Cisco UCS Requirements

Does UCS (Servers and Storage) have to have Nexus infrastructure or it can also work with Cisco Catalyst 6509 series switches.
If I understand correctly, Nexus is recommended switches for optimal performance and UCS should also work with Cisco Catalyst infrastructure as well.
Thanks

Both switches will work fine. If you already have Catalyst, then you can use that for IP connectivity with UCS.
Nexus platform offering higher speeds and more connectivity options reducing number of devices you have in the rack.

Similar Messages

Cisco UCS with FEX system Component requirements

Hi ,
I am looking for quick suggestion for required components to have a VMware vSAN implemented using FEX system with maximum Fabric trough put. Ideally a configuration for without multipath using single Fabric switch and later on to be able to upgrade to Multipath fabric.
We are in great rush to provide POC concept and was looking if you folks can suggest me on this. If need be you want to talk to me more in detail I can available.
Appreciate your help here.
Who can I reach to able to pull up build and quote the configurations for implementing complete UCS solution.
Are these below components absolutely required ?
2 x Nexus 2232PP 10GE Fabric Extenders
The Cisco Nexus 2232PP 10GE provides 32 x 10Gb loss-less low latency Ethernet and Fiber Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE) Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus (SFP+) server ports and eight 10 Gb Ethernet and FCoE SFP+ uplink ports in a compact 1 rack unit (1RU) form factor. They enable Seamless inclusion of UCS rack servers into UCS Manager domain with UCS blade servers when connected to the UCS 6200 Fabric Interconnects, providing converged LAN, SAN, and management connectivity.
We currently have these below servers :
2 x UCSC-BASE-M2-C460
        524 GB RAM
        No SSDs
        No VIC Card
        4 x SAS 1 TB Drives
        1 x L1 Intel 1 Gbps Ethernet Adapter
        1 x L2 10Gbps Ethernet Adapter
        1 x LSI Mega RAID SAS 9240-8i (no RAID 5 support, Need a card that supports RAID5)
1 x UCSC-C240-M3L
        132 GB RAM
        30 TB SAS HDD
        1 x VIC Card
        1 x Intel I350 Gigabit Ethernet Card with 4 ports
        1 x LSI Mega RAID SAS 9240-8i (no RAID 5 support, Need a card that supports RAID5)
1 x 5548UP Nexus Switch ( Will I be able to use this switch in place of Nexus 2232PP 10GE Fabric Extenders to achieve complete UCS solution)

Cisco UCS Manager 2.2 supports an option to connect the C-Series Rack-Mount Server directly to the Fabric Interconnects. You do not need the Fabric Extenders. This option enables Cisco UCS Manager to manage the C-Series Rack-Mount Servers using a single cable for both management traffic and data traffic.
If you need high performance low latency (storage, for VMware VSAN), direct connection to UCS Fabric Interconnect and/or N5k is recommended.

Cisco UCS RAID SAS 2008M-8i Mezzanine Card Performance?

I recently purchased a UCS C220 bundle, which includes a Cisco UCS RAID SAS 2008M-8i Mezzanine Card. I'm planning on deploying this as a standalone server running XenServer 6.2 in the near future.
I'm happy with the unit and testing is good, but for one aspect. The disk IO throughput on it seems to be far short of what I expected. I have a desktop PC with an Intel DZ77GA-70K motherboard as a lab spare, and the disk IO I can achieve from that server with the same disks exceeds what the C220 seems to be able to achieve, on a consistent repeatable basis.
The testing I am doing is based around two benchmarks:
1. A 400G file copy between the two machines, over the network back-to-back to note the maximum sustained throughput, and
2. A mix of runs with 'sysbench' to mix of tests of local IO, of sequential and random reads and writes, with the command: "sysbench --test=fileio --file-total-size=150G --file-test-mode=seqrd --init-rng=on --max-time=300 --max-requests=0 run"
For #1, I run a copy to/from an HP MicroServer Gen8, which has 12TB of disk space on it in a Linux RAID0 configuration (4x3TB Seagate drives). If I copy files to or from this HP Server to the Intel DZ77GA-70K I am able to easily saturate the 1G network, achieving a sustained 960MBit/s for an hour or more at a time. If I then take the exact same SATA disks from the DZ77GA-70K, connect these into the UCS box and do the exact same network copy with the exact same OS, I'm only about to get around ~400-500MBit/sec of sustained throughput.
For #2, the test results of which are entirely local to the C220, come in around 105-110 MByte/sec on a sequential read, which drops to around 2 MByte/sec on a random read or write test. No surprise of the enormous drop - because random reads/writes are a pretty tough IO load, but I would expect sequential reading should be much better. I can get consistent sysbench seqrd results from the MicroServer of around 300 MByte/sec, for example.
I can consistently replicate this with Redhat 6.5, as well as Gentoo (running the latest linux kernel) as well as from a Xen 6.2SP1 Hypervisor install on the C220 (tested from the Dom0 domain itself, as well as a Linux guest) all 64 bit. Jumbo frames are enabled end-to-end also, and CPU is not bottlenecking. Latest firmware is installed on all components. The ucs-cxxx-drivers.1.5.4a.iso image states that for the Redhat and Xen systems, that the required drivers are included in the OS, so I don't need to worry about installing them separately. Presumably the Gentoo system has even newer drivers again because it has a very new kernel, but alas the throughputs are the same on all of those systems.
I have tried with SATA as well as a SAS drive, and the test results are also practically the same. All disks in all servers are Seagate 6.0 Gb/s units, and none of the servers are swapping to disk at any stage.
I am happy with network IO - I can completely saturate the 1G ports easily, and I'm convinced that's not a part of the problem here.
What could cause this sort of performance? Storage card logs in CIMC don't indicate anything is wrong and none of the OS's are indicating issues of any sort, but it certainly does seem something isn't right in that I'm getting significantly superior performance from a desktop motherboard and the MicroServer, than an enterprise grade server, when testing with the exact same hard drives.
Questions:
- Is the 2008M-8i card considered a low-end RAID card or should I be getting reasonable throughput from it? I was anticipating performance at least as good as a desktop motherboard, but this doesn't seem to be the case. The RAID card as a component is more expensive than an entire MicroServer or Intel Motherboard so it should run much better, yes?
- What sort of performance should I expect out of this card on a single sequential read or write?
- Can this RAID card run drives just as JBOD's or do all disks have to be initialised in an array (even if just a RAID0 array with 1 disk)? It seems if they are added to the server they do not show up to any OS until they are initialised as part of an array, although I haven't delved into the BIOS settings of the card itself (only from CIMC so far).
- I recall seeing something about best practice of having two virtual drives on these cards, what is the impact in running more, given the card certainly allows more to be created (I currently have 4 while I am testing)
- I noticed on Cacti graphs while rebuilding a RAID1 array that the CPU ran hotter while the array was being rebuilt, and cooled down once the rebuild had completed, which indicates the rebuild was using up CPU on the host hardware. Should this not have been entirely transparent to the system if the RAID activity is offloaded to this card, or is an increase in CPU to be expected?
I'm very keen to find out others experiences of this card, what people have done to get good throughput out of it, or if I should go back to a whitebox server with an Intel board :-)
Thanks,
Reuben

Hello Reuben,
I reached out to colleagues who are more knowledge on this topic and here is their response.
- Is the 2008M-8i card considered a low-end RAID card or should I be getting reasonable throughput from it? I was anticipating performance at least as good as a desktop motherboard, but this doesn't seem to be the case. The RAID card as a component is more expensive than an entire MicroServer or Intel Motherboard so it should run much better, yes? -
2008M-8i card is a entry/value card with an expected performance which is better than a software RAID. This card doesn’t utilise memory in a standard RAID 0/1 configuration.
- What sort of performance should I expect out of this card on a single sequential read or write? - We should expect around 1GB sequential read (refer link http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/unified-computing/whitepaper_c11-728200.html)
- Can this RAID card run drives just as JBOD's or do all disks have to be initialised in an array (even if just a RAID0 array with 1 disk)? It seems if they are added to the server they do not show up to any OS until they are initialised as part of an array, although I haven't delved into the BIOS settings of the card itself (only from CIMC so far). -
This card can be used in JBOD mode. To enable JBOD mode you need to use MegaCLI commands. This option is not present as a default configuration.
Please note: Once we enable the JBOD mode – it cannot be reverted back to the default RAID mode setting.
- I recall seeing something about best practice of having two virtual drives on these cards, what is the impact in running more, given the card certainly allows more to be created (I currently have 4 while I am testing) -
This doesn’t apply for this card as it does not have any cache. Can you please point us to the document about best practice of having two virtual drives ?
- I noticed on Cacti graphs while rebuilding a RAID1 array that the CPU ran hotter while the array was being rebuilt, and cooled down once the rebuild had completed, which indicates the rebuild was using up CPU on the host hardware. Should this not have been entirely transparent to the system if the RAID activity is offloaded to this card, or is an increase in CPU to be expected? - Creating/Deleting/Modifying a RAID volume is a CPU independent operation.

Ask the Expert: Cisco UCS Troubleshooting Boot from SAN with FC and iSCSI

Welcome to this Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about Cisco UCS Troubleshooting Boot from SAN with FC and iSCSI with Vishal Mehta and Manuel Velasco.
The current industry trend is to use SAN (FC/FCoE/iSCSI) for booting operating systems instead of using local storage.
Boot from SAN offers many benefits, including:
Server without local storage can run cooler and use the extra space for other components.
Redeployment of servers caused by hardware failures becomes easier with boot from SAN servers.
SAN storage allows the administrator to use storage more efficiently.
Boot from SAN offers reliability because the user can access the boot disk through multiple paths, which protects the disk from being a single point of failure.
Cisco UCS takes away much of the complexity with its service profiles and associated boot policies to make boot from SAN deployment an easy task.
Vishal Mehta is a customer support engineer for Cisco’s Data Center Server Virtualization TAC team based in San Jose, California. He has been working in the TAC for the past three years with a primary focus on data center technologies such as Cisco Nexus 5000, Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus 1000v, and virtualization. He has presented at Cisco Live in Orlando 2013 and will present at Cisco Live Milan 2014 (BRKCOM-3003, BRKDCT-3444, and LABDCT-2333). He holds a master’s degree from Rutgers University in electrical and computer engineering and has CCIE certification (number 37139) in routing and switching and service provider.
Manuel Velasco is a customer support engineer for Cisco’s Data Center Server Virtualization TAC team based in San Jose, California. He has been working in the TAC for the past three years with a primary focus on data center technologies such as Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus 1000v, and virtualization. Manuel holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and VMware VCP and CCNA certifications.
Remember to use the rating system to let Vishal and Manuel know if you have received an adequate response.
Because of the volume expected during this event, our experts might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in the Data Center community, under subcommunity Unified Computing, shortly after the event. This event lasts through April 25, 2014. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.

Hello Evan
Thank you for asking this question. Most common TAC cases that we have seen on Boot-from-SAN failures are due to misconfiguration.
So our methodology is to verify configuration and troubleshoot from server to storage switches to storage array.
Before diving into troubleshooting, make sure there is clear understanding of this topology. This is very vital with any troubleshooting scenario. Know what devices you have and how they are connected, how many paths are connected, Switch/NPV mode and so on.
Always try to troubleshoot one path at a time and verify that the setup is in complaint with the SW/HW interop matrix tested by Cisco.
Step 1: Check at server
a. make sure to have uniform firmware version across all components of UCS
b. Verify if VSAN is created and FC uplinks are configured correctly. VSANs/FCoE-vlan should be unique per fabric
c. Verify at service profile level for configuration of vHBAs - vHBA per Fabric should have unique VSAN number
Note down the WWPN of your vhba. This will be needed in step 2 for zoning on the SAN switch and step 3 for LUN masking on the storage array.
d. verify if Boot Policy of the service profile is configured to Boot From SAN - the Boot Order and its parameters such as Lun ID and WWN are extremely important
e. finally at UCS CLI - verify the flogi of vHBAs (for NPV mode, command is (from nxos) – show npv flogi-table)
Step 2: Check at Storage Switch
a. Verify the mode (by default UCS is in FC end-host mode, so storage switch has to be in NPIV mode; unless UCS is in FC Switch mode)
b. Verify the switch port connecting to UCS is UP as an F-Port and is configured for correct VSAN
c. Check if both the initiator (Server) and the target (Storage) are logged into the fabric switch (command for MDS/N5k - show flogi database vsan X)
d. Once confirmed that initiator and target devices are logged into the fabric, query the name server to see if they have registered themselves correctly. (command - show fcns database vsan X)
e. Most important configuration to check on Storage Switch is the zoning
Zoning is basically access control for our initiator to targets. Most common design is to configure one zone per initiator and target.
Zoning will require you to configure a zone, put that zone into your current zonset, then ACTIVATE it. (command - show zoneset active vsan X)
Step 3: Check at Storage Array
When the Storage array logs into the SAN fabric, it queries the name server to see which devices it can communicate.
LUN masking is crucial step on Storage Array which gives particular host (server) access to specific LUN
Assuming that both the storage and initiator have FLOGI’d into the fabric and the zoning is correct (as per Step 1 & 2)
Following needs to be verified at Storage Array level
a. Are the wwpn of the initiators (vhba of the hosts) visible on the storage array?
b. If above is yes then Is LUN Masking applied?
c. What LUN number is presented to the host - this is the number that we see in Lun ID on the 'Boot Order' of Step 1
Below document has details and troubleshooting outputs:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/115764-ucs-san-tshoot-00.html
Hope this answers your question.
Thanks,
Vishal

Cisco UCS Director Login Problem

Hello Community,
I have recently installed Cisco UCS Director 5.1. According to the documentation the initial login requirements are admin for username and admin for password, see image;
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/ucs-director/vsphere-install-guide/5-1/b_Installing_UCSDirector_on_vSphere_5_1/b_Installing_UCSDirector_on_vSphere_5_1_chapter_010.html
However, authentication keeps on failing.
Any ideas?
Cheers
Carlton

Sergey,
If this is a real I2C issue, you may still see the same behavior on 2.0.x release if the I2C bus was not cleared before the upgrade. (in this moment I don't know if you recently performed an upgrade on the system or not)
I2C bus tranports information about the different components of the Unified System, this, meaning Chassis, IOMs, Fans, PSU, etc... What happens is that all those components try to send theit status update while other do the same and then the I2C bus gets overwhelmed, and then noone can really report their real status, so we usually recommend the customer ro reseat all major components, one at the time, to clear the bus and then do the upgrade, if that is not done before the upgrade, it still should be done after.
Try reseating the Fans and PSU, one at the time, leaving a minute in between and then, IOMs one at the time, leaving three minutes in between and begining with the subordinate to cause minimun disruption.
If this does not clear the situation, then you will need to remove one of the components already mentioned, one at the time and do a "show tech-support chassis # all brief" to see what the I2C bus reports segment by segment (chassis, Fans, PSUs...) once you remove a component and the errors on each segment stop incrementing you will have your faulty piece of hardware, and a TAC case will be needed to send a replacement.
For further analysis or assistance, I strongly recommend a TAC case to be opened.
-Kenny

FCoE options for Cisco UCS and Compellent SAN

Hi,
We have a Dell Compellent SAN storage with iSCSI and FCoE module in pre-production environment.
It is connected to new Cisco UCS infrastructure (5108 Chassis with 2208IOM + B200 M2 Blades + 6248 Fabric Interconnect) via 10G iSCSI module (FCoE module isn't being used at th is moment).
I reviewed compatibility matrix on interconnect but Compellent (Dell) SAN is only supported on FI NXOS 1.3(1), 1.4(1) without using 6248 and 2208 IOM which is what we have. I'm sure some of you have similar hardware configuration as ours and I'd like to see if there's any supportive Cisco FC/FCoE deployment option for the Compellent. We're pretty tight on budget at this moment so purchasing couple of Nexus 5K switches or something equipvalent for such a small number of chassis (only only have one) is not a preferred option. If additional hardware acquisition is inevitable, what would be the most cost effective solution to be able to support FCoE implementation?
Thank you in advance for your help on this.

Unfortunatly there isn't really one - with direct attach storage there is still the requirement that an upstream MDS/N5k pushes the zoning to it. Without a MDS to push the zoning the system it's recommended for production.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/2.0/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_2_0_chapter_0101.html#concept_05717B723C2746E1A9F6AB3A3FFA2C72
Even if you had a MDS/N5K the 6248/2208's wouldn't support the Compellent SAN - see note 9.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/mds9000/interoperability/matrix/Matrix8.pdf
That's not to say that it won't work, it's just that we haven't tested it and don't know what it will do and thus TAC cannot troubleshoot SAN errors on the UCS.
On the plus side iSCSI if setup correctly can be very solid and can give you a great amount of throughput - just make sure to configure the QoS correctly and if you need more throughput then just add some additional links

Running CUCM 8x/9x on Cisco UCS - Design

Hi,
I have a design question popping in my mind regarding running CUCM 8.X/9X on UCS.
Let us say that I have initially configured a CUCM Publisher and Subscriber to run on a Cisco UCS server using the VMware OVA Template that allows for 2500 IP Phones.
Both CUCM servers have been installed and setup using the specs from an OVA that allows 2500 IP Phones. Later, I decide to increase the capacity of the same hosts from 2500 IP Phones to support 7500 IP Phones.
Do I need to build up new CUCM servers using an OVA Template that allows 7500 IP Phones per server or do I modify the existing CUCM VMware host settings such as increase the RAM, HDD, etc.
Warm regards,
JK.

Check out the resize support:
http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Unified_Communications_VMware_Requirements#Resize_Virtual_Machine
Since the 2500 OVA have different storage requirements from the 7500 OVA you will need to rebuild the VM for full support.
http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Virtualization_for_Cisco_Unified_Communications_Manager_(CUCM)#Version_9.1.28x.29
HTH,
Chris

Cisco Unity Connection 8.X and Cisco UCS

Hi
We are in a planning phase for Unity Connection 8.X on Cisco UCS C-Series. The Cisco Unified Communications SRND 8.0 states that requires reserving one physical core per physical server.
what does it really mean?

See sample depiction below of applications and physical core usage on a server with 2 CPUs and 8 total physical cores. In white is the reservation of one physical core.
Regards.

Cisco UCS network uplink on aggregation layer

Hello Cisco Community,
we are using our UCS (Version 2.21d) for ESX Hosts. Each host has 3 vnics as follows:
vnic 0 = VLAN 10 --> Fabric A, Failover Fabric B
vnic 1 = VLAN 20 --> Fabric B, Failover Fabric A
vnic 2 = VLAN 100 --> Fabric A, Failover Fabric B
Actually UCS is connected to the Access Layer (Catalyst 6509) and we are migrating to Nexus (vPC). As you know, Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects can handle layer2 traffic itself. So we are planning to connect our UCS Fabric Interconnects directly to our new l3 nexus switch.
Does anyone have connect the UCS directly to l3? Do we have to pay attention to something? Are there some recommendations?
thanks in advance
best regards
/Danny

we are using ESXi 5.5 with dvswitche (distributed vswitch). In our cisco ucs powerworkshop, we discuss pros and contras of hard- and softwarefailover and we commit to use hardwarefailover. It is very fast and we have no problems actually.
This is a neverending and misunderstood story: your design should provide load balancing AND failover. Hardware failover only gives you the latter.In your design, you just use one fabric per Vlan, what a waste !
And think about the situation of a failover on a ESXi host with 200 VM's; one has to send out at least 200 GARP messages, and this is load on the FI CPU. Most likely dozens or more ESXi server are impacted......
Cisco best practise: if you use softswitch, let it do the loadbalancing and failover, don't use hardware failover.
see attachment (the paper is not up to date,
For ESX Server running vSwitch/DVS/Nexus 1000v and using Cisco UCS Manager Version 1.3 and below, it is recommended that fabric failover not be enabled, as that will require a chatty server for predictable failover. Instead, create regular vNICs and let the soft switch send
gARPs for VMs. vNICs should be assigned in pairs (Fabric A and B) so that both fabrics are utilized.
Cisco UCS version 1.4 has introduced the Fabric Sync feature, which enhances the fabric failover functionality for hypervisors as gARPs for VMs are sent out by the standby FI on failover. It does not necessarily reduce the number of vNICs as load sharing among the fabric is highly recommended. Also recommended is to keep the vNICs with fabric failover disabled, avoiding the use of the Fabric Sync feature in 1.4 for ESX based soft switches for quicker failover.

Cisco UCS architecture

Hi Everyone,
I am very new to data center studies and I am trying to build my concepts ralted to Cisco UCS. It would probably be silly questions but I want to know:
1. what is the difference between a "Service Profile" and Virtual machine? Are they both different names of same concept?
2. What is the concept behind virtual switch? Is it used to connect VMs or Service Profiles? If it is so, is it installed on a server over a VM/SP or something else?
2. I would appreciate if somebody could share a logical diagram showing overall concept of integrated service profile, virtual switch, VNIC, vEth, blade servers, etc.
Thank you very much.

Please see https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2270865?tstart=0 where you get answers to all of your questions
1. what is the difference between a "Service Profile" and Virtual machine? Are they both different names of same concept?
NO, not at all, a SP is a new concept, introduced with UCS architecture; it allows you to abstract the hardware of a server. It defines a template and/or a logical server: eg. number of vhba's, number of vnics, mac address pwwn/nwwn, BIOS version, boot policy/boot order. The values of mac, pwwn, nwwn, UUID are taken out of predefined pools, therefore they are hardware independent. Then you associate a SP with a physical blade, which then imposes all the above configuration on the real physical server. The relationship between SP and physical server is 1 to 1; if you need 10 ESXi servers, you need 10 SP's.
UCS is OS agnostic, it has no clue what the installed OS is. Therefore in UCS there are no OS specific agents.
VM appear in the context of server virtualization, and are completely different from SP.
see also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YGJlP2q5Go
2. What is the concept behind virtual switch? Is it used to connect VMs or Service Profiles? If it is so, is it installed on a server over a VM/SP or something else?
Each hypervisor (Hyper-v, ESXi, Xen,...) is using a virtual switch (software); it is required to locally switch traffic between 2 VM's on the same physical host. VM's connect to the virtual switch.
3. I would appreciate if somebody could share a logical diagram showing overall concept of integrated service profile, virtual switch, VNIC, vEth, blade servers, etc.

Lync 2013 Standard Edition on Cisco UCS E-Series

Hello,
We have a working Lync 2013 deployment:
- Front-End Enterprise Pool consisting of 3 FE servers
- one Edge Server
- one Back-End server
- one Mediation Server
- one IP PBX gateway, where ITSP's SIP trunks end.
Because we have geographically distributed offices, we are considering deploying of branch offices deployments.
Technet recommends to use SBA for branch offices where there are less than 1000 users. But in case of WAN outage, no conferencing will be available for branch users.
Lync 2013 Standard edition branch deployment would offer all Lync features in case of WAN outage.
In every branch, we consider deploying a Cisco ISR G2 router for terminating branch SIP trunks. This equipment have option to add Cisco UCS E-Series blade that supports CPU with hardware virtualization and supports decent amount of RAM (up to 16GB and up
to 48GB).
Have anyone experience with deploying Lync Standard Edition on this equipment - Cisco UCS E-Series blades? In every branch office there are up to 50 - 500 users that will use Lync.
Thanks,
Andrei Moraru Endava

Hi,
I don’t think you can deploy Lync server 2013 on Cisco UCS E-Series blades.
Here is a link below of “System Requirements for Servers Running Lync Server 2013” may help you:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398588.aspx
Best Regards,
Eason Huang
Eason Huang
TechNet Community Support

Cisco UCS 6200 Fabric InterConnects Needed?

Currently looking to put Cisco UCS 5100 blades into our datacenter. Our core currently has a 7K with F2 48-Port blades with FCOE licenses. We currently have our ESXi servers terminating directly to the 7K for both 10G Ethernet and storage via FCOE. If we decide to replace our standalone rackmount servers with UCS blades, can we connect the blade chassis directly to the 7K, or are the 6200 fabric interconnects required? If so, what purpose do they serve. Thanks.

Yes, fabric interconnect is required for a UCS blade solution; it can aggregate a maximum of 20 chassis a 8 blades, or a total of 160 blades.
On the fabric interconnect runs UCS manager as a application, which allows you to do firmware management for the server farm (bios, I/O adaptor, CIMC,....); the concept of service profiles implements server abstraction and mobility across hardware.

CIsco UCS-C200M2 with Unified Communication Products

Hi,
If anybody knows what are the Unified Communication products we can install on Cisco UCS solution with EXS VMware ESXi 4.0 Standard Edition.
If any other products pls let me know that alo.
Thanks in Advance.
Regards,
Sunish

Yes, the DocWiki covers this on the Supported Applications page. It is worth mentioning that only there are specific hardware component requirements of the C200M2 for VTG support.
Please rate useful responses.

Can the Cisco UCS 6120XP direct attach the EMC CX4-120 by fibre protocol ?

Hi all
I have two question for Cisco UCS
Q1: Can the Cisco UCS 6120XP direct attach the EMC CX4-120 by fibre protocol ?
Q2: I know the UCS 61XX Series support the Cisco SAN Switch(MDS).But we are only Brocade san switch ,
so UCS 61XX Series supoort Brocade san switch ?
Thanks , I really want to know the information .

Q1: The 6120s run in NPV (N_Port Virtualization) mode which means it acts as a proxy for the blade vHBAs and doesn't participate in flogi (fabric logins). When a fabric switch runs in this mode it requires an uplink to a faber switch for flogi and zoning. Due to this you cannot direct attach the the 6120 to an array's front-end fiber ports.
Q2: Yes you can uplink the 6120 to a Brocade fabric as long as the Brocade supports NPIV.

Cisco UCS FC Direct Attach Question

We are looking at the Cisco UCS as a replacement for our existing servers and SAN switches. As I understand the fabric interconnect can replace our existing SAN switches and that we will still be able to zone the ports just like we do on our SAN switches today.
Can someone confirm how using the fabric interconnects as a replacement for our SAN switches will work? I read that the fabric interconnects have to be in switch mode for this to work. How does this affect the other connections we will have to our Ethernet network?
Thanks.

Q1: The 6120s run in NPV (N_Port Virtualization) mode which means it acts as a proxy for the blade vHBAs and doesn't participate in flogi (fabric logins). When a fabric switch runs in this mode it requires an uplink to a faber switch for flogi and zoning. Due to this you cannot direct attach the the 6120 to an array's front-end fiber ports.
Q2: Yes you can uplink the 6120 to a Brocade fabric as long as the Brocade supports NPIV.

Cisco UCS Requirements

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