UCSM upgrade required to support Ivy Bridge processor?

[r.cowles]

Using UCSM 2.1(1f).  Purchased three B200 M3 blades with Ivy Bridge CPU not supported until UCSM 2.1(3a).  We're told we cannot upgrade the firmware for those blades only and the Compatibility Catalog, but must do a complete UCS upgrade to 2.1(3a).  Seems odd to have to upgrade the UCS domain just to support a new processor.  Anyone have insights, comments or suggestions?

RC

[Zaira Vega]

In order to support CPUs v2 firmware 2.1(3a) is required.

You can upgrade the firmware on the blades, but if you leave the infrastructure at 2.1(1f) it will be a non supported config, and unexpected behavious may occur.

You can confirm this on the release notes, table 2:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/release/notes/UCS_28313.html