Placement of mezzanine adapters in full width blades

Folks,



I found this great article recently on one of the other UCS blogs. Its a great read and is worth looking when planning a fully redundant UCS installation.


http://www.unifiedcomputingblog.com/?p=170


UCSTECH

Palo vNIC or vHBA calculation

Folks,

I got this tip from a good friend at Cisco. It great information when you start to design a UCS system.

It is generally advertised in marketing materials that the M81K Palo card can do a maximum 56 virtual interfaces (vNICS and/or vHBAs) (sometimes 128 in some marketing materials). 

This limit is actually set on the number of uplinks from the chassis to the fabric interconnect.  The formula is (15n-4) where N is the number of uplinks.  So plugin 1, 2 or 4 to get your max.

1 uplink per FEX:   15*1-4 = 11

2 uplinks per FEX: 15*2-4 = 26

4 uplinks per FEX: 15*4-4 = 56 (hence the maximum in the marketing slide)

Thanks Jason,

UCSTECH

UCS & FlexPod for VMware

Hey folks,



I hope all is well. Recently I attended a lunch and learn on FlexPod for VMware. This product can be a pay-as-you go cloud solution and brings out the best in Cisco UCS, NetApp & VMware. Please take a look and make sure that your UCS can be all it can be.

FlexPod:
http://www-download.netapp.com/edm/TT/WOD/WOD20110120/index.html


UCSTECH

LDAP in UCS firmware version 1.4.1

Folks,

I found this article on LDAP integration in firmware version 1.4.1.. I tried it in my lab and it worked just fine. I used ADSI edit to pull out the needed DN info and I created all the groups contained in the article. I tested all items and it worked great.

Article : https://supportforums.cisco.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/14642-102-2-33655/Balboa-LDAP-AD-v2.pdf

ADSI edit info pulled in my lab:

a. BaseDN   DC=omat,DC=tec,DC=msi

b. BindDN:CN=ucs user,OU=Service Accounts,DC=omat,DC=tec,DC=msi

c. Bind password:  Nbv12345

d. Filter: sAMAccountName=$userid

e. Roles:

ucsaaa       CN=ucsaa,OU=UCSGroups,DC=omat,DC=tec,DC=msi

ucsadmin     CN=ucsadmin,OU=UCSGroups,DC=omat,DC=tec,DC=msi

ucsnetwork   CN=ucsnetwork,OU=UCSGroups,DC=omat,DC=tec,DC=msi

ucsoperation CN=ucsoperation,OU=UCSGroups,DC=omat,DC=tec,DC=msi

ucssecurity  CN=ucssecurity,OU=UCSGroups,DC=omat,DC=tec,DC=msi

ucsstorage   CN=ucsstorage,OU=UCSGroups,DC=omat,DC=tec,DC=msi

UCS side:

Putty side:

Happy Authenticating!

UCSTECH

5108 Chassis Slot Sagging Issue Solved by TAC

Folks,


It has come to my attention that Cisco has finally addressed the known issue of blade slot sagging in the older 5108 Chassis. The issue only effects the earlier 5108 products and would appear when the center support is removed and a full width blade is added to the chassis. If you call Cisco TAC and provide the serial number of your chassis, they will ship out the newer blade slot support spare parts and this should resolve the issue.


UCSTECH

VMware ESXi 4.1 Problem - Hangs During Reboot at "Initializing Scheduler"

Help Offered from the Forum:

“Cisco is aware of this problem and has been working with VMware to address this issue - as this issue has also been seen on other vendor's servers.

Additionally, it only seems to be affecting platforms running ESXi.

On the Cisco side, this issue is being tracked via CSCtj19224 - ESXi stuck at Initializing Scheduler - (CCO Account Required to view details)

The workaround is to disable legacy USB within the BIOS.”

Thank you to Clint Pearson for the lead on this one!

UCSTECH

The new B230 M1 blade

Hey all,


I just found a great article from M. Sean McGee on the new Cisco UCS B230 M1 blade. Here is the link to Sean's site and he does a great job of explaining the differences between the Cisco B230, IBM HX5, HP BL620c & the Dell M910. The blade is very dense and gives Cisco the edge in memory, CPU & core density.


USC TECH

iSCSI on UCS

 Feel like iSCSI on UCS? Here how easy it is,

1. Creating a QoS System Class on UCS with an MTU of 9000 & apply to the iSCSI vNIC(s) (Service Profile -> vNIC ->)

2. Enable Jumbo Frames (MTU 9000) on all switches between Initiator (UCS) and iSCSI Target (Equalloqic).

3. Enable Jumbo Frames on OS Adapter (Vmkernel port on ESX orNetwork Adapter Advanced Properties on Windows)

UCS TECH

Cisco blade solution vs. the HP blade solution

I just found a great article the other day on Cisco UCS performance vs. HP. Cisco C-Class comissioned Principled Technologies to pitch the HP blade solution vs the UCS. As this is a 3rd party, the results are impartial and speak for themselves.


http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ucs_b200_hp_bl_460c_g6_100310.pdf



USC TECH

Cisco UCS card options for the B-class blades

Set up CIMC for UCS C-Series Server

Are you setting up the Cisco CIMC for the first time? Check this out,

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10493/products_configuration_example09186a0080b10d66.shtml


This a a great CIM read and explains the setup in great details


UCS TECH

When to use updating templates on vNICS or vHBAs

To update or not to update? With vNIC/vHBA templates is always a question.

When creating a vNIC or vHBA template I always temped to choose the "updating template" option. By far there are more good than bads but you as a UCS admin must explore the risks. The main risk is causing an outage without any notice, not good from any prospective. With updating templates you must know that all virtual interfaces bound to this template will be updated immediately with any change made to the template. This can be very powerful with it comes to adding new VLANs, but can be very dangerous when it comes to policy changes.

Take for instance you have a new VLAN that needs to be added to your UCS environment. If the template is updating, all you do is add the new VLAN to the global VLAN list within UCS and then update your interface template VLAN list. Done! The new VLAN is operational immediately with no reboot required. Though most changes do not require a reboot, always plan for it and follow the directions of any dialog box presented to you.


Happy updating! 


UCS TECH