Now that Ryan Werber (“Scrye” on Freenode #cisco) has passed the CCIE exam and became #38168, he apparently has some extra free time on his hands.
Update: This “Star Wars Traceroute” has been propagating (see what I did there?) like wildfire in the nerd-o-sphere since I first published this post. Since then, Ryan has originated (get it!?) a Tumbler page where he explains how and why he did it and also posted the configs that he used. Contrary to the assumptions of many on Hacker News (who may be “rock star hackers” but obviously aren’t network engineers), he did not deploy a shit-ton of virtual machines to do it. Instead, he accomplished it with a pair of low-end Cisco ISR routers and a bunch of VRFs (and, of course, a DNS server). Scrye will neither confirm nor deny whether he had the assistance of the “VRF Smurf” in putting it all together.
$ traceroute -m 100 -q 1 216.81.59.173 traceroute to 216.81.59.173 (216.81.59.173), 100 hops max, 60 byte packets ... 3 ae6-449.edge2.Chicago2.Level3.net (4.30.13.41) 10.838 ms 4 vl-3602-ve-226.ebr2.Chicago2.Level3.net (4.69.158.54) 10.983 ms 5 ae-1-51.edge3.Chicago3.Level3.net (4.69.138.136) 10.982 ms 6 gblx-level3-10g.Chicago3.Level3.net (4.68.63.66) 11.197 ms 7 HURRICANE-ELECTRIC-LLC-Ashburn.TenGigabitEthernet4-4.ar3.DCA3.gblx.net (64.214.121.170) 35.826 ms 8 10gigabitethernet1-2.core1.atl1.he.net (184.105.213.110) 51.048 ms 9 216.66.0.26 (216.66.0.26) 44.041 ms 10 * 11 Episode.IV (206.214.251.1) 94.905 ms 12 A.NEW.HOPE (206.214.251.6) 96.390 ms 13 It.is.a.period.of.civil.war (206.214.251.9) 97.131 ms 14 Rebel.spaceships (206.214.251.14) 93.888 ms 15 striking.from.a.hidden.base (206.214.251.17) 100.856 ms 16 have.won.their.first.victory (206.214.251.22) 99.782 ms 17 against.the.evil.Galactic.Empire (206.214.251.25) 98.152 ms 18 During.the.battle (206.214.251.30) 97.891 ms 19 Rebel.spies.managed (206.214.251.33) 101.350 ms 20 to.steal.secret.plans (206.214.251.38) 110.337 ms 21 to.the.Empires.ultimate.weapon (206.214.251.41) 109.110 ms 22 the.DEATH.STAR (206.214.251.46) 107.664 ms 23 an.armored.space.station (206.214.251.49) 110.316 ms 24 with.enough.power.to (206.214.251.54) 114.483 ms 25 destroy.an.entire.planet (206.214.251.57) 112.441 ms 26 Pursued.by.the.Empires (206.214.251.62) 113.439 ms 27 sinister.agents (206.214.251.65) 115.253 ms 28 Princess.Leia.races.home (206.214.251.70) 116.631 ms 29 aboard.her.starship (206.214.251.73) 117.439 ms 30 custodian.of.the.stolen.plans (206.214.251.78) 119.306 ms 31 that.can.save.her (206.214.251.81) 119.458 ms 32 * 33 freedom.to.the.galaxy (206.214.251.89) 120.390 ms 34 0-------------------0 (206.214.251.94) 122.645 ms 35 0------------------0 (206.214.251.97) 123.462 ms 36 0-----------------0 (206.214.251.102) 123.462 ms 37 0----------------0 (206.214.251.105) 126.516 ms 38 0---------------0 (206.214.251.110) 126.885 ms 39 0--------------0 (206.214.251.113) 133.179 ms 40 0-------------0 (206.214.251.118) 132.983 ms 41 0------------0 (206.214.251.121) 134.323 ms 42 0-----------0 (206.214.251.126) 134.317 ms 43 0----------0 (206.214.251.129) 136.663 ms 44 0---------0 (206.214.251.134) 134.644 ms 45 0--------0 (206.214.251.137) 138.128 ms 46 0-------0 (206.214.251.142) 137.741 ms 47 0------0 (206.214.251.145) 138.064 ms 48 0-----0 (206.214.251.150) 131.350 ms 49 0----0 (206.214.251.153) 111.471 ms 50 0---0 (206.214.251.158) 113.649 ms 51 0--0 (206.214.251.161) 110.592 ms 52 0-0 (206.214.251.166) 111.370 ms 53 00 (206.214.251.169) 109.261 ms 54 I (206.214.251.174) 112.135 ms 55 By.Ryan.Werber (206.214.251.177) 117.487 ms 56 When.CCIEs.Get.Bored (206.214.251.182) 111.883 ms 57 CCIE.38168 (206.214.251.185) 117.883 ms 58 FIN (206.214.251.190) 111.251 ms
Apparently /31s aren’t used on the CCIE lab exam. *grin*
