.

Trial-by-Fire
So… the questions — Did the cVu 1000 make monitoring any easier? Did the unit live up to its promises of transparent, zero-latency taps? Did it have an intuitive, drill-down interface

that made it easy to isolate, diagnose and correct network problems? Did cPacket Networks come up with a formula for shifting monitoring from a “what happened” to a “what’s going to happen”

paradigm?

After seeing the cVu 1000 go through a trial-by-fire of being in the enterprise-class network that we call the Interop eNet, my answer would have to be a loud and resounding, YES.

The cVu 1000 is the first standalone, in-rack monitoring tool that I have been able to master in under 30 minutes. Their interface is extremely intuitive — reporting is divided into “live” and

“historical” groups which give users immediate access to the statistics that matter, like bandwidth consumption and DNS requests/replies. Data can be represented in a variety of user-configurable

graphs and charts. Users can easily switch between the various cVu 1000s installed in the network and drill-down their views from hours to seconds in order to locate spikes, drops or attacks.

These screens give a good representation of the information that the cVu 1000 makes availible in real-time. It is important to note that the interface was very responsive: Over the course of the

show I never experienced a freeze, hickup or drop in my live or historical views through the cVu 1000 status screen.

Show Impressions
The first thing that I have to note is how useful the built-in LCD becomes once it is deployed. Not only does it give the administrator an immediate confirmation of whether or not traffic is

passing through the network, the bandwidth counters are surprisingly informative even with such limited real-estate.

The day that the full network was up and running, the cPackets guys introduced me to the status screen and gave me a quick (10 minute) tutorial. From that point on the cVu 1000 became my first

stop whenever NetServ (Network Services Help Desk) received a complaint about connectivity or speed. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to learn the interface and at how useful the cVu 1000 was

in diagnosing problems — within 4 hours of collecting data we were able to isolate several ARP storms from the registration area, DA attacks over the classroom wireless, DNS problems in the Press

area and bandwidth hogs on the show floor.

Conclusions
Even though I didn’t get as much time with the cVu 1000 as I would have liked, my brief experience with the unit, and with the cPacket guys, tells me that they have a winner. The cVu 1000 is an

amazingly versatile piece of monitoring gear that is easy to install, easy to use and designed with scalability in mind. I can’t wait to use it in the eNet for Interop Las Vegas, and this time I

plan to try the mirroring and filtering functions of the unit.

Posted by Padre @ 5:58pm

Now that the show is over and the crates have been packed, there’s time for the team to catch our collective breath. While
we’re doing that, I want to look at a revelation that the members of the InteropNet had during the show….

We need PHYSICAL security.

We may have some of the best security engineers in the industry, driving advanced security solutions from Juniper and
Extreme, but somehow we missed the very simple fact that the best designed and implemented network on the planet is only as
secure as the environment that houses it.

During the show we had two incidents without our Network Operations Centers. In NOC 2 we had an unknown individual rummage
through the belongings of the NOC members, stealing an expensive digital SLR camera. In NOC 1 we had an intruder make himself
at home at the Fluke table, not stealing anything, but nonetheless being an unwanted visitor.

We were relatively lucky this time: a digital camera can be replaced and the intruders didn’t compromise the network.
Several years ago at an Interop conference in Atlanta we were not so lucky, with somebody stealing all the laptops and
several diagnostic tools from the NOC. In any case, I think we now know that a few see-through walls and a guard at the door
isn’t enough security.

Thankfully, we have Axis Communications as a Solutions
Provider.

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Axis was once again in the NOC with their advanced network video products. We had an Axis 221 camera watching NOC 1,

an
Axis 211 viewing the area in front of the PEDs, an

href=”http://www.axis.com/products/cam_214/index.htm”>Axis 214ptz (Pan/Tilt/Zoom) camera sitting in the Network Services Area, a
variety of 205 and 207w cameras overseeing the show floor area, and

href=”http://www.axis.com/products/cam_station_software/index.htm”>Axis Camera Station software to aggregate the video into
one screen and provide motion sensing and recording functions. Truly we had an impressive array of video security up and
running within the simple-to-use Axis family. The deployment was made even more simple by the fact that the 211 and the 221 are native POE capable and all the other cameras are low-power as to

allow POE dongles.

Unfortunately I set up the cameras and the software as a way for people outside the show to view what was going on in the
conference instead of using best-practices deployment for security. This meant that I didn’t deploy any cameras in NOC 2
where the digital SLR was stolen, I didn’t have overlapping coverage, and I didn’t dedicate a storage server for recording
images when the Axis Camera Station detected movement. — Several of us were able to view the intruder in NOC 1 from our
hotel rooms, but we never had a clear picture of his face.

Still, it seems that even the mere presence of the cameras was enough to safeguard the gear in the NOC 1 racks. While the
security guard may not have been able to keep the intruder out, at least we knew he was there. Though we clearly need to
improve our deployment of the Axis solutions, at least this incident should light a fire and force us to protect layer 0.

So… you can expect to see my reviews of the various Axis cameras. You can expect to see a writeup on the Axis Camera
Station software. You can expect to hear about the myriad number of ways that the Axis gear can be used to tighten
security… But most of all you can expect the Axis presence to grow at the next Interop.

Posted by Padre @ 10:07pm

Part of our efforts to keep the network up and running have been served well by gear that several support solutions
vendors have sent to the show to be in our “engineering sandbox.” These companies send us various networking solutions from
management and monitoring to storage and security, all for the experience of being in a true live Enterprise-Class network.
More than that, by dropping their products in our sandbox (ready for our engineers to configure, deconstruct, critique and
imagine) these steath vendors gain the invaluable resource of the combined experience of the Interop engineers.

To that end, Lantronix has sent us a wonderful uberGeek care
package!

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Pictured above are some of the products that Lantronix asked us to include in our network. The first picture is of the
Lantronix SecureLynx SLC serial console server and the

href=”http://www.lantronix.com/data-center-management/kvm-solutions/securelinx-slk.html”>SLK IP KVM just mounted in PED 60 on the show floor. The SLC pictured
here is an 8-port serial console server. The SLK IP KVM provided a secure interface to easily access any attached
workstation or server at the BIOS level through a browser. We were using it to remotely configure some of our Axis and
C-Packets servers.

The second photo shows the new Lantronix EDS4100 4-port serial console server. This

device is not only a compact unit that
includes features normally found only on much more expensive, rack-mounted units, but it is also POE powered. It is fully programmable and can provide
standard tunneling to any of the 4 serial ports as well as SSH encrypted connections. My favorite feature is the serial
tunneling software that gives users a secure virtual com port on their computers.

The last picture shows the Lantronix WiBox 2-port 802.11b wireless serial console

server. This device is about the size of
a pack of cigarettes and is a tinkerer’s dream. We used it at the show to give us serial management capabilities for some of
our Extreme gear that was at the very edge of the network where running a second physical line for the management network
wouldn’t be practical. By using the WiBox, we were able to deploy switches in very remote or inaccessible locations with the
confidence of having a separate link for management in case there was a problem that disrupted connectivity through the
switch. Furthermore, the WiBox reduced the deployment load from a primary switch, a management switch and a serial console
server to just the switch and the WiBox.

Several of the engineers in the NOC were able to come up with even more imaginative uses for the gear, but I’ll save those
experiments for another blog. We’ll be posting more in-depth reviews on this gear in the days to come.

As impressive as the gear was the reason why Lantronix decided to become a Support Solutions provider for Interop.
Lantronix sent us this equipment with a single mandate: play. — No demands on placement — No contracts for marketing time
– No drama over interoperating their products alongside those of their competitors. :: Instead, they wanted our engineers to
dream up fresh applications and features for their products and to find a natural, organic place for them in our network.

Put simply: They understand that Interop isn’t just about where the technology is… but where it NEEDS to go. They get
that Interop is about the network. — We hope to repay their understanding by putting their gear at the center of some very
exciting, very uberGeek creations. — Stay Tuned!

Posted by Padre @ 2:40pm

We’re getting ready to close the show floor and the Interop team is making its last rounds around the show floor in an
attempt to absorb the technologies brought to the conference by our vendors and sponsors. We’ve spent the last few days
making sure that they have internet connectivity and everything they need to present themselves to the attendees, now WE want
to see the latest and greatest that IT has to offer.

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Posted by Padre @ 1:57pm

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The power is running, the switches are humming, the doors are drumming and the volunteers are exhausted.

Yup… it must be time to open the show!

We’ve had the network up since Saturday night, but now with the show floor open and the classes in full swing we’re now
getting plenty of traffic through our gear and the monitoring solutions are in their element. Wireless is up, VoIP is dialing
and all the services are being provided as they should. There have been a surprisingly few “bumps” in the network carpet.

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Posted by Padre @ 11:41pm

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Interop is BACK in New York!

For the second time ever, the premier networking and telecommunications conference is at the Javits center in iconic New
York City. It’s been a long process of wheeling and dealing, prepping and building, begging, borrowing and stealing to get to
this point, but finally we are at the Javits putting our network back together.

This is not to say that we are “over the hump.” We have a small team, several new volunteers and a few very unexpected
challenges. — This morning we unwrapped our NOC peds to find that the externals ped had been intimate with a forklift. One
of the tines went THROUGH the steel door and miraculously punctured the rack in the ONE place where it wouldn’t have been a
$100k disaster! Perhaps it was divine intervention, but the forklift operator managed to poke the ped exactly between the
Juniper M7 router and the Gigamon tap. —- And who say’s having a Jesuit on the team isn’t good luck!

Speaking of Jesuits, the last picture in the row is of Jesus Palomino, SJ — He is one of my brother Jesuits and a network
enthusiast. This is his first Interop and he’ll need plenty of divine strength to make it through the conference. Wish him
well!

Posted by Padre @ 8:32pm

As one of the newer Team Leads and younger volunteers, I spend a lot of my time playing with the “bling-bling” technology that comes to the show. Axis Communications’ network cameras, Anthology

Systems’ Yellow Machines, SlingMedia’s SlingBoxes have all taken up a large part of my Interop work docket because they are splashy, fun technologies that cross the boundaries between enterprise

networking and consumer products. I like that part of my job because I get to show the world how our Interop partners are NOT just about corporate networks, data centers and

lights-out-management.

Even so, you can’t sit in the HotStage warehouse for as long as I have without getting at least a little interested in some of the products that don’t reguarly make the front page of “PC

Magazine” or the screen of any number of tech-enthusiast programming. One of the priveledges of my job is that I get to see the technology behind the technology — The hidden switches, boxes and

rackmounted units that make the “bling-bling” technologies possible.

Today I want to share one of those pieces of tech with you…

These silver boxes are Equalizer E450si Load Balancers from Coyote Point Systems. Not a typical load-balancing setup, what you are seeing in this picture is a primary unit and a “hot spare” ready to balance any number of servers, cameras and content machines – Providing high-availibilty, high-performance services to the network

At our show in New York, Coyote Point will be providing load-balanced DNS and DHCP while also acting as the front-end for many of our Axis network cameras. For the conference attendee, or to the

Internet user logging into our content from outside the show, Coyote Point is the vendor that will be ensuring that their DNS queries go answered, their video and audio streams stay up, and their

Interop web surfing experience stays fluid. — All without so much as a packet flutter to show that the 450si is there.

And THAT is perhaps the kicker about Coyote Point’s participation in our network: If they do their job well, and there’s no reason to believe that they will not if past experience is a guide, then the only way a visitor will know about their gear is if they visit the NOC on the show floor or read the Interop blog. Like their even-present engineer Sergey Katsev (Shown being WAY too happy to be on rack duty) Coyote Point is an unsung uberGeek of Interop.

One thing is for sure, I will be pushing their gear in a big way. Keep watching the blog to see a full-blown review of the Equalizer’s load balancing, acceleration and failover capabilities.

Posted by Padre @ 9:03pm

The Interop crew is well into the limbo period between the end of HotStage and the start of the show. A few of us have worked hard over the last two weeks to tear down, pack and roll all the

equipment in preparation for trucking it across the country. The warehouse floor is bare, the boxes have been stacked and we hope that we have thought of all the probable contingencies and brought

the appropriate equipment to deal with them. Still… just because we’re between caffeine binges, it doesn’t mean that we don’t get to play with more interesting technologies.

Like this… This flying-saucer looking thing is actually an advanced WiFi Array with not just one, but TWO gigabit Ethernet interfaces providing redundant links for feeding 16 distinct radios that provide a total of 864Mbps of aggregated bandwidth.

Try THAT with your local Starbucks WiFi connection.

Xirrus was a last-minute addition to the network as our lead engineer, Glenn Evans, searched for a wireless vendor (preferably an upstart with exciting new technology) who could provide a

solution that would stand the ultimate test of conference WiFi. You see… WiFi at Interop is not a challenge just because of the large number of attendees with laptops, or the insane amount of

noise generated by the HUNDREDS of vendor radios turned on when the exhibits open, or even because of the inherent weaknesses of WiFi in the 2.4Ghz range. Rather, it is the PERFECT WiFi Storm of

these three factors that threatens to tip over access points, blot out the usable WiFi spectrum and make wireless communication akin to lighting a candle in a hurricane.

The solutions we’ve used the last three years from our vendor-sponsors Aruba and

href=”http://www.extremenetworks.com/solutions/applications/wireless.asp”>Extreme Networks have been very compelling: providing manageable WiFi service without fail and weathering the Interop

WiFi storm with flying colors. However, being the geeks that we are, we didn’t want to just keep looking at the same solutions that we KNOW will work. Furthermore, we very much wanted to see if

there was a technology in the wild that perhaps could provide better unreal-world performance for the show floor, classrooms and around the hall.

This Xirrus XS-3900 WiFi array, with which I seem to have found an uncommon attachment, uses a series of radios linked by an embedded array controller and several sector antennas. The end result is that each of the radios gets an overlapping “slice” of the 360 degrees of coverage.

In theory, just a few of these units should more than cover every space in the Javits. Now all we have to do is configure it, deploy it, open the hall, and watch how it fares in the perfect

storm…. Surfs Up!

Posted by Padre @ 7:39pm

It’s inevitable… it happens EVERY show. The moment we advertise our class A set of IP addresses to the world we are instantly hit with every sort of network garbage, virus, trojan, worm and

exploit that exists in the wild. It’s like clockwork — We move to our new location, power up the gear, test our network in relative calm — then advertise the routes and watch the crap-traffic

go through the roof. It’s an annoyance that threatens, at best – to consume much of our bandwidth and make externals unstable, at worst – to make our network unusable.

So why is this man smiling?

He’s smiling because he’s Mike Skripek, the technology evangelist for Extreme Networks’ security solutions. It’s his job (should I say pleasure?) to tout the virtues of Extreme’s Sentriant line

of products and demonstrate how they can protect just about any network, from just about any threat, in just about any environment.

Just yesterday Mike was kind enough to give me a demonstration of an forthcoming Extreme product that is designed to make network administration easier by demanding an admin-adjustable level of

security from network clients before they are allowed onto the network. He demonstrated the close integration of Extreme’s complete line of Sentriant software and hardware…..

Starting with this… These two purple boxes (did I mention that ALL of Extreme’s gear is purple?) are affectionately known as the “roach motel” — Hakers, script kiddies, trojans, port scans, malware and spyware check in…. but they don’t check out!

I promised not to let out all the details of how the Sentriant’s do their magic (after all, Extreme deserves to tell it themselves) but I can tell you that these boxes were a hit in Las Vegas.

Part of the fun of sitting in NOC 2 was watching Mike’s status screens as they counted up the number of hackers and malicious coders that were being snared by any number of the Sentriant’s

countermeasures, honeypots and delaying tactics.

In short, I know that I’m a geek because this type of technology excites me, but at least I’m a secure geek!

Posted by Padre @ 11:50pm

I can’t help myself.

I know that I’m an engineer dedicated to the highest standards of professionalism and ethics — I know that I am part of a generation that needs to prove it’s trustworthiness at every step of

the way — I know that I’m a man of the cloth — Yet still, I find myself irresistably pulled towards the allure of network voyeurism.

It wasn’t enough that the Gigamon could tap every single packet that flowed through out fiber and copper connections. It wasn’t enough that the Fluke gear can give real-time analysis network

health. It wasn’t even enough that the Consentry boxes could count, seperate and collate packets in any shape I desired — no… I needed more… I needed Axis!

Once again Axis Communications has joined Interop as a Solutions Provider. They made a splash at the Interop Las Vegas conference in May and now they’re back, providing solutions that can fill

the needs of even the purist videographer and the prima donna network administrator.

In addition to the 207w wireless network cameras (the smallest network cameras in the world), the 211 midrage unit, and the the 221 all-weather/all-lighting conditions box, Axis has now sent us

the Axis 230 camera so that we can stream and capture the keynote addresses. Not only is the 230 an incredibly high-quality unit (glass optics, analog video output, network controlled 18x zoom,

built-in and external audio inputs, IO ports, POE) but it also provides multicast support so that we can sent out our keyotes to the entire showfloor in addition to our Internet users.

Posted by Padre @ 11:52pm

I was sitting at my desk in the warehouse, playing with the new OpenSource Trouble Resolution System (OTRS) that we’ve installed to handle our trouble tickets, when I looked around at the racks

full of millions of dollars worth of gear that took hundreds of hour of engineering time to install and configure. We’ve truly put blood, sweat and tears into creating the best network that we

possibly can in as the short time frame that we are allowed.

Even in a show like New York, which is much more focused than Interop Las Vegas, each one of the equipment racks (we call them PEDs) represents a childbirth of invention, imagination, determination and know-how. We guard our creations and dote over them as we move them to the shows. — How then is it possible that in just a few weeks a rack of finely tuned equipment and laboriously installed software can go from this…

To this…

I suppose it’s all part of the job. — In fact it’s part of the allure of being part of the Interop team: that I’ll come back for the next Hot Stage and find a brand new set of gear, software

and challenges that will challenge me, push me and make me ask questions of my fellow engineers. — Still, there is a little bit of wonder every time I’ve helped to clear the PEDs after a show and

rip apart (gently) the copper, fiber, steel and silicon guts that make up our network.

Posted by Padre @ 4:47pm

I spent much of the day fiddling with VideoLan so that I could transcode the MPEG-2 stream coming out of the Axis 230. With the help of

Daniel Chen, an Interop Team Members who work with EMC, I was able to get the multicast stream out of the 230 and onto the network. I used the VideoLan client to receive the stream and rebroadcast

it as a WMV stream which was then picked up by a Windows Media server for serving across four publishing points and the Coyote Point load balancer. Everything was moving smoothly until the

transcoding process lost audio. Now I can get audio or video, but not both.

I know that this is probably an easy fix for somebody who does this on a regular, but unfortunately the warehouse is pretty empty today and I don’t have the luxury of the iLabs expertise or even

Glenn Evans, “shut up and fix it” attitude. Still, it’s been fun to play.

In addition to my multicast woes, Fry’s Fever has hit our warehouse crew hard. The weekend already drained most of the manpower out of our crew and when the people who showed up realized how

small our group of weekend uberGeeks was going to be they set out on a trip (is pilgrimage too strong a word?) to Fry’s in Sunnyvale. They left about three hours ago… I’m not sure if I’ll ever see

them again!

Other than that, things continue to go smoothly at Hot Stage. The network is up and running, all peds are connected and the Extreme/Juniper team is creating all the rules needed for proper

security and access. We’re at that point in Hot Stage where the engineers are starting to work on pet projects and “cool possibles” for future shows. I’ve got the Anthology Boxes once again and I’m

trying to do something completely idiotic for the display. Tomorrow I want all the network cameras to be up and running so that I can get the Coyote point guys to start balancing the streams. All

in all… it’s fun from here!

Posted by Padre @ 11:59pm

So a funny thing happened on my way to Interop — but to tell you that story, I first have to tell you this one…

I’ve been tinkering with a little video project for the past week or so that I hope to get up and running today — I received an Axis 230 network camera from Steve Lewis over at Axis

communications to use as the primary audio/video streaming device at our Keynote addresses. The unit itself is very well-equipped: aside from Axis’ typical stellar video quality, this camera also

includes an 18x remotely-controlled optical zoom, external audio input, power-over-ethernet and the option for an analog video feed straight from the camera. Even if we were not to used audio piped

in from the Keynote techs, I’m sure that this unit will give us great results.

The one problem with the 230 is that it is limited to 10 streams at a time. This isn’t because of any constraint imposed by the hardware, but because the stream output is in MPEG-2 format and

Axis could only license 10 simultaneous streams. Since we hope to have significantly more than 10 simultaneous viewers of the broadcasts, we need a new solution.

My idea is to use the multicast feature on the camera to throw out a MPEG-2 stream onto one of the Extreme switches. I’ll then use a Windows 2003 server to monitor the multicast stream and

transcode the audio/video into WMV format on-the-fly. I’ll then use both that server and another box to distribute the streams through the Coyote Point load balancer. – Simple… effective… fast. —

The only problem is that I have absolutely no experience with real-time transcoding.

So we return to the “funny thing” on the way to Interop.

As I searched around the web for clues as how best to accomplish the transcoding and restreaming, I ran into

href=”http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3649/is_200109/ai_n8973063″>this little article about the release of a real-time transcoding product at the 2001 Networld + Interop in

Atlanta. I find it fascinating that here I am at Hot Stage, working with the most cutting-edge technology in network cameras, surrounded by some of the best and brightest engineers in the

business, and I find out that Interop 2001 presented a perfect solution for an Interop 2006 problem — Now that’s just Zen Networking!

Posted by Padre @ 11:59pm

Poking around the Hot Stage warehouse these last few days, it seems to be so much more quiet than I am accustomed. Oh sure there’s the ocassional “AC/DC” or “Men at Work” song played at dangerious decibel levels by Glenn Evans, but for all intents and purposes, Hot Stage has been a smooth-running and incredibly efficient machine of network expertise without distractions.

I’m scared!

At first I though that perhaps the Interop crew was just getting older, wiser and more mature — ready to block out the normal distractions of an all-week uberGeekfest powered by sugar and coffee — willing to power through fatigue and ignore the surrounding technology — acting as consumate professionals…

Then I took a look at my table and realized that was completely bogus!

I think the truth of the matter is that the small crew size combined with the desire to use different methodologies with this network has people like Dan Backman working hard when it’s time to work and then enjoying himself in the few moments of break that we get each day. In any case, I think we’re all going to be happy with the fruit of our labor.

Posted by Padre @ 10:17pm

Is it that time already?

The Interop crew has officially kicked off Interop New York 2006 with the opening of the Hot Stage warehouse in Belmont, CA.

It seems like only yesterday that we were breaking down the last of the Interop show in Las Vegas and now we’re at it again, engineers and uberGeeks who get a sense of excitement and adventure

out of tasks that most “normal” people would look at as work. — Then again, if we were normal people, we wouldn’t be worthy of Interop!

More focused and somewhat smaller than the Las Vegas show, the New York Interop is nonetheless a daunting task of engineering, logistics and sheer endurance. Still, the regulars always seem to keep coming back for more. Here we have out fearless leader, Glenn Evans, already working out network kinks with the awesome power of his Aussie mind.

Perennial Interop Team Lead, Brian Chee, has come back from his regular job managing an advanced computing laboratory in the tropical paradise of Hawaii. He is responsible for VoIP and Wireless at the NY show. In this picture he seems to be… well…. Actually I’m not really sure WHAT he’s doing.

Even before we rolled up the doors to receive the gear from our vendor supporters, several of us were hard at work ensuring that the Hot Stage will be a smooth process of installing equipment,

verifying interoperability and documenting every last cable and fiber. Dennis Smith, Glenn Evans and I spent the better part of two days prepping the warehouse for its transformation while also

installing the fiber and copper backbone for the network. With the ease with which we installed the Systemax fiber bundles (which we now call “green” for the lack of a better name) we were soon in

the unfamiliar position of having the ENTIRE backbone installed and verified before the first piece of vendor gear made its way into the racks.

Now, at the end of Hot Stage Day One, the team has racked an impressive amount of gear and are only awaiting the arrival of Extreme, Avaya, Fluke and a handful of others before we can truly begin the fun part of networking.