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Two Types of Unified Computing Servers

1. Rack Mountable servers – C Series Servers2. Blade servers – B Series servers

Physical Architecture of UCS - Blade Servers

• Fabric Interconnects ( FIs )• Core of UCS platform• Everything connects to FIs• FIs run the actual UCS Manager software ( XML API )

• Chassis• Chassis contains blades , but no intelligence• Blades contains CPU/RAM/CNAs

• IOM / FEX• IO muxes data from FIs to blades• CMS ( Chassis management switch )

• Carries management traffic from/to CIMC (Cisco Integrated Management Controller ) on FI

• CMC ( Chassis Management controller )• Monitors all sensors , voltage , controls fan speed• Used in discovery of the chassis , blades and IOMs.

Physical Architecture of UCS - Blade Servers

Front View UCS - Chassis with Blade Servers & Power Supplies

Half Blade server

Full Blade server

Power supplies

Hard Disk

Back View UCS - Chassis with IOMs , FANs & Power Connectors

IOM/FEX

FAN

Power Connector

IOM /FEX

Connecting with BUS

UCS - Chassis with Fabric Interconnect

Management PortFC/Ethernet Ports

Console Port

FI - interconnect ports

Half Blade ServerNIC/CAN Mezzanine Card

Hard Disk

Console

CPU Slots DIM Slots

Full Blade Server

Hard Disk

CPU Slots

DIM Slots

NIC/CAN Mezzanine Card

• FI – A connects with FI-B with a pair of cables – not for data , but only for management purpose.

CMS CMS

• CMS are inbuilt in IOM/FEX. CMC on both the IOM/FEX are internally connected to CMC of each and every blade.

• From each VIC/Emulex/CNA card ( mezzanine card ) on the blade a set of links goes to IOM-A and other set of links goes to IOM-B. No. of Links depends upon the card type.

• Uplinks from VIC to IOM are port channeled by default. The size of the port channel depends upon the number of ports available on a particular card.

• Traffic from particular Application on VM/ESXi ( through vNIC) can select the path towards the IOM-A or IOM-B with the concept of vPC Host Mode or MAC Pinning ( based on source MAC address).

• In IOM/FEX ( 2208 XP ) there will be 8 ports facing the FI and 32 ports facing the blades. Because we have max 8 half blades or 4 full blades in a chassis. On any card we can have max 8 ports ( 4 towards IOM-A and 4 towards IOM-B ). So 8 blades x 4 ports on each blade = 32 Ports.

• It means that we do have oversubscription ratio of 8:32.

Selection of ports for traffic flow from IOM to Fabric Interconnect – Dynamic Pinning

• If only one link exist than all the blades will send traffic towards that link shown by red colour.

• If two link exist than all the odd number blades will send traffic towards link-1 shown by red colour and the even number blades will send traffic towards link-2 shown by green colour.

• If four link exist than the blades 1&5 will send traffic towards link-1 shown by red colour and the blades 2&6 will send traffic towards link-2 shown by green colour. Blades 3&7 will send traffic towards link-3 shown by blue colour and the blades 4&8 will send traffic towards link-4 shown by yellow colour.

• If eight link exist than each blade will take as per the below diagram.

Selection of ports for traffic flow from IOM to Fabric Interconnect – Port Channel

• In case of port channel the load will be distributed using hash algorithm. No mapping of particular port with particular blade. This is most recommended method of deployment. Port channel can be of 2/4/8 ports.

Connecting IOM with Fabric Interconnect

Benefits Of UCS1.Stateless computing: server does not have any MAC,WWN,NIC’s,UUID

address,Firmware and BIOS setting all abstracted from UCSM s/w running on FI.

2. Rapid Provisioning of Server: All identity installed from UCSM thus hundred of serevrs can be deploywith in a days by creating templates.

3. Simplified troubleshooting: As stateless computing thus installing new server abstract all details of oldserver from UCSM.

4.Virtualization readiness: Support all major hypervisor platform including VMwareESXi, Microsoft hyper-V and citrix Xen Server.

5. Choice Of industry Form Factor: Both B-series and C-series server are designed using Intel Xeon CPU.

UCS hardware options

Fabric Interconnects

• Provides network connectivity (both LAN and SAN) and management of connected server.• UCSM lies inside fabric interconnect can access through management interface.• Core component of UCS Solution.• Support all FCoE,FC and ethernet ports.• FI are deployed in clustered pairs to provide high availability(Active-Active topology)

6100 series FI

1.UCS 6120XP: -20 10GE/FCoE ports in 1 RU.-One expansion slots

2.UCS 6140XP: -40 10GE/FCoE ports in 2 RU.-Two expansion slots

6200 series FI

1.UCS 6248UP: -32 fixed Unified ports w and 1 RU space.-One expansion slots-Support 20 blade chassis per FI

1.UCS 6296UP: -48 fixed Unified ports w and 1 RU space.-Three expansion slots-Support 20 blade chassis per FI

2204XP IOM/FEX

2208XP IOM/FEX

2104XP IOM/FEX

• Older Model• 4 10 Gbps to FI• 8 10 Gbps to Server• 40 Gbps through put

• 2nd generation• 4 10 Gbps fabric port to FI.• 16 10 Gbps server facing ports with FCoE.• 40 Gbps through put

• 2nd generation• 8 10 Gbps fabric port to FI.• 32 10 Gbps server facing ports with FCoE.• 80 Gbps through put

Blade Servers

Rack Servers

Mezzanine adapters- from Cisco

Mezzanine adapters – from other Vendors

IOM/FEX Comparison with Mezzanine adapters (VIC)

Physical Architecture

Physical Architecture-with C-series Integration

LAN Connectivity

Connectivity – Components and LAN

UCS Ports Defined

Connectivity –Components and LAN Northbound of the Fabric Interconnect

1. No spanning-tree protocol (STP); no blocked ports.—Simplified Upstream Connectivity.

2. Admin differentiates between server and network ports.

3. Using dynamic (or static) server to uplink pinning.

4. No MAC address learning except on the server ports; no unknown unicast flooding.

5. Fabric failover (FF) for Ethernet vNICs (not available in switch mode).

End-host mode (EHM): Default mode

Fabric interconnect

Fabric Interconnect –Ethernet EHM -Unicast Forwarding

GARP A,B,C

End Host Mode Unicast Forwarding

RPF:unicast/multicast traffic is forward to server only if it arrives on correct pinned uplink port.Deja-vu-check: Packet with source mac-address to a server received on an uplink port is dropped.

1. Fabric Interconnects behave like regular ethernet switches.

2. STP configured for loop avoidance.

3. The uplinks ports are configured as forwarding or blocking as per the STP algorithm.

4. Not a default mode of operation.

Fabric Interconnect – Ethernet Switch Mode - Overview

Northbound of the Fabric Interconnect – Ethernet Switch

Mode - Overview

Designated Broadcast/Multicast Uplink Ports

• For any Broadcast/Multicast southbound traffic from N5K moving downward toward UCS Fabric Interconnects ,there

has to be a designated port on FI-A and FI-B.

• Suppose UCS FI-A chooses Po1 as its designated Broadcast/Multicast traffic receiver Port.

• Suppose UCS FI-B chooses Port 1/19 as its designated Broadcast/Multicast traffic receiver Port.

• Any Broadcast/Multicast traffic coming from N5K to UCS FI , but not on the defined as designated

Broadcast/Multicast ports will be dropped.

• Outgoing Broadcast/Multicast traffic is allowed on all the ports.

Blade server-1

Broadcast/Multicast Traffic

• Any incoming Broadcast/Multicast traffic is allowed only on designated Broadcast/Multicast ports only

and will be dropped on any other ports. This is to avoid loops as no STP is running .

• Outgoing Broadcast/Multicast traffic is allowed on all the ports.

Blade server-2

• Suppose UCS FI-B chooses Port 1/19 as its designated Broadcast/Multicast traffic receiver Port.

• vNIC2 ( having mac 00B1 ) is pinned to UCS FI-A uplink 1/17

• Any Broadcast/Multicast outgoing traffic coming from Server -1 vNIC 2 to UCS-F1-A will be blocked at all the ports on UCS FI-B except

1/19 .

• Any Broadcast/Multicast outgoing traffic coming from Server -1 vNIC 2 to UCS-F1-A and then again coming back to UCS FI-A via N5K1

to Po1 will also be dropped. This is called Deja-Vu Check (If I have seen that traffic(src-mac address) before ……drop it). This prevents

the loop.

Blade server-1

Blade server-2

1/191/17

OOB1

Po1

Key Points

1. Server vNIC pinned to an uplink port.

2. NO STP Protocol.

3. Maintains Mac table for server only not entire data center.

4. Prevent loops by preventing Uplink-to-uplink switching.

5. Upstream VPC/VSS optional(Best practice).

6. Server-to-Server traffic on the same vlan switched locally.

Recommended Topology for Upstream Connectivity

Always dual-attach each fabric interconnect to two Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches for high availability and redundancy whetherusing vPC uplinks or individual uplinks without vPC.

Connectivity –SAN

Connectivity –SAN FI Modes of Operation -SAN

N_Port Virtualisation(NPV) Mode : Default, recommande mode

1. UCS relays FCIDs to attached devices –No domain ID to maintain locally

2. Zoning, FSPF, alias etc. are not configured on the UCS Fabrics

3. Domain Mgr., FSPF, Zone Server, Fabric Login Server, Name Server do not run on UCS Fabrics.

SAN Fabric Interconnect FC/FCoE Mode of Operation –Switch Mode

1. UCS Fabric Interconnect behaves like an FC fabric switch.

2. Storage ports can be FC or FCoE.

3. Local Zoning OR Upstream Zoning(Upstream Zoning Provided by MDS/N5k).

4. Fabric Interconnect uses a FC Domain ID.

5. Supported FC/FCoE Direct Connect Arrays.

Direct connected Array

Connectivity –SAN Multi-hop FCoE–UCS to 5K –FCoE Uplinks

Connectivity –SAN Multi-hop FCoE–UCS to 5K -Converged Uplinks

Connectivity –SAN Multi-Hop FCoE–UCS to MDS –FCoE Uplinks