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Using Advanced Features on Cisco UCS Dan Hanson, Technical Marketing Manager, Data Center Group

2

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UCS Bundled Upgrades

This does a very quick fast upgrade with internal coordination

No need to step through component level upgrades

Complete UCS system outage (not the server, but I/O) is tradeoff

Useful for Staging, Labs, and Non Productions

3

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Checking Firmware Conformance

This is a very useful

method to check and

ensure firmware inter-

relations are at

supported level

This is one of the

most key items with

customer cases

‒ Infrastructure Check

‒ B and C package

Check

To Ensure the Servers and Infrastructure Firmware are all at a consistent version

4

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Port Channels within UCS System

Port Channels on Gen 2 HW

‒ 62xx, 22xx, VIC 12xx

Between Gen2 HW we can

channel, otherwise discreet links

that use pinning

VIC 12xx to IOM 22xx

‒ This will always channel from the

server to the IOM (5 tuple)

‒ Not user configurable

IOM 22xx to FI 62xx

‒ This can be configured per the

drawing when chassis

acknowledged

For Balance and Availability

5

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UCS 62xx Fabric Interconnect and Unified Ports

Can modify the Ethernet and/or FC port types in blocks via slider

Reboot required today

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Fabric Hot Spot Monitoring and

Reporting/Alerting Internal Fabric “Hot Spots” of periodic saturation (set measurement to 30s interval)

Uplink periodic saturation reporting from the UCS side to the Data Center

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Fabric Hot Spot Monitoring and

Reporting/Alerting Internal Fabric “Hot Spots” of periodic saturation (set measurement to 30s interval)

Uplink periodic saturation reporting from the UCS side

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Fabric Monitoring and Reporting/Alerting

Create alerts based on these hot spots of congestion

Syslog of this Alerts to external systems

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Schedules / Maintenance Policies

Schedule definition for one time vs. recurring

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Schedules / Maintenance Policies

Assigning a schedule to a maintenance policy

Pending Changes will fire, but no PNUOS activity

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Smart Call Home

Call Home for defined events

Mail events to TAC, and

customer help desk

Can define the priority at

which to send messages

Not 1:1 Alerts to Call Home

events, what would we want?

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Smart Call Home

Profiles for whom to alert

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Smart Call Home

Enable/Disable Policies

System Inventory to TAC

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UCS v2.x and Segmented Layer 2 Networks

Half Width Blade Network3

Half Width Blade Network1,3

Half Width Blade Network1

LAN 1

Adapter

UCS Fabric

Interconnects

Chassis’

(1-20)

Adapter’s

LAN 3

LAN 2

Adapter Adapter

Fabric Extender Fabric Extender

VLAN List Uplink Group Server Interface

List

10,11,12… E1/1,E1/2 Blade1 NIC0 &

NIC1, Blade 2

NIC0

20,21,22… E1/10,E1/11 None

30,31,32… E1/20,E1/21 Blade 2 NIC1,

Blade 3 NIC0 &

NIC1

501 FC0,FC1 Blade 1 vHBA0,

Blade 2 vHBA0

UCS

Forwarding

Boundary

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UCS v2.x and Segmented Layer 2 Networks

Mapping VLANs to

Uplinks

Uplink ports or channels

Pinning within a group of

ports

VLAN Pruning to match G

port

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Fabric Failover

Fabric Failover at Adapter Level

~1s mapping

No OS teaming/bonding drivers

Always recommend unless HW

cannot support, or Virtualization

host

Using this?

LAN SAN B SAN A

Half Width Blade Half Width Blade

Fabric Extender Fabric Extender

vNIC

vNIC

vNIC

vNIC

Adapter Adapter

UCS Fabric

Interconnects

Chassis

VIC or

Menlo

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Traffic Uplink Balancing

Multiple uplinks from UCS fabric

Port Channels or Discrete links

(no MCEC)

System evaluates link loads and

re-balances based on numbers

of VIFs mapped

Run every 300s

LAN SAN B SAN A

Half Width Blade Half Width Blade

Fabric Extender Fabric Extender

vNIC

vNIC

vNIC

vNIC

Adapter Adapter

UCS Fabric

Interconnects

Chassis

VIC or

Menlo

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

vNIC Templates Catalogs of Adapters with allowed networks

Updating Templates in most cases (to easily add VLANs to multiple servers in UCS)

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

vHBA Templates Catalogs of HBA’s with allowed storage fabrics

Updating Templates in most cases

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Updating SP Templates Updating SP Templates to make mass changes

Maintenance Policies block any outage-forcing events

Audit for conformance to approved template

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Server Pre-Provisioning WWPN Export for zoning

Install Server to LUN, then archive until chosen HW arrives

Can create complete server infrastructures right away, only wait on HW as final close

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Server Pools and Qualification Policies Pool servers by location

Pool servers within a chassis or between them

Blade or Rack

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Server Pools and Qualification Policies Can qualify server by attributes prior to adding to pool

Can qualify server within given pools by attributes within the Service Profile

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

De-commission of Server in Pool for in-hours

maintenance Hardware Failure/Issue of a Server in a Pool

‒ If blade is in a given pool – it can be “decommissioned” and the service profile will

automatically move to next server in pool

‒ Check against server pool qualification policy prior to moving

‒ Ensures very short recovery time, later forensic analysis

Instead of off-hours troubleshooting, decommissioned servers can be examined

and/or replaced during business hours on weekly/monthly basis

On site facilities personnel can replace decommissioned hardware

‒ Reduce rolls of IT professionals to

‒ remote DCs

‒ -Allow facilities professionals ability

‒ To swap equipment in-hours

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Common Sparing with Organizations Pools of objects are created within a given organization

–MAC

–WWNN

–WWPN

–UUID

–Etc.

Name of pool is the key when we are utilizing via the profile

If pool is exhausted – then UCS recursively looks up to parent organization until root

If pool with same name exists, that resource will be used

This applies also to pools of servers themselves

UCS can then support a common spare set of servers – even with different attributes (as qualification policies will ensure service level)

–Organizations can then back-fill the server blades that were used

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Fiber Channel Port Channel and Trunking Put multiple ports in a port channel to MDS

Can handle individual link loss without new FLOGI or reliance on multipathing SW

Can handle multiple VSANs on trunked ports

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Blade and Rack Management Integrated Blade and Rack Management and Training

Profiles can be applied to both/either

PCIe Slots now open, more DAS, etc.

FEX with 2232 on v2.0(2)

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VMDirectPath 2 and ESXi5.0

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Ban

dw

idth

(G

bp

s)

Time (sec)

Temporary transition

from VMDP to standard

I/O

vMotion to secondary

host

• 8GB VM, sending UDP stream using pckgen (1500MTU)

• UCS B200 blades with UCS VIC card

• vSphere technology preview

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Easy VM-FEX Tool Tool to simplify the administrative setup between UCS, vCenter, ESX hosts (v4.1 and 5.0)

On CDN

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Easy VM-FEX and SPAN, Counters, Security, etc.

3 4

1 3 4 5 6 7 8

Chassis IO Module A

1 2

Server Ports

3 4

1 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 2

Server Ports

VN Tag @ 10Gbe

2 2

Chassis IO Module B

Internal Connections 2 3 4 5 6

0 1

2 3 4 5 6 UCS 6x00 Physical Ports

Chassis IOM Ports

UCS 6x00 Physical Ports

Chassis IOM Ports

VIC CPU

Virtual Interface Control Logic

Virtual Interface Control Logic

vCenter Controlled

interfaces on VMs with

forwarding rules

enforced on dynamic

adapters and signaled

on Private Interfaces

1 1

8 7

Ethernet Uplink Ports 2 1

Fiber Channel Uplink Ports 8 7

Ethernet Uplink Ports 2 1

Fiber Channel Uplink Ports 6 5 6 5

0

Mgmt Uplink

0

Mgmt Uplink

CIMC KVM etc.

Cisco Adapter

UCS Fabric Interconnect B (port profiles) UCS Fabric Interconnect A (port profiles)

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Easy VM-FEX and SPAN, Counters, Security, etc.

3 4

1 3 4 5 6 7 8

Chassis IO Module A

1 2

Server Ports

3 4

1 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 2

Server Ports

VN Tag @ 10Gbe

2 2

Chassis IO Module B

Service Console

Kernel

Internal Connections

vfc0

2 3 4 5 6

0 1

vNIC1(s) vNIC2(s) d-vNIC3

vfc1

2 3 4 5 6

Cisco Adapter

ESX 4.0u1+

VM

-FEX

UCS 6x00 Physical Ports

Chassis IOM Ports

UCS 6x00 Physical Ports

Chassis IOM Ports

VIC CPU

Virtual Interface Control Logic

Virtual Interface Control Logic

vCenter Controlled

interfaces on VMs with

forwarding rules

enforced on dynamic

adapters and signaled

on Private Interfaces

ESX Kernel Pass Through Module

Attempts by Guest OS

to improperly mark

traffic blocked

HBA 0

vHBA0

HBA 1

vHBA1 d-vNIC4

veth10

1 1

8 7

Ethernet Uplink Ports 2 1

Fiber Channel Uplink Ports 8 7

Ethernet Uplink Ports 2 1

Fiber Channel Uplink Ports 6 5 6 5

veth3 veth4 veth3 veth4 veth10 0

Mgmt Uplink

0

Mgmt Uplink

CIMC KVM etc.

UCS Fabric Interconnect B (port profiles) UCS Fabric Interconnect A (port profiles)

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Easy VM-FEX and SPAN, Counters, Security, etc.

3 4

1 3 4 5 6 7 8

Chassis IO Module A

1 2

Server Ports

3 4

1 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 2

Server Ports

VN Tag @ 10Gbe

2 2

Chassis IO Module B

Service Console

Kernel

Internal Connections

vfc0

2 3 4 5 6

0 1

d-vNIC1 vNIC1(s) d-vNIC2 vNIC2(s) d-vNIC3

vfc1

2 3 4 5 6

ESX 4.0u1+

VM

-FEX

UCS 6x00 Physical Ports

Chassis IOM Ports

UCS 6x00 Physical Ports

Chassis IOM Ports

VIC CPU

Virtual Interface Control Logic

Virtual Interface Control Logic

vCenter Controlled

interfaces on VMs with

forwarding rules

enforced on dynamic

adapters and signaled

on Private Interfaces

ESX Kernel Pass Through Module

Attempts by Guest OS

to improperly mark

traffic blocked

HBA 0

vHBA0

HBA 1

vHBA1 d-vNIC4

veth10

1 1

8 7 2 1

Fiber Channel Uplink Ports 8 7 2 1

Fiber Channel Uplink Ports 6 5 6 5

veth1 veth2 veth3 veth4 veth1 veth2 veth3 veth4 veth10 0

Mgmt Uplink

0

Mgmt Uplink

CIMC KVM etc.

UCS Fabric Interconnect B (port profiles) UCS Fabric Interconnect A (port profiles)

Cisco Adapter

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Easy VM-FEX and SPAN, Counters, Security, etc. Set SPAN destination on UCS port

Analyze traffic directly on VM vNIC in either direction

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Advanced Features Recommended Viewing

www.YouTube.com/ciscodatacenter

Playlist UCS Technical Videos http://www.youtube.com/ciscodatacenter#p/c/F04A2C6AA04DF055

Overview Cisco UCS Advantage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW4zHXIjpPU

UCS Advantage Videos on YouTube

35

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Category Title URL

UCS server Service Profiles and Templates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW-YtVN75R0

UCS server Organizations and Roles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb-L0zv3If

UCS server Extended Memory Technology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS3ehPRcVDo

UCS server Server Pre-Provisioning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7BuEE3hNPE

UCS server BIOS Policies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr6EptC9JXQ

UCS server RAID Policies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcs56wjUWuI

UCS server Firmware Policies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjj8Xz0NqI4

UCS server Server Pools and Qualification Policies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTw7M3T-VOw

UCS server Maintenance Policies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQTlm98NgTI

UCS server High Availability During Upgrades http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57HXMGn88HA

UCS server Monitoring with BMC BPPM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdoEZf7tM5E

UCS server Microsoft Hyper-V on UCS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3x_YOYK-Fo

Advanced Features Recommended Viewing

36

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Advanced Features Recommended Viewing

Category Title URL

UCS I/O Adapter Templates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpVEn3DhfOM

UCS I/O Network Interface Virtualization http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njjbCEblxVc

UCS I/O Adapter Fabric Failover http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlu8RSq6T_M

UCS I/O Extend the Network to the Virtual Machine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylizxq18yxE

UCS I/O Traffic Analysis of All Servers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHTdXy_8Zdg

UCS I/O Ethernet Switching Modes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roX8MRN66UM

UCS I/O Fibre Channel and Switch Modes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSetsgOYYCo

UCS I/O FC Port Channels and Trunking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpzKPguRTXc

37

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Category Title URL

UCS

Infrastructure

Lights-Out Management http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEO1d_1vTxs

UCS

Infrastructure

Easy VM-FEX Deployment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aAuj80cNvg

UCS

Infrastructure

Server Power Grouping http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgoFe33YoD8

UCS

Infrastructure

Blade and Rack-Mount Management http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOsx4YMiOho

UCS

Infrastructure

Manager Platform Emulator http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNNrs2e0wvk

UCS

Infrastructure

Cisco Developer Network and Sandbox http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syhl6SAiwew

Advanced Features Recommended Viewing

38

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. UCS-4789 Cisco Public

Complete Your Online

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Winners announced daily.

Receive 20 Passport points for each

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Complete your session evaluation

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the year. Activate your account at the

Cisco booth in the World of Solutions or visit

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Final Thoughts

Get hands-on experience with the Walk-in Labs located in World of

Solutions, booth 1042

Come see demos of many key solutions and products in the main Cisco

booth 2924

Visit www.ciscoLive365.com after the event for updated PDFs, on-

demand session videos, networking, and more!

Follow Cisco Live! using social media:

‒ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ciscoliveus

‒ Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/CiscoLive

‒ LinkedIn Group: http://linkd.in/CiscoLI

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