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Category: SONiC

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Fabric Test Automation Suite SONiC

Single click SONiC evaluations and POCs

Learn how FTAS can do it for you!

Why Should Organizations Consider SONiC?

In today’s rapidly evolving networking landscape, organizations are seeking greater flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) has emerged as a leading open-source platform for building and managing data center networks.

SONiC empowers network operators to break free from vendor lock-in, reduce operational costs, and accelerate innovation. By providing a vendor-agnostic, open-source framework, SONiC offers unprecedented flexibility and control over network infrastructure.

What Makes Evaluating SONiC So Challenging?

While SONiC offers numerous benefits, evaluating and deploying it can be a daunting task due to several challenges :

  • 1. Multiple Vendors: The diverse vendor landscape for SONiC hardware and software can complicate the evaluation process. Different vendors offer varying levels of support, features, and performance.
  • 2. Multiple SONiC Flavors: The existence of community and vendor-specific SONiC distributions introduces additional complexity. While community SONiC offers flexibility, vendor-specific versions often provide additional features and support.
  • 3. Complexity of Network Configurations: SONiC's flexibility and extensive feature set can lead to complex network configurations. This requires careful planning and testing to ensure optimal performance and reliability.
  • 4. Need of SONiC Expertise: Effective SONiC evaluation and deployment demands specialized knowledge and skills. This can be a significant barrier for organizations without in-house SONiC expertise.
  • 5. Volume of Features: The sheer volume of features and capabilities offered by SONiC can make it overwhelming to evaluate and configure. It requires a deep understanding of networking concepts and SONiC's specific implementation.

How to Accelerate SONiC Evaluations with FTAS

  • 1. Accelerated Testing: FTAS automates a wide range of tests, including Layer 2 and Layer 3 functionality, high-availability features, and security protocols. This significantly speeds up the evaluation process.
  • 2. Enhanced Reliability: FTAS rigorously tests SONiC configurations to ensure optimal performance and stability. By identifying and addressing potential issues early on, FTAS helps to minimize risks.
  • 3. Faster Deployment: FTAS accelerates firmware and SONiC image qualification processes by automating testing and validation. This significantly reduces time-to-market for new features and fixes.
  • 4. Continuous Validation: FTAS can be integrated into your CI/CD pipeline to provide continuous validation and ensure the highest quality standards. By automating testing and validation processes, FTAS accelerates development cycles and reduces the risk of introducing defects.
  • 5. Day 2 Feature Testing: FTAS covers a wide range of day 2 features such as software upgrades, configuration changes, and troubleshooting, ensuring smooth operations and minimal downtime.
  • 6. Resilience Testing: FTAS rigorously tests the system's stability in the face of reboots, container crashes, and link events at scale, ensuring business continuity and minimal service disruptions.
  • 7. Scalability Testing: FTAS evaluates the scalability of SONiC deployments by testing the system's ability to handle increasing workloads and traffic volumes.
  • 8. Stress Testing: FTAS subjects the SONiC network to extreme stress conditions to identify performance bottlenecks and potential failure points, ensuring the system's robustness and reliability.

How Does FTAS Keep Your Networks at Par with Quality Standards?

Aviz Networks’ Fabric Test Automation Suite (FTAS) is a powerful tool designed to ensure the quality and reliability of SONiC networks. By automating testing and validation processes, FTAS helps organizations accelerate deployment, reduce operational costs, and minimize risks.

FTAS helps maintain network quality by:

  • 1. Standardized Testing: Ensuring consistent quality across different vendor hardware and software.
  • 2. Automated Testing: Reducing manual effort and accelerating testing cycles.
  • 3. CI/CD Integration: Integrating with CI/CD pipelines for continuous validation.
  • 4. Performance, Reliability, and Scalability Focus: Ensuring networks meet demanding requirements.
  • 5. Detailed Reporting and Analysis: Providing insights for optimization and troubleshooting.
  • 6. Evolving with Industry Needs: Adapting to real-world challenges and customer feedback.
FTAS development is driven by the real-world use cases of Aviz Networks’ customers, ensuring that it meets the needs of modern data center and cloud environments.

Supported Protocols

FTAS supports a wide range of protocols essential for modern data center networks:

  • 1. Layer 2/Layer 3 Protocols:
  • Ethernet
  • IP (IPv4/IPv6)
  • 2. Overlay Protocols:
  • VXLAN
  • EVPN
  • 3. Control Plane Protocols:
  • BGP
  • STP
  • LACP
  • MLAG
  • 4. Other Protocols:
  • QoS

What are the new features in FTAS 3.1?

The latest FTAS 3.1 release brings a host of new features and enhancements to further streamline your SONiC evaluation and deployment process:
  • 1. QoS Testing: Comprehensive testing of Quality of Service (QoS) features to ensure optimal network performance.
  • 2. Stress Testing: Rigorous stress testing to validate the stability and scalability of your SONiC network under heavy load.
  • 3. EVPN/L2VXLAN Enhancements: Expanded coverage of EVPN and L2VXLAN features, ensuring seamless Layer 2 and Layer 3 network virtualization.
  • 4. More SNMP Coverage: Enhanced SNMP monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities for better network visibility and control.
  • 5. Fast Reboot Testing: Rigorous testing of fast reboot mechanisms to minimize downtime during software upgrades and reboots.
  • 6. Platform CLI Coverage: Comprehensive testing of platform-specific CLI commands to ensure compatibility and functionality.
  • 7. More Verifications in Resilience Testcase: Increased verification depth in resilience testing to identify and mitigate potential single points of failure.

How to Use FTAS

By leveraging FTAS, you can accelerate your journey to SONiC, reduce risks, and achieve a more agile and efficient network. Start your SONiC evaluation today with FTAS.

To use FTAS, please contact Schedule a Call with Our Team to Delve into FTAS. For comprehensive information before the scheduled call, visit our FTAS product page.

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SONiC

Partner Program Announcement

Aviz Announces a new Promotion for Its Channel Partners

Aviz Networks, a leader in AI-driven networking solutions, is thrilled to announce a new Program designed to accelerate the market penetration of our innovative products. This incentive is offered exclusively to registered partners to help expand our reach and enhance customer engagement.

Overview

The Program is tailored to reward our partners for their efforts in connecting us with qualified customer prospects and advancing the adoption of our platform in the market.

Program Details

  • Incentives Offered:
  • $400 for hosting a second meeting with a representative from a qualified customer target account.
  • $1200 for starting the Proof of Concept (PoC) stage with a qualified customer target account.
  • Incentive qualification details:
  • Meeting incentive Qualification of persona, target account and 2nd meeting.
  • Persona: Meeting with a qualified representative who is defined as a Senior-level Manager, Director-level, or Sr. Executive within the Networking/Security division.
  • Target account: Meeting with a qualified customer is defined as medium to large enterprise customers or service providers. Target accounts will be qualified by our program administrator.
  • Second meeting: 2nd meeting criteria is defined as that our sales team has qualified the opportunity and is willing to meet again, as the lead has potential to move in POC phase.
  • POC incentive Qualification of persona, target account and 2nd meeting.
  • Persona: POC initiator should be by a qualified representative who is defined as a Senior-level Manager, Director-level, or Sr. Executive within the Networking/Security division.
  • Target account: POC with a qualified customer is defined as medium to large enterprise customers or service providers. Target accounts will be qualified by our program administrator.
  • POC document: POC document closed with Aviz customer success team.

Program Administration:

  • 1. Program Administrator:
  • Neal Trieber, Director, Sales Channel (qualification of meetings)
  • Khurram Khani, VP, Customer success (qualifications of POCs)
  • 2. Registration: Please register all eligible demo and PoC target accounts through our partner portal.

Program Timeline:

  • Start Date: Today
  • End Date: December 31, 2024
  • 1. Payment Timing:
  • Second Meeting Payment Terms: Payments due from Aviz Networks shall be made after the close of the fiscal quarter following the date of the second meeting.
  • Proof of Concept (PoC) Payment Terms: Payments for the Proof of Concept (PoC) shall be made after the close of the fiscal quarter following the signing of the PoC contract by both the customer and Aviz Networks, contingent upon data beginning to flow into the PoC environment.
We value our partners and are committed to supporting your efforts to promote the adoption of our cutting-edge AI networking solutions. Together, let’s transform the networking industry and achieve remarkable success.

Want to know about about Partner Incentive Program

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SONiC

Why SONiC is Ready Not Just for Hyperscalers

When you think of SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud), it’s often associated with hyperscalers—the giants in tech like Google and Microsoft that demand unparalleled scalability and customization in their network infrastructure. But what if I told you that SONiC is no longer just for hyperscalers? What if I told you that enterprises—yes, Fortune 500 companies, mid-sized businesses, even finance and telecom industries—are now tapping into the power of SONiC to transform their networks?

At Aviz, we’re witnessing this shift firsthand. We recently met with our partners and customers, who shared how they’ve successfully adopted SONiC to enhance their network operations. The results are clear—SONiC’s open-source architecture is providing flexibility, scalability, and significant cost savings across industries. Discover more about this transformation by watching our panel discussion in a video interview hosted by SDxCentral, featuring our customers Techevolution and 1984, along with our partner EPS Global.

Flexibility Through Choices

One of SONiC’s strongest suits is its ability to give businesses choices—choices in hardware, in vendors, in deployment models. Unlike traditional, proprietary solutions that lock you into a particular vendor or set of hardware, SONiC opens the door to a wide array of options. Whether you prefer Cisco, Arista, or NVIDIA, SONiC supports them all, ensuring that your network infrastructure is as flexible and adaptable as your business needs it to be.

With SONiC, you aren’t tied to a single vendor. This freedom encourages innovation and fosters a competitive ecosystem, where businesses can pick and choose the best components to suit their specific needs.

Control Over Your Network

Another key factor that sets Aviz apart is the level of control it offers. Enterprises can manage SONiC at the source code level, which means they can choose the hardware they want at any time. At Aviz, we normalize metrics from your fabric including ASICs, and operating systems to achieve the multivendor observability, giving you the control to deploy any switch you want without worrying about how it will impact your NETOps layer. But what truly makes it enterprise-ready is the end-to-end support stack provided by Aviz. Our platform ensures that customers gain full operating control, whether they prefer a traditional Cisco-like CLI, REST APIs, or even their own in-house controllers. And we understand that enterprises need more than just flexibility—they need an experience that’s simple to use and supported 24/7.

That’s why we’ve developed Aviz Easy Deploy, Monitor, and Support, a plug-and-play solution that brings SONiC to enterprise environments with ease and without the hassle of vendor lock-in.

The Cost Savings You’ve Been Looking For

Cost has always been a critical factor in any IT decision, and SONiC shines here. By moving away from expensive, proprietary solutions and embracing the open-source model, companies can dramatically reduce both capital and operational expenditures. In fact, using SONiC as a foundation, we’ve helped businesses cut costs by half compared to traditional solutions.

A Future-Proof Solution

Perhaps the most exciting part of SONiC’s evolution is that it is on the path to becoming the Linux of networking. Much like how Linux started with a small group of adopters and evolved into a mainstream operating system, SONiC is following a similar trajectory. From a select few hyperscalers to widespread adoption across industries, SONiC is proving it’s not only scalable but also future-proof.

At Aviz, we’re proud to be leading this transformation alongside our partners, customers, and the open-source community. With our support stack, we’ve perfected the recipe for deploying, managing, and scaling SONiC in enterprise environments, offering the same robust experience you’d expect from legacy OEMs.

Ready for the Enterprise

In short, SONiC is no longer just for hyperscalers. It’s ready for enterprises of all sizes, offering flexibility, control, and cost savings that simply can’t be matched by traditional solutions. And with Aviz Easy Deploy, Monitor, and Support, we’ve made SONiC accessible to virtually any organization, making it the go-to choice for network infrastructure transformation.

As more Fortune 500 companies embrace SONiC, we’re confident that the rest of the industry will soon follow suit. So if you’re looking for a scalable, cost-effective, and flexible network solution, it’s time to look at SONiC—not just as the future of networking, but as the solution that’s ready for your enterprise today.

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SONiC

Pioneering Networking in the AI Era: Collaboration with Aviz and Marvell

At Aviz Networks, we’re dedicated to revolutionizing AI networking solutions by introducing AI for Networks and Networks for AI. Our strategic collaboration with Marvell, a global leader in semiconductor innovation, marks a significant step towards driving the adoption of SONiC. This partnership leverages Marvell’s cutting-edge switch technology and our Open Network Enterprise Suite (ONES) to deliver advanced AI Fabric capabilities and SONiC solutions for edge deployments. By integrating these technologies, we address the increasing demands of AI-driven applications, catering to both core and edge network environments with tailored solutions.

SONiC for AI Fabric and Edge: Distinct Use Cases

Our collaboration with Marvell focuses on two distinct use cases: SONiC for AI fabric and for edge deployments. Each serves a unique purpose in the evolving landscape of AI-driven networking.

SONiC for AI Fabrics

The combination of Marvell’s switch technology and Aviz Networks’ ONES platform provides a robust solution for core network environments. This integrated approach delivers:
  • Enhanced Performance: Superior performance for AI-driven applications, ensuring efficient data handling and reduced latency. This is powered by ONES' unique capability of Orchestration and Observability for RoCE traffic.
  • Scalability: Scalable networking infrastructure capable of supporting the growing demands of AI workloads from edge to cloud environments. ONES' horizontally scalable design ensures that no matter how big the AI Fabric grows, network operators can manage it from a single pane of glass.
  • Reliability: Advanced real-time visibility and anomaly detection features enhance network reliability and ensure uninterrupted AI operations. ONES' RoCE-specific anomaly detection ensures the network reliably delivers packets end to end.

SONiC for Edge Deployments

The PENS (PoE Edge Networks with SONiC) workgroup, formed in collaboration with Aviz Networks, the Linux Foundation, Marvell, and others, adapts SONiC for edge LANs. This initiative integrates specialized protocols essential for enhancing connectivity and network efficiency at the enterprise edge. Key benefits include:
  • Localized AI Processing: By deploying SONiC solutions at the edge, enterprises can process AI workloads locally, reducing latency and improving response times for real-time applications.
  • Cost Efficiency: Minimizing the need for extensive data transport to centralized cloud locations results in cost savings on bandwidth and improves overall efficiency.
  • Enhanced Security: Processing data at the edge enhances security by keeping sensitive information local and reducing the risk of data breaches during transmission.

Aviz Networks and Marvell: A Best-of-Breed Disaggregated Offering

The collaboration between Marvell and Aviz Networks provides cloud and enterprise data centers with a SONiC-based solution using Marvell switch silicon. Marvell delivers switch silicon with SAI (Switch Abstraction Interface) to integrate seamlessly with open-source SONiC, while we at Aviz Networks offer disaggregated support and services alongside cloud-native applications. Aviz Networks’ ONES (Open Networking Enterprise Suite) stack provides orchestration, telemetry, assurance, and support, ensuring that key network metrics meet SLAs and offering insights into real-time network health.

Successful Deployment and Future Prospects

Together, Marvell and Aviz Networks have successfully deployed hundreds of 400G fabric switches with SONiC running on Marvell silicon in enterprise data centers. These leaf and spine switches, equipped with 100G and 400G ports, deliver industry-leading innovation, a choice of optics, and broad skill-set availability, resulting in significant OPEX and CAPEX savings. We anticipate extending this successful collaboration to many more enterprise and cloud data center operators as the benefits of disaggregated networking become more widely understood and embraced.

Voices from the Partnership

We are excited to collaborate with Aviz Networks to enhance AI-driven networking solutions. Our switch technology, combined with Aviz Networks' expertise in AI fabric management and SONiC for edge deployments, will provide customers with a powerful, scalable, and reliable network infrastructure.

Rishi Chugh, Vice president of product marketing, Network Switching Business Unit, at Marvell

Our partnership with Marvell is a testament to our dedication to advancing AI-driven networking solutions. By combining our innovative ONES platform with Marvell's leading switch technology, we are poised to deliver unparalleled performance and reliability for our customers, both at the core and the edge.

Vishal Shukla, Founder and CEO of Aviz Networks
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SONiC

Be a VIZionary by Partnering with Aviz Networks for the Best in Network-Focused GenAI, Visibility, and SONiC-Focused Open Networking Solutions

The right partner is everything. The partnerships that truly last, are built on a solid foundation of shared core beliefs and principals. Principals like building and maintaining honesty and trust in your partner. Belief that partners that stick by each other, are loyal to one another, and go the “extra mile” to help each other service their customers together. Principals that govern that partners act because they do the right thing by their customers first and foremost, and for each other every step of the way.

More importantly, the right VIZionary Partner Program, built on these same foundational principals and beliefs, is the reason, our partners WILL STAY our partners.

Hardware manufacturers, System Integrators (SIs), Value Added Resellers (VARs), and distributors, have many choices when choosing the right partner to Go-To-Market (GTM) and build long-term and prosperous relationships. Aviz Networks is proud to be THAT chosen partner with A VIZionary Partner Program that embodies those same principals and beliefs in building long-term business together. A VIZionary Partner Program built on the principals for building solid partnerships, engineered to incentivize our Partners all along the way as a direct extension of Aviz, and to represent Aviz as members of our own team, not just a fulfillment mechanism.

In the last month we have proudly launched our BRAND NEW Aviz Networks VIZionary Partner Program and we are privileged to announce that we have some of the best industry partners in networking and whitebox hardware, security and networking systems integration, open-source software, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) delivery to kick off our Program.

SIs and VARs, after being embraced by Aviz Networks Executive team, culture, and solutions, are not shy about their potential for growth with Aviz.

Aviz embodies the ‘3 C’s’ they promote to their customers in everything they do: Choice, Control, and TRULY Cost Effective Solutions that bring a unique value to our current offerings, and we look forward to seeing this partnership blossom rapidly as we seek to introduce Aviz unique blend of Open Source SONiC Savvy and GenAI to the Network.

Bill Rubin, CEO and Founder, Connect IT Solutions of San Mateo, CA

We've been refining our True SONiC program to offer a vendor-neutral, end-to-end service for SONiC adoption, which includes ecosystem guidance, hardware procurement, and infrastructure design services, and we see a great synergy with Aviz Network’s extensive SONiC solutions and support capabilities. Integrating Aviz’s services into True SONiC —such as 24/7 support, custom use case testing, and your advanced Networking 3.0 solutions—into our program could significantly enhance our joint value proposition. We’ve been seeing particular interest from mid-market enterprise and startup-type customers.

Alex Cronin, CEO and Founder, Hardware Nation

Hardware partners alike have been equally impressed with Aviz attention to every detail from comprehensive SONiC-focused network Fabric Testing and Automation Service (FTAS), to joint GTM activities are likewise enthusiastic about the synergies from partnering with Aviz.

We see a promising future with Aviz as our partner. By integrating Aviz's Best-In-Class GenAI, Automation, and Visibility Solutions, alongside 24x7x365 Support for SONiC, into UfiSpace's Next-Generation complete line of SONiC-powered telecom and data center solutions, customers will have much greater choices and control over their networks, supply chain, and data all through a cost-effective combination.

Vincent Ho, CEO of UfiSpace

Come replicate the success our new partners who are already enjoying success as an integral part the Aviz Networks Team HERE (Aviz Partner Site).

Join an EXCLUSIVE eco-system of the BEST technology partners in the industry and harness the 3 Core Pillars of Aviz Solutions and Networking 3.0: Choice, Control, and Cost Savings for your customers as we help them EMBRACE the AI-fueled Networking 3.0 era because….

TOGETHER, WE NETWORK BETTER!

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SONiC

AI Networking Fabric with SONiC: The Future

AI Networking Fabric with SONiC The Future

In recent times, the conversation around AI infrastructure has intensified, with leading companies globally gearing up to enhance their AI clusters in anticipation of the skyrocketing AI traffic in the years to come. Amidst this surge, the dialogue often turns towards the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of AI workloads, challenging the traditional reliance on public clouds due to total cost of ownership (TCO) considerations.

Why is SONiC becoming the preferred choice for AI networking fabric?

As a leader at Aviz, I’ve gained insights into the strategies of switching vendors and how customers respond to them. Generally, customers aim to achieve the following high-level goals, and SONiC aligns perfectly with these objectives:

  • Open Choices, Control, and Cost Savings: SONiC brings the 3Cs: Choices, Control, and Cost Savings. It breaks free from vendor lock-in, empowers network control (akin to Linux for computing), and offers significant savings for all other Opex and CapEx investments – including GPU investments or app development redirection.
  • Accelerated Deployment: In the fast-paced AI landscape, switch ASIC vendors race to develop chips optimized for AI traffic. SONiC, more often is the first NOS which gets ported onto these new ASICs due to its wide usage by hyperscalers, this priority of SONiC porting ensures swift access to the latest ASIC technology along with vendor-independently.
  • Network Innovation by using the data: Concerns about GPU cycle cost-effectiveness and network bottlenecks are common. However, SONiC’s open-source, microservices architecture makes it easier to customize your network to synergize with GPU cycles, fostering network-based innovations. The biggest advantage is to easily get the normalized data set where-in you can use the AI to manage your AI Networking fabric. That is only possible if you have a vendor agnostic normalized data. SONiC provides you that foundation where you can use AI to manage your AI fabric in future.

Aviz, in collaboration with industry giants like NVIDIA, Cisco, Edgecore, Wistron, and Celestica, stands at the forefront of AI fabric innovations. SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) is emerging as the optimal choice for AI networking fabric due to its deep integration with leading partners and transformative capabilities.

3 Reasons Why Now is the Perfect Time for SONiC-Based AI Networking

Customers who have successfully deployed SONiC for their AI fabrics share several common reasons for choosing SONiC, including conducting rapid PoCs and swiftly transitioning to production. The urgency for adopting SONiC in AI infrastructure is highlighted by several converging trends:

  • Alignment with GenAI Revolution: The SONiC revolution dovetails perfectly with the rapid advancements in Generative AI (GenAI), offering a robust and scalable networking foundation that can adapt to the evolving requirements of AI workloads.
  • Readiness for Multi-Tenancy: With the necessary protocols for supporting multi-tenancy already in place, SONiC is poised to accommodate the complex networking demands of today’s AI-driven environments, ensuring efficient resource allocation and isolation.
  • Future-proof Networking for you AI Workloads: With support for speeds up to 800GbE, SONiC is at the forefront of networking technology, designed to handle the intensive data throughput required by AI applications. Industry leaders like Cisco, Broadcom, Marvell and NVIDIA are championing SONiC’s capabilities, highlighting its suitability for the most demanding AI tasks.

SONiC Solution Selection: 3 Key Steps for Making the Right Choice

Open-source-based solutions can sometimes be confusing, especially when most hardware vendors offer their own legacy solutions alongside open-source options, with an obvious inclination towards locking you into their legacy systems. Selecting the appropriate SONiC solution requires a careful assessment of your needs and the capabilities of the available offerings:

  • Opt for Open Source and Proven Solutions: An open-source, well-tested SONiC solution guarantees transparency and flexibility. Closed-source options might not offer the full benefits of SONiC, relegating them to the same status as proprietary systems.
  • Demand Comprehensive End-to-End Testing: Ensure the solution has undergone rigorous end-to-end testing, covering your specific traffic types and simulated scenarios. This step is crucial for verifying the solution’s reliability and performance in real-world conditions.
  • Seek Multi-Vendor Compatibility: A true SONiC solution should support a broad ecosystem, offering seamless integration and compatibility with hardware from various vendors. This flexibility ensures that your networking infrastructure can evolve alongside your AI initiatives without being hindered by vendor lock-in.

Starting by Leveraging SONiC Ecosystem with Aviz Networks

Another challenge with open source is determining how and where to test the end-to-end solution and evaluate each option using a consistent standard. This process should be straightforward, cost-free, and quick. Starting your SONiC journey with a community lab created by all leading vendors and Aviz Networks means becoming part of an ecosystem designed for inclusivity and extensive support:

  • Embrace a Comprehensive Ecosystem: Aviz Networks champions a holistic approach to SONiC adoption, bringing together diverse hardware vendors to create a unified and robust AI networking fabric. This ecosystem is designed to support the varied and dynamic needs of AI applications.
  • Leverage the ONE Center for Evaluation: Aviz ONE Center serves as a hub for customers to evaluate various SONiC solutions in a real-world, multi-vendor environment. This facility allows for hands-on testing and comparison, ensuring that you can make informed decisions without any initial investment.
  • Seamless Proof of Concept: Start your SONiC deployment journey with a straightforward Proof of Concept (PoC) phase at our ONE Center. This phase allows you to experience the capabilities of SONiC firsthand, ensuring that the solution meets your specific requirements before committing to a full-scale deployment.

What’s Next?

Interested in diving deeper? Join a conversation with our customers and discover how Aviz Networks has facilitated successful RoCE-based deployments leveraging SONiC. Explore the various options available and understand the cost implications. In these transformative times, Aviz Networks, alongside our vibrant partner ecosystem, is dedicated to mainstreaming SONiC as the networking OS of choice, mirroring Linux’s success in the operating systems domain.

Seize the opportunity to shape the future of networking. Contact us now to start the conversation and embark on your journey towards unparalleled networking performance and efficiency!

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SONiC

Debunking 5 Common Myths About SONiC

In the ever-evolving world of networking, SONiC NOS (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) has emerged as a game-changer for data center and edge networks. However, like any technology, SONiC has not been immune to myths and misconceptions. When we talk to users evaluating SONiC for their network, we often hear… “SONiC is not ready for us, at least just yet”. In this blog, we’ll debunk five common myths about SONiC.

1. SONiC is not ready for the Enterprise

Myth:  One of the most common things we hear is that SONiC does not have features such as EVPN, or MC-LAG, and users are not comfortable about its quality standards. It is also difficult to integrate with our existing NetOps tools.

Reality: The table below gives a good high-level overview of what is already available for use cases across various network architectures. This list is evolving very fast, and if you follow the SONiC community then with-in next few months this list will increase in use cases, as well as in vendors who support those use cases.

Use Case Essential Protocols Supported By
IP CLOS  BGP Unnumbered Most vendors
AI Fabric RoCE Several vendors
IP CLOS w/EVPN EVPN T1 to T6 Several vendors
Edge & Campus MLAG, 802.1x, STP, POE Several vendors

To see evidence of whether or not SONiC has the support for the above capabilities, and try them out on any hardware sourced from ANY of the white-box vendors, you can schedule a demo in our ONE Center. We will not only walk you through each of the available options, but also show how SONiC can be easily integrated within your existing NetOps environment. 

At Aviz Networks we help accelerate SONiC Community feature development, and we work with customers to develop the features they need and give them back to the community. Essentially, Aviz is bringing a paradigm-shifting new concept to market called “Roadmap By-pass”, where customers get the features they need, when they need it,  in a more agile fashion instead of a single vendor prioritizing their own desires or for the “highest bidder”.

2. Deploying Community SONiC requires an army of Network Engineers

Myth:  One of the most persistent myths about SONiC is that it is exclusively designed for hyperscalers who have access to a large pool of network engineering expertise in-house. While the NOS offers powerful networking capabilities, it’s not a simple-to-deploy solution for all environments.

Reality: Yes, SONiC does require a good understanding of networking principles, SDN concepts, and the knowledge of hardware compatibility, but the fact is a vast majority of large to medium enterprises have already deployed SONiC using their existing teams with an added bonus of a little external help. Companies like eBay, have benefited immensely both in terms of cost savings and the flexibility of innovation by deploying SONiC on white-box switches. The market leadership brief by Futuriom lists down how Networking users can accomplish similar feat. According to publicly accessible information on the SONiC community page, numerous enterprises including Comcast, eBay, Target, and Bloomberg have either deployed SONiC or are currently in the process of doing so.

At Aviz, we have been helping enterprises of all sizes with purpose-built automation tools and data normalization solutions that make the SONiC deployment and operations quick and smooth. 

You can discover the magic behind eBay and some of our other rapidly expanding SONiC deployments by checking out our ‘Open Networking Enterprise Suite (ONES)’ and requesting a demo. 

ONES is not only helping large enterprises with their SONiC deployments, but dozens of small to medium enterprises in their own migration to SONiC. So, in reality, you don’t  need an army of in-house engineers with PHDs, so long as you leverage the right resources and partners like Aviz who is dedicated to your success and SONiC’s future.

Recently we went one step further to put AI to use for easier migration towards SONiC. Our latest solution Network Copilot™ is designed to generate templates for easy transition.

3. Community SONiC POCs are challenging, and procurement process is a mess

Myth:  A lot of people assume that conducting Proof of Concepts (POCs) with SONiC can be a challenging endeavor, often compounded by a complex and cumbersome procurement process. The versatility SONiC offers for a diverse array of supported hardware and configurations, make it challenging to select the right components for your use cases. Additionally, navigating the procurement process, which involves evaluating multiple vendors, and negotiating contracts, can be overwhelming and time-consuming.

Reality: SONiC’s open-source nature allows organizations to break free from vendor lock-in and choose best-of-breed components from various hardware vendors, tailoring their network to specific needs. Conducting a multi-vendor POC with SONiC can appear to be a complex undertaking, especially when you first start to think about what it takes for a successful deployment:

    • Selecting hardware vendors

    • Testing for performance and feature requirements

    • Scalability per your specific use cases

    • Ensuring interoperability with your existing ecosystem of infrastructure and tools

Thankfully, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel or spend time and money doing it. Aviz has done all the heavy lifting for you by partnering with nearly all major hardware vendors, to create an environment where any organization can conduct POCs across a wide range of options without having to invest a single dollar in purchasing hardware for POCs. 

The Aviz ONE Center is a perfect solution for low-effort, low-cost SONiC POCs with online and in-person access to try out SONiC capabilities on any hardware of your choice. Also, Aviz has created tools (also available in ONE Center) that can perform hundreds of tests for performance and scalability pertinent to your specific use cases. 

Additionally, today, many System Integrators (SIs) provide end-to-end solutions for SONiC, which means, you do not need to buy hardware, software, and support separately from multiple vendors.

In fact, many of our own SI partners have simplified the procurement process so much that they can generate a single BOM (bill of materials) across 10+ vendors and ensure that your procurement teams don’t have to interface with them individually.

4. Community SONiC is not secure because it’s open-source

Myth:  Many claim that SONiC is inherently insecure simply because it is open-source and exposes the source code to potential attackers. 

Reality: Exactly the opposite. Practically every Security Professional Aviz has encountered lobbies for Open Source because of the inherent review the software is given, and thus Open Source itself does not equate to insecurity. The security of open-source software depends on various factors, just like any other software implementation. While Open Source software by nature exposes the source code to everyone, which includes potential attackers, it also invites a large pool of experts to discover and address security vulnerabilities. The transparency of open-source projects often means vulnerabilities are identified and fixed faster than in proprietary software. 

The security of any software deployment or implementation, including SONiC, primarily depends on how well it is configured, maintained, and monitored. A vast community of SONiC developers actively scrutinizes and contributes to the codebase, ensuring that any security concerns are swiftly addressed, making SONiC more resilient to vulnerabilities, and substantially reduces the time to review and approve its use for a wide range of applications and services.

5. Open Source SONiC is just a short-term trend

Myth:  Some suggest that SONiC is merely a short-term trend and will fade away in the near future. Several open-source and commercial Open NOS solutions existed before SONiC, gained prominence, but eventually got consumed into proprietary networking ecosystems.

Reality: The consistent growth in the adoption of SONiC across large, medium, and small enterprises, combined with support and stewardship by major players like The Linux Foundation (LF), Open Compute Project (OCP), Microsoft, and the vast majority of networking hardware vendors, is a testament to its staying power. 

SONiC’s modular and open-source approach to networking addresses many of the pain points organizations have been facing for decades, making it not just a trend, but a significant shift in the networking paradigm. As organizations seek more control over their network infrastructure and adapt to evolving cloud-based architectures, SONiC offers a robust solution to both challenges.

Additionally, SONiC has already garnered unparalleled support from the vast majority of networking vendors. This is the first time in history, that an Open-source NOS has been whole-heartedly embraced by networking giants like Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Juniper, Marvell, NVIDIA, along with numerous white-boxvendors such as Celestica, Edgecore, Quanta, Super Micro, and growing every day.

In their recent 2023 report Gartner explicitly stated “Open networking has been replaced on the Hype Cycle with SONiC, which garners the most client interest of any open networking technology.” 

A 5 Point Analysis on why Gartner Preferred SONiC Over Open Networking in their 2023 Hype Cycle is a great read that clearly  explains this ongoing trend. 

While technology trends may come and go, SONiC’s foundations align with the enduring demand for adaptable, cost-effective, and scalable networking solutions, suggesting that this is more than just a short-term trend in the networking landscape.

Conclusion

SONiC’s ascent in the networking sphere is undoubtedly well-deserved, poised to transform organizational networking strategies. By dispelling prevalent myths, we aim to offer clarity and inspire more entities to explore the myriad benefits SONiC offers. While due diligence is essential in adopting any technology, SONiC presents compelling options for next-generation networks. Understanding its true potential empowers organizations to make informed decisions about integrating SONiC into their network infrastructures.

Reach out to reserve your spot at our ONE Center for a proof of concept, where various vendor solutions, including Cisco SONiC, NVIDIA SONiC, Celestica SONiC, Marvell SONiC, Wistron SONiC, Edgecore Community SONiC, Supermicro SONiC, Enterprise SONiC etc, can be thoroughly explored and tested, ushering in a new era of networking innovation. As a common knowledge, these vendors are helping the community innovators such as Microsoft for Azure SONiC deployments as well hence bringing the same SONiC for other deployments.

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SONiC

Elevate Your Career with Aviz Certified SONiC Professional

Are you ready to take your networking career to the next level? Discover how the Aviz Certified SONiC Professional certification can unlock your potential in the revolutionary world of SONiC technology.

Today, we are delighted to unveil the Aviz Certified SONiC Professional (ACSP) certification, a testament to our dedication to improve the abilities of individuals in the fast-paced SONiC environment.

How is Aviz Networks Raising the Bar for Industry Standards?

With technology constantly evolving, the demand for skilled professionals capable of mastering intricate solutions becomes paramount. Aviz Networks recognises the essential contribution of SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) in shaping the future of networking. Our pioneering certification programme seeks to set a distinctive standard for SONiC competence and superiority.

Mastering SONiC: A Comprehensive Certification Overview

Created particularly for network engineers working with SONiC, SONiC developers, SONiC testers wanting to enhance their abilities, and the professionals wanting to switch to SONiC, the Aviz Certified SONiC Professional certification serves as an essential bridge to the world of SONiC. It covers important concepts such as below of SONiC. 

  • Architecture
  • Fundamentals, Core & SONiC Infrastructure
  • Platform, Layer2 & Layer3 expertise
  • Debugging & Troubleshooting

How to Advance Your Career with SONiC Technology Certification

Being awarded this certification is more than just obtaining a qualification – it opens the door to career progression and industry recognition. As an innovator in SONiC technology, Aviz Networks provides this certification as a robust preparatory base for professionals to confidently venture into the SONiC industry.

Top Benefits of Aviz Networks’ SONiC Certification for Professionals

    • Holistic Knowledge: Our certification lays emphasis on all important SONiC concepts, ensuring well-rounded understanding.
    • Industry Recognition: Being the first in its field, this certification carries significant industry value and recognition.
    • Career path opportunities: This certification will help if you want to switch to SONiC development or testing, excel in companies migrating to SONiC.
    • Early mover advantage: SONiC is a relatively young NOS. It is the fastest growing open source NOS. Being in this Industry is somewhat similar to joining one of the giants when the networking industry was starting. And having ACSP is akin to obtaining one of the prestigious certifications in the very beginning.
    • Online test: The test is completely online. One can take it anytime and from anywhere.

    Begin Your SONiC Certification Journey 

    Here are some basic exam details:

    • Duration: 1 hour
    • Format: 50 multiple-choice questions covering various difficulty levels
    • No Negative Marking: We encourage learning and advancement without fear of penalties.

    How to prepare for the Aviz Certified SONiC Professional?

    There are multiple sources you can use to prepare for the SONiC Certification. SONiC being the fastest growing open source NOS, there is a wealth of knowledge on the Internet. Here are some of the sources you can use to prepare for your Aviz Certified SONiC Professional certification:

    • There are a lot of channels on YouTube, which cover the basics and SONiC configurations at various complexity levels. There are also the Open Source Community channels like OCP, NANOG etc.
    • Bootcamps: Apart from this, there are a lot of boot camps organized by various companies which cover various aspects of SONiC. Aviz also organizes several in-person and virtual bootcamps throughout the year. Go to aviznetworks.com -> Events for the information about the latest bootcamps.
    • Basic Network certification materials: ACSP is a SONiC certification. However the major role of SONiC is in handling Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic. Hence the certification doesn’t only confine to pure SONiC skills in these areas. It is recommended to up your routing and switching skills to at least CCNP levels training. Apart from this you should know about Layer 4 concepts in detail. 
    • SONiC Command Line CLI page: A lot of questions in the ACSP certification need SONiC CLI. You must thoroughly prepare the SONIC Command Line Interface Guide in the community.
    • SONiC Architecture Guide and important links: Community maintains a very good SONiC Architecture Guide and there are a lot of links on that page. These pages must be gone thoroughly to be adequately prepared for this certification. 

    Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Aviz Certification

    Following flow diagram summarizes the process of getting Aviz Certified SONiC Professional Certification. 

    How to Become an Aviz Certified SONiC Professional

    Are you ready to become an Aviz Certified SONiC Professional? Visit our certification page for complete exam details and registration. 

    Join the Conversation

    We recognize the power of community collaboration and dialogue. Join us on our YouTube Channel and follow our LinkedIn page to take part in discussions.

    Stay informed about our upcoming SONiC course from Aviz Networks.

    At Aviz Networks, we’re not just shaping the future of networking; we’re also dedicated to fostering the career development of individuals who seek to make a difference in this rapidly evolving field. The Aviz Certified SONiC Professional certification is more than just a validation of your skills; it’s your gateway to numerous opportunities in the world of SONiC technology.

    We eagerly anticipate witnessing your successes as you embark on this transformative journey in your professional endeavors.

    Categories
    SONiC

    SONiC Network Operating System (NOS) Support vs SONiC Network Operation (NetOps) Support Demystified

    SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) Network Operating System (NOS) has seen a huge surge in its popularity and adoption in the last few years. Originally developed by Microsoft and subsequently open-sourced, it offers a versatile, modular, and hardware-agnostic platform that decouples the switching hardware from the software running on it. This allows the much-needed flexibility in networking hardware choices for the enterprise. The openness of SONiC and the customer demands have prompted a majority of hardware vendors to support SONiC on their switches. While SONiC has become a leading choice for data center networking, and major hardware vendors are supporting it on their platforms, this disaggregation is leading to a fair bit of chaos as organizations deploy hardware sourced from multiple vendors with different flavors of SONiC running on them.

    SONiC Market Revenue by Customer Type (by 650 Group)
    SONiC Market Revenue by Customer Type (by 650 Group)

    In this blog, our goal is to bring clarity to what it means to deploy, operate, and support SONiC and its various flavors on different platforms, understand the SONiC support ecosystem, and navigate the ecosystem to utilize the options best suited to your organization.

    NetOps & SONiC Support Landscape

    Aviz ONES Covers SONiC NOS Support and SONiC NetOps Support in Single Price
    Aviz ONES Covers SONiC NOS Support and SONiC NetOps Support in Single Price

    Operating and supporting SONiC on multiple hardware platforms involves a combination of strategies due to its open-source nature and the disaggregated model it promotes. Here’s what organizations should know before making decisions for NetOps tools and Support options available for SONiC.

    • Proprietary Single Vendor NetOps: relies on a network operations model where all solutions come exclusively from one vendor. While this ensures tight integration and often simplifies network management, it leads to vendor lock-in. Many vendors have integrated SONiC with their existing NetOps tools, but organizations may face constraints with adaptability, potential high costs for changes, and dependency on the vendor’s roadmap.
    • Proprietary Single Vendor Support: refers to a support model in which all assistance for the hardware and software comes exclusively from the original vendor. Much like integrating existing NetOps tools with SONiC, many vendors support SONiC on their platforms. While it may ensure a deep knowledge of the hardware and software SONiC is running on, it can limit flexibility, and organizations may be bound by the vendor’s support hours, and policies.
    • Disaggregated Multi-vendor NetOps: represents a shift from traditional, monolithic network operations to a more flexible model where network components, both hardware and software, can be sourced from various vendors. This approach relies on unified multi-vendor software solutions for optimized network operations and cost savings. Vendors who previously created unified tools have also started integrating SONiC, but such tools lack the depth in their SONiC integrations. So far, only Aviz has taken the approach of developing a purpose-built solution for multi-vendor SONiC NetOps.
    • Disaggregated Multi-vendor Support: refers to a support model in which the assistance comes from a third party vendor who has deep knowledge of the software and hardware components across all the vendors utilized in a network infrastructure. Availability support across multiple vendors introduces the complexities in coordination and communication, which is why it is critical that the third party vendor has back channels established into all the original vendors, with tight SLAs. Again, so far, Aviz is the only vendor that has established well-defined SLAs with the vast majority of Platform and ASIC vendors to create the back channels.

    When executed right, a Disaggregated Multi-vendor NetOps and Support structure for SONiC can yield huge cost-savings, minimize vendor lock-in risks, and allow organizations to adapt more flexibly to the technological advancements in the networking domain.

    Unpacking & Navigating Multi-vendor SONiC Deployments

    SONiC presents a transformative approach to networking, offering a modular, adaptable, cost-effective, and forward-looking solution to meet the evolving needs of next generation network infrastructures. When it comes to evaluating options for SONiC NetOps and Support, we recommend:

    1. Understanding Hardware Compatibility for SONiC: ensure that all hardware platforms you’re selecting are SONiC compatible, and make sure you are evaluating the platforms in context of the feature sets you plan to utilize.
    2. Narrowing Down the Builds for SONiC: some vendors offer custom SONiC builds optimized for their hardware.
    3. Identifying a Normalized NetOps Stack for SONiC: for efficient network operations, you will need to identify tools that not only understand SONiC’s underlying architecture, but also the various nuances that get introduced by various flavors of SONiC. Only tools that are purpose-built for SONiC can handle such nuances, since they are designed to normalize the data before delivering functionalities.
    4. Identifying a Neutral SONiC Support Partner: vendors who provide SONiC compatible hardware also offer support, but that is typically limited to the support for SONiC on their own hardware and their custom SONiC builds. Third-party providers on the other hand generally focus on supporting the community distro. The key is in identifying vendors who not only have good experience with SONiC on multiple platforms, but also deep relationships with individual Platform and ASIC vendors that you select for your infrastructure.

    Aviz ONES & Multi-vendor SONiC Support

    Aviz Networks is a leading provider of open-source SONiC solutions, dedicated to revolutionizing the networking landscape with their unique approach. We firmly believe in SONiC’s potential as the future of networking and focus on delivering purpose-built tools and solutions specifically designed for its ecosystem.

    With over 100 man-years of experience across various hardware platforms, Aviz Networks has developed their flagship platform, Open Networking Enterprise Suite (ONES). ONES is designed to work seamlessly with any SONiC on any platform, regardless of the underlying ASIC.

    As a testament to our commitment to open networking, we have established strong relationships with the majority of platform, ASIC, and OS vendors. Our highly skilled SONiC support team, along with ONES, are used by businesses worldwide to effectively deploy, operate, and support SONiC across diverse hardware environments.

    Experience the Power of ONES and the ONE Center!

    Aviz Networks invites you to experience firsthand the transformative power of ONES and our Multi-vendor SONiC Support. Visit the state-of-the-art Open Networking Experience Center (ONE Center), either online or in-person, and discover the possibilities of SONiC across a wide range of hardware. Take advantage of a free, hands-on experience and explore how SONiC can optimize your network operations. Test our well-known vendors in hardware, platforms, ASIC, and OS environments, including Cisco SONiC, NVIDIA SONiC, Celestica SONiC, Marvell SONiC, Wistron SONiC, Edgecore Community SONiC, Arista SONiC, Supermicro SONiC, Enterprise SONiC, and DELL SONiC before your SONiC deployments.

    Schedule your demo today and unleash the potential of your network!

    Benefits of Aviz Solutions:

    • Open-source based: Leverages the flexibility and scalability of SONiC
    • Platform-agnostic: Works with any SONiC on any platform, with any underlying ASIC
    • Comprehensive solutions: Offers a complete suite of tools for deployment, operation, and support
    • Expert support: Provides access to a highly qualified SONiC support team
    • Free trial: Experience the capabilities of ONES and the ONE Center firsthand

    Contact Aviz Networks today to learn more about their innovative solutions and unlock the potential of SONiC for your business.

    Categories
    SONiC

    Future-Proof Networking: Harnessing the Power of SONiC in Vendor-Neutral Data Center Environments

    Optimizing Data Center Networks: The Role of IP Clos Architecture and BGP Protocol

    In contemporary data center networks, the IP Clos (IP-based Cloud Scale Networking) architecture is widely embraced for its ability to deliver a non-blocking high-bandwidth network fabric, low latency, and scalable connectivity between servers and switches, while ensuring fault tolerance. Central to the success of the IP Clos architecture is the utilization of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) as the routing protocol. 

    BGP stands out due to its features in traffic engineering, scalability, and adaptable routing, making it well-suited for the demands of modern data center environments. BGP is the protocol responsible for orchestrating internet routing, optimizing path selection through Autonomous Systems (AS), peering mechanisms, and configurable attributes.

    The IP Clos network architecture is not a recent development, having been in existence for a decade and extensively implemented in large-scale data centers. It has been deployed using proprietary Network Operating Systems (NOS) and switches from specific vendors, showcasing its enduring relevance and effectiveness in meeting the evolving needs of data center networking

    ‍

    Key Features of SONiC That Make It Stand Out from Traditional NOS

    Our Journey with SONiC

    “When I joined the Aviz network, I was excited about its vision and approach to enabling IP Clos architecture through open source, any vendor, and any switch combination. Being an engineer, I am all praises for open source for three reasons. First, it’s free; second is community support. And the third reason is my ability to innovate and modify it to my needs without going through any red tape associated with a vendor-locked OS” said by Khurram Khani, VP of Customer Success, Aviz Networks

    SONiC is the first true open source NOS (Network Operating System) that employs cutting-edge  microservices based architecture far more capable than traditional network operating systems. SONiC has amassed a large ecosystem of developers not only in the community but also within a majority of Switch/ASIC vendors who embrace the technology due to sheer customer demand.

    ‍

    The Power of Open Source: Optimizing Production Network SLAs

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    The Power of Open Source: Optimizing Production Network SLAs

    ‍

    With the great power of Open Source comes greater responsibility on the shoulders of the network operation teams. SONiC being an open-source NOS (network operating system) comes under the same Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that guarantee a certain level of performance, availability, uptime, and latency. One of our initial goals was to ensure that our customers are protected and we put all the right processes and automation in place and execute well-rounded SLAs.

    How has Aviz Networks addressed concerns about SONiC’s ability to support Day 2 operations?

    We met several customers who shared their myths about SONiC being an open source.  The most common one is—will it be resilient, scalable, and have the necessary support compared to the decades-old proprietary vendor switches? Well, Aviz Networks with its expertise in networking, puts all the concerns to rest.

    At Aviz, we have helped Fortune 500 companies with their journey around SONiC deployment at each step—right from vendor selection, use-cases validation, pre-staging, staging to production Day 2 support. The fact is SONiC has also already been successfully deployed at nearly all hyper scalers including Microsoft Azure, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Google, and Meta have joined the board. 

    A Guide to Efficient Day 2 Network Operations: Monitoring and Maintenance

    Day 2 network operation refers to ongoing monitoring, planned and unplanned maintenance, and operation efficiency.  This covers all the activities after the network goes into production and is live. 

    Here’s an example of one of the Fortune 500 companies (One of the game developer companies in the US) we worked with. This company’s data center was designed around IP Clos and BGP. As part of their ongoing BGP Network maintenance, the company has brought up their expectations and requirements about SONiC  Day 2 BGP operations tasks.  

    The customer asked us to certify SONiC’s BGP Day 2 Operations capabilities around:

      • BGP Node Maintenance – Customer expectation was to gracefully take a node out of service without any impact on the existing network and data traffic and reconverge the network quickly

      • BGP Link Maintenance – The next requirement is to take a link out of service without any impact on the existing network and data traffic and reconverge the network quickly

    • Network SLA – The other ones was assurance and guaranteed SLA around network re-convergence.‍

    Day 2 BGP operation: Benefits of Using Community List and Route-Map for Node and Link Drain

    BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) is often used for node and link drain as it provides a mechanism for the controlled removal of routes from a network. This helps to manage rerouting in a controlled manner when a node or link is being drained. 

    BGP can be used to gradually decrease the amount of traffic flowing through that node or link, while ensuring that the remaining traffic is still able to reach its destination. This is accomplished by updating BGP routing tables to reflect the new topology of the network.

    Aviz Networks Ensures Smooth BGP Node Removal on SONiC BGP switch

    Aviz Networks has built industry-leading automation around SONiC BGP node drain process validation. The BGP nodes are gracefully taken out of the network without any disruption to traffic. Aviz FTAS Automation also ensures that the network converges within SLA and has zero traffic loss.

    Our team performs the following automated steps during BGP node drain validation on SONiC switches

      1. BGP Community list

    The BGP Community list is used to tag routes. It includes a community value that can be used to identify routes that will be redirected.

    The “no-advertise” community is used in scenarios where a BGP node receives a route that it should not advertise to other BGP peers.  We, at Aviz Networks, uses a “no-advertise” community during validation when it’s performing graceful removal of a BGP node or link

      1. BGP Route-map

    Route-map is used to match routes that will be redirected. This route-map should match the community value that was added to the routes.

    Example of Node/ Link Drain Config on SONiC Router

    route-map drain-community permit 10
    on-match next
    set community no-advertise
    set ipv6 next-hop prefer-global
    exit
    router bgp <AS #>
    address-family ipv4 unicast
    neighbor v4server route-map drain-community in
    address-family ipv6 unicast
    neighbor v6server route-map drain-community in
    end

    Finally, the physical connectivity of the node can be removed. This is accomplished by shutting down the router, link or taking out the physical link

    Aviz FTAS ensures BGP Day 2 Operations meet Reconvergence SLA with Zero Traffic Loss

    Aviz FTAS certifies BGP Day 2 operation and reconvergence times. This involves measuring the performance of BGP reconvergence time, zero traffic loss, identifying any deviations or breaches, and taking corrective action if required‍

    Convergence Validation using Traffic Gear
    Convergence Validation using Traffic Gear

    How to Perform Node Drain Using AS Path Prepend in BGP

    AS Path is a BGP attribute used to identify the sequence of Autonomous System (AS) numbers that a BGP route has traversed on its path to reach the target SONiC BGP router.  When a BGP router sends an update, it appends its own AS number to the existing AS Path called AS Path prepending. When the router sees its own AS number in the route, it discards that route. If a destination has two paths, then the path with the lowest AS Path length is chosen.

    “set as-path prepend last-as <no. of times to insert>” lets users insert the last ASN. Inserting last-as 10 times would eventually influence the router to choose another available Path.

    Aviz Networks FTAS Topology for AS-Path validation 
    Aviz Networks FTAS Topology for AS-Path validation 

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    Example FTAS Configuration:

    As part of the Fabric Test Automation Suite (FTAS) by Aviz Networks, we rigorously test configurations such as the one below to ensure robust functionality, combining the reliability of SONiC’s CLI with advanced testing methodologies:

    route-map as-prepend permit 10
set as-path prepend last-as 10
exit
router bgp <ASN>
address-family ipv4 unicast
neighbor v4server route-map as-prepend in
address-family ipv6 unicast
neighbor v4server route-map as-prepend in
end

    This sample configuration, involving route-map manipulation for AS-path prepending in BGP, is meticulously tested to guarantee the suite’s effectiveness in maintaining consistency and robustness in network operations.

    How to Monitor BGP Sessions with Aviz ONES App

    Periodic monitoring of BGP sessions between routers is critical to ensure that the sessions are established and maintained properly. This involves checking the status of BGP neighbors, monitoring BGP messages, and verifying that the expected routes are being exchanged.

    Analyzing the BGP route advertisements received from neighboring routers helpt to proactively identify any anomalies, such as unexpected route flapping or neighbor reset. With Aviz ONES App Monitoring the BGP routing table can help detect issues and make necessary adjustments to the routing policies.

    BGP Monitoring using Aviz Network’s ONES App
    BGP Monitoring using Aviz Network’s ONES App

    Empowering Modern Network Operations: Aviz Networks’ SONiC BGP Expertise

    In conclusion, Aviz Networks has proven SONiC BGP capabilities to effectively manage Network Day 2 operations. We have proven SONiC’s ability to handle complex BGP network topologies, BGP route maps, as-path and policy-based routing. SONiC is a reliable choice for managing and operating large-scale IP CLOS BGP networks. With its widespread adoption with hyper scalers and Fortune 500 companies, it has demonstrated its capability to handle the evolving demands of modern network operations, flexible routing, reliability, efficient connectivity, and scalability.

    If you have inquiries regarding SONiC BGP or any other features, don’t hesitate to contact us. Our team is eager to engage with you at your convenience.

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    Future-Proof Networking: Harnessing the Power of SONiC in Vendor-Neutral Data Center Environments

    Optimizing Data Center Networks: The Role of IP Clos Architecture and BGP Protocol In contemporary data center networks, the IP Clos (IP-based Cloud Scale Networking) architecture is widely embraced for its ability to deliver a non-blocking high-bandwidth network fabric, low latency, and scalable connectivity between servers and switches, while ensuring fault tolerance. Central to the […]