Need help on vNIC/vHBA placement policy

[manoj.karmacharya]

Currently using FI 6332-16UP, IOM 2208XP and VIC 1340 on each half width blade with no port expansion module.

[Kirk J]

Greetings.

What are  you specifically trying to accomplish with the placement policy?

It has less of an impact when you only have one VIC adapter.

[edit] See https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCut78943/?rfs=iqvred that explains the impact of the 13xx vic adapters with dual PCI-E lanes, and the order presented to host.

Do you have an OS with a specific PCI-E device order requirements, etc?

Thanks,

Kirk...

[manoj.karmacharya]

I will be deploying VMware ESXi. But a bit confused with placement. Looking for a proper guide in case of other OS (Windows, Linux etc) to be deployed.

[manoj.karmacharya]

What does "Admin Host Port" refer to in vNIC/vHBA placement?

[Evan Mickel]

Admin Host Port is a term that is specific to the 1340.  The 1340 architecture has two different PCI "lanes" on them, this of this as two different pieces of hardware to help conceptualize it.

With a placement policy, you can define which vNIC will be placed in each "lane" on the card.  This allows you to utilize the full capacity of the hardware.

Kirk mentioned previously that the placement policy is most useful in a multi-card server which you do logically have.  Previously, if you had a VIC 1240 for example, the placement policy would not be useful as you only have a single card with a single PCI lane.

The guide below should help you to get a bit further in your understanding here as well, reach back out with any further questions, always happy to help!

UCS Placement Policy Guide:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/ucs-manager/GUI-User-Guides/Server-Mgmt/3-1/b_Cisco_UCS_Manager_Server_Mgmt_Guide_3_1/server_related_policies.html#d45573e15870a1635

Thanks!

[samitjana]

If VIC 1340 comprises of 2 PCI lanes represented as Admin Host. What about the vCons? I can see 4 vCons. Let's say i need two vNICs and two vHBA. How should these should be placed.

[Nick Veronski]

Hi, to my experience "vNIC/vHBA placement policy" should be set to automatic.

This policy was useful in dual CNA Cards long time ago when you could balance the load to specific Card or divide FC / LAN traffic across dedicated cards.

I believe 4 Lanes is like CPU Sockets and Cores per Socket. each PCI Lane has dual path to IOM a/b thus 4 lanes.

FC and LAN traffic are travel across all lanes and Controlled by LAN Cloud > QOS Classes where you can configure percentage across traffic type and QOS Class. (By default "Best Effort" and "Fiber Channel" QOS Classes are enabled and chare 50% each)

Hope it helps.