UCS B200M3 with XENServer 6.0.2

[patrickkehl2]

Hi all

Today we installed a cisco ucs b-series environment with B200M3 / VIC1240 in order to operate a XENServer 6.0.2 environment.

The whole UCS Installation was not a big deal, but the problem occured when we wanted to bring the different XENServer togehter in a Pool on the XENCenter. The message was: There was an error connecting to the server. the service contacted didn't replay properly.

We checked all the driver issues - but XENServer 6.0.2 is supporting B200M3 / VIC 1240 if you install the 2.1.1.29 Adapter Driver - we also installed the necessary Hotfix on XenServer. UCS is running 2.0.(2q).

So from my point-of-view it can't be a problem with the drivers because they are on the Supportmatrix from Cisco. But i couldn't find the VIC1240 on the Citrix HCL.

We also checked Interface Settings, VLAN, Connectivity, etc. -> all works fine.

Anyone has a clue what could be the issue?

Please find attached the output of the LOG from the XENServer - the message is not very informational.

Regards

Patrick

[Robert Burns]

Pat,

You've confirmed you have IP connectivity between hosts & Xenserver Center I assume?

If so might want to check your DNS Suffix.

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX118840

Regards,

Robert

[patrickkehl2]

Hi Robert

Yes - we checked IP connectivity.

I have to check this DNS Case - also it might just be the case for 5.x installation - as written in the document - but not for 6.0.2.

Actually i'm just responsibel for the UCS Part - so what do you think - is it rather a XENServer issue? Because i have no clue what i could implement differently on the ucs - and i implemented quite a bunch of UCS systems (vmware) without any issues...

Regards

Patrick

[Robert Burns]

Smells like more of a Xenserver issue to be honest.   If you have IP connectivity, the drivers are loaded and functioning.  The clustering process is then responsibility of the OS.   I haven't done much work with Xen, but I would vouch you're good to go from a UCS side.  It does bother me that we list Xen as supported from our perspective including the VIC 1240, but Citrix HCL only shows the last generation Palo VIC.. Could be Citrix is just behind on updating their HCL - but may want to bring this up in your OS discussion/troubleshooting with Citrix if/when you engage them.

If anyone else has ideas they're welcome to chime in.

Regards,

Robert

[HAROLD MEIER]

I recently had our Cisco sales team ship a demo C240M3 or two to a vendor so they could perform a HCL check of the new platform. I'd say if you don't see it there, then take steps to get it tested. Citrix offers self test kits that you and/or your sales team at Cisco could load into a lab environment. Sadly my experience has been that the Cisco datacenter BU isn't as proactive with 3rd party HCL certifications and backward compatibility/regression testing compared with competitors like HP and IBM. You'll also notice that things like Xen 5.6 and MS Windows 2008 32bit are missing from Cisco compatibility lists for the newer lines of servers.