Preface What this book covers What you need for this book Who this book is for Conventions Reader feedback Customer support Downloading the color images of this book Errata Piracy Questions What's New with Cisco UCS UCS architecture overview Changes in the third-generation UCS Physical architecture of UCS Fabric Interconnects UCS third-generation 6332 UCS third-generation 6332-16UP UCS second-generation 6248UP UCS second-generation 6296UP Fabric Extenders UCS third-generation Cisco 2304 IOM UCS second-generation Cisco 2208XP IOM UCS second-generation Cisco 2204XP IOM Cisco Nexus 2348UPQ 10GE Fabric Extender Blade server chassis Chassis front Chassis back Environmental requirements B-Series blade servers Blade servers B200 M3/M4 B260 M4 B420 M3/M4 B460 M4 C-Series rack servers C220 M3/M4 C240 M3/M4 C460 M2/M4 Mezzanine adapters VICs for blade servers UCS third-generation VIC 1380 UCS third-generation VIC 1340 UCS second-generation VIC 1280 UCS second-generation VIC 1240 VICs for rack-mount servers UCS third-generation VIC 1387 UCS third-generation VIC 1385 UCS second-generation VIC 1285 UCS second-generation VIC 1225 UCS storage servers UCS C3206 UCS C3106 UCS M-Series modular servers M4308 M2814 M1414 M142 Cisco UCS Mini 6324 Summary Installing Cisco UCS Hardware Installing UCS hardware components Installing racks for UCS components Installing UCS chassis and components Installing blade servers Installing and removing CPUs Installing and removing RAM Installing and removing internal hard disks Installing mezzanine cards Installing UCS chassis and rack rails Installing blade servers into a chassis Installing rack servers Installing Fabric Interconnects Cabling - Fabric Interconnects and Fabric Extenders Fabric Extenders - Fabric Interconnect cabling topology IOM - Fabric Interconnect physical cabling Power capacity and power plug types Non-redundant N+1 redundant Grid-redundant Cisco SingleConnect technology Summary Setting Up a Lab Using Cisco UCS Emulator Configuring Cisco UCS Emulator System requirements Hypervisor prerequisites Installing UCSPE on VMware Workstation Player using the ZIP file Installing UCSPE on VMware Workstation Player using the OVA file Installing UCSPE on VMware Workstation Installing UCSPE on VMware vSphere ESXi Using Cisco UCSPE Configuring network settings Configuring hardware settings Adding a new chassis with blade servers Adding an empty chassis Configuring and adding blade servers to the chassis Configuring and adding rack-mount servers Modifying server components Launching UCS Manager using Platform Emulator UCSPE limitations Summary Configuring Cisco UCS Using UCS Manager Introducing Cisco UCSM What's new with UCSM UCSM firmware version Walking through the UCSM interface Navigation pane The Equipment tab The Servers tab The LAN tab The SAN tab The VM tab The Storage tab The Admin tab The Fault Summary area Starting with the initial configuration Step-by-step initial configuration Global configuration policies Chassis/FEX Discovery Policy Rack Server Discovery Policy Rack Management Connection Policy Power Policy MAC Address Table Aging Global Power Allocation Policy Firmware Auto Sync Server Policy Global Power Profiling Policy Info Policy DNS server Time-zone management SNMP UCS Manager - command-line interface Getting help with CLI commands Accessing the history of CLI commands Accessing component-level CLIs Scope commands Applying changes An example configuration using CLI commands Summary Configuring LAN Connectivity Understanding Fabric Interconnect switching modes Ethernet end-host mode Ethernet switching mode Introduction to Fabric Interconnect port types Configuring northbound connectivity to upstream switches Configuring upstream switches Learning how to configure Fabric Interconnect uplink ports Configuring VLANs Using pin groups Dynamic pin groups Failure response Static pin groups Failure response re-pinning Configuring southbound connectivity to IOMs Learning how to configure Fabric Interconnect server ports Configuring IOM ports Configuring the last piece of the puzzle - vNICs What is MAC address abstraction? Learning to create vNICs Summary Configuring SAN Connectivity Learning about storage connectivity options Overview of FC and iSCSI storage Overview of SCSI Overview of Fibre Channel Overview of iSCSI Overview of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Storage connectivity design considerations Learning about the FC switching mode Configuring the FC ports Configuring the FC uplink port Configuring the FC port channel and trunking Configuring VSANs and zoning Learning about zoning Learning about VSANs Example configuration - connecting SAN directly to Fabric Interconnects Configuring FCoE Manual and automatic uplink pinning Dynamic pin groups Failure response Static pin groups Failure response re-pinning Summary Creating Identity Resource Pools, Policies, and Templates Understanding identity and resource pools Learning to create a UUID pool Learning to create a MAC pool Learning to create a WWNN pool Learning to create a WWPN pool Learning to create IP pools Making your identity pools meaningful Understanding server pools Learning to create server pool membership and qualification policies Summary Creating and Managing Service Profiles Overview of service profiles Different ways of creating a service profile Creating a basic service profile Creating a service profile in the expert mode Creating a service profile from a service profile template Configuring policies Configuring the server BIOS policy Configuring adapter policies Configuring scrub policies Configuring QoS policies Local disk configuration policies Maintenance policies Configuring IPMI Configuring the Host Firmware policy A walkthrough of the service profile creation - expert mode Identifying the service profile Configuring the storage provisioning Configuring the networking settings Configuring the SAN connectivity Configuring zoning vNIC/vHBA placement vMedia policy configuration Server boot order configuration Configuring a SAN boot policy Configuring the server maintenance policy Associating service profiles Operational policies Creating and applying a service profile template Service profiles cloning Summary Managing UCS through Routine and Advanced Management Licensing Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect Starting up and shutting down of Fabric Interconnects Controlling blade server power Status and locator LEDs Configuring logging Configuring the Cisco Call Home feature Organizational structure in UCS Manager Organizational inheritance RBAC Active Directory integration Predefined roles About UCS locales Permissions in multitenancy Summary Virtual Networking in Cisco UCS Learning about VN-Link Using the NX-OS Changes in the data center Role differentiation Role issues Development of Nexus 1000V Virtual Ethernet interfaces Learning about port profiles Nexus 1000V components The Virtual Ethernet Module The Virtual Supervisor Module VEM implementation VSM implementation VEM data plane VEM functions VSM control plane Nexus 1000V and physical switches The physical switch chassis Line cards The N1KV backplane Nexus and vPath Performance advantages using vPath Deploying VSM VSUM architecture VSUM and VSM installation Communication between VSM and VEM Using layer 2 connectivity Using layer 3 connectivity Using the Domain ID L2 mode L3 mode System VLANs and opaque data VSM to vCenter communication Summary Configuring Backup, Restore, and High Availability Backing up the Cisco UCS configuration Creating UCS backup jobs Creating a manually run backup job using GUI Creating a scheduled backup job using GUI Creating a backup job using CLI Restoring backups using GUI Configuring high availability clustering Configuring the first Fabric Interconnect Configuring the second Fabric Interconnect Fabric Interconnect elections Managing high availability The split brain scenario Partition in space Partition in time Summary Cisco UCS Failure Scenarios Testing Port channel uplink failure and recovery on Fabric Interconnects Server link to Fabric Interconnect failure and recovery Identifying a mezzanine adapter failure Common mezzanine adapter error messages FEX IO modules - failure and recovery Common IOM error messages Fabric Interconnect server port failure Rectifying the global Chassis/FEX Discovery Policy configuration error Fabric Interconnect device failure and recovery Common error messages with Fabric Interconnects UCS chassis failure, reporting, and recovery Common failure messages for the UCS chassis Single Fibre Channel failure and recovery on Fabric Interconnects Indicating a status with Beacon LEDs Creating a tech-support file Summary Third-Party Application Integration Understanding the challenges in infrastructure Going deep with UIM Understanding the discovery mechanism of UIM Learning about the UIM service life cycle Integrating VMware vCenter Server with UCSM Configuring vCenter with UCSM Integration with Cisco UCS PowerTool Suite Connecting your UCS Manager using PowerTool Suite Summary Automation and Orchestration of Cisco UCS Multiple UCS domain management UCS Central architecture Why UCS Central? UCS domain registration with UCS Central Performance monitoring and capacity planning UCS Performance Manager architecture Powering infrastructure with a cloud solution UCS Director overview UCS Director solutions UCS Director UCS Director Baremetal Agent Summary