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First Core Node Migration

AMS-IX NEWS

Tim Vriend

Tim Vriend

Continuous Improvement Specialist

17 November 2023

I am proud to share that we completed our very first Core Node migration to the Juniper Switch last week.

After several weeks of preparation, we were ready to start. The Network Operation Centre (NOC) disabled the old Core Node at Global Switch and monitored the network for a bit, while the Engineers in the data centre sharpened their scissors. The moment we got the green light, we cut away all the old fibres, removed all the old equipment and cleaned up what was left after these actions, just so we can have a fresh new installation. This took more time than we originally planned for but knowing that we never performed such a migration before, where all cables needed to be replaced, we took it as a good learning moment for the future. After all the configurations were completed, we finalised the hardware tests and decided to call it a (very long) day.

The second day was dedicated to the unpacking, labelling, and clicking of a total of 211 cables. At the same time, the NOC was doing all the configuration work and preparing for the final task of enabling traffic over the new core.

Thursday, after checking all the links one by one, we did run into some minor issues that needed our attention. Given the scale of this project, we already excepted that there would be some issues to resolve, but apart from a broken module, which we had to replace, everything went very smoothly.

“This migration marks the beginning of using the 400Gbit technology into our backbone”

This is not the end of the Juniper migration, but it is definitely a huge milestone! This migration marks the beginning of using the 400Gbit technology into our backbone, the core network of AMS-IX, which is a major step in our mission to become more sustainable. It enables us to use newer technology again and it nearly triples the capacity on these core switches.

We plan to migrate our other Core Node (at Digital Realty), during the first week of December 2023, one month ahead of schedule. For this reason, and many more, I take my hat off and bow to the team that made this possible. It is a true pleasure to work with these die-hards on a daily basis!

  • Stavros Konstantaras
  • Eric Nguyễn-Duy
  • Winston With
  • Mohamed Boukhiar
  • Alexey Urbano Canas
  • Garri Djavadyan
  • Rudy Radius

Fun Facts

  • Global Switch (where our first Core is located) is being rebuilt and because of this, a single walk from the reception to our equipment is 832 steps.
  • This installation needed nearly 1km of fibre optic cable to be installed
  • We are on track to finish the total Juniper Migration project 2 years earlier than planned, due to the improvements found during our continuous retrospectives.

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