New HX-UMM or IMM

[ODUrasler]

Hello,

I will be doing a new HX install (FI's included), and I was wondering if I should be considering IMM. Since IMM is SAAS based, I was wondering how you would manage the environment if the Internet is down.  Any info that will allow me to make the right decision is appreciated.

[RedNectar · Accepted solution]

Hi @ODUrasler ,

I can tell you definitively - choose UCS Manager management for your FIs.  After FIVE YEARS Cisco STILL doesn't support IMM mode for the FIs when deploying HX.

About 2 hours of my life lost finding this little titbit of information a week or so ago!

[ITM-Team]

If the internet is down or you cannot reach Intersight there is no way you can change the configuration of your servers. Although you can directly connect to your Fabric Interconnects via the physical IP and do some rudimentary administration tasks e.g. powering the servers.
In addition all servers and FIs keep their configuration over a reboot even if their device connectors are not reaching Intersight.

I cannot confirm that behaviour because we are not using IMM but at least that is what a Cisco engineer told during a presentation on Cisco Live.

[RedNectar]

Hi @ITM-Team ,

I thought I should reply to your comments because some readers may mis-interpret the things you've said

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@ITM-Team wrote:

If the internet is down or you cannot reach Intersight there is no way you can change the configuration of your servers.

CORRECT: But changing the configuration of servers is something you might do once when they are deployed, then not touch again for YEARS.  So a short-term internet outage is unlikely to stop you changing your server configuration.

ALTERNATIVE: If loosing Internet connectivity is a concern, deploy a Connected Virtual APpliance (CVA). Problem solved, Intermittent Internet connectivity loss is no longer a problem.

Although you can directly connect to your Fabric Interconnects via the physical IP and do some rudimentary administration tasks e.g. powering the servers.

CORRECT: But you can also access the KVM interface of the servers via the FIs in Local Mangement (provided there is a Local Management Policy that allows this)

In addition all servers and FIs keep their configuration over a reboot even if their device connectors are not reaching Intersight.

CORRECT: AND THANK GOODNESS - I'd NEVER buy a system where the server lost it's BIOS settings, boot order etc during a reboot. So I hope the reader understand THIS IS A REALLY GOOD FEATURE

I cannot confirm that behaviour because we are not using IMM but at least that is what a Cisco engineer told during a presentation on Cisco Live.

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I CAN CONFIRM the behaviours I've described above.