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New SolarWinds Free Tool - Network Config Generator

Sometimes doing things the hard way can get a bit tiresome. Don't get me wrong, I love the CLI. I love the God-like power that I feel when I'm sitting in front of a router and the entire team is standing behind me watching while I bring forth the magic. I love the fact that I've memorized...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Tue, Jan 26 2010
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, solarwinds, thwack, network config generator

How to find your firehose...

I'm sure you've heard the term " drinking from the firehose " used to describe being fed information at an insane, maybe even overwhelming rate. For most people this is probably a bad thing, but for geeks like us sometimes it's just what the doctor orderred. I'm sure you've...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Fri, Jan 15 2010
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, network management, solarwinds, thwack, network security, cisco pix

A war for power management?

Let's take a short break from the Consumerization Series ... and talk a little about power. Specifically, managing power consumption. Early last week, Jennifer Geisler highlighted Energy Management Without Borders on the Cisco Innovation blog, highlighting milestones for Cisco's EnergyWise technology...

Posted to Whiteboard by kvanzant on Wed, Dec 2 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, Orion NPM, Energywise

Thoughts on the HP and 3Com Merger

As many of you are probably aware, on November 11th HP announced plans to acquire 3Com for about $2.7 billion. I've received several e-mails asking for my opinion on this subject so I thought I'd take a few minutes here to share my thoughts as a network engineer who has been in the industry for...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Wed, Nov 25 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, solarwinds, hp, 3com, hp 3com merger

Understanding the Cisco Smart Business Architecture (SBA) for Mid-Sized Networks and how SolarWinds Fits In

One of the coolest things that Cisco has done recently is the development of its Smart Business Architecture (SBA) for Mid-Sized Networks. I was lucky enough to be able to participate in the development of and continued updating of the Cisco SBA so I thought I'd take a few minutes to write about...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Mon, Nov 9 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Orion, Cisco, solarwinds, Solarwinds Orion, sba, cisco sba

Analyzing Network Traffic thru a Cisco ASA with NetFlow

A little while back I wrote a blog post on network traffic analysis using NetFlow and talked specifically about NetFlow support on the Csico ASAs. One of the primary uses for NetFlow on the Cisco ASAs is as a tranport protocol for security events. That said, recently we learned that you can use NetFlow...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Tue, Sep 15 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, NetFlow, solarwinds, cisco asa, Orion NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, Orion NTA, 3750

Leveraging Layer 2 Technologies to Solve Layer 3 Problems

As a best practice, when I'm troubleshooting network issues, I typically start at layer 1 and work my way up the stack. If you've been managing networks for very long you've probably learned that the first three steps to troubleshooting a network issue are "check the cable, check the...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Fri, Sep 11 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, engineer's toolset, connectivity, solarwinds toolset, neighbor map, layer 2, lldp, cisco discovery protocol, link layer discovery protocol, cdp, switch port mapper, solarwind, layer 3

Thoughts after SolarWinds Seminar on Leveraging Cisco Technologies in DC Yesterday...

This week we hosted a free seminar in Washington D.C. on how to expose and leverage some key Cisco technologies using SolarWinds network management software. Specifically, we covered NetFlow, IP SLA, Cisco EnergyWise, and the new Nexus 1000v virtual switch. You can view the slide presentation from the...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Thu, Jul 16 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Orion, Cisco, NetFlow, IP SLA, orion NPM, solarwinds, energywise, nexus, nexus 1000v

Free seminar in DC next week on how to extend Cisco technologies...

Next week we'll be in Washington D.C. delivering a free seminar on extending Cisco technologies. We'll cover some cool technologies like NetFlow, IP SLA, and EnergyWise. Full details and sign up information here . Also, there will be free food and I will try to come up with a new joke or two...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Thu, Jul 9 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, NetFlow, IP SLA, energywise

Thoughts from Cisco Live on QoS, NetFlow, and Configuration Management...

Last week I was in San Francisco speaking at Cisco Live! (used to be called Cisco Networkers) and it an awesome event. First off, it was only about 70 degrees there which was 35-40 degrees cooler than here in Austin and that in of itself was worth the trip. Cisco also got smart and changed the hours...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Tue, Jul 7 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, NetFlow, solarwinds, QoS, cisco live!, cisco networkers, cisco live, configuration management, network configuration management

Come see SolarWinds at Cisco Live! next week in San Francisco!!!

Booth #931 Free swag (T-shirts, USB keys, geek pins) Free geek drawings (yeah, like my avatar but of you) Free Mountain Dew (hey, we all get thirsty) Technology presentations every half hour by yours truly (hence why I get so thirsty) Follow the event thru Twitter if you can't attend in person (trust...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Thu, Jun 25 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, solarwinds, cisco live!

Raising the visibility of IT and Network Operations

One of the things that I tend to talk alot about is how to raise the visibility of the IT and network engineering groups within your organization. If you get this right, not only will your job get easier but you'll find that getting budget approved for projects, staffing, and even pay raises takes...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Tue, Jun 23 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, cisco energywise, energywise, IT, network operations, virtualization

Understanding NetFlow and its role in traffic analysis and as a transport protocol

Over the last few days I've been writing and talking a lot about NetFlow. This is a smokin' hot topic for network engineers nowadays and so we've created some new videos and webcasts to help explain the technology and how you can leverage it. One of the subjects that kept coming up is how...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Wed, Jun 17 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Orion, Cisco, NetFlow, cisco IOS, solarwinds, traffic analysis, cisco asa, asa

New SolarWinds Webcast on Thursday - Exposing the Hidden Secrets of Cisco IOS

This Thursday we're hosting a new webcast on some of hidden secrets of Cisco IOS. Specfiically, we're going to dive into Cisco IP SLA, NetFlow, and EnergyWise. I'm pretty excited as my buddy Jimmy Ray Purser (co-host of Cisco TechWise TV , Network World Blogger , and Security Expert/hacker...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Tue, Jun 16 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Cisco, NetFlow, IP SLA, solarwinds, techwisetv, Solarwinds Orion, cisco energywise, energywise, network world, techwise tv

New versions of SolarWinds Orion NPM and NCM available now...

The dev guys here have been working hard (as usual) and I'm pleased to announce that we now have new versions of Orion NPM (Network Performance Monitor) and NCM (Network Configuration Manager) available for download. For existing customers with active software maintenance these are free upgrades...

Posted to Geek Speak Blog by Josh Stephens on Tue, May 26 2009
Filed under: Filed under: Orion, Cisco, orion NPM, Orion NCM, solarwinds, Solarwinds Orion, cisco energywise, energywise