Live Chat - June 9, 2010 with the authors of “Network Mergers and Migrations” [ Edited ]

[Jewels]

Mark your calendar and join us right here on J-Net, Wednesday, June 9^th at 11:00 AM/PT (UTC/GMT -7 hours) for a Junos live chat. Meet the authors of the just released Network Mergers and Migrations: Junos Design and Implementation book, Gonzalo Gomez Herrero and Jan Anton Bernal Van Der Ven, both from the Juniper Networks Professional Services team. Come ask questions about consolidation or integration of networks, share your challenges, and query the authors about their new book. What’s more, you’ll have a chance to win one of five copies of Network Mergers and Migrations (details below). Just be sure you’re a registered member of J-Net to be eligible to win.

How to attend:

1. Make sure you are a J-Net member. You will not be able to participate in the chat or be eligible for the contest if you are not registered. To register for a J-Net account, simply click on the "register" link on the upper right hand side of the screen and follow the registration steps to receive a J-Net login. After you receive a confirmation email from Juniper Networks, be sure you come back to J-Net and sign in to create your J-Net username.

2. Click on the Live Chat URL here to attend the event: http://forums.juniper.net/t5/Community-Live-Chat/ch-p/junoschat (The chat room will not be opened until June 9th, 2010 at 11AM Pacific Time.)

Please feel free to submit your chat questions ahead of time by sending an email to j-net@juniper.net or by replying to this thread. The chat transcript will be available to J-Net members after the event for those who are unable to attend.

About the Presenters: 

Juan Anton Bernal van der Ven (JNCI/JNCIE-M #27) holds a BS in Telecommunications and a MS in Electronics Engineering from the Universitat Ramon Llull (Spain). After completing a MSc in Space Telecommunications, he spent two years in the European Space Operations Centre supporting research for ground segment operations. He joined the professional services arm of an ATM switching vendor in 1998, and moved to the Juniper Networks Professional Services team in 2001.

Gonzalo Gomez Herrero holds a MS in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Zaragoza (Spain) and a certificate in Postgraduate Studies in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich (Germany). He is JNCIE-M #155, JNCIP-E #108, CCIE Routing and Switching #14068 and Juniper Certified Instructor. Prior to joining Juniper in June 2005, he worked in various technical positions for system integrators and service providers. He is currently a member of the EMEA Professional Services team, having worked in the networking industry for over 10 years.

Details on the promotional give away:

As a thank you for attending, we are giving away five (5) Network Mergers and Migrations books. Here's what you need to do to enter the drawing:

1. If you haven't joined J-Net, register for a free user account.
2. To be eligible for the Network Mergers and Migrations books, email the following information to j-net@juniper.net   by 5:00 PM/Pacific time the day of the live chat

• Your J-Net username
• Your full name and mailing address
• The answer to the question we ask during the live chat   

* Prizes include five Network Mergers and Migrations books. No purchase necessary. Must be 18 years or older to be eligible to win the prize(s). Void where prohibited by law. Winner(s) will be selected via random drawing. Promotion ends at 11:59 PM/PT on June 9, 2010. Limit one entry per person. To be entered into the prize drawing, you must have a valid J-Net account. Winners will be notified by June 30, 2010.

         

[ac]

Transcript for Chat: 'Community Live Chat', Wed Jun 09, 2010
 

ac: Welcome to the live chat, please feel free to send in your question at anytime.
ac: Welcome everyone, please make sure your are logged into J-Net if you'd like to sumbit a question.
ac: Please feel free to send in your questions on consolidation or integration of networks. Our expert author is standing by to answer your questions.
Jewels: Question sent in through email: Network migration is a wide and ambiguous topic. What is the final intention of this book?
gonzalo: First of all, hello everybody!
PaulaLivingstone: hi there
gonzalo: Understandably, space constraints limit the amount of network migrations to fit in a single book
gonzalo: Our intention when writing this book was to illustrate how Junos OS toolbox assists in many networking transition scenarios across typical topologies in enterprise and service provider topologies, mainly with link-state IGPs, BGP, MPLS label distribution protocols and L3VPNs, together with purely Junos OS internal resources for route sharing and leaking.
gonzalo: This is moreorless what the book is about
gonzalo: We have tried to illustrate these scenarios in the form of case studies and application notes over the same physical topology across all chapters in the book
PaulaLivingstone: Does the book deal with the migration of all juniper product sets ie. SRX
gonzalo: To PaulaLivingstone Hi Paula. Actually, the book handles routing migrations generically and how to use Junos OS resources to achieve those goals. This also applies to SRX. The book does not explicitly cover configuration translation though.
ac: Thanks everyone for sending in your questions Gonzalo is working on them and will answer them in the order received
aweck: What was the impetus for writing such a book? Are there similar books (non-JUNOS) that gave you the idea or that you modeled the book after?
gonzalo: To aweck Hi aweck. We felt there was a certain gap in the networking library to illustrate transition scenarios with practical examples. Most books cover theoretical aspects of one or another protocol with specific examples, but we missed a book that could explain HOW to move from one topology to another with a practical example. And this is what we have tried to do with it. Many details and resources included in case studies are actually coming from real-life situations. As for reference books, we included a small section at the end of each chapter that covers our technical references for different topics.
PaulaLivingstone: cool so its more appropriate to either the M-T track or the ER track then?
gonzalo: To PaulaLivingstone It mostly covers routing features in Junos OS, so it is actually more applicable for M/T/MX
jrowley: Having just received my copy, already it has helped our planning with the "local-as alias" feature. Are there any potential pitfalls when integrating a mixed vendor network into a pure Juniper network?
gonzalo: To jrowley Hi jrowley. Good to hear that! This is a very powerful feature for BGP migrations, Figure 3.7 in the book inclues a good summary for all local-as features. Are you then asking about pitfalls with plain BGP using that feature or more generically?
chuchu: So there is not an ETA for JUNOS Puls right?
gonzalo: To chuchu Hi chuchu. Right, it is unfortunately not part of the scope.
jrowley: Mainly using that feature when peered to non Juniper devices
gonzalo: To jrowley 'local-as alias' allows flexible local-AS identification when setting up a BGP Session. A Junos OS router in AS X wth 'local-as Y alias' can then identify itself as being either in AS X or in AS Y, depending on BGP session negotiation. While this behavior remains internal at the Junos OS router, you need to keep control the AS that you use on each one of the other non-JNPR peers. Once the session is successfully negotiated with one AS, you cannot move to the other one until the BGP session is torn down again and renegotiated. That is probably the most remarkable external dependency.
jrowley: That is very helpful. Without naming any companies, has local-as alias been as widely used over confederations in large network integrations?
gonzalo: To jrowley We would need to have a look at the design more carefully. Our Application Note: Migration of an IBGP AS in pages 259-260 gives an overview of how to use that feature to migrate a full AS with a Junos RR using that feature. The same could perfectly apply to a confed sub-AS. would it be the kind of migration you are planning? As for the feature usability, yes, there are many customers out there using that. In fact, it was publicly released in Junos 9.5 but the feature was present as hidden much before for such 'special' cases
aweck: In your years working for Juniper PS, what stands out as one of the toughest problems to troubleshoot/solve that you've run across? Is it referenced by a particular case study in the book?
gonzalo: To aweck This book has been written thanks to our customers. In fact, we have reflected there some of the lessons that we have learned with them and that we had the honor and pleasure to investigate. There are many tough problems out there, and there will be surely more to come :-) but the case studies collect some of theses issues and problems that we could detect during such troubleshooting exercises.
PaulaLivingstone: are there any links on the net where one can get access to extracts from the book to get a flavour of the content?
gonzalo: To PaulaLivingstone Our official reference for the book: http://www.juniper.net/us/en/training/jnbooks/nmm.html includes a link to a Google online excerpt, with a book description and table of contents. Hope they may be useful.
jrowley: We would be looking at a deployment similar to the ibgp example on pages 259-260 as it looks to be the easiest and quickest way to deploy common services as we integrate the networks. Very helpful thanks. Any chance of a Kindle or other ebook format soon?
gonzalo: To jrowley We will provide this feedback to our editor and let's see what we can do. Thanks and good luck with your migration.
Jewels: Question from email: Why do you recommend a particular approach in a certain migration scenario? I have carried out a different transition implementation in a network and it worked perfectly.
gonzalo: Each case study and application note in the book was written and tested with the intention to illustrate a particular feature specifically showcasing Junos OS behavior. Although our decision to undergo a particular migration path in a given scenario was based on such benefits, boundary conditions and other criteria in mind, we do not advocate this approach as the sole and recommended one for every need. The 'What If...' sections were created to briefly discuss additional design and migration alternatives.
Jewels: Question from email: IPv4 address depletion and IPv6 migrations are nowadays a hot topic. Why haven't you covered them in the book?
gonzalo: Clearly this topic is a good source of migration activities over the coming years :-) Unfortunately, a tradeoff between number of topics and depth had to be made, and we felt that an exhaustive analysis of IPv6 options and alternatives would well fit in its own book!
ac: Here are the rules for the book giveaway for today's chat attendees
ac: Details on the promotional give away: As a thank you for attending, we are giving away five (5) Network Mergers and Migrations books. Here's what you need to do to enter the drawing: 1. If you haven't joined J-Net, register for a free user account. 2. To be eligible for the Network Mergers and Migrations books, email the following information to j-net@juniper.net by 5:00 PM/Pacific time the day of the live chat * Your J-Net username * Your full name and mailing address * The answer to the question we ask during the live chat
ac: the "secret question" you need to email is:
ac: Question: Are there any links on the net where one can get access to extracts from the book to get a flavour of the content? Answer: Our official reference for the book: http://www.juniper.net/us/en/training/jnbooks/nmm.html includes a link to a Google online excerpt, with a book description and table of contents. Hope they may be useful.
ac: Please make sure you email your j-net username, full name and mailing address as well as the "secret question" above to be entered into the book giveaway drawing
ac: Thank you all for attending today's chat event, we will now end the chat at top of the hour. We hope to see you again in our next J-Net community live chat
gonzalo: Thanks everybody for the interactive discussion. If you have the chance to read the book, we hope it can be useful and you like it. Goodbye!
ac: Bye everyone