upgrading ucsm 2.1(1a) to 2.2(1c)

[Dragomir]

I am about to upgrade from 2.1(1a) to 2.2(1c). I only plan to do the Fabric interconnects first. Then the blades later. Do I have to do everything together if I use the auto install feature?

[Walter Dey]

On UCS

 channel-group auto mode on mac-pinning

 is recommended ! you have vnic0 connected to fabric A, and vnic1 connected to fabric B.

In the case that fabric A fails, all vnics connected to fabric A are signalled to go down; and if mac-pinning for a particular VM was using fabric A, it is failed over to fabric B.

[Dragomir]

i dont have 

channel-group auto mode on mac-pinning

Also I dont have any pin groups on my vnics

[Dragomir]

my nexus 1k vnics have this configuration

interface Vethernet2741
  description server 1/4, VNIC vmnic0_n1kv_A
  switchport mode trunk
  no pinning server sticky
  pinning server pinning-failure link-down
  switchport trunk native vlan 50
  switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,15,17,20,30,40,50,60,70,160,162,220
  bind interface port-channel1312 channel 2741
  service-policy type queuing input default-in-policy
  no shutdown

[Dragomir]

i do not understand the need for a pin group if my my vnic_A fabric id is already set to Fabric A and vnic_B is on fabric B

what is the point of a pin group?

[Walter Dey]

No need for a pin group !

mac-pinning is a N1k feature, has nothing to do with UCS pin groups !!!

[Walter Dey]

Sorry Richard !

I'm not angry at all ! no problem ! it's a technical discussion, no personal nor political attack !

Kind Regards

Walter.

[richbarb]

Hi,

The vswitch mechanism to failover uplink is the port-channel. Except by the N1Kv, the others can't be configured to use the both fabrics at the same time, you have to use a active-standby port-channel.

Where is a aggregation benefit doing this?

Another issue is the management. You can just say to your VM admin to not concern about the network high-availability, this is embedded in the UCS.

With Nexus 1000v the Cisco recomendation is use port-channel with mac-pinning option and leave the FF disabled, this is the only official Cisco recomendation about it the I know so far.

Regards.

Richard

[Walter Dey]

Just to add: you must update the whole infrastructure, UCSM, FI and IOM; FI alone is not possible; could actually lead to problems, don't forget that UCSM is the only piece that is backwards compatible, and therefore has to be done first.