Deploy a Cisco UCS System – Part 1 – From Scratch for VMware ESXi

09/11/2015 13:37Deploy a Cisco UCS system - Part 1 - from scratch for VMware ESXi - @Saintdle

of 15http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/deploy-a-cisco-ucs-system-part-1/

Deploy a Cisco UCS system – Part 1 – from scratch forVMware ESXi

June 8, 2015Cisco, VMwareB Series, Cabling, CIsco UCS, Configuration, ESXi 6.0,Fabric Interconnects, Nimble, UCS Manager, VMware Edit

Part 1 – Setting up Fabric Interconnect, and UCS Manager settingsPart 2 – Configuring Connectivity & Setting up the policies and Service ProfilesPart 3 – Deploying ESXi via KVM onto FlashFlex (SDCard)Part 4 – Upgrading the Firmware

First off, huge thanks to the following posts by Rene Van Den Bedem and his CiscoUCS installation guide.

My aim here is not to rip off his posts, but to detail the process myself and use myown screenshots, as along the way, the setup was slightly different to Rene’s, such asthe configuration needed for the SD Cards, and the lack of boot from SANconfiguration.

Covered in Part 1;

The hardware/softwareCabling diagramPre-ReqsUnderstanding Cisco’s policy based managementSummary of Task List

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/deploy-a-cisco-ucs-system-part-1/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/type/cisco/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/type/vmware-2/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/posts/b-series/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/posts/cabling/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/posts/cisco-ucs/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/posts/configuration/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/posts/esxi-6-0/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/posts/fabric-interconnects/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/posts/nimble/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/posts/ucs-manager/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/posts/vmware/

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/wp-admin/post.php?post=1061&action=edit

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/deploy-a-cisco-ucs-system-part-2-from-scratch-for-vmware-esxi/


http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/deploy-a-cisco-ucs-system-part-4/

https://twitter.com/vcdx133

http://vcdx133.com/2014/06/25/cisco-ucs-configuration-guide-for-vsphere-part-1-overview/



Setting up Fabric InterconnectsConnecting to Cisco UCS Manager

The Hardware/Software

First off, we have the following hardware;

UCS Chassis2 x 6248 Fabric Interconnects4xB200M4 blades

2 x 32GB SD Cards per blade1 x VIC 1240 per blade

1 x Nimble CS300

The deployment will be based upon;

VMware vSphere 6.0VMware vRealise Operations Manager 6.2

Over all, we will be using the existing networking in place, which is made up of HPProcurve devices.

Cabling Diagram

A quick diagram to show how the devices were all connected up, the connectionsbetween the FI and the Chassis are coloured differently to define the overlappingcables in the diagram, and do not indicate any special separate configuration.

For the Nimble, each controller should have one connection to each FI. (Please visitthis post for setting up a Nimble from scratch)

For the LAN switch connections, if you have a single stacked switch, then try to cableso that redundant connections are across different switches in stack. If you have twoseparate switches (switch stacks) then you should connect a FI per switch (switchstack).

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/nimble-storage-how-to-configure-a-device-in-4-steps-using-the-gui-tool/



Pre-Reqs

You need anyroutable IP address pool for;KVM of Blades (one per blade)3 x Fabric Interconnect Management (1 Floating, 2 for local)3 x Nimble Management (1 floating/array, 2 diagnostics)X for ESXi management

You need a nonroutable IP address pool for;X x Nimble Data portsX x ESXi iSCSI VMKernel Ports

Secure password’s for;

Fabric Interconnect; Admin accountNimble Management: Admin accountESXi hosts: Root accountDomain User (Service account) for VMwareDomain User to provide LDAP Authentication for Cisco UCS Login

A management machine which has Java and Flash installed.

Policy Based Management

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Cisco-UCS-diagram.png



The reason why Cisco UCS is so different to traditional hardware deployments is dueto the upfront policy based management nature.

You set all your policies first, such as QOS, created your ID pools, for things such asIP addresses, iSCSI IQNs, WWNN, Mac Addresses and so forth. You create yourvirtual network interfaces that will be available on the blade servers, and whichnetworks they can contact via the Fabric Interconnects.

Once done, you create Service Profiles which consist of the various policies yourequire, I.e policies specific for an ESXi install. You deploy this profile, and associateyour various hardware against the profile.

Should a blade server die, you can simply replace the hardware, and not have to thinkabout the reconfiguration needed to get it working, as all the hardware identifiers andpolicies will remain and be applied.

Summary task list of configuration

In this environment I’ll be covering;

setting up the fabric interconnectsSetting up AD authenticationSetting up Email Alertsconfiguring the fabric interconnect ports to LAN, SAN and Chassissetting up the chassis and blade servers initiallyfirmware updatesconfiguring the policies needed for ESXi deploymentconfiguring the virtual NIC templatescreating a service profile template and deploying service profilessetting up dual SD cards in flexmodesetting up the Nimble storage for iSCSI VMFS volumes

Setting up the Fabric Interconnects

Cable up the front of your FIs, as below,



Power on what will be Fabric A, but leave Fabric B turned off.

Connect to the fabric interconnect using serial cable, and the usual Cisco switchsettings (9600 baud, everything else should be the same if you are using putty).

Once loaded you will go through the following steps;

Enter the configuration method. (console or gui) ?: console

You have chosen to setup a new Fabric interconnect. Continue?

(y/n): y

Enforce strong password? (y/n): y

Enter and confirm your password

Is this Fabric interconnect part of a cluster (select ‘no’ for

standalone)? (yes/no): yes

Enter the switch fabric (A/B): A

Enter the system name: System_Name

Physical Switch Mgmt0 IPv4 address: IP_Address

Physical Switch Mgmt0 IPv4 net mask: Subnet_Mask

IPv4 address of the default gateway: Default_Gateway

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Cisco-UCS-fabric-interconnect.png



Cluster IPv4 address: Floating_Management_IP_Address

Configure the DNS Server IPv4 address (yes/no): yes

DNS Server IPv4 address: DNS_IP_Address

Configure the default domain name? (yes/no): yes

Default domain name?: Domain_Name

You will then be given confirmation of settings you have

configured

Apply and save the configuration(select ‘no’ if you want to re-

enter)? (yes/no): yes

Once applied you will be given a prompt similar to;

System_Name-A login:

Verify you can ping the Fabric Interconnect from your LAN.

Boot Fabric B, connect the console cable, and when prompted;

Enter the configuration method. (console or gui) ? console

Installer has detected the presence of a peer Fabric

interconnect. This Fabric interconnect will be added to the

cluster. Continue (y/n)? y

Enter the admin password for the peer Fabric interconnect:

Admin_Password

Connecting to peer Fabric interconnect… done

Retrieving config from peer Fabric interconnect… done

Physical Switch Mgmt0 IPv4 address: IP_Address



You will then be given confirmation of settings you have

configured

Apply and save the configuration(select ‘no’ if you want to re-

enter)? (yes/no): yes

Once applied you will be given a prompt similar to;

System_Name-B login:

Once done, confirm you can ping the IP address of Fabric B.

Connecting to UCS Manager

Now your ready to connect to Cisco UCS Manager, so launch a browser tohttps://Floating_IP_Address

Click Launch UCS Manager, and then provide the credentials for the “Admin”account.

and Viola, the UCS Manager interface is ready, well once you acknowledge the chassisand blade servers, see the second screenshot.

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-04-20_21-57-47.png




Getting around the interface

Ok, so lets look at the interface, which is made up of the following headline tabs,





which take you into different aspects of the UCS configuration;

EquipmentServersLANSANVMAdmin

Equipment; is a hierarchical list that shows chassis (1 to 40) and FabricInterconnects (A + B), further subcomponents such as nodes (blades or rack servers)and interface cards can be delved into further. When an object is highlighted, theattributes are shown in the content pane (right hand side). The navigation pane has aselection menu which can be used to show all objects available, or restrict the objectsin view.

I’ve highlighted some area’s of interest, such as remote KVM to a blade, the switchingmode of the FIs, and so forth.

http://www.educationalcentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-04-20_22-08-36-tags.png



Servers; contains all server related components, for example, service profiles,policies and pools. Here you can configure Organisations, Service Profiles and





templates, pools and policies.

LAN; contains all LAN configurations; pin groups, QoS, VLANs, policies surroundingthe network configuration, pools (IP, MAC, IQN).





SAN; Storage area network configurations; pin groups, VSANs, policies, and pools.

I’ve tried to split up the different Area’s of configuration under each tab, as I’ve notused the SAN configuration parts for my setup, there is little to show, however seeRene’s post for a more in-depth view.


http://wp.me/p4znjP-aQ



VM; contains all the configurations needed for VM-FEX hardware switching, whichcan be used on servers that have a VIC card installed. Here you configure aconnection to the VMware vCenter server, and then configure Distributed VirtualSwitches, port profiles and be able to view the VMs that run on each UCS Server.




Admin; UCS System-wide settings are found here, setting up user access, LDAPAuthentication, Email Alerts and so forth.

So this concludes the first post, next up in part 2 we will be creating the networkingfor the chassis and then creating service profiles to give our blade servers andidentity.

Regards

Dean




Deploy a Cisco UCS System – Part 1 – From Scratch for VMware ESXi

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