Correct, you will not be able to power on or configure the blades without UCS Manager running on a Fabric Interconnect. It can be either the standalone switches (6332, 6454) or the FI-IOM combo 6324 (aka UCS Mini).
That utilization is of the OS running on the server (ESXi, Windows, Linux, etc) and not for the CIMC.
I don't think there is a way to check the CIMC memory without having access to the debug tools. What is the server's hardware model? I believe th...
It is not just the CPU performance BIOS option you should be looking at, but how all the options work together.
In the Release Notes it links to "Cisco UCS M5 Server BIOS Tokens" which has a "Default Value" for all of the BIOS options, essentially...
There is no utility to configure the CIMC from an installed OS. You can try the serial console port on the rear of the server to try and get any output. Seems like buad 56700 should work: https://community.cisco.com/t5/ip-telephony-and-phones/ucs-c22...
What is the higher firmware of the new Fabric Interconnect?
If you want to be extra cautious, go through the initial setup on the new Fabric Interconnect and set it up in Standalone mode (using network settings that don't overlap with your current...