With the 3.1 version release of UCSM, Cisco added support for the HTML5 interface in addition to the existing Java-based interface. The HTML5 interface provides a similar look and feel to the Java-based GUI and removes the unnecessary pain of installing a supported Java version. To launch the KVM console of a blade server, Java is still required. The HTML5 GUI provides full functionality to manage all support UCS hardware components; however, Gen 1 UCS hardware components will be supported with the earlier UCSM 2.2 version. Don't upgrade the UCS firmware version to 3.1 if you have a mix of Gen 1 and Gen 2 UCS hardware components.

Some of the features included in UCSM are as follows:

• It supports Cisco UCS B-Series blade servers, C-Series rack servers, M-Series modular servers and Cisco storage servers infrastructure
• It is embedded in Fabric Interconnect and provides unified and policy-driven capabilities to manage server, network, and storage infrastructure without the need to install any separate software
• UCSM auto-discovery detects discover, inventory, manage, and provision system components that are added or changed
• It facilitates an open XML API architecture to integrate with third-party system-management tools
• It provides multitenant architecture to share the infrastructure among different clients for service providers
• Role Based Access Control (RBAC) provides controlled access to authorized users