New Blog Posts (PacketPushers)
This blog is no longer being updated. All my new blog posts are being published on the PacketPushers site.
Articles by jkerns
Python: TinyXMLtoDict
TinyXMLtoDict (TXD) is a skinny XML to Python dictionary converter which works in Python2 or Python3 and requires no non-native libraries/modules. It was built to do XML conversions for simple data structures (like REST calls)…
Useful Utilities
Troubleshooting and managing a network is much easier when you have the proper tools. Anybody who has been in the IT world for a time likely has a stash of small, portable, and often free…
RadiUID: Palo Alto User-ID and RADIUS
The Palo Alto User-ID feature is awesome as long as you can feed it IP-to-User mappings. PAN provides agents to do this which work in many environments, but not usually without Active Directory. I wrote…
Back to Basics: Cooling – Part 2
The second [and final] part of the Back to Basics: Cooling mini-series where we dissect Relative Humidity, Calculating Cooling Capacity, and Converting Between Units.
Back to Basics: Cooling – Part 1
In this pair of articles I will be dissecting the fundamentals of cooling and refrigeration from an IT engineering perspective, then going over the process of sizing a cooling system.
Podcast Launch: Infotrek
A few of us engineers just launched a new podcast called Infotrek. Come check it out!
Datacenter Vanity
I’ve been noticing a trend recently in enterprise networking where managers and engineers alike are more concerned (obsessed) with the physical appearance of their rack, wires, and network equipment than they are with the actual…
Back to Basics: Power and Cooling Cheat Sheet
As a supplement to the Back to Basics: Power article, I created this cheat sheet to stow away for a rainy day. Next time you need to remember how to calculate wattage, or need to…
Back to Basics: Power
In this article I will be walking through some of the elements of power design and management in a context relevant to IT engineers. Although we, as IT-centric engineers, may only deal with electrical power…