Unity Connection 5000 Users - Cisco UCS C240 M4S2 ( BE7000M )

Carl Ratcliffe · ‎08-03-2016

Hi Support Community

We are migrating from physical 8.x to virtual 11.x and have purchased Cisco UCS C240 M4S2 ( BE7000M ) servers.

The following link clearly states with a green yes that the 5000 user Unity Connection deployment is supported with the BE7000M TRCs however when you use the OVA template you cannot power on the VM as you get the following error - Group host/user: invalid CPU allocation requested for VM vmm0:Cisco_Unity_Connection ( min: 5060mhz )

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Virtualization_for_Cisco_Unity_Connection

Now this error I assume is because the OVA template has 2 x CPU at 2.53Ghz with 5.06Ghz reserved. This model BE7000M server only has 2.5Ghz processors therefore doesn't meet the requirements for the CPU or reserved.

Has anybody come across this before ?

Thanks, Carl Ratcliffe

Preston Lancashire England

Deepak Rawat · ‎08-03-2016

Carl, Cisco UCS C240 M4S2 being a TRC model should fully support CUC installation however the point that you raised seems to be very valid for the error you are getting. That being said, can you please try to perform the workaround as mentioned in below KB article and see if it helps:

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001637

Regards

Deepak

Carl Ratcliffe · ‎08-04-2016

Hi Deepak

Thanks for your time and response.

Ok I have found a solution and it is sort of documented by Cisco ( states M3S server not M4S2 ) however I cant see a bug fix assigned its just in an FAQ but I would have thought if Cisco are selling the UCS TRC's then this should certainly be covered as it cant be uncommon for people to be deploying 5000 user Unity Connection deployments on BE7000M. The whole point in a TRC is that it should have been tested.

Now even with the fix below it wasn't quite to the book, it states change the CPU reservation to 4.99Ghz x 2 which is 4998 however in my case the CPU reservation was already at the max which was at 4987, this was the default that didn't allow the server to power on. However if I slightly lowered this to 4984 then the server powered on and Unity Connection was recognised in the ISO.

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/CUC_FAQ#I_have_a_UCS_C240_M3S_and_I_cannot_start_the_OVA.3F.3F

I have a UCS C240 M3S and I cannot start the OVA??

If you have the UCSC-C240-M3S TRC#2, the CPU that comes in that server is indeed a 2.5 GHz processor, however, ESXi does not seem to notice that speed, and it actually detects 2.499 GHz. Per the policies from the virtualization wiki, such CPU speed should be considered as restricted UC, however, this was tested by the BU and is considered a full UC performance platform. You will need to adjust the CPU reservation for CUC (and any other app) to multiples of 2.499.
For example, the 5K users OVA has a reservation of 5060 Mhz, which causes the failure to boot. You need to change it to 4998 Mhz.

Thanks, Carl Ratcliffe

Preston Lancashire England

Carl Ratcliffe · ‎08-04-2016

FYI

It also looks like lowering this reservation has been tested by Cisco in a lab so not sure why this hasn't been addressed in the OVA templates.

Introduction

This document describes a problem encountered on a Unified Computing System (UCS) platform with an E7 processor where the Open Virtualization Archive (OVA) template loads but the host does not boot.

Problem

Systems that run a UCS platform with an E7 processor sometimes experience a problem where the host fails to boot after the OVA template loads. This failure produces this error message:

    An error was received from the ESX host while powering on VM VaderServer1.
    Failed to power on VM.
    Could not power on VM : CPU min outside valid range.
    Group host/user: Invalid CPU allocation requested for VM vmm0:VaderServer1.
    (min: 5060 mhz, max: -1, minLimit: -1, shares: -3)

Solution

In Release 8.6(2) and later, Central Processor Unit (CPU) reservations are contained in the OVA. CPU reservation numbers are based on the Xeon 7500 processor which, when run on the E7 processor, are higher than the cycles available on a virtual CPU. Lab tests have determined that the 2.4 GHz E7 processor has the same performance as a 2.53 GHz Xeon 7500 processor; therefore, you can manually change the reservation numbers for 5,000, 10,000, or 20,000 deployment options on a virtual machine that runs on an E7 processor.

In the VMware vSphere Client, select the host on which the virtual machine was created.
Click the Summary tab under CPU chore. Note the available CPU cycles, in GHz, for one virtual CPU.
Power off the virtual machine on which you deployed the OVA template.
In the left pane of the vSphere Client, right-click the name of the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
In the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box, select the Resources tab.
In the Settings column, select CPU.
Under Resource Allocation, in the Reservation text box, enter the new reservation value (the number of CPUs multiplied by the available CPU cycles, in GHz, for one virtual CPU as determined in step 2).
Click OK to close the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box.
Power on the virtual machine.

Thanks, Carl Ratcliffe

Preston Lancashire England