I glanced through the guide and it's Windows and Cisco (specifically IOS) heavy: mentions of the old Cisco architecture via Core/Access/Distribution, where larger DC networks have converged onto spine/spline setups, CDP/Cisco Discovery protocol whereas the open-source LLDP is more generic, even the nomenclature of 802.1q VLAN tags: access versus trunk. But I guess if you are starting to automate a legacy office network, it might be useful.
More recent non-IOS network OSes that lend themselves to automation, especially in the datacenter, the likes of Cumulus or SONiC are pure linux with some asic-vendor-specific bits and bobs, so I'm unsure of the applicability of this guide to larger, more modern networks. Tools like ansible could be a good fit here, but since they are 'just' linux, might as well use a dedicated config management tool like chef or puppet.
Otherwise I think it's well written for someone in a smaller shop wanting to get their feet wet with ansible and other tools but still stuck on IOS.
old Cisco architecture via Core/Access/Distribution, where larger DC networks have converged onto spine/spline setups
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I see the "old" core/access/distribution layers still relevant. The datacenter spine/spline setup applies to networking between server racks in the data center.
802.1q VLAN tags: access versus trunk
Again, are you saying that these are outdated? I'm not a practicing network engineer, but I know several network engineers and they've told me that understanding 802.1q VLAN tags to segment network traffic has been helpful.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I see the "old" core/access/distribution layers still relevant. The datacenter spine/spline setup applies to networking between server racks in the data center.
this is correct. The place where spine-leaf really shines is when used in combination with evpn-vxlan. You can then encapsulate every tenant network inside a VXLAN domain and route those between your leafs switches through your spine layer.
This is basically a clos fabric which is non-blocking, and is very easy to expand horizontally. It also gives you nice features like ARP suppression[0]. These features are important in a DC fabric because ARP flooding is traffic which is not revenue generating, and should be minimized as much as possible.
For normal Enterprise/Office network, running an evpn-vxlan fabric is usually far to complex for the benefits involved.
set interfaces xe-0/2/1 unit 0 family ethernet-switching interface-mode trunk
set interfaces xe-0/2/1 unit 0 family ethernet-switching vlan members Mgmt_B
set interfaces xe-0/2/1 unit 0 family ethernet-switching vlan members Audio_2
....
set interfaces ge-0/0/19 unit 0 family ethernet-switching interface-mode access
set interfaces ge-0/0/19 unit 0 family ethernet-switching vlan members Audio_2
When Cisco, Arista, Juniper all use access vs trunk it's hardly a vendor specific term
Comments
I glanced through the guide and it's Windows and Cisco (specifically IOS) heavy: mentions of the old Cisco architecture via Core/Access/Distribution, where larger DC networks have converged onto spine/spline setups, CDP/Cisco Discovery protocol whereas the open-source LLDP is more generic, even the nomenclature of 802.1q VLAN tags: access versus trunk. But I guess if you are starting to automate a legacy office network, it might be useful.
More recent non-IOS network OSes that lend themselves to automation, especially in the datacenter, the likes of Cumulus or SONiC are pure linux with some asic-vendor-specific bits and bobs, so I'm unsure of the applicability of this guide to larger, more modern networks. Tools like ansible could be a good fit here, but since they are 'just' linux, might as well use a dedicated config management tool like chef or puppet.
Otherwise I think it's well written for someone in a smaller shop wanting to get their feet wet with ansible and other tools but still stuck on IOS.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I see the "old" core/access/distribution layers still relevant. The datacenter spine/spline setup applies to networking between server racks in the data center.
Again, are you saying that these are outdated? I'm not a practicing network engineer, but I know several network engineers and they've told me that understanding 802.1q VLAN tags to segment network traffic has been helpful.
this is correct. The place where spine-leaf really shines is when used in combination with evpn-vxlan. You can then encapsulate every tenant network inside a VXLAN domain and route those between your leafs switches through your spine layer.
This is basically a clos fabric which is non-blocking, and is very easy to expand horizontally. It also gives you nice features like ARP suppression[0]. These features are important in a DC fabric because ARP flooding is traffic which is not revenue generating, and should be minimized as much as possible.
For normal Enterprise/Office network, running an evpn-vxlan fabric is usually far to complex for the benefits involved.
[0] https://satishdotpatel.github.io/how-does-arp-suppression-wo...
I think the parent was saying that these are Cisco specific terms; more generic terms would be "untagged" + "tagged".
Trunk and access ports are like kleenex and bandaids. Yes, technically cisco terminology, but used everywhere.
Absolutely, here's a config from one of my aristas(with bits snipped)
And on a Juniper When Cisco, Arista, Juniper all use access vs trunk it's hardly a vendor specific term