A vNIC is abstracted from the physical mezzanine card. Older Emulex, QLogic, and Intel NIC cards have fixed ports. The Cisco mezzanine NIC card, also known as the Virtual Interface Card (VIC), provides dynamic server interfaces. Cisco VICs provide up to 256 dynamic interfaces.
vNICs can be created directly into server profiles or by using a vNIC template. Using a vNIC template is the recommended method for configuring the NIC settings once for each template and quickly creating vNICs with the desired configuration. The vNIC configuration settings can be optimized for various operating systems, storage devices, and hypervisors.
The vNIC template can be created by performing the following steps:
- Log into UCS Manager.
- Click on the LAN tab in the navigation pane.
- In the LAN tab, click on Policies and expand vNIC Templates on the root organization or the sub-organization (if created).
- Right-click on vNIC Templates and select Create vNIC Template, as shown in the following screenshot:
- A new pop-up window will appear which allows configuring various settings for the vNIC template. These settings are summarized in the following screenshots:
The following screenshot shows the VLANs setting:
The following screenshot shows the Connection Policies settings:
The vNIC configuration options shown in the preceding screenshot are summarized in the following table:
| Option | Description |
| Name | Name for the vNIC template |
| Description | General description about the purpose of the vNIC |
| Fabric ID | Select the Fabric A or B for NIC traffic and choose fabric hardware lever failover |
| Target | Can be a VM template for VN-Link implementation or an adapter template for creating a vNIC for a server profile |
| Template type | Initiating or updating template |
| VLANs | Select a VLAN or initiate creation of a new VLAN |
| CDN Source | Can be a vNIC Name or User Defined CDN Name |
| MTU | Set the Message Transfer Unit size |
| MAC Pool | Select a MAC identity pool |
| QoS Policy | Select a QoS policy |
| Network Control Policy | Select a network control policy |
| Pin Group | Select a static pin group |
| Stats Threshold Policy | Select a statistics threshold policy |
| Dynamic vNIC Connection Policy | Select a dynamic vNIC connection policy |
The vNIC creation for servers is part of the server profile or server profile template creation. Once Create Service Profile Template or Service Profile (Expert) is started to create a service profile for the blade servers, the vNIC creation is the second step in the configuration wizard. The steps involved in creating a vNIC in the Service Profile Template using a vNIC template are as follows:
- Log into UCS Manager.
- Click on the Servers tab in the navigation pane.
- In the Servers tab, click on Server Profile Templates and expand the root organization or the sub-organization (if created).
- Right-click on root and select Create Service Profile Template, as shown in the following screenshot:
- In the pop-up window, name the service profile template and click on Next.
- For networking, select the Expert option for creation of vNICs and the window display will change:
- Click on Add for a new vNIC from the template.
- In the next window, provide a vNIC name and select the Use vNIC Template checkbox. The display will change to select an existing vNIC template.
- It is also possible to create a new vNIC template on the same window in which the template configuration window appears.
- Select OK to create the new vNIC from the existing template.