Blogs

We've published a wishlist of lab equipment that we're seeking, to enable us to develop and test support for particular network devices. As it says on our wishlist:

We want to develop configuration templates for as wide a variety of network devices as we possibly can. In order to develop templates for a particular device, though, we need to have a representative sample of the device in our lab. We're always looking to buy good working used equipment for our lab, if the price is right, although of course we're also happy to accept donations. We're also happy to consider long-term loans of equipment from customers or vendors who would like to see better support for their favorite products in our tools.

So, if you've got anything from our wishlist that you'd like to give/loan/sell us, please email me: Brent Chapman <brent@netomata.com>.

Thanks!

I've gotten started on the Netomata FAQ, to address some of the questions we've been getting about who we are, what we're doing, and so forth. (If you want to see all the questions and answers on one page, just click the "Printer-friendly version" link at the bottom of the FAQ page).

I've also gotten started on the documentation for ncg (the Netomata Config Generator) and some of its associated file formats. I'll be filling out the documentation over the next few weeks, as well as providing some sample use cases, as we work towards our first public beta release. Hopefully, if all goes well, the first public beta release will happen around the end of this month. (If you want to hear about the beta release as soon as it's available, please fill out the form on the Tools page to subscribe to the Netomata-News mailing list.)

I'll be giving a 10-minute talk about ncg in the "Works in Progress" session at the USENIX LISA Conference on Friday 14 Nov 08. The full session runs 11:00am-12:30pm in the California Room at the conference site; I'm not sure yet when within the session I'll be presenting.

I'll be at the USENIX LISA conference in San Diego week after next. The full conference runs from Sunday 9 Nov 08 through Friday 14 Nov 08; I'll be there from Tuesday through Friday. If you're there, catch me sometime during the conference, and I'd love to tell you more about what Netomata is working on.

I walked into my local coffee shop this morning wearing my spiffy new "Netomata" logo baseball cap, and somebody asked me "what is Netomata?" Such a short question, with so many potential interpretations...

• What are we building?
• Why does the world needs what we're building?
• Who are we?
• Where does the name come from?