Cover -- Copyright -- Credits -- About the Authors -- About the Reviewer -- www.PacktPub.com -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1: Cisco UCS Physical Architecture and Installing UCS Hardware -- Looking at the UCS equipment -- Stateless computing -- Rapid provisioning of servers -- Simplified troubleshooting -- Virtualization readiness -- Choice of industry-standard form factors -- Extended memory technology for increased density -- Understanding the physical architecture of UCS -- The Cisco UCS FIs -- The Cisco UCS blade servers -- The Cisco UCS rack-mount servers -- Understanding FIs -- The Cisco 6296UP FI -- The Cisco 6248UP FI -- The Cisco 6140UP FI -- The Cisco 6120UP FI -- Exploring connectivity transceivers for FIs -- The Cisco UCS 5100 series blade server chassis -- A look at the chassis front -- A look at the chassis back -- Environmental requirements -- IOM modules -- The Cisco 2208XP IOM card -- The Cisco 2204XP IOM card -- The Cisco 2104XP IOM card -- Blade servers and rack-mount servers -- Learning more about blade servers -- The B22 M3 blade server -- B200 M1/M2/M3 blade servers -- B230 M1/M2 blade servers -- The B420 M3 blade server -- B440 M1/M2 blade servers -- Learning more about rack-mount servers -- The C22 M3 rack-mount server -- The C24 M3 rack-mount server -- The C220 M3 rack-mount server -- The C240 M3 rack-mount server -- The C260 M2 rack-mount server -- The C420 M3 rack-mount server -- The C460 M2 rack-mount server -- Getting started with mezzanine adapters -- VICs for blade servers -- VIC 1280 -- VIC 1240 -- VIC M81KR -- VICs for rack-mount servers -- VIC 1225 -- VIC P81E -- Power capacity and power plug types -- Nonredundant mode -- N+1 redundant mode -- Grid redundant mode -- Installing UCS chassis components -- Blade server installation -- Installation and removal of CPU -- Installation and removal of RAM.

Installation and removal of internal hard disks -- Installation of mezzanine cards -- Installation of blade servers on the chassis -- Cabling FI and IOM -- IOM - FI cabling topology -- IOM - FI physical cabling -- Summary -- Chapter 2: Setting up Lab Using Cisco UCS Emulator -- Configuring Cisco UCS emulator -- System requirements -- Hypervisor prerequisites -- Installing UCSPE on VMware Player using a ZIP file -- Installing UCSPE on VMware Player using an OVA file -- Installing UCSPE on VMware Workstation -- Installing UCSPE on VMware vSphere ESXi -- Using Cisco UCSPE -- Configuring network settings -- Configuring hardware settings -- Stash area -- Adding a new chassis with blade servers -- Adding an empty chassis -- Configuring and adding a blade server to the chassis -- Configuring and adding a rack-mount server -- Modifying server components -- Launching UCSM using the platform emulator -- UCSPE limitations -- Summary -- Chapter 3: Configuring Cisco UCS Using UCS Manager -- Introducing Cisco UCSM -- UCSM firmware version -- Walking through the UCSM interface -- Navigation pane -- The Equipment tab -- The Servers tab -- The LAN tab -- The SAN tab -- The VM tab -- The Admin tab -- The Fault Summary area -- Starting with the initial configuration -- Step-by-step initial configuration -- Global configuration policies -- Chassis/FEX Discovery Policy -- Power Policy -- MAC Address Table Aging -- DNS Server -- Time Zone Management -- SNMP -- UCS Manager - Command Line Interface -- Getting help with CLI commands -- Accessing the history of CLI commands -- Accessing other CLIs -- Scope commands -- Applying changes -- An example configuration using CLI commands -- Summary -- Chapter 4: Configuring LAN Connectivity -- Understanding Fabric Interconnect switching modes -- Ethernet End Host Mode (EHM) -- Ethernet switching mode.

Introduction to Fabric Interconnect port types -- Configuring northbound connectivity to upstream switches -- Configuring upstream switches -- Learning how to configure Fabric Interconnect uplink ports -- Configuring VLANs -- Using pin groups -- Dynamic pin groups -- Failure response -- Static pin groups -- Failure response re-pinning -- Configuring southbound connectivity to IOMs -- Learning how to configure Fabric Interconnect server ports -- Configuring IOM ports -- Configuring the last piece of the puzzle - vNICs -- What is MAC address abstraction? -- Learning to create vNICs -- Summary -- Chapter 5: Configuring SAN Connectivity -- Learning storage connectivity options -- Overview of FC and iSCSI storage -- Overview of SCSI -- Overview of Fiber Channel -- Overview of iSCSI -- Overview of Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) -- Storage connectivity design considerations -- Learning about the FC switching mode -- Configuring the FC port channel and trunking -- Configuring VSAN and zoning -- Learning about zoning -- Learning about VSAN -- Example configuration - connecting SAN directly to Fabric Interconnects -- Configuring FCoE -- Manual and automatic uplink pinning -- Dynamic pin groups -- Failure response -- Static pin groups -- Failure response re-pinning -- Summary -- Chapter 6: Creating Identity and Resource Pools -- Understanding identity and resource pools -- Learning to create a UUID pool -- Learning to create a MAC pool -- Learning to create a WWNN pool -- Learning to create a WWPN pool -- Making your identity pools meaningful -- Understanding server pools -- Learning to create server pool membership and qualification policies -- Summary -- Chapter 7: Creating and Managing Service Profiles -- Overview of service profiles -- Different ways of creating a service profile -- Creating a basic service profile.

Creating a service profile in the expert mode -- Creating a service profile from a service profile template -- Configuring policies -- Configuring the server BIOS policy -- Configuring adapter policies -- Configuring scrub policies -- Configuring QoS policies -- Local disk configuration policies -- Maintenance policies -- Configuring IPMI -- A walkthrough of the service profile creation - expert mode -- Identifying the service profile -- Configuring the networking settings -- Configuring the storage connectivity -- Configuring zoning -- vNIC/vHBA placement -- Server Boot Order configuration -- Configuring the server maintenance policy -- Configuring a SAN boot policy -- Associating service profiles -- Operational policies -- Creating and applying a service profile template -- Summary -- Chapter 8: Managing UCS through Routine and Advanced Management -- Licensing Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect -- Startup and shutdown of Fabric Interconnects -- Controlling blade server power -- Status and Locator LED -- Configuring logging -- Configuring Cisco Call Home -- Organizational structure in UCS Manager -- Organizational inheritance -- Role-based Access Control -- Active Directory integration -- Predefined roles -- About UCS locales -- Permissions in Multitenancy -- Summary -- Chapter 9: Virtual Networking in Cisco UCS -- Understanding IEEE 802.1Q -- Learning about VN-Link -- Using the NX-OS -- Changes in the datacenter -- Role differentiation -- Role issues -- Development of Nexus 1000v -- Virtual Ethernet interfaces -- Learning about port profiles -- Nexus 1000v components -- The virtual Ethernet module -- The virtual supervisor module -- VEM implementation -- VSM implementation -- VEM data plane -- VEM functions -- VSM control plane -- Nexus 1000v and physical switches -- The physical switch chassis -- Line cards -- The N1KV backplane -- Nexus and vPath.

Performance advantages using vPath -- Deploying VSM -- VSM installation -- Communication between VSM and VEM -- Using Layer 2 connectivity -- Using Layer 3 connectivity -- Using the Domain ID -- L2 mode -- L3 mode -- System VLANs and opaque data -- VSM to vCenter communication -- Summary -- Chapter 10: Configuring Backup, Restore, and High Availability -- Backing up the Cisco UCS configuration -- Creating UCS backup jobs -- Creating a manually run backup job using GUI -- Creating a scheduled backup job using GUI -- Creating a backup job using CLI -- Restoring backups using GUI -- Configuring high-availability clustering -- Configuring the first Fabric Interconnect -- Configuring the second Fabric Interconnect -- Fabric Interconnect elections -- Managing high availability -- The Split-brain scenario -- Partition in space -- Partition in time -- Summary -- Chapter 11: Cisco UCS Failure Scenarios Testing -- Port-channel uplink failure and recovery on Fabric Interconnect -- Server link to Fabric Interconnect failure and recovery -- Identifying a mezzanine adapter failure -- Common mezzanine adapter error messages -- FEX IO modules - failure and recovery -- Common IOM error messages -- Fabric Interconnect server port failure -- Rectifying the Global Chassis Discovery Policy configuration error -- Fabric Interconnect device failure and recovery -- Common error messages with Fabric Interconnect -- UCS chassis failure, reporting, and recovery -- Common failure messages for UCS Chassis -- Single fiber channel failure and recovery on Fabric Interconnects -- Indicating a status with LEDs -- Creating a tech-support file -- Summary -- Chapter 12: Third-party Application Integration -- Understanding the challenges in Infrastructure -- Going deep with UIM -- Understanding the discovery mechanism of UIM -- Learning about the UIM service life cycle.

Integrating VMware vCenter server with UCSM.