lesser-evil

Injecting BGP RIBs into Dynagen networks

Howie — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:54:34 +0000

I’ve been playing with Dynagen this week to build a copy of part of our network, so I can test some config changes safely. One of the things is to figure out if we have enough resources to run full BGP views on one of the routers, so I’ve been trying to figure out a nice way to take MTR RIB dumps from routeviews.org, and inject them into my emulated network.

So far I have a perl script that uses Net::BGP to act as a BGP peer, and another bit of perl to read the MTR-format dumps. You can then use Loopback interfaces in Windows to make an interface on one of the routers appear as a ‘real’ interface on the host PC. Finally, I should be able to get the perl BGP speaker to talk to the virtual Cisco, and pass in my RIB.

At the moment, something funny is happening, and the peer is never established. I don’t know yet if it’s perl on Windows, the loopback interface or the emulation though. Net::BGP will talk to a real router, because I do that already for something else, but on a BSD system. TCPView says that perl isn’t listening on any port, and the router is complaining about connections being refused, but I can’t see why. Ping works, and I can also access the web interface on the router, so I know it’s roughly right.

I’ll be fiddling with this some more on Monday, because it seems like a useful thing to me.

Back again.

Howie — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:06:31 +0000

It’s been a while, but there’s a site back here again!

I wanted something other than the Weathermap site to post somewhat techy things, and things that aren’t really LJ stuff. Mostly it’ll be either network stuff or sysadmin stuff, I expect.

Howie — Fri, 29 Aug 2003 18:47:51 +0000

Although I originally deliberately kept the two seperate, I can’t honestly see why now, so here’s the link for my LiveJournal. Generally, that tends to be more whiny. lesser-evil ends up being more readable (no, really, that was the idea). Anyway, the two worlds collide, should you wish to read them. I update my LJ most days, unlike this thing.

Howie — Fri, 29 Aug 2003 18:39:02 +0000

Got back from Reading Festival (much fun). Moving house next month whether I like it or not (not much fun). That is all.

Grr. and this is something

Howie — Sat, 16 Aug 2003 08:38:35 +0000

Grr. and this is something I’ve always wanted for Windows. I have a couple of PCs with multiple sound channels, and I’d love it if I could stop the Windows BONG from coming out of the same sound output that I’m trying to record for something else.
As you can probably tell, I’m working my way through a list of the most innovative OS X software

Clever Mac Stuff

Howie — Sat, 16 Aug 2003 08:30:31 +0000

I found a neat toy last night for my Mac. Hydra (although they’ve actually just stopped calling it that) is a collaborative editor. It does all the usual nice editor things, like syntax-highlighting, document navigation and so on, but it also has a rather unique feature: more than one person can edit the same document at the same time. You can share the document, and have other users edit along with you, with your changes being highlighted seperately. It does it all without a server, and using standard things too (standard on OS X 10.2 at least).

Howie — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 14:09:24 +0000

I really ought just decide on one or the other between this and LJ, you know…

New things in the last few weeks: I am looking for somewhere to live (maybe buy). I have joined the dark side of the Macintosh (with a 12″ PowerBook).

Oh, more Glastonbury pix, for those who are interested. Going to Reading Festival on the bank holiday weekend too (although I haven’t actually had any confirmation of that yet).

Ben got his Glastonbury pics

Howie — Tue, 15 Jul 2003 19:38:11 +0000

Ben got his Glastonbury pics back today, so I put them up here.
I think this one sums up the weekend for me - strangeness, huge grins and fire. Oh, and music.

The last Tales Of The

Howie — Fri, 11 Jul 2003 08:08:13 +0000

The last Tales Of The City book is on my bedside table now. Realistically, I have enough reading material to last until I’m 50, but that’s not how it works for me. The immediate top of the pile is:

Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Blue World - Jack Vance
The 2nd and 3rd series of unfortunate events - Lemonny Snicket
Roadside Picnic (2nd go) - Boris & Arkady Strugatsky
Tourist Season - Carl Hiassen

I have a hankering to try Robert Rankin too. After that, it’ll be grabbing things at random off the shelf - I buy way more than I read. One of my failings is not being able to buy just one thing in either record or book shops - this is partly why I avoid going shopping too often, since it gets expensive!

I wish there was an imdb/allmusic.com for books. More freeform than Amazon, although I guess the list-o-matic bit of amazon does cover this ground a little.

One long hot bath, and

Howie — Sun, 06 Jul 2003 19:22:21 +0000

One long hot bath, and two books finished. Not, I hasten to add, from end to end - it wasn’t that long a bath. I have a terrible habit of reading several books in parallel. This evening saw the end of the fourth Tales Of The City book, Babycakes, and also The Leaky Establishment, by David Langford.

A conversation on IRC about a month ago regarding the internationally-agreed slant-eyed temptress scale prompted me to get myself a copy of Leaky - a book I haven’t read in around 14 years, but which made quite an impression on me. Very good parody of the workings of the civil service, and of scientific research establishments. Blimey, 14 years.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned them here, but the series of Tales Of The City books, to which Babycakes belongs, is a fine diversion. I read the first three in the space of a week while in a sort of low spell a few weeks ago. The crazy freedom of San Francisco in the 70s that fills the first couple of books has been replaced with a sort of hangover in the 80s, but the characters are all still strong, and the story trots along nicely. The good news is that there are still two more to go too.