UCS FEX Question

Im wondering if someone can clear up one thing for me….
What exactly does a UCS FEX do besides aggregate the server traffic and push it up to the Fabric Interconnects? What I am wondering is what functionality/technology does it need to possess to do that?
From my understanding, a conventional blade switch needs to be DCB-capable (support at least PFC and ETS) and do FIP snooping to be used as an FCoE pass-through. IS that the case with a UCS FEX?? I dont think so…it seems like nothing more than a “dumb” MUX that has no intelligence, no code to upgrade and simply passes DCB traffic between CNA and FI…
What am I missing, if anything?

Manish, as usual, great stuff. Thank you..
So, what you are telling me is inline with my thoughts about the UCS FEX. There is no switching intelligence in it and -- more pertinent to this discussion -- no Data Center Bridging (CEE) capability to speak of. Its just a traffic MUX/DeMUX.
That means the UCS FEX HIF ports will NOT act as an 802.1D switch port does when it is DCB-enabled and generate a PFC PAUSE frame and send it back to the server CNA if its input buffers get overwhelmed. I Iimagine then that the UCS FEX leaves it up to the Fabric Interconnect's ingress port to generate the PUASE and the FEX will simply pass it on to the CNA. Correct? That would mean the FEX has no input buffers to speak of. If it did, it would have to be able to PAUSE traffic that is overrrunning them - or so I would think.
The same then can be said for the FEX and ETS. The FEX does not contain the hardware to participate in ETS. There is no egress scheduling algorithm and no recognition of packet prioritization or a mechanism to honor any prioritization that can be leveraged to dynamically assign bandwidth to the confgiured Traffic Class that would be serviced acording to the ETS Transmission Scheduling Algorithm (Algorithim 2, according to IEEE 802.1qaz v2.4).
Lastly, the FEX does not participate in DCBx either - the link initialization semantics occur between the CNA and the Fabric Interconnect port.
Is all this correct, Manish?
I really appreciate your time and help. Thank you!

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In depth UCS FEX questions

With regard to the 2100 FEX module on the UCS....what exactly does it do besides simply act as a mux?
Does it have any buffers (ingress and egress)?
Does it have any switching intelligence at all?
How does it handle the reception of DCB packets (PFC, ETS, etc) from the 6100 or the VIC on the other side? Does it just pass it on?
What does it do with regard to FIP and FIP snooping?
Need answers ASAP!
Thank you!

Ex,
The 2100 operate identically to the FEX 2000 series for N5K. I know you've asked quite a bit of detail on that device already, same applies to the 2104XP IOM for UCS.
Did you have any other specific questions on the UCS IOM (FEX)?
Regards,
Robert

Please share UCS interview questions and answers

Please share UCS interview questions and answers

Since last 4+ year I am working on CISCO UCS, VMware Administration tasks on reputed company and even I have attended DCUCI 4.0 training on almost 4 year back.
Now I am looking for job change on UCS, VMware and VBLOCK Architecture position so if any related documents please share with me.

VM-FEX questions

I am new in UCS , so there are some questions
1) Do I understand correctly that this feature is supported only on UCS bladecenters at the moment?
2) What is the use for VM-FEX on Nexus 5k without FI modules? Does anybody plug UCS straight into Nexus 5k without use of FI modules?
Where do they run UCS manager then?
Thanks.

1-UCS C-series support VM-Fex.
2-The 5k series don't support F1 card. F1, M1, M2, etc.. are supported on the 7ks.
UCS manager runs on the 6100 and 6200 series fabric interconnect devices.
here is more info:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/layer2/513_n1_1/b_Cisco_n5k_layer2_config_gd_rel_513_N1_1/b_Cisco_n5k_layer2_config_gd_rel_513_N1_1_chapter_010101.html#concept_6A0DA0AE4323414E8FE667CAB20C1234
UCS manager:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/data_sheet_c78-520522.html
HTH

UCS Basic Questions

Hi
I am new to Cisco UCS, I have a little idea about Nexus Series Switches.
I would like to know what exactly are the differentiating factors between -
UCS 6100 Fabric Interconnect
Nexus 5000 Series
MDS 9000 Series switches
All these can support FCoE, 1G / 10G Ports, I know 6100 Fabric Interconnect has built in UCS Manager
where I can place these in a real worl solution.
Second -
Can we make multiple Blades in a chassis, or Multiple Blades in Multiple Chassis conected to a Single / Multiple interconnected 6100 Fabric Interconnect / Nexus / MDS switch, to combine as a Single / One Server.
Appreciate your kind response.
Tahnks & Regards
Sunny

Sunny,
I hope the beow information helps clarify present questions and future knowledge you might get in the near future.
All the information is taken form the link that follows:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/VMDC/2.0/design_guide/archOver.html
Cisco Nexus 5000
The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9670/index.html) switches deliver high performance, standards-based Ethernet and FCoE that enable the consolidation of LAN, SAN, and cluster network environments onto a single Unified Fabric. Each switch contains a single unified crossbar fabric ASIC and multiple unified port controllers to support fixed ports and expansion modules.
Cisco UCS and UCSM
Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/ps10276/index.html) is a family of line-rate, low-latency, lossless, 10-Gbps Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet interconnect switches.
Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/ps10279/index.html) supports up to eight blade servers and up to two fabric extenders in a six rack unit (RU) enclosure.
Cisco MDS 9513
The Cisco MDS 9513 Multilayer Director allows you to deploy high-performance SANs using a high-performance, protocol-independent switch fabric. It provides uncompromising high availability, security, scalability, ease of management, and transparent integration of new technologies for extremely flexible data center SAN solutions. The Cisco MDS 9513 is compatible with first-, second-, and third-generation Cisco MDS 9000 Family switching modules.
For more information, see: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/ps4159/index.html.
Cisco MDS 9134
The Cisco MDS 9134 Multilayer Fabric Switch is a 1RU chassis that provides line-rate 4-Gbps and 10-Gbps ports. It expands from 24 to 32 ports in 8-port increments and optionally activates 2 10-Gbps ports. The Cisco MDS 9134 offers non-blocking architecture, with all 32 4-Gbps ports and the 2 10-Gbps ports operating at line rate concurrently.
The 10-Gbps ports support a range of optics for connection to the Cisco MDS 9000 family core using 10-Gbps Inter-Switch Link (ISL) connectivity. The Cisco MDS 9134 can also be stacked using copper CX4 X2 transceivers to cost effectively offer up to 64-port densities. The Cisco MDS 9134 supports quick configuration and task wizards that allow it to be deployed quickly and easily in networks of any size. Powered by Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS/SAN-OS Software, it includes advanced storage networking features and functions and is compatible with Cisco MDS 9500 Series Multilayer Directors and Cisco MDS 9200 Series Multilayer Fabric Switches, providing transparent, end-to-end service delivery in core-edge deployments.
For more information, see: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/ps4159/index.html.
Cisco MDS 9148
The Cisco MDS 9148 Multilayer Fabric Switch is a one rack unit (1RU) top-of-rack (ToR) chassis that provides 48 line-rate 8-Gbps ports for storage networking deployments. It can expand from 16 to 48 ports in 8-port increments. The Cisco MDS 9148 delivers a non-blocking architecture, with all 48 1/2/4/8-Gbps ports operating at line-rate concurrently.
The Cisco MDS 9148 supports the Cisco Device Manager Quick Configuration Wizard, which allows it to be deployed quickly and easily in networks of any size. Powered by Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS Software, it includes advanced storage networking features and functions and is compatible with Cisco MDS 9500 Series Multilayer Directors and Cisco MDS 9200 and other 9100 Series Multilayer Fabric Switches, providing transparent, end-to-end service delivery in core-edge deployments.
For more information, see: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/ps4159/index.html.
PS: If you find it helpful, please mark it with a 5 stars grade!
-Kenny

UCS Firmware Question

Hi:
Just want a definitive answer to the following question:
1. If my FInterconnect and IOM are having a "lower' firmware version than my UCS Blades (CIMC, BIOS & Adapter) assuning they are all at 1.4(3#) level, will the FI "upgrade" the firmwares on UCS Blade automatically?
2. If my FInterconnect and IOM are having a "higher' firmware version than my UCS Blades (CIMC, BIOS & Adapter) assuning they are all at 1.4(3#) level, will the FI "downgrade" the firmwares on UCS Blade automatically?
I remember someone from Cisco told me before that the downgrade or upgrade will happen automatically or I am wrong.
Thanks.
SiM

The Correct Answers icon is to highlight a response to a Post that was marked by the Poster as helpful.
We appreciate it when people respond to quesitons, that the person who posts the question (or even others) mark them with a star rating.
Robert

UCS Exam question

nothing

Tanmay,
This is not the forum for answering exam questions. The intent is to maintain the integrity of the exam.
Also, was the VDAN a typo?

UCS (DCUCD) Question

please help me these are quite confused.........Please help me
1>Data center analysis tools are most useful for which two purposes?(Choose two.)
A. network device discovery
B. capacity plan optimization
C. network performance management
D. determine server adapter choice(NIC,HBA or CNA)
E. determine server utilization and workload assessment
2>What two items are considered when assessing storage performance?(Choose two)
A. SAN throughput
B. number of VSANs
C. number of SAN Domains
D. maximum number of LUNS
3> What are three types of business pressure that data centers are experiencing?(Choose three)
A. language barrier
B. collaboration
C. SLA metrics
D. global availability
E. separate infrastructures and support organizations
4> Which two steps are considered when addressing environmental aspects of a proposed Data
Center solution?(Choose two.)
A. Determine the type of firewall to be implemented
B. Identify physical access requirements for the facility
C. Determine operating parameters of the equipment.
D. Assess the environmental parameters of the facility
5> Which two design considerations are most often used when depIoying Virtual Machines on the
Cisco Sytems Nexus 1000V?(Choose two.)
A. VSANs to be supported must be configured in the Fabric Manager on the MDS switches
B. The defauIt VSAN is preconfigured in the Cisco UCS manager.
C. The defauIt VSAN is chosen as the defauIt connectivity for all vNlCs
D. AII VSANs In heterogeneous fabrics are used internaIly by the Cisco UCS system
6> Which two design considerations are most often used when depIoying Vinual Machines on the
Cisco Systems Nexus 1000V? (Choose two.)
A. data VSANs
B. management VLANs
C. port profile policy
D. uplink port profile
7>Which environmental parameters should be used when the parameters differ between equipment
in the solution?
A. the Ieast common denominator
B. use arrange from Ieast restrictive to most restrictive
C. the highest denominator from a single piece of equipment
D. the parameters from the most restrictive piece of equipment
E. the parameters from the Ieast restrictive piece of equipment
8>When a Unified fabric is depIoyed, what will be reduced?
A. cable overhead
B. computing utilization
C. provisioning complexity
D. seamless service deployment
9>Implementing the Cisco UCS would provide which benefit?
A. Application Mobility
B. decreased Storage Access
C. Data Consolidated Management

Hi Robert
My answer is like this is there any wrong answer?Please
help me if possible for you.*
1>Data center analysis tools are most useful for which two
purposes?(Choose two.)
C. network performance management
E. determine server utilization and workload assessment
2>What two items are considered when assessing storage
performance?(Choose two)
A. SAN throughput
D. maximum number of LUNS
3> What are three types of business pressure that data centers are
experiencing?(Choose three)
B. collaboration
C. SLA metrics
D. global availability
4> Which two steps are considered when addressing environmental aspects
of a proposed Data
Center solution?(Choose two.)
B. Identify physical access requirements for the facility
D. Assess the environmental parameters of the facility
5> Which two design considerations are most often used when depIoying
Virtual Machines on the
Cisco Systems Nexus 1000V? (Choose two.)
B. management VLANs
C. port profile policy
6>Which environmental parameters should be used when the parameters
differ between equipment
in the solution?
A. the Ieast common denominator
7>When a Unified fabric is depIoyed, what will be reduced?
D. seamless service deployment
8>Implementing the Cisco UCS would provide which benefit?
C. Data Consolidated Management
With Regards
Tanmay

UCS CIMC Question

Can I restart the CIMC interface with no service impact to my VMs / apps?
TIA,
Amir

Yes. CIMC is completely out of band management. The CIMC is a management controller. You'd be restarting the management controller, not the interface.
The only thing to note is any KVM sessions or virtual Media mounts will also be disconnected.
Regards,
Robert

UCS Central: How Global Service Profile match DG

Hi
I'm pretty new to UCS Central and I've got a rudimentary UCS Central question.
I wonder how Global Service Profiles match/relate to domain groups.
To what I've read so far we use different domain groups to apply different operational policies to differenent UCS systems.
How does this relate/interact with global service profiles?
Is there a way to make sure that some service profiles could be associated just to UCS servers belonging to one DG?
Or is everything which is related to global service profiles like MAC-adresses, policies and the service profiles themselves always at the root and therefore can always be applied to all UCS servers managed within one UCS Central installation?
best regards
Dani

Hi Dani,
Global Service Profiles fall under the Organization structure.     And the Organization structure/hierarchy has no relationship/dependency to Domain Groups.
So limitting visibility of Global Service Profiles/Templates to certain Domain Groups --- no, you'd have to limit them within an Organizational context.
Hope this helps,
       -Jeff

Question on UCS Livemigration/vMotion with VM-Fex

Hi,
I want to know if or how does livemigration/vMotion work, if I have
a) Vm-Fex and
b) 2 UCS domains, each in one active datacenter. Both datacenters connected via a L2 datacenter interconnect, so they are active/active.
I know livemigration/vMotion will work within 1 UCS domain, but within 2 UCS domains I do not know.
thanks Alois
Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

No, VM-FEX is managed by the fabric Interconnect cluster. For this reason you can't use VM-FEX to migrate between separate UCS clusters.
Regards,
Robert

Vm-fex in ucs

Hi, i am doing vm-fex in ucs in my lab environment on esxi5.1. I had configured a dynamic vnic connection policy on the service template with 50 vnics.
When configuring the port-groups from ucsm, i noticed that it automatically creates an uplink-pg and deleted-pg. Questions:
- does the uplink-pg have any significance in vm-fex? I believe we are passing vlans to the port groups/port-profiles in the DVS that we create on the ucsm without using the uplink as any vtrunk interface.
- As i have created 50 dynamic vnics on the sp/blades, does this mean i can have a maximum of 50 port-groups on the DVS also? If yes, how can you find out the one-to-one association between the port-group and the dvnic?

uplink-pg
specific port config that will be pushed into vcenter as a dist port group that can be assigned to vms and vnics
deleted-pg
placeholder when switch is set up for control traffic, when a profile is deleted, all vnics are stored here, so do not use vnics from this port group

New UCS and VMware setup Questions

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We are currently in the process of migrating out vmware infrastructure from HP to UCS. We are utilizing the Virtual Connect Adapters for the project. With the migration we also plan on implementing the cisco nexus v1000 in our environment. I have demo equipment setup and have had a chance to install a test environment, but still have a few design questions.
When implementing the new setup, what is a good base setup for the virtual connect adapters with the v1000? How many Nics should I dedicate? Right now I run 6 nics per server (2 console, 2 Virtual Machines, and 2 Vmotion). Is this a setup I should continue with going forward? The only other thing I am looking to implement is another set of nics for nfs access. In a previous setup at a different job, we had 10 nics per server (2 console, 4 virtual machines, 2 vmotion and 2 iSCSI). Is there any kind of standard for this setup?
The reason I am asking is I want to get the most out of my vmware environment as we will be looking to migrate Tier 1 app servers once we get everything up and running.
Thanks for the help!

Tim,
Migrating from HP Virtual Connect (VC) -> UCS might change your network design slightly, for the better of course . Not sure if you're using 1G or 10G VC modules but I'll respond as if you've using 10G modules because this is what UCS will provide. VC modules provide a 10G interface that you can logically chop up into a max of 4 host vNIC interfaces totaling 10G. Though it's handy to divide a single 10G interfaces into virtual NICs for Service Console, VMotion, iSCSI etc, this creates the opportunity for wasted bandwidth. The logical NICs VC creates provides a max limit of bandwidth to the adapter. For example if create a 2GB interface for your host to use for vMotion, then 2G of your 10G pipe is wastes when there's no vMotions taking place!
UCS & 1000v offer a different solution in terms of bandwidth utilization by means of QoS. We feel it's more appropriate to specifiy a "minimum" bandwidth guarantee rather than a hard upper limit - leading to wasted pipe. Depending on which UCS blade and mezz card option you have, the # of adapters you can present to the Host varies. B200 blades can support one mezz card (with 2 x 10G interfaces) while the B250 and B440 are full width blades and support 2 Mezz cards. In terms of Mezz cards now, there's the Intel/Emulex/Qlogic/Broamcom/Cisco VIC options. In my opinion the M81KR (VIC) is best suited for virtualized environments as you can present up to 56 virtual interfaces to the host, each having various levels of QoS applied. When you roll the 1000v into the mix you have a lethal combination of adding some of the new QoS features that automatically match traffic types such as Service Console, iSCSI, VMotion etc. See this thread for a list/explanation of new features coming in the next verison of 1000v due out in a couple weeks https://www.myciscocommunity.com/message/61580#61580
Before you think about design too much, tell us what blades & adapters you're using and we can offer some suggestions for setting them up in the best configuration for your virtual infrastructure.
Regards,
Robert
BTW - Here's a couple Best Practice Guides with UCS & 1000v that you might find useful.

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.

Ucs question about major code F0283 and dce interfac and chassis number?

dear,
Introductions:
one 6120 connect chassis 1 one 2104-1 and chassis 2 one 2104-1
chassis 1 have sever 3/4/5/6/7/8 (all sever is B200 M3,two 2104)
chassis 2 have sever 1/2/3/4/5/7 (sever 1/2/3/4 is B200 M3,two 2104)
question
1.major code F0283
all server have major code F0283 ,but all sever still can use.what this? How I did it?
affected object:sys/chassis-1/blade-6/fabric-A/path-1/vc-722
description: ether vif 1/6 a-722 down,reason: unknown
chassis 1 have sever 3/4/5/6/7/8
chassis 2 have sever 1/2/3/4/5/7
i shutdown all ,and start the problem is also.
affected
i shutdown all ,and start the problem is also.
2.on chassis 1 sever-1 adapter 1 dce interface (dce interfac 1 and dce interface 5)
ony one use?
3.
chassis 1 have sever 3/4/5/6/7/8
chassis 2 have sever 1/2/3/4/5/7
but i reboot ,
chassis 2 have sever 3/4/5/6/7/8
chassis 1 have sever 1/2/3/4/5/7
so the profile is disorder
i shtdown all,and start chassis 1 ok ,later chassis 2
the problem is ok..what this ?

Hi Hailing,
The transport VIF for server is down.The Cisco UCS Manager raises this fault when any of the following scenario occur:
•Endpoint(switch/fabric interconnect) reports the connectivity state on virtual interface as one of: a.down, b.errored, c.unavailable.
Verify that the blade discovery was completed successfully. Check the states on all of the communicating ports in an end to end manner.
If connectivity seems correct, recommision the server.
Also, please make sure you are using the correct drivers of the OS installed in the server as Padma recommended you.
I hope this helps.
David

UCS FEX Question

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