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High TechDatacenter

Cisco Unified Computing System

Robert Evans and Rich Hudak

A Brief Overview And Basic Understanding

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What Is UCS and Why Do We Use?

• UCS = Unified Computing System

• Easily managed

• Very Flexible

• Extremely Powerful and Efficient

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How Old Is The UCS?

The UCS was introduced in

2009

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UCS in the Marketplace

• 43,000+ Unique UCS customers

• Number 1 market share in US for x86 Blades

• More than 85% of all Fortune 500 use UCS

• 100+ World record performance benchmarks to date

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Simplified Architecture

Unified Management

Higher Performance

Scale

Cisco Unified Computing System

• Faster deploy/ provision

• Unification leads to reduced complexity

• Management via a single interface

• Networking with fewer components

• Lower cost and easier scaling

• Fewer management touch points

• Stateless: any resource, any time

• Better TCO/ROI

• Ultimate Scalability

• Enhanced design capability

• Designed for the future, today

• Brings out the best of x86 architecture

• Optimized resource utilization for compute, networking, and management

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Legacy Top-of-Rack Server Architecture• Individual ToR switches to manage (IOS

software & Config)• Routing/STP topology to maintain

• Discrete servers – BIOS, Boot Order, Firmware, KVM, etc…

• Nx1GE – no easy scale to 10GE

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Legacy Blade ArchitectureSAN

LANSAN

LAN

MGMT MGMT

Additional LAN & SAN Connections

Additional Management Connections

Multiple Ethernet Connections

Multiple SAN Connections

Separate Remote Management per Chassis

Multiple Management Modules

Additional Management Connections

Additional LAN & SAN Connections

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Traditional Data Center Cabling

From ad hoc and inconsistent…

to structured but costly and complex...

to impossible to manage!

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Building A Unified Computing System

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A couple of UCS Installations we manage and assist with

Cabling On the Marion

UCS

NWOCA

UCS

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Summit Steel’s UCS C-series

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UCS Components

14

MGMT SANLAN

Fabric Interconnect

UCS Chassis

Heartbeat link (No Data)

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UCS Components

Fabric Interconnect

UCS Blade

IO Module

15

Cisco VIC

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Network Interface Virtualization

10 GE EthernetvHBA

vFC

…

vFC

vHBA

vEth

vNIC

vEth

vNIC

vEth

vNIC

vEth

vNIC

• Stateless computing: 256 PCIe devices (NICs or HBAs)

• Host Connectivity: PCIe Gen3• Network Connectivity: Multiple

Physical 10Gb, 40Gb ready

Physical Network

256 PCIe devices

UCS ComponentsCisco Virtual Interface Card

Physical 10G Uplink Port

Physical 10G Uplink Port

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Physical look into the UCS

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Storage Support

Network Attached File/BlockNo certification required

FC/FCoESwitch Mode

ETH 1 ETH 2

iSCSI/NAS iSCSI/NAS

ETH 1 ETH 2

iSCSI/NAS/FC/FCoE LAN SAN

Cisco MDSNexus 5000

iSCSI/NAS/FC/FCoE

Network Attached Storage

Direct Attached Storage

SAN Attached Storage

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UCS Fabric Interconnect Portfolio

UCS 6296 & 6248

UCS 6120 & 6140Mar 2013

UCS 6300UCS 6324 (Mini)

* FUTURE SHIPPING EOL / EOS

10GbE 40GbE

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Installing Servers Today: Component Centric

LAN

SAN

•RAID settings•Disk scrub actions

•Number of vHBAs•HBA WWN assignments•FC Boot Parameters•HBA firmware

•FC Fabric assignments for HBAs

•QoS settings•Border port assignment per vNIC•NIC Transmit/Receive Rate Limiting

•VLAN assignments for NICs•VLAN tagging config for NICs

•Number of vNICs•PXE settings\•NIC firmware•Advanced feature settings

•Remote KVM IP settings•Call Home behavior•Remote KVM firmware•Server UUID•Serial over LAN settings•Boot order•IPMI settings•BIOS scrub actions•BIOS firmware•BIOS Settings

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Stateless Computing: UCS Service Profiles

LAN

SAN

Cisco UCSService Profile NIC MACs HBA WWNs Server UUID VLAN Assignments VLAN Tagging FC Fabrics Assignments FC Boot Parameters Number of vNICs Boot order PXE settings IPMI Settings Number of vHBAs QoS Call Home Template Association Org & Sub Org Assoc. Server Pool Association Statistic Thresholds BIOS scrub actions Disk scrub actions BIOS firmware Adapter firmware BMC firmware RAID settings Advanced NIC settings Serial over LAN settingsBIOS Settings

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UCS Service ProfilesConfiguration Portability

SIM CardIdentity for a Phone

Service ProfileIdentity for a ServerUCS Service Profile

Unified Device Management

Network Policy

Storage Policy

Server Policy

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UCS Manager Graphical Interface

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Role Based Administration• Full Role based administration• Pre-defined roles• Customizable Roles (via Privileges)• Authenticate against external Directory• Administrators involved in initial Setup.

• Network• Server• Storage

• Server Admin does most of the ongoing administration

• Create organizations “Mgmt Domains”• Map “Sub Admin’s” to organizations

LAN, SAN, and Server Tasks Are Grouped Individually and Require Explicit Rights

Thank you.

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VersaStack Solution

EasySeamless IntegrationSimplify Deployment

EfficientReduce Provisioning TimeUnified Management

VersatileFlexible Cloud CapabilitiesDynamic Infrastructure

Hypervisor

ManagementIBM Storwize V7000

Cisco Nexus & MDS

Cisco UCS Servers

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Cisco® UCS B and C Series Servers, UCS Manager, UCS Director

Cisco Nexus® 9000 Switches

IBM Storwize V7000 & V7000U Disk Systems

Cisco MDS Switches

VersaStack Solution

• Uniform deployment model for compute, network and storage resources

• ACI-Ready architecture• Pre-validated by Cisco & IBM thru Cisco Validated

Design• UCS Management

• 160 UCS Server Per Domain, scales to 100s of domains• Up to 8 nodes and 1056 disks per V7000/V7000U

cluster• 5X more data with Real-time compression• Automated data optimization with IBM Easy Tier

• Architected with no single point of failure• Multi Data Center scalable design for disaster

tolerance

Highlights

Performance & Scale

ReliabilityCVD in Dec 2014 w/

Vmware ESXi 5.5

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L4-7 Services Virtual Machines

Integrated application containers for secure workload provisioning

Application Centric Infrastructure configuration

Open developer kit for ecosystem acceleration

Automation Driven by UCS Director

Storage

UCS Director

Nexus Product Family

Unified Computing System

Infrastructure Management

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Subject Matter Experts Define Policies

Policies Used to Create Service Profile SAN and

Storage

2

vSwitchNexus 1000v

VISME

StorageSME

ServerSME

NetworkSME

Server NameUUID, MAC, WWNBoot InformationLAN, SAN ConfigFirmware PolicySAN ZoningCreate and MAP LUN

Provision Physical and VI

3System is ready for Use

4

Server NameUUID, MAC, WWNBoot InformationLAN, SAN ConfigFirmware Policy

Storage Configuration

Virtual Infrastructure Configuration

Network Configuration Application Profile

Virtualization Policy

Server Policy

Network Policy

Storage Policy

Ease & Efficiency with UCS Director