Basics of Networking for Devops Engineers : Terminology

Overview

As a DevOps Engineer, networking is an inevitable component because it ensures smooth communication between microservices and applications, helps in managing cloud infrastructure, automating deployments, and ensuring system security. Here, we will familiarize ourselves with the basic networking terminologies that a DevOps Engineer must adopt as part of their common vocabulary.

1. Networking Components:

• IP Address (Internet Protocol): A unique address assigned to devices in a network (IPv4, IPv6).

• MAC Address (Media Access Control): A hardware address assigned to network interfaces.

• Subnetting: Dividing a large network into smaller networks for better management.

Let us understand this better using an analogical approach.
Imagine a school named NetworkSchool 🏫, where each student, classroom, teacher, and hallway plays an important role in communication.

Each student in a class, say Class 1-A, is assigned a unique roll number. No two students in the same class have the same roll number. Whenever the teacher calls out a roll number—say 25—the correct student, Madhav👦🏽, responds. This is analogous to an IP address.

Now, Madhav👦🏽 moves from Class 1-A to Class 1-C. Here, the student moves from one subnet to another. In his new class, he is assigned a different roll number—say 27. However, his name remains the same. This is similar to a MAC address—even though Madhav’s IP address (roll number) changes when he moves to a new subnet (classroom), his MAC address (identity) remains unchanged.

2. Essential Networking Devices

• Router: Directs traffic between multiple networks, ensuring data reaches the right destination.

• Switch: Connects multiple devices within a local network, efficiently forwarding data between them.

Router vs. Switch: What’s the Difference? 🤔

Now, let’s compare these two in a fun way! 🎭

Lets compare this with another analogy.
Two brothers Madhav 👦🏽 and Shyam👦🏾study in different schools. They wait at the gate of their apartment waiting for their respective school buses 🚌🚍to pick them. The gatekeeper🧑‍✈️ ensures that each child takes the correct school bus so they don’t end up in the wrong school.
Madhav👦🏽 has a bus-mate Ram👦🏻 who is in class 3-A. When the bus reaches the school, the PT teacher 👨‍🏫 directs Madhav👦🏽 to class 1-C and Ram👦🏻 to 3-A
To summarise,
The router (gatekeeper) makes sure data (Madhav and Shyam) reach the correct networks(schools). The switch (PT teacher) ensures each data inside the network goes to their correct device (classroom ).

3. Networking Protocols

• HTTP/HTTPS: A set of rules for communication between a client and a server. When you visit a website, your browser sends an HTTP request to the server, which responds with an HTTP response.
  An extension of HTTP that uses encryption and verification to establish a secure connection between the browser and the server. HTTPS uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to encrypt data.

• TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol): It is a suite of communication protocols used to interconnect network devices on the internet (eg: recorded videos in youtube).

• UDP (User Datagram Protocol): Faster but less reliable than TCP, used in real-time communication (eg: Online streaming).

• SSH (Secure Shell): Secure remote login to servers.

• FTP/SFTP (File Transfer Protocol): Used for transferring files over a network.

• SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) : SMTP is a communication protocol used for sending emails across the internet. It acts like a postman that delivers messages from the sender's email server to the recipient’s email server.

• DNS (Domain Name System): DNS is like the phonebook of the internetIt helps translate human-friendly domain names (e.g., www.google.com) into IP addresses (e.g., 142.250.182.14) that computers use to locate and communicate with each other.