peter hessler - inactive

At BSDCan, I'll be giving a tutorial "BGP for Sysadmins/Developers". This will be my first class I've taught solo.

My future intentions for this is to teach networking and #BGP for people that know nothing about networking. I found it somewhat difficult to move from Sysadmin to Network Admin, and I want to help others cross over if they want.

Not to mention, having a solid understanding of networking will help you with computers in general.

Apr 5, 2017 at 2:59pmWeb
Show threadpeter hessler - inactiveApr 5, 2017

The goal of this class will be for the students to understand how and why a route is chosen, where it goes, and to send/receive a single route in BGP.

This should be enough to whet someone's interest, and to help them with Data Center Networking that they might be doing at $work.

It is *NOT* intended to teach them enough to run a router on the default-free-zone on the wild internet.

It's only a half-day tutorial, sheesh!

Show threadpeter hessler - inactiveApr 5, 2017
(quite a bit of the route selection bit will be "here the computer does some binary math". we quickly walk through it, here are resources for afterwards. "use this tool to calculate it for you. it won't be on the test :).")
Show threadpeter hessler - inactiveApr 5, 2017

*so* many people asked me about getting access to this tutorial. So, some news:

I intend to turn this into a side business, doing consulting and training. Considering I have gotten so many queries that I feel obligated to say this, that's a good sign there is a market for it.

Parts of it will be available publicly. Parts of it won't. I don't know how much yet, so I don't want to promise anything specific.

Show threadMichael W Lucas, authorApr 5, 2017
@phessler But it will be on the test. Every day. In the datacenter. The poor bastards.
Show threadpeter hessler - inactiveApr 6, 2017

@mwlucas I can count the number of times I've had to do binary math on a route in my DC[1] with one hand. Even with tools, it isn't common.

[1] Not counting creating a new subnets.

Show threadMichael W Lucas, authorApr 6, 2017
@phessler Ah, but when you need it, you desperately need it. Because there was no way to avoid it...
Show threadpeter hessler - inactiveApr 6, 2017

@mwlucas pkg_add sipcalc

we'll spend probably 30 minutes on it, but it won't be a massive priority. Enough so they understand the basic concept and can look it up later.

Show threadpeter hessler - inactiveApr 6, 2017

@mwlucas a massive amount of the class will be

*hand wave magic*
this button does this, lets explore!

Show threadroarApr 5, 2017
@phessler will it be recorded? BGP's something I need to know about in the crazy world on kubernetes networking (Calico in particular)
Show threadpeter hessler - inactiveApr 5, 2017
@roar probably not. but I will be doing it around the conference circuit.
Show threadroarApr 5, 2017
@phessler aww...any chance of a crappy audio recording with some slides? some of us don't get to go to conferences unfortunately
Show threadroarApr 5, 2017
@phessler BTW - I'm sure you know about this but I only discovered it today while researching:
https://dn42.net/
Show threadColin MahnsApr 5, 2017
@phessler this is awesome! my formal network training (applied sciences major in school) has been super useful for myself working in incident response. the nitty gritty networking stuff isn't taught as much as it should to other IT fields
Show threadpeter hessler - inactiveApr 5, 2017

@colinmahns I've also found, that when it *is* taught, they teach things that have been *deprecated* for 23 years. Things that are actively dangerous for people to learn.

My day job is managing the 4th largest network in Germany. I brought us up from 15th place when I started, 2 years ago. I feel I have the practical knowledge to be able to teach others :).

Show threadColin MahnsApr 5, 2017
@phessler noticed that too! I've had to tell people various old concepts no longer apply in "the real world" a number of times. one nice thing at my community college was working directly on cisco/juniper equipment, at least I saw how these things were implemented first before shooting my mouth off 😅
Show threadKurt MosiejczukApr 6, 2017
@phessler @colinmahns But we should still teach Classful networking, right? :)
I finished my BS in "Applied Networking and Systems Administration". Classes were painful. I was much happier when I was just taking liberal arts at the end. Less forehead bruising.
Show threadColin MahnsApr 6, 2017

@kurtm @phessler hah, i loved the classful networking section in my classes. was a nice bullet point to glaze over during the lecture ;)

agree with the liberal arts! i originally started as one in school before moving over to my applied networking degree. the stuff i had to do in those classes made my head spin, but was somehow less painful than dealing with old legacy terms in school

Show threadKurt MosiejczukApr 6, 2017
@colinmahns @phessler I just loved not being made to do things that no one outside of that class does.
Or being made to use Solaris. One class made me use Solaris. :cry:
Show threadColin MahnsApr 6, 2017
@kurtm @phessler thankfully my unix classes had finally moved fully over to linux by the time i took them, narrowly avoided using solaris by a year!
Show threadKurt MosiejczukApr 6, 2017
@colinmahns @phessler
Oh, they used Linux mostly, but this "SysAdmin 3" class the sadistic professor made us run 3 servers and required one to be Windows and one to be Solaris.
Fortunately, I talked my team into using OpenBSD on the last one. 3 BSD converts after that.
We all watched as we DBAN'd the Solaris box at the end.
Show threadColin MahnsApr 6, 2017
@kurtm @phessler nice! you managed to come out of that situation with the best outcome :smiley: