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Implementing Cisco UCS Solutions - Second Edition

By : Prasenjit Sarkar

2.5 (2)

Buy this Book

Implementing Cisco UCS Solutions

2.5 (2)

By: Prasenjit Sarkar

Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Cisco Unified Computer System (UCS) is a powerful solution for modern data centers and is responsible for increasing efficiency and reducing costs. This hands-on guide will take you through deployment in Cisco UCS. Using real-world examples of configuring and deploying Cisco UCS components, we’ll prepare you for the practical deployments of Cisco UCS data center solutions. If you want to develop and enhance your hands-on skills with Cisco UCS solutions, this book is certainly for you. We start by showing you the Cisco UCS equipment options then introduce Cisco UCS Emulator so you can learn and practice deploying Cisco UCS components. We’ll also introduce you to all the areas of UCS solutions through practical configuration examples. Moving on, you’ll explore the Cisco UCS Manager, which is the centralized management interface for Cisco UCS. Once you get to know UCS Manager, you’ll dive deeper into configuring LAN, SAN, identity pools, resource pools, and service profiles for the servers. You’ll also get hands-on with administration topics including backup, restore, user’s roles, and high availability cluster configuration. Finally, you will learn about virtualized networking, third-party integration tools, and testing failure scenarios. By the end of this book, you’ll know everything you need to know to rapidly grow Cisco UCS deployments in the real world.

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

Free Chapter

What's New with Cisco UCS

UCS architecture overview

Changes in the third-generation UCS

Physical architecture of UCS

Fabric Interconnects

Fabric Extenders

Blade server chassis

B-Series blade servers

Mezzanine adapters

UCS storage servers

UCS M-Series modular servers

Cisco UCS Mini

Summary

Installing Cisco UCS Hardware

Installing UCS hardware components

Installing racks for UCS components

Installing UCS chassis and components

Installing Fabric Interconnects

Cabling - Fabric Interconnects and Fabric Extenders

Power capacity and power plug types

Cisco SingleConnect technology

Summary

Setting Up a Lab Using Cisco UCS Emulator

Configuring Cisco UCS Emulator

Using Cisco UCSPE

Configuring network settings

Configuring hardware settings

Launching UCS Manager using Platform Emulator

UCSPE limitations

Summary

Configuring Cisco UCS Using UCS Manager

Introducing Cisco UCSM

Walking through the UCSM interface

Starting with the initial configuration

Step-by-step initial configuration

Global configuration policies

UCS Manager - command-line interface

Summary

Configuring LAN Connectivity

Understanding Fabric Interconnect switching modes

Introduction to Fabric Interconnect port types

Configuring northbound connectivity to upstream switches

Configuring VLANs

Using pin groups

Configuring southbound connectivity to IOMs

Configuring the last piece of the puzzle - vNICs

Summary

Configuring SAN Connectivity

Learning about storage connectivity options

Overview of FC and iSCSI storage

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 VSANs

Configuring FCoE

Manual and automatic uplink 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

Configuring policies

A walkthrough of the service profile creation - expert mode

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

RBAC

Permissions in multitenancy

Summary

Virtual Networking in Cisco UCS

Learning about VN-Link

Using the NX-OS

Changes in the data center

Development of Nexus 1000V

Nexus 1000V components

VEM implementation

VSM implementation

VEM data plane

VSM control plane

Nexus 1000V and physical switches

Nexus and vPath

Deploying VSM

VSUM architecture

Communication between VSM and VEM

Summary

Configuring Backup, Restore, and High Availability

Backing up the Cisco UCS configuration

Creating UCS backup jobs

Restoring backups using GUI

Configuring high availability clustering

Managing high availability

Summary

Cisco UCS Failure Scenarios Testing

Port channel uplink failure and recovery on Fabric Interconnects

Server link to Fabric Interconnect failure and recovery

FEX IO modules - failure and recovery

Fabric Interconnect device failure and recovery

UCS chassis failure, reporting, and recovery

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

Summary

Automation and Orchestration of Cisco UCS

Multiple UCS domain management

Performance monitoring and capacity planning

Powering infrastructure with a cloud solution

Summary

Third-Party Application Integration

Cisco UCS has all the capability to get integrated with third-party applications. In this chapter, we will show you three application integrations. The aspects of those integrations are as follows: