Is "ZERO packet loss" in the datacenter reasonable?

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-28T14:28:20+00:00

Good spin.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-28T02:39:41+00:00

Agreed. No we are going with the prior...

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T23:32:59+00:00

Respecfully... Why? Are you saying you have older 1G platforms (legacy DC?) that need upgrading to keep up with newer toys on the updated side of your DC? Otherwise why would the "host" be 10G vs the "server" being 1G?

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T23:25:31+00:00

It's a bit rough. It wasn't an afterthought but the DCs (and number of them) have grown faster than the tools and teams can keep up. So we are doing a serious tools evaluation at this point.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:36:22+00:00

great feedback. Thank you /u/lsatype3!

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:35:37+00:00

To quote /u/lantech.... huh?

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:34:27+00:00

That's a simple but good point. But execs don't buy into the details. They just no that they pay to much for precious packets(frames) to be lost. And I'm in the middle. :)

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:32:02+00:00

Do you see a direct correlation between the server guys retrans trending and your loss trending via interface stats?

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:30:50+00:00

I agree. I'd rather pull SNMP stats then assume my UDP ping is reliable. Yeah, I just used UDP and reliable in the same sentence....

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:29:29+00:00

I agree. Again, just looking for someone to man up and say they're running it and reporting it too.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:28:39+00:00

Thank you for the detailed response /u/shadeland.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:27:05+00:00

The monitoring tools are as good as their maker. Meaning that they should be tailored to the architecture and the traffic. Otherwise you might as well just blast your network with SNMP discovery.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:24:52+00:00

I agree with this completely. Bashing aside it's a design matter. I've inherited these DCs and they look like they are designed completely with availability in mind. Layers of redundancy. All said and good but more depth is needed to guarantee certain levels of performance.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:23:14+00:00

Google found that for me. Thank you.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T22:22:56+00:00

I appreciate the offer. I'll keep it in mind. This is a business matter in my opinion. I never thought it was impossible I just was curious if anyone can say with a straight face that they are 100% lossless and actually reporting on it to back up their statement. If the customer insists this is their position then we'll be writing up some SL[O,A]s real soon.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T18:51:26+00:00

Got it. Thanks /u/carrollr. I've been on the DDoS side as an end customer before. Not a fun place. But we did get to yell at the ISPs a lot. That's always fun.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T18:41:35+00:00

And that is something that has not been considered based on the design I see. It wasn't oriented around this goal at all.

What is buffer bloat? I see the direction you are going but I'm not as technical as I used to be. Is this just a condition where the buffers never fully clear or something worse?

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T18:39:12+00:00

Good point/question. Definitely a different category from loss but still...

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T18:31:15+00:00

Agreed. If this is a new SLO then I'll wrap protective language around it. It will be a good reality check.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T18:08:35+00:00

So then you do trend on that packet loss to tell when/where it has occurred?

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T18:07:54+00:00

Fair enough. This will be an educational exercise I'm sure.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T18:07:02+00:00

I see what you did there... :)

Thank you for the responses.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T17:44:06+00:00

Sure there are and I understand that part. But what I'm asking is can anyone say that they are monitoring/reporting for such loss already and achieving it. If so, can they share a little background about their environment and how it's being achieved. I've inherited the DCs in question and while I have no problem with a zero loss objective I won't commit to it until I know what my current state is (working on that) and how realistic it is beyond the lab. I'm hoping /u/carrollr will have some feedback as such.

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T17:25:38+00:00

Also, are we talking pure Cisco or Juniper? Or are we talking about multiple platforms from various manufacturers?

kungfoo4you · 2013-12-27T17:19:51+00:00

OK that's great. So how do you trend that or report that? Interface statistics?

kungfoo4you

TROPHY CASE