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Implementing Cisco UCS Solutions
Implementing Cisco UCS Solutions

Implementing Cisco UCS Solutions: Deploy, manage, and automate your datacenter , Second Edition

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Profile Icon Prasenjit Sarkar
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Paperback Apr 2017 482 pages 2nd Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Prasenjit Sarkar
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€18.99 per month
Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5 (2 Ratings)
Paperback Apr 2017 482 pages 2nd Edition
eBook
€22.99 €32.99
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Renews at €18.99p/m
eBook
€22.99 €32.99
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Implementing Cisco UCS Solutions

Installing Cisco UCS Hardware

Before installing Cisco UCS hardware, the data center should meet the specific requirements for power, cooling, spacing, cabling, and environmental factors. These factors play a vital role in the performance and life span of Cisco UCS hardware and other devices in the data center. Proper planning of power, cooling, spacing, cabling, and environmental factors will not only save money but help improve the performance, operation cost, and life cycle of your data center infrastructure. Cisco UCS hardware has been designed in the most efficient way to consume less power by reducing the number of components. Converged fabric brings fewer cables, ports, connectors, and interfaces to further reduce power and cabling requirements. The simplified design of Unified Computing System with a 63% open center plane provides better cooling without compromising the performance of servers. Using the best...

Installing UCS hardware components

Now, as we have a better understanding of the various components of the Cisco UCS platform, we can dive into the physical installation of UCS Fabric Interconnects and chassis, including blade servers, IOM modules, fan units, power supplies, SFP+ modules, and physical cabling.

Before the physical installation of the UCS solution, it is also imperative to consider other data center design factors, including:

  • Building floor load-bearing capacity
  • Rack requirements for UCS chassis and Fabric Interconnects
  • Rack heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC)

Installing racks for UCS components

Any standard 19-inch rack with a minimum depth of 29 inches to a maximum of 35 inches from front to rear rails with 42U height can be an ideal rack solution for Cisco UCS equipment. However, rack size can vary based on different requirements and the data center's landscape. The rack should provide sufficient space for power, cooling, and cabling for all the devices. It should be designed according to data center best practices to optimize its resources. The front and rear doors should provide sufficient space to rack and stack the equipment and adequate space for all types of cabling. Suitable cable managers can be used to manage the cables coming from all the devices. It is always recommended that heavier devices be placed at the bottom and lighter devices at the top. For example, a Cisco UCS B-Series chassis can be placed at the bottom and Fabric Interconnect at the top...

Installing UCS chassis and components

Care must be taken during the installation of all components as failure to follow installation procedures may result in component malfunction and bodily injury.

UCS chassis don'ts:
Do not try to lift even the empty chassis alone. At least two people are required to handle a UCS chassis.
Do not handle internal components such as CPU, RAM, and mezzanine cards without an ESD field kit.

Physical installation is divided into three sections:

  • Blade server component (CPU, memory, hard drives, and mezzanine card) installation
  • Chassis and component (blade servers, IOMs, fan units, and power supplies) installation
  • Fabric Interconnect installation and physical cabling

Installing blade servers

Cisco UCS blade servers are designed with...

Installing Fabric Interconnects

The Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect is a top-of-rack switch that connects the LAN, SAN, and management to underlying physical compute servers for Ethernet and Fibre Channel access. Normally, a pair of Fabric Interconnects can be installed either in a single rack or distributed across two racks to provide rack and power redundancy. Fabric Interconnects can be installed at the bottom in case the network cabling is planned under the floor. All the components in a Fabric Interconnect come installed by default from the factory; only external components such as Ethernet modules, power supplies, and fans need to be connected.

Interconnect includes two redundant hot-swappable power supply units. It is recommended that the power supply in the rack come from two different energy sources and installed with a redundant power distribution unit (PDU). It requires a maximum of 750 Watts of power.

...

Cabling - Fabric Interconnects and Fabric Extenders

UCS is a network-and-computer integrated solution. All management and data movement intelligence for chassis components and blade servers is present in the Fabric Interconnects and Fabric Extenders (which are line cards for the FIs, also called I/O modules, or IOMs). Therefore, proper cabling between Fabric Interconnects and I/O modules is an important design consideration.

Fabric Extenders - Fabric Interconnect cabling topology

Fabric Extenders are used to connect blade server chassis to Fabric Interconnects. The I/O modules act as line cards to the Fabric Interconnects. It is therefore necessary to maintain proper connectivity between IOMs and Fabric Interconnects. Since an IOM becomes part of the Fabric Interconnect...

Power capacity and power plug types

The UCS 5108 blade chassis comes with an option of up to four power supply units. Each power supply is a single-phase unit and provides 2500 Watts. Depending on the total number of power supplies in the chassis and input power sources, UCS 5108 can be configured in three modes.

Non-redundant

In a non-redundant configuration, power supplies installed in the system provide adequate power. A power supply failure results in a chassis failure. Load is evenly distributed among power supplies; however, there is no power redundancy.

N+1 redundant

In N+1 redundant mode, at least one extra...

Cisco SingleConnect technology

Cisco SingleConnect is the most efficient and simplest way to connect and manage the compute servers in a data center. It unifies multiple types of traffic, such as LAN, SAN, and management, into a single channel with increased utilization and reduces the complex cabling structure in data centers. SingleConnect technology provides an end-to-end system I/O architecture with a single cable for Cisco blade servers, rack server, and virtual machines. Cisco SingleConnect can connect to:

  • Physical servers and virtual machines
  • LAN, SAN, and management networks
  • Cisco B-Series and C-Series servers

Cisco VICs inside blade or rack servers connect through a Cisco Fabric Extender (FEX/IOM) to Fabric Interconnects with a single network link to provide data, storage, and management traffic. The single network layer uses the unified fabric to reduce the three-network layer into one, helping us save...

Summary

Proper planning of data center power, cooling, spacing, and environmental factors will not only optimize the data center resources, it will also bring down the operational cost of manage devices. Cisco UCS hardware components have been designed with efficient power supplies, front-to-rear cooling, a unified fabric to reduce cabling requirements, and fewer network components for easy and simplified management of data centers. In this chapter, we learned rack installation and the installation of UCS hardware components such as chassis, blade, I/O module, Fabric Interconnect, and rack servers. We also discussed Cisco SingleConnect technology, an efficient way to connect blade servers, rack servers, and virtual machines in a data center.

In the next chapter, we will learn about Cisco UCS Emulator which is an excellent tool for exploring UCSM software.

...
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Key benefits

  • Learn how to reduce equipment and operating costs, consolidate resources, and automate data center processes
  • Eliminate manual, time-consuming tasks that were traditionally required to connect servers in data centers
  • A practical hands-on guide that will help you to deploy servers and application stacks with ease

Description

Cisco Unified Computer System (UCS) is a powerful solution for modern data centers and is responsible for increasing efficiency and reducing costs. This hands-on guide will take you through deployment in Cisco UCS. Using real-world examples of configuring and deploying Cisco UCS components, we’ll prepare you for the practical deployments of Cisco UCS data center solutions. If you want to develop and enhance your hands-on skills with Cisco UCS solutions, this book is certainly for you. We start by showing you the Cisco UCS equipment options then introduce Cisco UCS Emulator so you can learn and practice deploying Cisco UCS components. We’ll also introduce you to all the areas of UCS solutions through practical configuration examples. Moving on, you’ll explore the Cisco UCS Manager, which is the centralized management interface for Cisco UCS. Once you get to know UCS Manager, you’ll dive deeper into configuring LAN, SAN, identity pools, resource pools, and service profiles for the servers. You’ll also get hands-on with administration topics including backup, restore, user’s roles, and high availability cluster configuration. Finally, you will learn about virtualized networking, third-party integration tools, and testing failure scenarios. By the end of this book, you’ll know everything you need to know to rapidly grow Cisco UCS deployments in the real world.

Who is this book for?

This book is for system, network, and storage administrators who are responsible for Cisco UCS deployments. You need to have basic knowledge of server architecture, network, and storage technologies.

What you will learn

  • Set up your Lab using Cisco UCS Emulator
  • Configure Cisco UCS, LAN, and SAN connectivity
  • Create and manage Service profiles
  • Perform various tasks using UCS
  • Backup and restore Cisco UCS configuration
  • Test various Cisco UCS scenarios
  • Manage and automate multiple domains

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Apr 27, 2017
Length: 482 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781786464408
Vendor :
Cisco
Concepts :
Tools :

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Product Details

Publication date : Apr 27, 2017
Length: 482 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781786464408
Vendor :
Cisco
Concepts :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

14 Chapters
What's New with Cisco UCS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Installing Cisco UCS Hardware Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Setting Up a Lab Using Cisco UCS Emulator Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Configuring Cisco UCS Using UCS Manager Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Configuring LAN Connectivity Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Configuring SAN Connectivity Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating Identity Resource Pools, Policies, and Templates Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating and Managing Service Profiles Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Managing UCS through Routine and Advanced Management Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Virtual Networking in Cisco UCS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Configuring Backup, Restore, and High Availability Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Cisco UCS Failure Scenarios Testing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Third-Party Application Integration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Automation and Orchestration of Cisco UCS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5
(2 Ratings)
5 star 0%
4 star 50%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 50%
DPP Sep 25, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Great introduction to all aspects of UCS for a beginner.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Danil Kolesnyk Jun 20, 2019
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
Absolutely useless. Repeat in ugly manner documentation without any useful information.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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