Architecture UCS

[Informatica SSRP]

Hi, I have a newbie question in UCS. We want to buy Cisco Blade servers and many people offer us different type of configurations and do not know what to chose. One configuration has cisco chassis and cisco blade servers, and the chassis has fabric extenders. Do I have to connect a fabric extender to a fabric interconnect? Or can I connect a fex to nexus 5548? And if this is possible, can I connect a pre existing SAN to the nexus 5548?
This question is because some people offered me chasis + fabric interconnect 6300 + nexus 5548 (where I could connect some pre existing things) and I want to know I i can avoid fi 6300.

[Walter Dey]

see eg.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/servers-unified-computing/ucs-6120xp-20-port-fabric-interconnect/110267-ucs-uplink-ethernet-connection.html

Do I have to connect a fabric extender to a fabric interconnect?

to be very clear, the fabric extender in UCS is called IOM, not to be confused by the other standalone FEX's

Or can I connect a fex to nexus 5548?

if fex = IOM => NO

can I connect a pre existing SAN to the nexus 5548

I assume by 5548 you don't mean UCS FI ? Yes, if you have the proper license, fibreconverters,.....

and of course, the UCS fabric interconnect can be connected to any SAN !

and I want to know I i can avoid fi 6300

No !! the UCS FI is the heart of any UCS domain, where you run e.g. UCS Manager; therefore all chassis with their IOM have to connected to the fi.

[Informatica SSRP]

So, I can create this architecture:

Cisco Blade Servers in Cisco Chasis + IOM (FEX) inside it. Then I connect it to two fabric interconnects for example Cisco 6300 series. And then I can connect this two FI s to ethernet data uplink and to a san (brocade based). Is this correct?

Can I connect to a 4gb fc san switch (with the proper licenses)???

Thank you very much

[Walter Dey · Accepted solution]

Cisco Blade Servers in Cisco Chasis + IOM (FEX) inside it. Then I connect it to two fabric interconnects for example Cisco 6300 series. And then I can connect this two FI s to ethernet data uplink and to a san (brocade based). Is this correct?

Yes correct !

Can I connect to a 4gb fc san switch (with the proper licenses)???

yes correct !

On FI6200 and in particular FI6300 there so called universal ports, which means they can be Ethernet or FC ? And therefore you just a generic port license

[Informatica SSRP]

Thank you very much, and happy new year!

[Walter Dey]

You are welcome ! same to you !

Cheers

Walter.