Icelandic Yule Lads and what they teach us about DDI.

As an Icelandic company with an international presence, we like to talk about the way we celebrate Christmas here, in Iceland. You may be familiar with Santa, his little elves, and the joy they bring to Children worldwide as they come down the chimney baring gifts. But are you familiar with the Yule Lads?

The Yule Lads are Iceland´s thirteen Santas (yes you read that right!). Icelandic folklore tells the tale of these Yule Lads who live in the mountains with Gryla, their terrifying mother, their father Leppaludi, and their infamous Christmas cat. Despite the bleak stories behind these characters (such a Gryla eating the naughty children), each night, starting December 12^th, this troll-ish family comes down from the mountains to visit the children of Iceland. It is tradition for children to leave out a shoe over night and wakeup to a potato or nice treat depending on whether they were naughty or nice throughout the year.

Yesterday marked the first day of the Yule Lads coming down from the mountain to see the children, and every day until December 24th, a different Yule Lad will be bringing a treat... or potato.

So let us introduce you to them and see if some of them can teach us anything about DDI!

December 12^th - The first of the Yule Lads has arrived here in Iceland: Sheep-Cote Clod, or Stekkjarstaur, as he is called in Icelandic. Stekkjarstaur is known for his predicament in wanting to get something (ewe’s milk, most notably) but impaired by limping on his wooden peg legs.

A comparable “limp” in enterprise network management could be with IP address management. For example, who wants to navigate a full IP range when all they need is just one free IP address to finish a project?

December 13^th – Giljagaur (Gully Gawk) sneaks into your cowshed to steal milk.

December 14^th –Stúfur (Stubby) who’s very short, will steal your pie pans to eat leftover crust.

December 15^th – Þvörusleikir (Spoon-licker) who’s very thin will steak your wooden spoons just to put a little meat on his bones.

December 16^th – Pottaskefill (Pot-Scraper) steals leftovers from pots.
So this made us think, how do you find a free IP address? Your IP ranges are large, and most of the IP addresses are used or claimed. Finding a free IP shouldn´t be a burden on your scrolling finger or on the succesfull deployment of an app.
Fear not, Micetro has a function just for that!

You can select the range you’d like to use, and click on ‘Find first free IP address’ in the box on the right.

December 17^th – Askasleikir (Bowl-Licker) hides under the bed to steal bowls when you put them down between bites or to give the leftovers to your pets.
He may or may not be also responsible for snatching up that one free IP address you found in the subnet, but by the time you returned from typing it into your script, it’s gone!

Worry not, Micetro has a nice little feature to mitigate this: simply use “Find next free IP address” with a range selected. Not only will it jump to the appropriate IP, but it’ll also hold it for you for 10 minutes! (Or however long your admin sets it.)

December 18^th – Hurðaskellir (Door-Slammer) likes to wake people up in the middle of the night by slamming doors.

December 19^th -  Skyrgámur (Yogurt-Gobbler) really like yogurt. Maybe just leave some out for him.

December 20^th – Bjúgnakrækir (Sausage-Swiper) likes to hide in the rafters and steal the sausages people put up there to smoke.
Which is to say, you have to be aware that attacks can come from anywhere. Security is complex.
One important thing you can do for security is establishing redundancy for your DNS. And with the xDNS feature of Micetro, it’s easier than ever.

December 21^st – Gluggagægir (Window-Peeper). Cancel culture has been rough on old Gluggagægir, though as he likes to peek through windows and steal shiny things he likes.

But the good news is that Gluggagægir won’t be able to peek into your DNS zones and IP ranges — because Micetro comes with granular, role-based access controls!

December 22^nd – Gáttaþefur (Door-Sniffer) has a keen olfactory sense which he uses to locate leaf bread and steal it. Not that you can fault him, freshly baked bread smells amazing.

December 23^rd – Ketkrókur (Meat-Hook) uses his trusty hook to steal meat.
But you know, Micetro has hooks too! Not for meat, but for network automation!

Even better, the Micetro API (available in REST, SOAP, and JSON-RPC) is the only API you have to use to connect to any platform: be your DNS on Route 53, or Azure, or Akamai; or IP ranges in AWS, or OpenStack, or on-premise.

Enough to make Ketkrókur a bit jealous don´t you think?

December 24^th – Kertasníkir (Candle-Stealer) hasn’t gotten the notice that candles are no longer edible.

And thus is the wonderful (sometimes a little bleak) story of the Icelandic Yule Lads! I hope this blog has brought you some smiles, tought you something new, and inspired you on how to better manage your DDI!

Did you know you can give Micetro a try? We have a Free Trial! Just sign up and receive your license keys to get started. Micetro is a non-disruptive solution, so you can install it risk free in your environment to try it out. If you're not happy, you can simply uninstall it without having to make changes to your environment.