Each Fabric Interconnect is connected to IOMs in the UCS chassis, which provides connectivity to each blade server. Internal connectivity from blade servers to IOMs is transparently provided by UCS Manager using the 10BASE-KR Ethernet standard for backplane implementations and there is no configuration required.

Connectivity between Fabric Interconnect server ports and IOMs is required to be configured. Each IOM module, when connected with the Fabric Interconnect server port, behaves as a line card to Fabric Interconnect, hence IOMs should never be cross-connected to the Fabric Interconnect. Each IOM is connected directly to a single Fabric Interconnect using the following cabling configuration:

• Cisco UCS 2200 IOM: Possible connections are 1, 2, 4, or 8 depending on the model, because 2204 provides four ports and 2208 provides eight ports

• Cisco UCS 2300 IOM: Possible connections are 1, 2, or 4 as there are only four ports

With UCSM 2.0 and UCS 2200 series IOMs, it is possible to create port channels for IOM to FI, connectivity as shown in the following diagram: