Clustering UCS 6248US

[Vadim Tichina]

I'm trying to find an answer to some questions
What is the maximum length of the FI "cross connect" cable?
Can I use media converters on these lines? (if the distance is exceeded)

[abbharga]

Hi Vadim,

the connections between the FIs are suppose to be direct connections only and not via any switched system. plus it has to be a RJ45 gig ethernet which has a limitation of 10 meters.

./Abhinav

[Vadim Tichina]

Hi Abhinav,

Thanks for the reply, but 10 meters - is this true? It's not a typo?

The standard for 1Gbps Ethernet for CAT5e CAT6 - 75-100m

Or is it a limitation of the Cisco these specific interfaces.

Vadim.

[abbharga]

Hi Vadim,

its 100m, sorry for the typo

./abhinav

[Vadim Tichina]

Abhinav,

Great news! I was happy! )
I tried to find this information on cisco.com - to no avail.
I need documentation of this information for drafting the design of the network and UCS.
You can help me with this?

Thank you.
Vadim.

[Eric Rose]

from the gui configuration guide.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/2.0/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_2_0_chapter_0100.html#d7136e716a1635

• The L1 ports on both fabric interconnects are directly connected to each other
• The L2 ports on both fabric interconnects are directly connected to each other

you can't have any L2 switches between them - they have to be directly connected to each other.

Hope this helps.

Eric

[Vadim Tichina]

Hi Eric,

Thank you for the information. I read it.
Unfortunately, not enough technical information.
I also read another document:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/hw/6200/install/install.html
"
Step 6 If the fabric interconnect will be running in a cluster with another fabric interconnect, you will need to connect ethernet cables between the L1 and L2 ports. Port L1 on fabric interconnect A connects to L1 on fabric interconnect B, and Port L2 on fabric interconnect A connects to L2 on fabric interconnect B. If the fabric interconnect and the UCS instance will be in standalone mode this will not be necessary.
"
However, I did not find information about what kind of standard "ethernet" is used. And the "ethernet" Is there at all

Thank you.
Vadim.

[pzpgd1mlf]

Can we assume the FI have RJ45 connectors then? Do we need GLC-T?

[Robert Burns]

Guys,

The L1/L2 are standard RJ-45 interfaces.  There's no need for GLC-T connectors.  They're the same interface type as the Management interfaces.  The L1/L2 are also bonded to provide redundancy with the cluster links.

I've opened a doc bug to have the HW Install Guides updated.

Regards,

Robert

[pzpgd1mlf]

Thank you!

[shiwangsharma]

Hi Vadim,

I have similar query as you have posted above , hope you will be able to guide me through :-

We have 2 FI clustered together with CAT 6 cable , now we have to move our datacenter from one location to other and we have decided to move it in a phased manner as we have redundancy at the network layer and UCS layer too.

So we will moving one of the FI to the new location (120-130 meters distance between them) and then making a cluster to the between two using combination of Fiber and CAT6 having media converters between them. So at both ends of the FIs till will be CAT6 which will be converted from fiber cable using media converts.

Could you please guide if this setup will work and cluster between the FIs can be established.

Thanks Much

Shiwang