Dedicated support for Metal OTW – Join the Beta!
The new support experience for Metal users (Beta) is Live! Metal customers have access for the very first time to an Enterprise-compliant support experience. Key Support Center Beta Features: All-New Support Case System – Easily create Metal support cases with our redesigned case submission system. Unified Case Management – View and manage all your support cases for Equinix products in one place. Seamless Collaboration – Seamlessly invite team members to monitor the status for any Metal support case. Realtime Notifications – Receive email notifications whenever your Metal case has been updated. How do I join the beta? It’s easy, fill out this request form! Who and how to access the beta? For qualifying organizations and users, the new support portal can be accessed in two ways: via a link displayed on the support page of Metal console directly via the URL https://customer-support.equinix.com/ and SSO (same credentials as for Metal) Be sure to check out the Support section of our documentation for more details and let us know how you like it!Running Terraform from a restricted environment
When running Terraform to provision and manage Equinix Fabric, Metal, and Network Edge, you may want to run Terraform from a restricted environment. Network filtering ACLs will need a predictable set of IP ranges to permit. This discussion will help you discover the IP services, ports, and address ranges your Terraform runner environment will need access to. We'll also discuss alternative ways to run Terraform configuration. If your ACLs permit the Terraform runner environment outbound HTTPS (TCP 443) and responses, that would cover everything Terraform needs to start provisioning infrastructure on Equinix. We'll assume we don't have unrestricted access and dig in a little further. Upon running, `terraform init`, Terraform will attempt to use DNS (UDP/TCP 53) services and HTTPS services to download provider plugins, such as the Equinix Terraform provider. The default host for fetching these plugins is registry.terraform.io, managed by Hashicorp. This is the defacto hub for public providers and published Terraform modules, although you may run your own local registry service. DNS for the Terraform registry points to CloudFront, a CDN whose addresses may change. If this presents a problem, there are options to download (or mirror) the necessary plugins in advance and use locally distributed copies. https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/cli/plugins Similarly, the DNS service for api.equinix.com, the one base domain that the Terraform Equinix provider will need for API access, resolves to Akamai, another CDN whose addresses may change or depend on where the request originates. As a Terraform configuration grows, you'll likely want to enable SSH access to the Metal and NE nodes being provisioned to automate OS provisioning. The SSH addresses will vary depending on the Metro where services are deployed. One way to ensure that the addresses are predictable in Metal is to provision the servers usingElastic IP addresses. A good follow-up question to this discussion is which ranges are assigned to NE devices and whether these IP addresses can be drawn from a predefined pool like Metal's Elastic IP Addresses. Terraform configurations typically include resources from multiple cloud providers. The node where the configuration is run would need to permit access to the APIs of these other providers. We'll leave the network filters needed by provisioned nodes to another discussion. Depending on your needs, cloud service providers offer managed services for Terraform or OpenTofu (a fork of Terraform persisting the original open-source license). These services can run your Terraform configuration predictably and reliably from a central location. Hashicorp provides the HCP service. https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/cloud-docs/run/run-environment Alternatives include: https://spacelift.io/ https://upbound.io https://www.env0.com/ https://www.scalr.com/ You can run similar CI/CD Terraform configuration control planes in your own backend with opensource tools such as: https://argoproj.github.io/cd/ https://www.crossplane.io/ https://docs.tofutf.io/ These SaaS providers or local solutions will also need access to the cloud provider APIs and nodes. With these providers you have full control of the configuration that is run and you can work these into a GitOps workflow. There are even more alternatives outside of the Terraform ecosystem. However, the Terraform ecosystem is your best option for the richest IaC integration experience with Equinix digital services. Equinix provides several Terraform modules to make it easy to get started. That extended ecosystem includes IaC tools that take advantage of the robust Equinix Terraform provider. These tools includePulumi and Crossplane. TLDR; You'll want to expose select DNS, HTTPS, and SSH access from your Terraform runners. What alternative deployment strategies did I miss? What other network restrictions should be considered?Podcast | Traceroute - Episode 8: When the lights go out
Synopsis How do we make technology that lasts? In this episode, Grace Ewura-Esi and Shweta Saraf join Producer John Taylor as he talks with two cutting-edge technologists who are trying to extend the life of the hardware infrastructure around us. From a cell phone tower that can be installed on your roof (and repaired just as easily), to a clock that is built to last ten thousand years, we uncover the common threads that run through technology that’s built to last. Woven in this framework is the story of Sandra Rodriguez, who worked tirelessly to restore civilization—as well as hope itself—to the island of Puerto Rico with the help of the only piece of hardware infrastructure that withstood the powerful forces of Hurricane Maria in 2017. Let us know your thoughts below!Calling All Open Source Enthusiasts! Join the Equinix Demo Day!
Hey everyone, are you passionate about the power of open source technology? We’re hosting our first Demo Day of 2024 on Tuesday, May 28th from 1-3:30pm (EDT), and it's a virtual event you won't want to miss! Why Attend? Deep Dive into Open Source: Hear from leading experts in the open-source space who will share their knowledge and insights. Expert Insights: Gain invaluable insights from our esteemed lineup of speakers, including Hannah Aubry, Robert Chacón, Herbert Wolverson, and AmyTobey. They'll share their firsthand experiences, best practices, and visionary ideas to inspire and empower you. Network with Your Community: Connect with fellow open-source enthusiasts and developers. Explore the Latest Trends: Stay ahead of the curve on what's happening in the open-source world. Subscribe to the channel and click the “Notify Me” to get notified when the livestream starts!
Exciting week here at Equinix! Don't Miss Demo Day or the Community Live Stream!
Hey Community! As we work on finishing the year strong, I have a few events that might be of interest. First, Demo Day is tomorrow Dec 12th, 2023. On Thursday, we'll also have a community live stream withTom_McLaughlinspecial guest! Check out the home page for the event schedule and mark you calendars. A huge shoutout to the team for the awesome work they've put into the event. I'll tag a few of them here incase anyone has questions:stevemar,waltribeiro,CrayZeigh, Marques Be sure to also catch the Community Live Stream on Thursday withwaltribeiro,Tom_McLaughlin, & myself. See you there!Ansible, Terraform, both?
Hi Community, I wanted to start a chat around some dev ops tools that we know many of our customers use. I'll throw a few questions below to get us started but feel free to go off topic if you want to discuss something outside of these questions. Does your organization use Ansible, Terraform, or both? Are there other automation tools that you use or prefer? What do you like/dislike about each of these tools? How can we improve the user experience when using these tools with Platform Equinix?New Podcast | Traceroute - Check it out!
The Podcast for digital pioneers Traceroute is a fascinating look into the inner workings of our digital world. Technical Storyteller, Grace Andrews, examines the real people, the social changes, and the hardware innovations that built and scaled the internet. Listen on:Apple| Spotify| RSS Community Posts: Episode 1: Interconnection Episode 2: Silicon Episode 3: Networks Episode 4: Wireless Episode 5: Open Source Episode 6: Sustainability Episode 7: ComputePodcast | Traceroute - Episode 2: Silicon
Synopsis When we picture computing technology in the 70’s and 80’s, we think of nerdy, ambitious, young visionaries, burning the midnight oil in some suburban garage, striving to revolutionize the world by perfecting the motherboard. And the material that would eventually ignite that revolution? Silicon. In episode 2, we take a closer look at the material that changed the world. From the earliest discoveries at Bell Labs to the cutting-edge processors that run the Cloud, silicon has become the material that democratized access to information and gave rise to the technology we know and rely on today. Let us know your thoughts below!Can Traceroute Podcast Win a Webby? Your Vote Makes the Difference!
Guess what? We're freaking out (in the best way!) because the Traceroute Podcast just got nominated for aWebby Awardin the Tech category! That's right, we're apparently one of thetop 5 tech podcasts in the WORLD– which is prettywild considering there were over13,000 projectsentered! So, can you help us win this thing?It only takes2 minutestocast your vote here by Thursday, April 18th. Every vote counts! ️
How do you save a disappearing country?
On the latest episode of Traceroute, we look at how climate change is forcing the island nation of Tuvalu to rethink what it means to be a state. For the island nation of Tuvalu, the effects of climate change are more than a warning; they’re an eviction notice. Estimates vary as to when the small chain of coral islands could vanish beneath the waves, but experts agree that Tuvalu may be uninhabitable long before then, prompting its people to set sail for a new frontier… The metaverse. Within this digital landscape, Tuvalu could potentially preserve its lands, heritage, and governance, effectively pioneering a new model for nationhood, in which a nation and its people exist in two realms—physical and virtual. But how does one go from sand to silicon while maintaining the essence of a culture? And what is the real-world environmental impact of storing a nation’s worth of data? Whether we take Tuvalu’s proposal literally or view it as a symbolic call to action, unpacking the logistics of such an ambitious project offers a glimpse at the expertise required to bring it to life—from tech experts grappling with digital economy governance to cultural preservationists digitizing traditional art and oral histories. The work forces us to ask: Can you really backup a country the way you backup a computer? And if so, what does that mean for the future of nationhood, identity, and the planet itself?
