Flexflash vs usb esxi install

[Robert Rosenberg]

Hi All,

We just picked up a couple  ucs240 m3 servers and need to install esxi. We have no physical drives in the servers. The var we purchased from has two techs with differing points of view on the location of the install. Their arguments are as follows,

Tech 1 I always install on the usb stick

Tech 2 I always use the flexflash if they have it

Tech3 (me) I better get some other points of view.

Of note only slot 1 of the flexflash has a card in it SD253, Im guessing its an sd card?

Is there a performance difference?

Is there a best practice?

Any advice/help would be very much appreciated.

Regards,

Robert

[Manuel Velasco · Accepted solution]

Hi Robert,

If you go with the SD install card you have the benefit of having some redundancy with the second sd card.  In the 1.5 firmware relase we added a new feature which allows to configure raid 1 on these SD cards.

Also see release notes for any questions that you may have.

Release Notes for Cisco UCS C-Series Software, Release 1.5(3d)

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/release/notes/OL-28995-01.html

[Robert Rosenberg]

Thanks for the response that was my feeling as well. I know it has a 16GB card, can I add any 16GB card for the mirror? I cant find a part number or compatability list.

Thanks,

Robert

[Cristian Munoz · Accepted solution]

Hi Robert,

Just want to add a little more...

Currently: The only supported SD card size is 16GB.

Please check this link where you can find very helpful information about the Flexflash and general questions.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns944/white_paper_c11-718938.pdf

Q. Can I install a third-party card SD card into the server?

A. No. Third-party cards are not qualified for use in the FlexFlash slots.

For the part numbers:

You can order up to two optional preloaded 16 GB Cisco Flexible Flash secure digital (SD) cards.

Cisco UCS C240 M3 - Spec Sheet

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10493/C240M3_SFF_SpecSheet.pdf  pag :47

UCSC-SD-16G-C240 ->  16GB SD Card for C240 servers

UCS-SD-16G ->  16GB SD Card

The first SD card contains preloaded software for simplified server operation. (Partitions).

You can order an optional second blank SD card.The second SD card can be used to mirror the first SD card as Manuel mentioned before.

I hope this helps.

Chris,