posted Dec 16, 2013, 3:19 PM by Rick McGee
[
updated Jun 11, 2014, 6:48 PM
]
UCS Hardware Options - Fabric Interconnects
- UCS B-Series Blade Chassis
- IOM FEX
- Blade Servers
- CPU/RAM/HDD
- Mezzanine Cards
- UCS C-Series Server
- CPU/RAM/HDD
- Mezzanine Card
Physical Architecture of the UCS
LAN/SAN Connectivity - Fabric Interconnects 6120,6140 6248/6296 Unified Ports 2104XP IOM/FEX Older model .8us latency 4 10GE ports Northbound to FI's 8 10GE port Southbound to Blades Since two IOM's per chassis, means
2204XP IOM/FEX Current model .5us latency 4 10GE port Northbound to FI's 16 10GE port Southbound to blades Support Port Channeling traces up to IOM/FEX Since 2 IOM's per chassis, means
Current model .5us latency 8 10GE port Northbound to FI's 32 10GE port Southbound to blades Support Port Channeling traces up to IOM/FEX Since 2 IOM's per chassis, means
- UCS C-Series Server
- Can be managed standalone
- Can use Adapter-FEX with N5K in the mode
- P81 or VIC1225
- Creates vEth and vFC interfaces on the N5k
- Can be managed by UCSM
- LOM and SFP on C-Server plug into N232PP* as their IOM/FEX
- v2.0 uses N2232PP , v1.4 used N2248TP
- N2232PP Uplinks plug into FI's that must be in EHM and ports defined as "Server"
- Must be redundant to begin with, otherwise won't show up
- Extended Memory Architecture
- Cisco create a custom ASIC to address electrical limitation of Intel CPU's in addressing more than 12 DIMM's of memory per socket
- 12 DIMM's at full performance or 18 at reduced performance (~80% of normal speed)
- Allows 4 DIMM's to appear as on logical DIMM to CPU. Allowing up to 4x memory architecture of traditional servers
 - UCS Configuration Options
- UCS Manager XML API
- This is the actual UCS manger system/subystem
- Gives UCS it's complete flexibility to be automated and remotely controlled
- UCS GUI (HTTPS) and UCS CLI (SSH) are both fronts to this interface, both modify XML API, doesn't make any changes directly to DB
- UCS CLI changes make to UCSM on either FI-A or FI-B both make changes via the API, which are putin the transactor gueu, processed in a FIFI manner, and written to the management information tree, which writed to the DB, this way it doesn't matter which FI you make the changes to
- Not like a Supervisor on a C6K or N7K where you can only make changes on the primary, and not make any changes on the Secondary supervisor
- GUI
- Simplest, most common management tool
- What most people think of when they think of UCS manager
- CLI
- Know this well for the CCIE Written
- Practice with GUI alongside UCSM CLI Navigator
- cisco.com "UCS CLI Navigator" tredd duplictes structure of UCSM shell CLI
- Found under "Cisco UCS B-Series Documentation Roadmap"
- SNMP (RO)
- CIM-XML (RO)
- System Even Log, Onboard Failure Log, View Alarms, Power Control
- Port 5988
- CIM= Comman Information Model
- Standard defined by DMTF ( Distributed Management Task Force)
- Alternative to Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)
- SMASH CLP (RO)
- SMASH= Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware
- CLP= Command Line Protocol
- Alternative to IPMI with richer command set
- Industry Standard maintained by the DMTF http://www.dmtf.org/standards/smash
- Multiple Shells to the UCS Platform CLI
- UCS Manager Shell
- Not IOS-like
- Navigate through equipment hierarchy with Scope, Where, Up, and Top
- Create, Modify, Delete
- Service Profiles and Template, LAN and SAN Policies, Backup and Import jobs
- Local and remote user authentication
- Show Fault and Logging data
- Local-mgmt Shell
- IOS-Like
- Reboot FI's (your only method of doing so)
- Ping and Traceroute
- Manage flash
- NX-OS Shell
- IOS-like
- Ethanalyzer
- Debug NX-OS
- UCS Adapter Shell
- Talks/Reads directly to the Adapter ASIC
- Mostly used for Cisco TAC Usage
- Read-Only show commands for physical and virtual adapters
- UCS IOM Shell
- Talks/programs directly to the FEX ASIC
- Mostly used for Cisco TAC Usage
- Low-Level degub for IO modules (UCS FEX)
- !!BEWARE!! you can make the IOM unusable by certain commands
- Interface Types/Names In UCS
- Ethernet Uplink: goes from the FI north to neighbor switch
- FC Uplink: From FI north to FC NPIV mode switch
- Server: FI southbound to UCS IOM/FEX in chassis
- Appliance: FI northbound direct to NAS/NFC Filer- if attached in small environments
- Storage; FI northbound direct to a SAN arrary - if attached in a small environments
- Fabric: IOM/FEX northbound to FI
- Backplane: IOM/FEX southbound to blade adapter
- DCE: from adpter to IOM/FEX
- Adapter/vNIC: presented from Adapter south to OS
When describing power supply configurations, “N” refers to the minimum number of supplies required to deliver
power without any redundancy
chassis. To operate in non-redundant mode, each chassis should have at least two power supplies installed.
In N+1 mode, the chassis tolerates the failure of any single supply without any interruption of service. In this mode, the chassis
should have at least three supplies installed. In other words, N+1 describes a power supply configuration that has one extra
power supply installed and active
The purpose of the grid redundant mode is to enable a configuration that can tolerate the loss of either a power supply or a input
power circuit. In grid-redundant mode the system can withstand the loss of any two power supplies. In this mode, the chassis
should have at least four supplies installed
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10280/UCS_Power_Supply_Configuration_and_Provisioning.pdf
Allow higher-value servers/blades to continue to run while others are forced to power down,should there be a decrease in the overall power necessary to deliver adequate power to all blades, and can help with data center cooling efforts
Example 1-10, 1 being the highest priority
- UCS Full backup and FI interaction
- Two main type of Backups
- Full-State-Backup: Which is binary and stored as a tarball (.tar)
- Config Backup: Which is stored as a XML file
- System- Backs up only system info
- Logical - Backs up only logical info (service profiles, LAN, SAN, etc.)
- All - Backs up both
- Pay attention to "PResere Identities" with either a Logical or a All Config backup. "All config with Preserve Identities" is the perfect backup before performing a firmware upgrade (Full-State is not, simply because it includes firmware information, something you are upgrading, and don't wish to preserve)
- All Backups aremanually created and exported to a remote server
- Restore
- Full-State can be applied without any prior configuration
- Config is applied after initial configuration is completed
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