Q&A from Understanding UCS Architecture and Interoperability

Sandeep Singh · ‎02-26-2014

UCS Architecture and Implementation related questions:
Related Information:

This is the Q&A from "Understanding UCS Architecture and Interoperability session".

UCS Architecture and Implementation related questions:

Q. How about C210?

A. C210 M1/M2 is EOL.

Q. EOL or End of Support?

A. EOL only, but not End of support.

Q. What is mean by population of DIMSS?

A. Population of DIMM --> DIMM placement.

Q. For esx, we needed to buy raid card when we only had 2 disks?

A. Yes, For ESXi you need to use the Mezzanine or PCIe RAID card.

Q. Is this RAID is only for UCS C series?

A.No. We can have RAID for any model of server.

Q. Every OEM will support their product after EOL?

A. Yes Cisco does support the C210 after the EOL.

Q. What is use of VIC adapter?

A. VIC card is Virtual Interface card, it is a Converged Network adapter. We can make virtual NICs and HBAs from the VIC card.

Q. But for B series we can use only 0 ,1 RAID?

A. It depends on the B series blade model.

Q. After configuring all these drives i wanted to modify a config of a particular VD?

A. You can do it from LSI WebBIOS (by doing Ctrl+H) or going into the CIMC Storage tab.

Q. What is recomendation on UCS/UIM for deployment and provisioning of UCS in excsiting DC infrastructure?

A. You can use them with your existing servers.

Q. VIC 10G adaptor has fiber or copper connectivity?

A. It has both Fiber channel connectivity and Copper, depends on the SFP being used.It is a converged network adapter - so supports Fiber Channel over etherner which runs on copper cables.

Q. Do all servers has dual management port?

A. Not all, but some of them have. We can look up the spec sheet for a particular server.

Q. Is there any way I can reset the CIMC firmware from within the OS, instead of physically power cycling it?

A. No, you cannot, the CIMC is a "out-of-band" management.

Q. How to upgrade firmware if we dont have the HUU/SCU tools?

A. We can do CIMC and BIOS upgrade from the CIMC itself - from the GUI.

Q. To open gui I need to have IP but if it's came from dhcp then how I can see what ip is there?

A. You can see the IP address from the CIMC at the time of bootup, it will be shown at the bottom of the screen.

Q. Is their any other way to configure CIMc in intial stages?

A. You can press F8 at server bootup to access CIMC configuration screen.

Q. Is CIMC based on java or HTML5?

A. Both. KVM needs Java

Q. Can we configure CIMC at later stage also when UCS box is up and running or is it mandatory and only option to configure CIMC while booting only?

A. For first time config, we need to do it from F8 option on server bootup.

Q. No, resetting is not same as upgrading the firmware. Resetting means I reboot the CIMC firmware, it is needed when the CIMC card is hung or the firmware is not responding. A utility to reset it from the OS saves time and effort?

A. Correct, you can do it from the CLI for the CIMC. From the OS we do not have any operations that can be performed since this is "out of band" management.

Q. Does the vNIC and vHBA options are available only under UCSM mode or it is available under stand alone mode too?

A. It is available in standalone mode also.

Q. Which port`s MAC addr. it is showing?

A. Management port for CIMC.

Q. On which port KVM console works?

A. KVM runs on port number 2068.

Q. Is it possible to trigger alerts in case of faulty harware issue?

A. Yes, you can use SNMP.

Q. CIMC is something that will be on the FI?

A. For C-series, it is on the server only, not on FI. If connected to UCSM/FI - it is available from FI.

Q. Would you know if Cisco is planning to include a OOB management utility in the OS in the near future?

A. The CIMC is an OOB by itself.

Q. What components are there in cimc?

A. CIMC is a separate chip on the server. It can be used to manage the server harwdware etc. Its a Sotware which is embedded in BMC -- Baseboard Mgmt controller on the motherboard.

Q. In case CIMC develops an issue and is not accessible over the network, there should be a way to reset it firmware from inside the OS. As is the case with all HP rackmounts. This saves server downtime & the need for physical intervention?

A. We understand your point. We can recommend it at it as an enhancement.

Q. Can we do port channeling fabric interconnect & IOM module?

A. Yes with the newer IOM we have the option to do port channeling between FI and IO Module.

Q. Min 2 power supply needed to make a chasis up in n+n?

A. Yes, n+n is as mentioned is a chassis with fully populated power supplies.

Q. All port on IOMs are by default enabled or any additional licensnig is required?

A. You need licenses for FI not for IO Module ports.

Q. With basic licensing how many FI ports are enabled?

A. The UCS 6248UP (with NO expansion module) has 32 physical ports. Of these –

12 ports are pre-licensed

- Up to 20 additional ports can be licensed using UCS-LIC-10GE per port

Q. How slot 1 have 4 intefaces?

A. If you are referring to IOM. the 4 Interfaces are backplane ports connecting to the adapter.

Q. Can we configure Trunk link between FI & FEX?

A. It is auto configured as a trunk we do not have to configure it manually.

Q. Can we configure a port for monitoring and diagnostics purpose like ILO in UCS server?

A. In UCS - B all MGMT is through UCSM which is a chip embbeed on FI's

Q. How about the Rack servers setup. We have 8 Rack servers connected to FEX which inturn connectes to FI. Chasis will not come to picture here?

A. Yes. Chassis will not come to picture and the Rack server will show separately on the UCSM.

Q. For Rack, we dont have FEX but we connect from CIMC to FI to manage it from FI?

A. If you have CISCO VIC 1225 installed on the C you can connect directly to FI.

Q. How can we change the nic card numbering in equipment tabs say I want to rename nic 25 to nic 5?

A. We cannot change the vnic numbering on the service profile.

Q. Does b200 has any cou expantion card or need to go for b420?

A. With B200M3 we can have port expander with VIC 1240.