Deploying Virtualized Unified Communication Applications on UCS Platform
List of Chapters
* UCS Architecture Overview
* UCS Network Infrastructure
* UCS Network Infrastructure Preparation
** UCS Manager Overview
** Configuring UCS Basic Configuration
** Designing UCS Platform for High Availability
* UC on UCS Architecture Overview
** VMWare
* Designing UC on UCS for High Availability
* UC on UCS Functional Deployment Models
*
Table of Content
1- Intrdocution
2- What is included
3- What is not inlcuded
4- Expectations
5- Document Format
Multiple Web pages linked to gether
UCS Startup Guide
Ordering UCS System
Netformx tool is used to order the solution.
Connecting UCS System to your network
There are different ways to connect the UCS System to your network. Please consult with your Data Center team to know more about it. But if you are partner or early adopter then it would be interested for you to know the choices that I had when I was designing my network.
The important thing to notice here is that this document is written with a focus for UC Engineers and not for data center engineers. So some ideas are presented at very high level. Also this is a lab deployment and the production deployment could vary but it will give UC engineers a general understanding about how things are done in the background for them by their DataCenter folks.
Setup#1 Design (Bypassing MDS)
UCS-Chassis-----FCoE------ucs-6120xp-------FC-------SAN-Storage
|_________Ether-----CAT6K
Setup#2 Design (More Realistic)
UCS-Chassis-----FCoE------ucs-6120xp-------FC-------MDS-9124-----FC----SAN-Storage
|_________Ether-----CAT6K
For the purpose of this document, I am using Setup#1 and bypassing MDS switch from my network
Setup#1 Cable Connections
UCS-Chassis-------------10Gig FCoE SFP+ black color cable---------ucs-6120xp
UCS-6120XP---------Console Cable---------Terminal Server
UCS-6120XP---------FC Fiber cable---------SataBeast NexSan FC Storage
UCS-6120XP-Mgmt-port---------Regular Ethernet cable--------CAT6K-Mgmt-vlan
UCS-B-Series Blade Server-------Console Cable--------terminal Server
UCS-B-Series Blade Server-------USB Keyboard/Mouse dongle--------KVM Switch
UCS-B-Series Blade Server-------VGA Monitor cable--------KVM Switch
UCS-B-Series Blade Server-------USB Cable-------------------USB Portable CD/DVD Drive
Approach
Single UCS system without any high availability
What it is and how to use it
Review of UCS
The intention of this document is that rather than reading through 500 pages document manual, I have hardware arriving and how can I hook it upto my network and get it going quickly.
The goal is that GUI is as such that the manual and document just becomes a reference and not a requirement.
What it is/isnt
Components
Network: Unified Fabric
Compute: x86
Storage: Access Options
Virtualization: It is optimized for virtualization. We talk to these optimization in details. What we are talking here is taking many steps furthure. The goal is to run these machine
Physical Building Block
Here we have main point that is heart of the solution is the UCS Manager software piece.
The actual tools set is definied by the UCS Manager. UCS Manager contains the data base.
It is an embedded fabric interconnect.
It comes in two flavors.
20 ports 10Gb FCoE
40 ports 10Gb FCoE
Fabric Extender is logically part of Fabric Interconnect Switch (UCS-6120XP) but it is inserted into the chassis as a line card
Fabric Interconnect has slight hardware modification as compare to Nexus 5K series but heavy software modifications. So FabIC actually do run a linux kernel portion of OS. On top we have data base engine and UCS Manager. And on top there is an interpreted Nexus OS too.
Valid/Invalid Connections
The connection between Fabric Inerconnect and Fabric Extender cannot span more than 5 meters.
Speical lossless cable is used between Fabric Interconnect and Fabric Extender.
UCS Initial CLI Setup
It is command line and console driven. It is required for the initial configuration only. We don't need to go to NX-OS for the setup. NS-OS on this platform from the user prespective is very different from other Nexus products. Within UCS there is no configuration. And the entire NX-OS is just read-only. Every command that a use enters is converetd into an XML API.
Wiring
First Fabric Interconnect Addition
Second Fabric Interconnect Addition
UCS Initial UCSM Setup
So all the configuration is done via the UCS Manager or UCSM. The initial GUI setup is via the UCSM.
Enabling Connections
Enabling Management IP's, User Accts
Defining Pools (MAC, WWN, UUID, Server)
Defining VLANs
Defining VSANs
UCS Service Profile Creation
All thos components for the actual hardware is done by. We don't have to do them in UCS. All the things that make a server unique is pushed down on the blade. Here we are talking about pool of compute resource. We don't touch many servers many times. So we create a server profile. And taking that profile and pushing them to compute.
BIOS Versions
UUID Settings
Boot Order
Service Profile Assignment (Blade Boot)
This makes the blade a live blade when we assing the service profile to the blade.
