A nice feature with QSFP (Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable) is that you can turn a single QSFP port into 2 or 4 independent ports using a breakout cable. In my home lab, I have an Nvidia/Mellanox SN2100 switch running Onyx (MLNX-OS), which I use for my iSCSI network. I also have an HPE MSA 2040…
For the most part, PoE (Power over Ethernet) works perfectly with LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol). I recently ran into a bizarre issue with a UniFi AP and an HPE Aruba switch where the AP would reboot under load. In this post, I will cover how I fixed it and everything I learned in this…
An issue I’ve run into on Palo Alto Networks firewalls is that everything seems to work when importing a certificate (usually a PFX). Until you start using the certificate, then after a validation or a commit, there’s a warning that the certificate chain is not correctly formed. Warning: certificate chain not correctly formed in certificate…
If you haven’t heard of SolarWinds Kiwi CatTools, it is a great tool for network automation. I primarily use it to back up network configurations. Before 2009, Kiwi CatTools (KCT) was developed by Kiwi Enterprises. In 2009, SolarWinds acquired Kiwi Enterprises. SolarWinds continues to develop KCT. The upgrade process can feel a bit scary if…
Palo Alto Networks makes a program named Terminal Server Agent, aka the TS Agent. It is similar to the User-ID agent. However, the TS Agent is built to identify users on a multi-user system. In this post, I will show you step-by-step how to upgrade the Palo Alto Networks Terminal Server agent. Prerequisites The TS…
By default, with Onyx (MLNX-OS), when you export the switch configuration, it is exported as a bin file rather than the regular text-based config files we are all used to. Fortunately, there’s a way to export the configuration as a text file. In this post, I will show you step-by-step how to generate and export…
Palo Alto Networks firewalls often require a device certificate. A device certificate is needed for items like device telemetry and for some of the CDSS (Cloud-Delivered Security Services) items, such as WildFire, DNS and URL filtering, and others. In this post, I show you step-by-step how to check if a device certificate is installed and…
Palo Alto Networks has this awesome program called the User Identification Agent, aka the User-ID Agent. It allows you to identify which device a user is using, allowing you to craft security policy rules based on the users themselves. In this post, I will show you step-by-step how to upgrade the Palo Alto Networks User-ID…
If you have been using the UniFi controller for a very long time, there’s a chance you are running an older version of MongoDB. When Ubiquiti released version 8.1 of the UniFi network application server, they finally bumped up the supported MongoDB version from 4.4 to 7.0. The MongoDB upgrade path only supports jumping one…
When you self-host the UniFi Controller or the UniFi Network Application server, it’s a good idea to take a backup before making major changes. Backups are always a good thing to have. In this post, I will show you step-by-step how to take a settings only backup of the UniFi Network Application server. The Process
