DEV Community: Akinwumi Omolade

Navigating the Basics: Insights into Computer Networking

Akinwumi Omolade — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 01:34:24 +0000

Titbits on Computer Networking

We say the cloud is no more than a virtual network in a data center.

But what is networking?

Networking involves linking all your computers together.
Your computer needs to be connected to a system, and your traffic must be directed from your switch to the destination. This is the fundamental role of a network.
A network serves as the platform for sharing all your data. Without a network, communication is not possible.

Components of Networking:

Transferring traffic from source A to source B is essential.
Without a network, communication is impossible.

Routers play a pivotal role in interconnecting various elements on the internet.
A router, resembling a computer, houses multiple network interface ports, often referred to as interfaces.
Each interface is required to operate on a distinct subnet. [ A subnet is a subdivision of an IP network. It allows for the efficient allocation of IP addresses and provides a way to logically group devices. ]

The interfaces on a router can be metaphorically compared to the components of a computer.
For seamless data transmission to its destination, these diverse router components must effectively communicate.

Similar to the Limbs of an Octopus:
Interfaces on a router can be likened to the limbs of an octopus.
For effective data transmission to its destination, these diverse limbs on the router need to communicate.

The components constituting the network include

Routers
Switches
Cables
Local Area Network connections
Wide Area Network connections.

Routing Table

Routers create (or have to build) routing tables, which can be likened to a map or GPS for navigating network traffic.

Imagine a router as a guide for data that is traveling in a network. To guide the data to its destination, the router builds something called a routing table. This table is a bit like a map or GPS, helping the router make smart decisions about where to send the data. Just as you use a map to find the best route while driving, the routing table helps the router find the best path for data to reach its destination in a network.

Basics of Networking [The OSI Model]

The 7-layer model of OSM model of the open system model. This is a model that helps troubleshoot networks and data centers. The OSI model was designed for communication in the networking world in different layers of the stack

Layer 1	Layer 2	Layer 3
Physical	Data Link	Network
Media Signal and Binary Transmission	MAC and LLC Physical Addressing	Path determination and IP
Wire Fibre Bits	Mac Address Frames	IP Address

Layer 4	Layer 5	Layer 6
Transport	Session	Presentation
End to end connections and reliability	Interhost communication	Data representation and encryption
TCP-VPD Segments	Sockets Data	TLS data

Layer 7
Application
Application and Network
HTTP-DNS-SSH Data

At
Layer 1 : This is the cable between your computers
Layer 2: This is the network card in your computer
Layer 3: This is where routing occurs
Layer 4: The transport layer can adjust the flow of your data (TCP: reliable date, UDP: real-time date) from the source to the destination
Layer 5: Communicating between your host
Layer 6: Where data encryption occurs
Layer 7: the things you use

TCP/IP, or the Internet Protocol suite, consists of different protocols that help computers communicate over a network.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol):
Think of TCP as a careful messenger. When you use TCP to send a message from one computer to another, it ensures that the message arrives safely, and the sender expects a confirmation that the message was received.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol):
Now, UDP is like a swift messenger. It's great for real-time conversations. When you use UDP, you're not waiting for a confirmation that your message arrived; you just send it quickly.

ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol):
Meet ICMP, the inspector of the network. It's like the protocol that checks if everything is working fine. Ever heard of "ping"? That's ICMP saying, "Hey, are you there?" It helps figure out if different parts of the network are talking to each other properly.

In simple terms, TCP is for careful and reliable communication, UDP is for quick and real-time talks, and ICMP is like a network detective making sure everything is in order.

Let's talk about LANs and WANs!

LAN (Local Area Network):
Imagine LAN as your personal space. It's like having your own set of cables and things within a small area, maybe your home or office. LAN is for when your devices are close to each other.

WAN (Wide Area Network):
Now, WAN is like connecting beyond your personal space. It goes from your place to another place, but over a wider distance. WAN is when you want to connect with something that's not right next to you, like another office in a different city.

VLANs (Virtual LANs):
Think of VLANs as separating different groups within your space. It's like having different sections but in one big area. To keep them apart, we use a tag, like a special label, to say which group each part belongs to. It's like putting stickers on things to keep them organized.

Let's dive into BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) in simple terms!

What is BGP?
BGP is like a superhero for connecting different computer networks. It's used to link big things together, like connecting a data center to the cloud joining one organization with another, or even connecting to the internet.

How does BGP work?
Imagine BGP as a messenger for computers. It uses special messages, like saying "hello" to check if everything is good. These messages help exchange information about the best paths for data to travel from one place to another.

BGP Messages:
In the BGP world, there are four types of messages:

Open Message: It's like saying "Let's talk!"
Keep-Alive Message: It's like a health check to make sure everything is okay.
Update Message: It's when BGP shares information about the best paths.
Notification Message: If there's a problem, BGP sends a notification, like an error alert.

BGP Attributes:
BGP uses some special attributes to decide the best paths:

Origin Attribute: It tells where the information comes from.
ASpath: It's like a road map, showing the path the data should take.
Next Hop: It points to the next destination, like a guide for the data.

Forming a Relationship:
BGP goes through different phases to start talking:

Idle: It's like getting ready.
Active: It's actively trying to connect.
Turning Traffic: Finally, it starts handling the actual data traffic.

So, in simple terms, BGP is like a superhero messenger helping computers decide the best routes for data to travel from one place to another.

In conclusion, computer networking serves as the vital infrastructure that connects devices, allowing seamless communication and data sharing.

I trust you found this article valuable. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or share your thoughts in the comments section.

Submit your Application for the AWS Community Builder Program in 2024

Akinwumi Omolade — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 23:28:41 +0000

I have been an AWS community builder since 2022 and it has been a great experience. Being a community builder is not just about giving but you also get

To be in a community of individuals with diverse technical background
Certification vouchers
Random perks from Jason Dunn

Among many others. In the end, it is about what you make of it.

The 2024 Community Builders application form is now live!

https://lnkd.in/dyyibFP7

Please note that you will need to apply with a Builder ID.

This is the first time the AWS builder community will be making use of an authenticated application. That means applicants will need to use a Builder ID to apply. Hence, if you do not have a Builder ID, you will need to create one here (or just log in if you already have one.)

DevOps: Intersection of Development and Operations

Akinwumi Omolade — Wed, 03 May 2023 23:27:44 +0000

DevOps Case Study

What is DevOps and its Application in the Software Release Process
Why We Need DevOps
Challenges DevOps Aims to solve
DevOps Principles

When creating the application, there are 2 main departments involved in its successful delivery: Development and Operations

Development : This involves

Developing the application
Testing the application

Operations : This involves

Deploying the application
Maintaining the application on a server

DevOps is the intersection between the development and the operations

A Typical Software Release Process in the initial launch

Why is there a need between the development and operations departments?

When you have an idea for improving an application,

You implement it in code
You test it
Build and package it
Deploy it
Once the application has been released, you can then observe it in production to see if there are any improvement possibilities or issues that needs to be fixed.

This basically gives a process of continuous delivery of changes (an endless cycle of improvement to the application).

DevOps is about making this process of continuous delivery fast and with minimal error / bugs.

In other words, DevOps = Quickly delivering of High Quality code

How is a DevOps engineer involved in Development? As a DevOps engineer, you need to understand

The concept of how developers work
How the application is configured to talk to other services or databases
The concept of automated testing.

The application being developed will need to be deployed on a server (infrastructure) to enable users to access it, hence the Operations department.

As a DevOps engineer, you would need to prepare the infrastructure (either on-premise, cloud or hybrid) to run the servers.

These servers will need to be configured to run the application. To begin with, you as a DevOps engineer must understand

The basics of Linux (since most of the servers where applications are running are linux servers)
The command line interface
Server management
Networking and security e.g
- Firewall
- Load balancers
- IP, DNS Resolution

Now, what is DevOps?

DevOps combines cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increase an organization's ability to deliver applications and services at increased speed and in less time.

This faster delivery of improved and scalable products is made possible through the use of tools that help to operate and evolve applications quickly and reliably. These tools enable engineers to independently accomplish tasks such as deployment and infrastructure provisioning.

Challenges that DevOps tries to solve

During the release process, DevOps aims to provide solutions for

Fallouts and roadblocks caused by miscommunication and lack of collaboration.
Conflict of interest between the development and operations team.
Security
Application testing
Manual work

DevOps tries to remove all these roadblocks and things that may slow down the release process.

It aims to achieve Fully Automated and Streamlined Processes

DEVOPS PRINCIPLES

In 2010 Damon Edwards and John Willis came up with the CAMS model to showcase the key values of DevOps. CAMS is an acronym that stands for Culture, Automation, Measurement, and Sharing. These are the main principles of DevOps

Culture DevOps is first and foremost, the culture and mindset, forging strong collaborative bonds between software development and infrastructure operations teams.

Automation Of Processes Automating as many development, testing, configuration, and deployment procedures as possible is the golden rule of DevOps. It allows specialists to get rid of time-consuming repetitive work and focus on other important activities that cant be automated by their nature.

Measurement of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)To get optimal performance, it is necessary to keep track of the progress of activities composing the DevOps flow. Gathering various metrics of a system allows better understanding of systems that work and those that can be improved.

Sharing Sharing explains the DevOps philosophy better than anything else as it highlights the importance of collaboration. It is crucial to share feedback, best practices, and knowledge among teams since this promotes transparency, creates collective intelligence and eliminates constraints.

Thank you for reading...😃

AWS fundamentals and benefits of cloud computing

Akinwumi Omolade — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 12:14:40 +0000

Introduction

In this 2 part series, we are going to be discussing the basics and benefits of cloud computing, and 5 AWS fundamentals. This first part would focus on the basics and benefits of cloud computing as well as the first 2 fundamentals of AWS, Cloud Concepts, and AWS Global Infrastructure.

What is cloud computing?

The textbook definition of this as described by AWS is: Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis from a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS)

In simple terms, Cloud computing allows you to use or share supercomputers - computers that are typically way more powerful than your regular laptops and desktops and specifically designed to handle specialized tasks, without having to pay a fortune and hire a bunch of experts to set up and manage yours locally.

Who are the top players in cloud computing?

In no particular order, these are some of the top players in the computing industry: Amazon Web Services (AWS) Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Azure

Most of these platforms offer the same services like Infrastructure-as-a-service, Platform-as-a-service, Software-as-a-service, and benefits like cost savings, elasticity, fast global deploys, etc. to varying degrees.

So why AWS?

AWS is widely popular and used across the globe for the following reasons:

Establishment and services: it started in 2006 with the launch of its Simple Storage and Elastic Computer Cloud solutions. While others like GCP and Azure came into the picture around 2010 and 2011 respectively. In terms of services, AWS is a clear leader with over 200+ services, while Azure offers around 100+ services, with GCP lagging with only around 60 services.
Availability Zones and market share: AWS is available in over 66 zones across the globe, while platforms like Azure and GCP only have about 54 and 20 zones respectively. This results in a dominant 32% ($39.9 billion as of February of 2021) market share
Pricing: Believe it or not AWS offers friendlier pricing for the range of services it provides. The only catch is, that you can quickly run into debt if you dont know what you are doing. They offer different pricing models like

What are the AWS fundamentals?http://www.pointernext.com/cpr?pg=awsfundamentals

A deep dive

Cloud Concepts (Cloud Computing)

First of all, Lets burst some myth bubbles! Cloud Computing doesnt mean we are magically storing data into the same place that holds rain - that would be almost impossible ;).

The real deal:

Cloud Computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer. The main catch about cloud computing is in the definition above - rather than. Managing your own servers comes with a lot of operations overhead, cost and risks. With cloud computing, all of that is removed and you are allowed to focus more on the actual business of building and releasing software to users.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

There are several reasons why you might want to use cloud computing (maybe over an on-premise solution). Here are some of the (by no way exhaustive) benefits of cloud computing:

Less Expensive: There is an inherent capital cost associated with setting up your own servers which tends to be an expensive overhead cost. Attached to that is the variable cost required to maintain these servers such as IT equipment and personnel costs. With cloud computing, you only pay for what you use when you need to use them.
Easier and faster to scale: You find it easier and faster to scale with cloud computing because setting up servers or handling more load is a matter of clicking a few buttons to setup horizontal and vertical scaling instead of waiting for days or weeks for your IT department to set things up.
Faster Deployments: making your app globally available in multiple regions is now way faster and more easier to achieve with cloud computing. Your customers are happy because they get access to your content at extremely fast speeds.

AWS Global Infrastructure

One of the secrets behind AWS success is its geographical presence. AWS is available within 22 Geographic Regions around the world and 69 Availability Zones and 44 Edge locations! But what are these things or places?

Geographic Cloud Regions: Cloud regions are actual real-life geographic regions where data centers are located. It is important to be intentional about your cloud regions because they affect both the latency (speed of content or data delivery) and cost of delivering value to your users. For example if your customers are in Africa, it might be better to select the South African Region to host your data centers. It is also good to note that different geographic regions respond to the powers of demand and supply on their real estate differently which could impact pricing for different regions.
Availability Zones: An Availability Zone (AZ) is one or more discrete data centers with redundant power, networking, and connectivity in an AWS Region. There are multiple availability zones (69) across the AWS geographic cloud regions. For each region multiple availability zones are physically separated and connected with private low latency, high throughput, and redundant network connections.
Edge Locations: AWS Edge location are the places where data are cached to reduce the latency to users. They are located in the major cities around the world. For example, in Africa there are three edge location spots ( Cape Town, South Africa; Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya). These infrastructure are only used to provide services such as CloudFront, lambda, etc.

We have covered the basics and benefits of cloud computing and covered 2 out of our 5 deep dives in our series.

My next article will focus on the 3 other fundamentals of AWS that you would need to know about. See you next time :)

Thank you for coming by. Do well to reach out onLinkedIn or Twitter for collaborations 😃

References

cover: https://digitalcloud.training/aws-cloud-computing-concepts/

https://aws.amazon.com/what-is-cloud-computing/

https://www.agilisium.com/blogs/why-aws-and-comparison/

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions\_az/

Aws Vpc

Akinwumi Omolade — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 09:50:15 +0000

What is the Idea behind a VPC?

VPC stands for Virtual Private Cloud. It is your own network in the cloud. In a Region, there are Availability Zones on which we can launch EC2 instances, RDS instances, or other services.

Now, a VPC is an isolated network in a region that spans all availability zones in that region There are several other VPCs in the AWS cloud and as they have no access to your VPC and vice-versa.

Why would you want to isolate your network?

Isolation basically means you can manage multiple networks on your account which are isolated from each other.

You might need this from a compliance perspective.
You may want to connect your on-prem data center to your cloud provider. You need at least one VPC, this will serve as your own network or data center in the cloud.

What is VPC used for

Essentially, VPC enables you to deploy resources. Within your VPC, you are able to utilize different compute resources, storage or database, and other network infrastructure such as Amazon EC2 Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) AWS Virtual Private Network (VPN)

This, therefore, allows you to be able to build and as well, deploy your solution within the cloud.

In AWS, each region is only allowed a maximum of 5 VPCs

What do you need to create a VPC

When you are creating a VPC, you have to specify the following:

Region it will be used
Name
IP address range
When you are defining the range for the IP address, you do so in CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) blocks.

Definition of a VPC

Finally, how do we define a VPC in AWS?

A virtual private cloud is a private environment or isolated segment of the AWS public cloud that only you have access to. It allows you to provision and deploy resources in a safe and secure manner.

Summary of a Virtual Private cloud

In the AWS Infrastructure, the VPC resides inside the AWS cloud
The VPC is your own private segment of the AWS cloud.
It allows you to define and control isolated virtual networks and then deploy cloud resources into those networks.
When you create your own VPC, only you have access to it.

Thank you for coming by. Do well to reach out on LinkedIn or Twitter for collaborations 😃

References

Level Up Coding

AWS VPC

AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate

Akinwumi Omolade — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 09:23:17 +0000

Introduction

One thing the AWS community loves is certificates, there are certificates for almost every part of the AWS ecosystem. Although its a good thing that helps your job prospects, sometimes, it can be overwhelming!

Well, today, we will be demystifying one of those certificates and helping you understand what an AWS Cloud Practitioner Certificate really is, and whether you really need it or not.

Definitions and some basics

First of all, its a certificate (obviously, I know)! But to be more specific, it is a generalized certificate that anyone (either a programmer or non-technical manager) on the technology spectrum can get and apply in various ways. The certification exam tests your fundamental knowledge of AWS and shows that you are at least familiar with the AWS console and are able to navigate it.

What it entails

Well like I said earlier, it contains the fundamentals of AWS;

Cloud Concepts
AWS Global Infrastructure
AWS Account, Billing, and Pricing Models
Services (Database, Provisioning, Computing, Storage, Logging)
Security

Do you really need it?

By its very nature, the certification is designed to be easy to get. It is less complicated than other associate certificates like the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Certificate.

So why not just focus on the other certificates?

Well, AWS exams can be very tricky, and you might need some real experience with them. So my advice is you should still take this exam even if you think you can take the other certificates. Regardless though, the Cloud Practitioner Certificate explores all aspects of AWS fundamentals.

Some resources to help you get started.

If you are ready to take the certification exam, then you can take a look at my next article which goes into more detail about the AWS fundamentals mentioned above here. You can also check out this video by freeCodeCamp AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Training 2023

Thank you for coming by. Do well to reach out on LinkedIn or Twitter for collaborations 😃

References

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/reshma-savania-157a603\_aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-was-issued-activity-6969636502762831873-C0Ej

Web Servers

Akinwumi Omolade — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 06:45:38 +0000

A web server simply put is really just a piece of software that serves web content.

The main job of a web server is to display website content by storing, processing and delivering webpages to users.

A web server does the following in this specific order:

Listens
On a port
For a request
Through a Transport Protocol
Returns a Response
Containing the requesting Resource

What does it mean for a web server to Listen?

To listen means to prepare the the web server to accept client connection requests. When an application runs on a device, it has a unique port number attached to the process running.

For example, an HTTP server would listen on port 80 while an HTTPS listens on port 443. This means the server has created listening sockets on port 80 and 443 respectively.

While a web server is waiting for new connections, the kernel puts the process into an interruptible sleep state and runs other processes. This process of entering into 'deep sleep' is important because having the process poll continuously would waste CPU resources.

How does the OS manage the web server?

The kernel is able to use the system resources more efficiently by blocking the process until there is work for it to do.

As soon as the network receives new data, the network card issues an interrupt(break sleep).
Seeing that there is an interrupt from the network card, the kernel, via the network card driver, reads the new data from the network card and stores it in memory. (This must be done quickly and is generally handled inside the interrupt handler.)
The kernel processes the newly arrived data and associates it with a socket. A process that is blocking on that socket will be marked runnable, meaning that it is now eligible to run. It does not necessarily run immediately (the kernel may decide to run other processes still).
At its leisure, the kernel will wake up the blocked web server process. (Since it is now runnable.) The web server process continues executing as if no time has passed. Its blocking system call returns and it processes any new data.

https://www.fastwebhost.in/blog/what-is-web-server-and-different-types-of-web-servers/

Definition

Now, how do we define web servers? A web server is software and hardware that uses HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and other protocols to respond to client requests made over the World Wide Web.

Protocols web servers support

The familiar Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is most often associated with the World Wide Web. This is one of the transfer protocols in use on the internet. Others include: File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and*Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)*. HTTP is the most used transport protocol for web services, and it plays a crucial role in REST.

Uses of web servers

Web servers often come as part of a larger package of internet- and intranet-related programs that are used for:

sending and receiving emails;
downloading requests for File Transfer Protocol (FTP) files; and
building and publishing webpages.

Common and top web server software on the market

There are a number of common web servers available, some including:

Apache HTTP Server. Developed by Apache Software Foundation, it is a free and open source web server for Windows, Mac OS X, Unix, Linux, Solaris and other operating systems; it needs the Apache license.
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). Developed by Microsoft for Microsoft platforms; it is not open sourced, but widely used.
Nginx. A popular open source web server for administrators because of its light resource utilization and scalability. It can handle many concurrent sessions due to its event-driven architecture. Nginx also can be used as a proxy server and load balancer.

How to secure a web server

There are a couple of security practices that can make for a safer experience

Using reverse proxy : this is designed to hide an internal server and act as an intermediary for traffic on an internal server;
Restricting access by connecting through the use of Secure Socket Shell (SSH)
Using a firewall and SSL : firewalls can monitor HTTP traffic while having a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) can help keep data secure.

Thank you for coming by. Do well to reach out on LinkedIn or Twitter for collaborations 😃

References

cover: https://www.kissclipart.com/shared-hosting-clipart-shared-web-hosting-service-pfb9lz/

https://www.howtogeek.com/201958/how-do-web-servers-listen-for-new-requests/

https://www.microfocus.com/documentation/extend-acucobol/925/GUID-504F2B0D-9EAD-40BB-8E54-82B4C63E83F0.html

https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/Web-server