Hi there guys and gals, network enthusiats.
Long time lurker, but first time to post here
I have a university project where I need to compare, contrast and maybe make improvements in regard to different FHRP protocols like HSRP, VRRP (v2 and maybe v3?) and GLBP from Cisco.
For this purpose I have bought subscription to Cisco CML Personal license to be able to simulate the environment as I do not have Cisco gear at my home lab. Of the hardware devices I have, there are two Dell 7048 switches, one Brocade 7450-48 and one Dell Force10 S60 switch.
Of these switches I have not yet had time to start up and configure Brocade switch as I need special console cable. If somebody can recommend a way to use physical servers to maybe set up a real environment where a couple of VM's could be connected via different ports to different switches, I would appreciate.
Also to note that I have an HP DL380p G8 server with 2 Xeon E5-2640 v2 CPUs with about 200GB of memory and thus far installed Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro in form of HP 544+FLR-QSFP Ethernet Adapter and also ordered a one ConnectX-6 DX from eBay which should come in a couple of days.
I have not had experience with newer models of ConnectX adapters but I have read they support OVS offloads, and will need to read more about that how to set it up in my goal of virtualizing the simulated network.
As my server is running Windows Server 2019, so far I have set up Cisco CML (v2.5.0) with Hyper-V, even though it is not officially supported, but I plan on getting another drive just to install ESXI on it to have that available and to reinstall latest Cisco CML which is 2.5.1 release as of 14-Apr-2023. Or even maybe install CML as bare install without hypervisor to do nested virtualization.
My first idea of a network was very simple for a couple of nodes - 1 for generating traffic, 1 for receiving, 2 routers (at least) - or L3 switches and maybe 1 or 2 machines to capture traffic to be able to calculate network metrics like: Packet loss, Bandwidth, Throughput, Latency, Retransmission rate, Availability.
I presume either SPAN of ports on which machine for generation of traffic is connected to send that 1 machine responsible for traffic analysis, or a virtual tap which would also redirect traffic to that machine.
For that purpose I would use some of the network monitoring tools like the ones from Solarwinds, PRTG, Icinga, ManageEngine or even open source solutions like LibreNMS, OpenNMS, Zabbix and Nagios. Or maybe even better if there are solutions for packet capture based software which have an option of a VM based deployment. I have found a couple of them like Ixia, Extrahop, Skylight, Gigamon and Netscout - but I am not that knowledgeable in how to setup and use them - would need some recommendation and advice here.
I have also bought Ostinato for CML - if Trex from Cisco would not be suitable, but I do not have any experience with either - also some recommendations here are welcome.
Do you see some gaps here or possible places to improve, or can you advise better way to go about this goal, please do comment.
Thanks in advance for all the help guys.
Long time lurker, but first time to post here
I have a university project where I need to compare, contrast and maybe make improvements in regard to different FHRP protocols like HSRP, VRRP (v2 and maybe v3?) and GLBP from Cisco.
For this purpose I have bought subscription to Cisco CML Personal license to be able to simulate the environment as I do not have Cisco gear at my home lab. Of the hardware devices I have, there are two Dell 7048 switches, one Brocade 7450-48 and one Dell Force10 S60 switch.
Of these switches I have not yet had time to start up and configure Brocade switch as I need special console cable. If somebody can recommend a way to use physical servers to maybe set up a real environment where a couple of VM's could be connected via different ports to different switches, I would appreciate.
Also to note that I have an HP DL380p G8 server with 2 Xeon E5-2640 v2 CPUs with about 200GB of memory and thus far installed Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro in form of HP 544+FLR-QSFP Ethernet Adapter and also ordered a one ConnectX-6 DX from eBay which should come in a couple of days.
I have not had experience with newer models of ConnectX adapters but I have read they support OVS offloads, and will need to read more about that how to set it up in my goal of virtualizing the simulated network.
As my server is running Windows Server 2019, so far I have set up Cisco CML (v2.5.0) with Hyper-V, even though it is not officially supported, but I plan on getting another drive just to install ESXI on it to have that available and to reinstall latest Cisco CML which is 2.5.1 release as of 14-Apr-2023. Or even maybe install CML as bare install without hypervisor to do nested virtualization.
My first idea of a network was very simple for a couple of nodes - 1 for generating traffic, 1 for receiving, 2 routers (at least) - or L3 switches and maybe 1 or 2 machines to capture traffic to be able to calculate network metrics like: Packet loss, Bandwidth, Throughput, Latency, Retransmission rate, Availability.
I presume either SPAN of ports on which machine for generation of traffic is connected to send that 1 machine responsible for traffic analysis, or a virtual tap which would also redirect traffic to that machine.
For that purpose I would use some of the network monitoring tools like the ones from Solarwinds, PRTG, Icinga, ManageEngine or even open source solutions like LibreNMS, OpenNMS, Zabbix and Nagios. Or maybe even better if there are solutions for packet capture based software which have an option of a VM based deployment. I have found a couple of them like Ixia, Extrahop, Skylight, Gigamon and Netscout - but I am not that knowledgeable in how to setup and use them - would need some recommendation and advice here.
I have also bought Ostinato for CML - if Trex from Cisco would not be suitable, but I do not have any experience with either - also some recommendations here are welcome.
Do you see some gaps here or possible places to improve, or can you advise better way to go about this goal, please do comment.
Thanks in advance for all the help guys.