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Local Edition UCS Management Best Practices and Tools Daniel DeBusschere Data Center CSE – SLED Midsouth/Gulf States [email protected] , @ddebuss 678-352-3792

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Page 1: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

Local Edition

UCS Management Best Practices and Tools

Daniel DeBusschereData Center CSE – SLED Midsouth/Gulf [email protected], @ddebuss678-352-3792

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Objectives

UCS Management Best Practices and Tools

In the best practices topic we will focuses on UCS usage and management strategies and methodologies. The management tools topic will cover many of the available optional UCS tools and resources that most UCS customers have never heard of or used.

The tools discussion will include UCS Central, 3rd party management integrations, the UCS Emulator, goUCS, PowerShell, and other management related topics and tools. We will provide descriptions of the tools, their use cases, and some examples.

2

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Agenda

• Management Best Practices: Pre-installation

• Management Best Practices: Installation

• Management Best Practices: Maintenance

• Management Best Practices: Support

• Tools and Management Integrations

• Conclusion

3

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Pre-installation

• UCS Overview – Get exposed to the architecture concepts

• UCS Technical Orientation – Get exposed to the GUI and concepts (UCSPE)

• Supported Environments – Make sure what you want to do is supported

• Site and Power Planning – Insure you have the right power in the right place

• LAN Planning – Right cables, connectors, and ports available

• SAN Planning – Right cables, connectors, and ports available

• Boot Devices – Understand how you will boot your servers short and long term

• Test Environments – Consider an environment for lab and test use

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

5

UCS Deployment Education

1. UCS Overview (~2 hours): Day 0 minus 30-180Initial exposure to UCS architecture and components.

2. UCS Technical Orientation (Optional ~2-8 hours): Day 0 minus ~10Technical exposure to the system including review of the architecture, installation, maintenance, and control of the environment.

3. Mentored install (~6-16 hours): Day 0

4. Installation refresher (~2-4 hours): Day 0 plus ~90

5. Health check (2-4 hours): Day 0 plus ~180 (1-2x per year as needed)

6. Education and training (Varies): Ongoing

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

6

Supported Environments

• Most current OS and hardware is supported but check versions and caveats.

• B-Series Interoperability – Includes most B-Series and C-Series UCS Manager integrated UCS hardware, adapters, and OS support.

• C-Series Interoperability – Includes standalone rack server hardware, adapters, and OS support.

• Storage Interoperability – Includes the support for attachment to storage including storage devices and SAN switches.

• Some hardware not on the Cisco Interoperability Matrix’s may be supported by those vendors with UCS. Check with your hardware vendor.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

7

Site and Power Planning

• Review the site planning guide for physical requirements– Most equipment comes with rails designed for 4 post racks. 3rd party for 2 post racks.– Insure you have the power whips in place or get them installed. Identify and label them.– Insure you have racks or order Cisco racks.– Insure you have PDUs or order Cisco PDUs. Order the right power cords!– Management arms are ordered as options for the servers– Rack mounting screws are only included with the racks. Cisco sells them separately.

• RACK-FASTEN-001= Mounting screws (qty 100), M6• RACK-FASTEN-002= Cage nuts (qty 50), M6

• Insure the site infrastructure team is available during the install– Physically connects the new hardware and PDUs to the infrastructure– Run any physical wires (ideally this is done in advance)

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

8

LAN Planning

• LAN connectivity planning– Identify the ports and port speeds for connecting the UCS– Identify the specific media you will use for the connections (SFP’s Etc)– Identify the specific cables required based on the media and distance– Make sure all of the above is available and/or ordered in advance of installation.

• LAN addressing planning– 3 addresses for Fabric Interconnects and cluster– 1 address for each server – consider growth if convenient– 1 address for each service profile if booting remotely

• Insure the LAN infrastructure team is available during the install– Connect UCS to the infrastructure– Configuring northbound switches, port channels, and appropriate vLANs– Enabling jumbo frames if required

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

9

SAN Planning

• SAN connectivity planning– Identify the ports and port speeds for connecting the UCS– Identify the specific media you will use for the connections (SFP’s Etc)– Identify the specific cables required based on the media and distance– Make sure all of the above is available and/or ordered in advance of installation.

• Insure the SAN infrastructure team is available during the install– Enabling NPIV if not already enabled– Connect UCS to the infrastructure– Allocating storage for boot and/or storage luns– Zoning service profiles/vHBA’s to storage

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

10

Boot Devices

Small OS footprint (ESX, Linux, etc)

1. Boot from SAN (Stateless)

2. Boot from LAN (Stateless)

3. Secure Digital (SD)*

4. USB*

5. Hard Drives (HDD)

6. Solid State Drives (SSD)

7. Boot from iSCSI (Stateless)

Large OS footprint (Windows)

1. Boot from SAN (Stateless)

2. Hard Drives (HDD)

3. Solid State Drives (SSD)

4. Boot from LAN (Stateless)*

5. Boot from iSCSI (Stateless)

6. Secure Digital (SD)*

7. USB*

An often forgotten component on orders is a boot device. Be sure to order them!

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

11

Test Environments

• Test environments are a great idea but not required– Most small customers do not choose to implement a test environment.– Most medium to large customers do choose to implement a test environment.

• Advantages to a test environment– Impact of changes – Better enables you to determine and plan for change impacts.– Test new solutions – Testing is best done in non-production environments.– Flexibility – Test systems can be borrowed to grow production while orders in process.– Training – Staff has real hardware available for education and training.

• Disadvantages to a test environment– Hardware costs – A small UCS test environment generally would cost more than $20k.– Infrastructure costs – Power and connectivity costs can add to those costs.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

12

Pre-installation resources

• UCS Interoperability Matrix– B-Series and C-Series: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10477/prod_technical_reference_list.html – Storage: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/mds9000/interoperability/matrix/Matrix8.html

• UCS Site Preparation Guide– http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/hw/site-prep-guide/ucs_site_prep.html

• UCS Power Calculator– http://express.salire.com/Go/Cisco/Cisco-UCS-Power-Calculator.aspx

• UCS Health Check– Description: http://ciscoquicklinks.com/Tip-datacenter-ucs-health-check – Review items: http://ciscoquicklinks.com/Tip-datacenter-ucs-setup-checklist

• UCS Setup Prerequisites– http://ciscoquicklinks.com/Tip-datacenter-ucs-setup-prerequisites

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Agenda

• Management Best Practices: Pre-installation

• Management Best Practices: Installation

• Management Best Practices: Maintenance

• Management Best Practices: Support

• Tools and Management Integrations

• Conclusion

13

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

14

Installation

• Mentored installation – Flatten the learning curve with a mentored installation.

• OS images and plans – Make sure they are available. Use Cisco versions!

• Naming conventions – Each object’s name should describe it’s use.

• Pools and Addresses – Plan for expansion. Don’t complicate without value.

• Templates– Almost always use templates. Updating preferred if used carefully.

• Policies – ALWAYS change default maintenance policy to user-ack.

• Fabric Failover – Use fabric failover only when you need to.

• Redundancy check – Test the “system” for high availability.

• Boot from SAN or LAN – Check it out during the install.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

15

UCS Deployment Education

1. UCS Overview (~2 hours): Day 0 minus 30-180

2. UCS Technical Orientation (Optional ~2-8 hours): Day 0 minus ~10

3. Mentored install (~6-12 hours): Day 0A UCS expert mentors the admin team through the installation process using best practices. It starts with an un-configured system and ends with a fully configured and functioning system that’s fully tested for redundancy. Demo statelessness.

4. Installation refresher (~2-6 hours): Day 0 plus ~90

5. Health check (2-4 hours): Day 0 plus ~180 (1-2x per year as needed)

6. Education and training (Varies): Ongoing

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

16

OS images and plans

• Plan for the OS’s that will initially be installed on UCS. Consider installing other OS’s you might later decide to use while your mentor is there to help build the policies and templates.

• VMware optimized installation media for Cisco. We highly recommend that you use those versions.– From the VMware web site

1. Go to the download page for your version of VMware2. Click the Custom ISOs tab3. Expand OEM Customized Installer CDs4. Find the version you wish to use and select “Go to Downloads” from the right column.

– Quick links to most VMware downloads for Cisco at: http://ciscoquicklinks.com/#Datacenter-Partner • 4.0: VMware / Cisco ESXi 4.0 GA OEM VMware / Cisco ESXi 4.1 GA OEM VMware / Cisco ESXi 4.1 U2 OEM • 5.0: VMware / Cisco ESXi 5.0 GA OEM VMware / Cisco ESXi 5.0 U1 OEM VMware / Cisco ESXi 5.0 U2 OEM • 5.1: VMware / Cisco ESXi 5.1 GA OEM VMware / Cisco ESXi 5.1 U1 OEM VMware / Cisco ESXi 5.1 U2 OEM• 5.5: VMware / Cisco ESXi 5.5 GA OEM VMware / Cisco ESXi 5.5 U1 OEM

• Other OS vendors may provide Cisco optimized media in the future.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

17

Naming conventions

• Most objects can’t be renamed in UCS.– Single exception is Service Profiles when recent firmware is installed.– Create a standard and stick with it.– Cisco can provide some good examples.

• Names in UCS should make sense to anyone using UCS.– Name should describe what an object is used for.– Policy names should usually include some versioning detail.

• Example names– Host firmware package: ESX-Host-Fw01 or 20140420_esx_fw– Service profile template: ESX-Host-Tu01

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

18

Pools and Addresses

• Use pools for all addressing– Local addressing is possible but not recommended– Sequential pools are non-default option but often desired.

• Each UCS domain should have a set of unique pools defined especially if they may end up on the same network as one another.– For most environments use a minimal set of pools like the default pools.– For larger and more complex environments customers might find value using multiple

pools to help identify workload types and interfaces via assigned addresses.

• Be cautious with Server Pools– It’s best to avoid using pools to minimize problems..– Currently all maintenance policies don’t apply with all Server Pool changes.– Some changes could lead to Service Profile disassociation without user-ack.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

19

Templates

• Templates are a KEY and important to the value of UCS.– They insure consistency by reducing human error and steps to provision– They ease operations by reducing the number of management touch points

• Templates available– vNIC Templates: Used to consistently create LAN interfaces on servers– vHBA Templates: Used to consistently create FC interfaces on servers– Service Profile Templates: Used to consistently create service profiles

• Types of templates– Initial: Template values are copied into the vNIC(s), vHBA(s), or Service Profile(s).

Subsequent changes to the template DO NOT effect the previously deployed objects.– Updating : Template values and linked into the vNIC(s), vHBA(s), or Service Profile(s).

Subsequent changes to the template ARE deployed to previously deployed objects.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

20

Policies

• Policies are rules which define settings in service profiles.– Policies exist in Servers, LAN, and SAN areas of the GUI.– Should avoid changing if used in production. Create new policy that incorporates old

settings and new settings. Change the policy used in the Service Profile Templates. This allows fast and reliable rollback of previously good settings.

• Server Policies– Maintenance policy default: SHOULD BE CHANGED TO USER-ACK.– Host Firmware Package: Should be set on all service profiles and service profile

templates.– Bios policy: Do not set settings you are not sure about.– Local disk policy: Be sure to select protect configuration so disassociation does not

zero hard disks.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

21

Fabric Failover

• Generally used when OS has no networking redundancy features enabled.

• Use when– Using a bare-metal OS– If the hypervisor networking does not have redundancy enabled.

• Requires adapter with built-in capabilities.– All VIC models– Older M71 adapters (no longer sold)

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22

Redundancy Checks

• Insure you are redundant as a “system” not just as a platform– Test redundancy before going into production by creating physical and logical failures

and insuring a test workload stays online– Periodically retest the system when major changes are made if opportunity allows.

• Basic tests– Survive Fabric Interconnect failure.– Survive power failure of fabric, chassis, and servers.– Survive multiple uplink failures of LAN and SAN.– Survive downlink failures between fabric and chassis and servers.

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24

Installation resources

• VMware optimized installation media for Cisco– From the VMware web site

1. Go to the download page for your version of VMware2. Click the Custom ISOs tab3. Expand OEM Customized Installer CDs4. Find the version you wish to use and select “Go to Downloads” from the right column.

– Quick links to most VMware downloads for Cisco at: http://ciscoquicklinks.com/#Datacenter-Partner

• Redundancy check– Basic: http://ciscoquicklinks.com/Tip-datacenter-ucs-setup-checklist#Section-09 – Advanced: http://ciscoquicklinks.com/Tip-datacenter-ucs-test-redundancy

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Agenda

• Management Best Practices: Pre-installation

• Management Best Practices: Installation

• Management Best Practices: Maintenance

• Management Best Practices: Support

• Tools and Management Integrations

• Conclusion

25

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

26

Ongoing

• Installation Refresher – Make sure you know what you are supposed to.

• Health Check – Get a periodic review of your system from an expert.

• Education and Certifications – Consider a class from a training partner.

• User Accounts and Access – Everyone shouldn’t be using “admin”

• Backups – Before major changes and periodically. Automate with UCS Central.

• Call Home – Please turn it on! It’s there to help.

• Fault Monitoring – Your global fault values should all be 0’s.

• Firmware Management – Yearly or when needed. Bug fixes, New features?

• Modifying production templates & policies – Don’t do it! Clone or duplicate.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

27

UCS Deployment Education

1. UCS Overview (~2 hours): Day 0 minus 30-180

2. UCS Technical Orientation (Optional ~2-8 hours): Day 0 minus ~10

3. Mentored install (~6-12 hours): Day 0

4. Installation refresher (~2-6 hours): Day 0 plus ~90Engages a UCS expert to review of a system and staff skill and knowledge of the system. The purpose is to insure that admin staff is completely comfortable in working with the system and develop plan to close remaining skills or knowledge gaps.

5. Health check (2-4 hours): Day 0 plus ~180 (1-2x per year as needed)A UCS expert to review an already running and configured UCS system including the latest practices in use, current configuration, and review for potential issues.

6. Education and training (Varies): OngoingInsure your team is equipped to know the latest about the UCS product as well as educate new team members.

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28

User Accounts and Access

• Authentication methods– UCS Directory integration is excellent. Try it out!– Local authentication is great as well.– Latest firmware allows two-factor Authentication for UCS Manager Logins

• User accounts– Users should be logging in as themselves. UCS allows multiple admins users.– Admin local account should be reserved only for emergencies

• User rights– Give a user only the level of access required to accomplish their job role.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

29

Backups

• When to backup– Backup your system before ANY and ALL major changes (and some minor ones).– Backup your system periodically regardless of change being made– Automated backup available through Admin table of UCS Manager GUI.– Automated backup through UCS Central.

• Types of backups– Do BOTH full configuration and all configuration backups– Full configuration creates a full binary backup of the UCS environment. Full restore only.– All configuration creates an XML data backup of all UCS objects. Partial restore option.

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

30

Call Home

• It can (you choose what it does):– Automatically contact Cisco and proactively open a case in the event of a failure.– Send emails to any email addresses alerting to failures or thresholds.– Notify Cisco of your inventory so Cisco has better data for parts stocking purposes.

• Additional details from the offering description– Cisco® Smart Call Home is an automated support capability that provides continuous

monitoring, proactive diagnostics, alerts, and remediation recommendations on select Cisco devices

– Smart Call Home can help identify and resolve issues more quickly to achieve higher network availability and increased operational efficiency. This capability is available with an active support contract for the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (UCS)

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

31

Fault Monitoring

• Your system should be free (or relatively free) of faults.– Understand the faults you have– Resolve the ones you can resolve– Develop a plan to resolve the rest– Call Home and SNMP can let you know when you have faults.

• Fix faults before making any major changes to your system– Faults often indicate important problems where changes could cause an outage.– Don’t forget your backups

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32

Firmware Management

• When to consider updating firmware– There’s a new feature you want to use– There’s a bug fixed in the new firmware you want to address– There’s a new server model you want to install that is newer than the current firmware– Your firmware is 6 months old and you have an upcoming maintenance window.

• How to upgrade firmware– Review and understand defects in release notes before upgrading.– Maintenance window is desired but not required.– Use auto install for infrastructure firmware. Wait for faults to resolve before

acknowledging the pending activity.– Use policies to install server firmware. – Update a small number of servers and let them run for days before doing the rest.

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33

Education and Certifications

• Education: Cisco has great training partners to provide UCS Education – Cisco Learning Locator: http://tools.cisco.com/GlobalLearningLocator/LLocatorHome.do – Introducing Cisco Data Center Technologies (DCICT)– Installing Cisco UC on UCS in a Virtualized Environment– Configuring Cisco Data Center Unified Computing(DCUCS)– Cisco Data Center Unified Computing System C-Series Troubleshooting (DCUCSCTS)– Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCD)– Implementing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCI)– Troubleshooting Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCT)

• Certifications: Cisco offers Data Center certifications• Cisco Data Center Application Services Design Specialist• Cisco Data Center Application Services Support Specialist• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist• Cisco Data Center Unified Fabric Design Specialist• Cisco Data Center Unified Fabric Support Specialist

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34

Ongoing resources

• Backing up your UCS– UCS Central Best Practices Guide: https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-32030 – Unofficial manual documentation: http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2011/03/cisco-ucs-b-series-infrastructure.html – Unofficial automated documentation: http://www.laneroush.com/automated-cisco-ucs-backup/

• UCS Call Home Configuration: – Smart Call Home Quick Start Configuration Guide:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/smart_call_home/QuickStart_UCS.pdf – Official documentation: http://

www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/2-2/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_2_2/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_2_1_chapter_0101110.html

• Change management in UCS Blog Article by Loy Evans– http://jeffsaidso.com/2013/10/change-management-with-change-tracking-version-control-and-rollbacks/#more-927

• Education resources– Cisco Learning Locator: http://tools.cisco.com/GlobalLearningLocator/LLocatorHome.do – Ciscoquicklinks: http://ciscoquicklinks.com/#Datacenter-Training

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Agenda

• Management Best Practices: Pre-installation

• Management Best Practices: Installation

• Management Best Practices: Maintenance

• Management Best Practices: Support

• Tools and Management Integrations

• Conclusion

35

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Support

• CCO – Be sure the people that will open cases are tied to the hardware.

• Entitlement – Be sure the hardware is properly registered with Cisco.

• Proactive entitlement – Open online case with SN’s and ask to validate

• Online case – Cases can be opened online as sev-3 then escalated via phone.

• Follow-the-sun – UCS support moves around the world through the day.

• Escalation – If unhappy with support ask to be reassigned or a duty manager.

• Cisco User Community – Lots of resources provided by Cisco and others

• Other external resources – Details on additional external resources

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Cisco User Community• Web Based End User Community

– http://communities.cisco.com/ucs

• Tools, Downloads, Examples• UCS Platform Emulator (UCSPE)• goUCS Automation Tool • XML API, PowerShell code Examples• Cisco UCS PowerTool (PowerShell Module)• Microsoft SCOM Management Pack for Cisco UCS• Microsoft SCVMM UI Extension for Cisco UCS• Microsoft SCO Integration Pack for Cisco UCS

• Documentation• Programming & Developer Guides• Whitepapers• Reference Guides (XML Model, Faults)

• Collaboration• Blogs, Peer to peer forums, Videos, Access to Cisco,

Subject Matter Experts 37

Free!!

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Direct URL to UCS Platform Emulator

• New Communities alias/URL:– http://communities.cisco.com/ucspe

• Key Features– Import your hardware configuration– Most UCSM features functional– Firmware upgrades now work

38

Free!!

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Download Management Packs from Cisco.comhttp://software.cisco.com/download/type.html?mdfid=283850978&catid=282558030

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Downloads: All integrations UCS Platform

Emulator Scripting samples

Perl PowerShell Python

Documentation: Reference guides Training guides

Collaboration: Blogs Peer to peer forums Access Cisco experts

Free!!communities.cisco.com/ucsintegrations

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Agenda

• Management Best Practices: Pre-installation

• Management Best Practices: Installation

• Management Best Practices: Maintenance

• Management Best Practices: Support

• Tools and Management Integrations

• Conclusion

42

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Do It Yourself

SDK & EmulatorGoUCSPowerShell & .NET

Most flexibleMost powerful

Open Source

UCS Dashboard

FlexibleLeverage power of community

Multi-UCS Management Strategy

UCS XML API UCS XML API UCS XML API UCS XML API

Cisco Products

UCS CentralUCS Director Tidal/Newscale (CIAC)

Cisco support and roadmapReduce vendors

ISV Partners

System Center plug-inBMC IntegrationCA integration Etc…..

Multi-vendor supportIncumbencyBroadest use cases

Multi-UCS Management Solutions

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Data Center Management ChallengesRequire a trade-off between quality, time and resources

Data CenterPerformance

Quality

Resources

Time

Responsiveness diminishes as

complexity and demand increase

Different tools needed to manage each layer of the data center

Developing workarounds are costly and time

consuming

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Data CenterPerformance

Efficient

Agile

Simple

Quality

ResourcesTime

Cisco UCS with Management IntegrationsEnd the need for trade-offs

Agile:• Increase flexibility

• Deploy new services in minutes not weeks

• Respond to changing business environment

• Achieve scale more easily

Efficient:• Manage Costs• Reduce management and operational expense • Decrease the footprint required to deploy applications• Require less cabling, lower power and cooling costs

Simple:• Reduce complexity

• Control server and network architectures with a common OS

• Unify servers, storage, network and management

• Leverage existing tools and skill sets

Page 46: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

UCS Management

• One UCS System / Domain / Pod• Comprehensive XML API, standards-based interface• Bi-directional access to physical and logical components• UCS Central leverages UCS XML API • Delivered as a VM

48

XML API System Status

Physical InventoryLogical Inventory

Direct

UCS PowerTool(PowerShell Toolkit)

goUCS

UCS Central

UCS CLI UCSM GUI 3rd Party Custom Scripts

Page 47: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Key Server Management Capabilities

Service Orchestration

Provision and Configure

Monitor and Analyze

Self-service IT portal

Service catalog

Orchestration/RBA

Discovery

Hardware monitoring

Performance management

OS provisioning

Patch/software deployment

Configuration compliance

Page 48: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Manage UCS with Industry-Standard ToolsExtensive integration and support for enterprise management tools

• Discovery• Hardware monitoring• Performance management

BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management

CA Spectrum Infrastructure Manager, eHealth

EMC DCI HP Operations Manager/OpenView IBM Tivoli Monitoring IBM Netcool Microsoft System Center Operations

Manager ScienceLogic EM7 Zenoss Enterprise Solarwinds Orion InfoVista 5View, VistaInsight

• Service catalog • Orchestration/RBA• Self-service IT portal

Cisco Intelligent Automation BMC Cloud Lifecycle Manager DynamicOps Cloud Automation Center EMC Unified Infrastructure Manager HP Operations Orchestration IBM Service Delivery Manager VMware vCenter Orchestrator VMware vCloud Director Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

• OS provisioning• Configuration compliance• Patch/software deployment

BMC BladeLogic CA Spectrum Automation Manager HP Server Automation IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager Symantec Altiris DS

Service OrchestrationDeploy and ConfigureMonitor and Analyze

Page 49: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

API API

Basic ManagementFunctionality

API

API

UCS Director API

Stand-Alone UCS C-Series Unified Computing

System

UCS CentralPolicy Driven Multi DC, Multi-

Domain Management

UCS Director Policy Driven, Application Centric Infrastructure Management and

Orchestration

CIMC

Integrated & Converged

Infrastructure

UCS Manager Domain 1

UCS Manager Domain x

FlexPod vBlockStorage

Virtual Machines

Network Devices

Servers

Non-Cisco Infrastructure

Advanced Infrastructure Abstraction and Automation

UCS Management Portfolio

Page 50: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Tools

• UCSPE – UCS Platform Emulator –

• goUCS – Automation and scripting tool for UCS.

• UCS PowerTool – Powershell tools for UCS

• UCS Central – Manage and control multiple UCS domains together.

• Microsoft Integration - System Center 2012 and SCCVM integration –

• VMware Integration – vCenter plugin gives visibility into UCS from VMware

• Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Plug-in for UCS – Manage UCS from Oracle

• Openstack integration – UCS Automation with Openstack

• Other integrations – There are many integrations are available

Page 51: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

UCS Platform Emulator (UCSPE)

53

• No UCS Hardware Needed for API integration Development

• Full featured emulator for the UCS Manager

• Installs as a Virtual Machine• Provides complete support for all XML

API calls• Object Browser to peruse the UCSM

model• Import & replicate existing live UCS

Manager physical inventory• Share saved physical inventories

among UCS Platform Emulators• Drag-n-drop hardware builder to

create custom physical inventory

Page 52: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

UCS Manager: Know XML, no problem

With goUCS: No XML, no problem

Convert UCS Manager actions into automation scripts

1

2

3

Perform single action on UCS Manager and capture it

Create script in goUCS framework with variable substitutions

Re-run script over and over against single or multiple UCSMs

goUCS Automation Toolkit

Page 53: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Cisco UCS PowerToolProgrammatic control over UCS hardware

• Architected for Flexibility and coverage• PowerShell Wrapper

– Cmdlet definition and structure– Get-help support

• .NET UCS Namespace Library– XML API call construction– Class Definition– Validation

• PowerShell Design• In-line get-help support• Full Pipelining support• Fully classed object definition• All ‘legal’ verbs

• .NET Namespace provides common base for all Microsoft integration

• Targeted to support full manageability of UCS across multiple releases

Cisco UCSPowerTool Module

UCS .NET Namespace

UCS XML API

cmdlets

Page 54: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

UCS CentralCentralized multi-domain management across local and remote datacenters, including:

• Global Service Profiles and Templates, Policies, and pool management for cross-domain consistency

• Centralized Fault Management for quicker troubleshooting

• Global Inventory, Statistics and Reporting to simplify asset management and sizing

Global Fault Management

Domain Group Hierarchy

Equipment Inventory and

Status

Tree Group Similar to UCS

Manager

Page 55: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

UCS Management with Operations Manager

• Holistic View of Converged

Infrastructure Health• Monitor alerts and faults on Chassis,

Blades, Fabric Interconnects, I/O Power

Supply, Fan Modules, etc.• Manage multiple UCS domains with

single management pack

• Simple and Powerful Visualizations• Graphical Views of UCS topology• Graphical views of physical and logical

entities and relationships

• Reliable Information • UCS XML API provides a powerful,

supported interface for Operations

Manager

Page 56: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Cisco UCS UI extension for SCVMM

• Manage your cloud from one console– Physical Compute and Virtual Infrastructure in one place

• Show UCS inventory in SCVMM– Launch UCSM GUI from SCVMM

– Summary status of servers

• Basic functions on servers– SP association

– Launch KVM

– Change Power/Server status

• Show Service Profiles, Templates– Instantiate SPs from templates

• Correlate Service Profiles to physical servers to hypervisors relationships

58

Page 57: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Automating UCS with System Center Orchestrator

• Automate UCS management

– Improve predictability and reduce manual

errors with UCS integration pack– Reduce time to delivery and reduce TCO– Packaged UCS activities for consistent

delivery of UCS operations

• Deliver Scalable and Reliable UCS

management through Orchestrated Workflows

– Deliver consistent service across multiple

systems and departments– Packaged workflows to automate UCS

operations– UCS XML API provides a powerful, supported

interface for Orchestrator workflow operations

• Optimize and extend UCS capabilities

• Integrate with 3rd party tools using Cisco UCS

integration pack

Page 58: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

UCS Management with System Center 2012Ease IT management through a single interface

“Single Pane

of Glass”Operations

ManagerOrchestrator

Management Pack

Integration Pack

Unified Computing System

UC

S P

ow

erTo

ol f

or

Po

wer

Sh

ell

Software

Integration

Infrastructure

UCS Manager XML API

Physical Virtual&

Virtual Machine Manager

UI Extension Integration

Pack

.NET Library

Orchestrator

Page 59: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

UCS C-series server Management with System Center 2012Ease IT management through a single interface

“Single Pane

of Glass”

Operations Manager

Orchestrator

Management Pack

Integration Pack

Unified Computing System

UC

S P

ow

erTo

ol f

or

Po

wer

Sh

ell

Software

Integration

Infrastructure

UCS C-series CIMC

Physical Virtual&

SCCM

.NET Library

IntegrationPack

Page 60: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Deliver integrated private cloud solutionsCisco compute & network infrastructure with WS2012, SC 2012/R2 and Hyper-V

Software

Integrated Cisco + MSFT

stack

Infrastructure

“Single Pane

of Glass”

Operations Manager

SCO

UC

S P

ow

erTo

ol

for

Po

we

rSh

ell

Unified Computing System

UCS Manager

Physical Virtual&

SCVMM

WS 2012 with Hyper-V

VM-FEX

Cisco Virtual Networking Solutions for Hyper-V

N1KVVASA/VSG

Storage

Provision and Manage WS2012 Physical and virtual environments supported by Cisco UCS and Cisco Virtual Networking Infrastructure.

SC2012 R2 integrations available NOW!

Page 61: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

MicrosoftApplications

MicrosoftInfrastructure

Cisco and NetApp PowerShell Integration

Libraries

Cisco: UCS Manager, PowerTool NetApp: OCPM, Data ONTAP, PowerShell Toolkit

Configuration & Provisioning Physical and Virtual Machine Monitoring Network Management Back Up & Recovery Disaster Recovery

FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud

with Hyper-V

63

Provisioning Monitoring AutomationCisco & NetAppManagement

Cisco & NetAppHardware:• Compute• Network• Storage

Page 62: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Provide a single point of administration for both physical and virtual infrastructure

Streamline infrastructure management by tracking virtual & physical relationships

Extend vCenter visibility into Cisco’s advanced virtual networking technologies (VMFex, Virtual Interface Card, etc)

Cisco UCS vCenter PluginUnify VMware & UCS Administration

Page 63: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Plug-in for UCSWhat is monitored? Why Use This Plug-in?

Technical Details

• Continue to use OEM 12c to now manage Cisco UCS

• Incoming data formatted for 12c

• Utilize the capabilities of UCS manager such as service profiles

• Manage all Oracle and Cisco UCS environment from one screen

Product Details• Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c R2• UCS Manger 2.1+• Operating System Supported:

• Oracle Linux/RHEL Priority 1• Windows Priority 2• Solaris 10/11 Priority 3

• All UCS blades/chassis supported• All Rack Optimized (C-Series) supported

• Product FCS – Summer 2014 (July)• Price $0• Support – Cisco TAC• Downloadable from Cisco.com• Available world wide• Free upgrade to version 2 in CY Q4’14

• All system components• Blade details, CPU, memory, etc• Performance metrics• Health status/Environmental• Current, voltage, thermal, fan• Network – data transfer, pause, loss, error• Config details, firmware, identifier pools• Exposing native Cisco events - incidents

Page 64: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Manage UCS with HP Software

• Monitor UCS with Operations Manager 9.1 (a.k.a Openview)– Qualified event (XML) receiver for UCS– 2 versions for UCS Manager and Cisco IMC– Windows and Linux versions

• Automate UCS workflows with HP Operations Orchestration 9.0

• Out of the box UCS flows and actions

• Single click provisioning of UCS servers

• Capability to include Python scripts in workflows

Page 65: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Nagios plugins

• Open source platform for monitoring

• Cisco plugins for both UCS Manager and Cisco IMC

• Foundational capabilities– Complete domain and server inventory– Health summary and status– Complete fault and event information– UCS specific graphical interface– CLI for common configuration and query operations

Page 66: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Cisco UCS servers

Python SDKProgrammatic control over UCS

UCS Manager or Cisco IMC

3rd party tools

Python SDK (UCS/IMC XML wrapper)

UCS XML API

• Extend python based automation to

UCS servers seamlessly

• Architected for Flexibility and coverage

• Comprehensive coverage of all

supported operations

• Fully classed object definition

• Targeted to support full manageability of

UCS across multiple releases

• Sample scripts for shorter ramp up

Custom scripts

Page 67: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

UCS Automation with OpenStackIntegrated, Policy-Based Infrastructure Management

Configuration Automation

Optimized workload placement

OpenStack Deployment Automation 1

Virtual & Bare metal services (BMaaS Integration)

2 3 4

Single touch deployment across 1000’s nodes

HYPERVISOR

Physical Server Provisioning (BMaaS)

Virtual Server Provisioning

5 Dense storage server (storage nodes)

Dense compute server (compute nodes)

New UCS Product Lines for scale-out & OpenStack Platforms

Page 68: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

OpenStack: Scripted Install of OpenStack on UCS

Chassis/Server Discovery

Service Profile Association

PXE boot devices deployed

Cobbler database update

Register Nodes Provision UCS Servers

Step 1 : Configuring Nodes using Python SDK

Updates the newly added node info in puppet

Puppet apply

Add hosts/system in OpenStack

Event Listener

PXE boot for initial OS install

RHEL 6.4 installation on bare-metal servers

Sync all the plugins from Puppet Master

Host OS Install

Inventory of nova nodes on controller

VM Provisioning

OpenStack Services Deployment

OpenStack Handover

Hostname / IP address

Logical credentials

Resource allocation preferences Only Point of User Touch

Pre-configure UCS

Step 2 : Cobbler/Puppet based Node Subscription

Page 69: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Cobbler/Puppet based Node Subscription

4. PXE Boot5. Puppet sync

1. Read conf file2. Apply policies

3. Update Puppet/Cobbler DB

Build Node

Control Node

Compute Nodes (nova-compute, libvirtd)

(glance, scheduler,

API-deamons)

Page 70: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Agenda

• Management Best Practices: Pre-installation

• Management Best Practices: Installation

• Management Best Practices: Maintenance

• Management Best Practices: Support

• Tools and Management Integrations

• Conclusion

72

Page 71: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Take the Risk Out of Getting Started

• Engage with your partner and/or CiscoAsk to see a demoAsk for comparative configuration

• SmartPlay BundlesIncludes all the server parts to get started

• Cisco® Validated Design Reference ArchitecturePredefined system and network configurationsJoint testing at scale

• Proof of ConceptTechnical support

• Financial AnalysisROI and TCO calculators

• Professional ServicesStrategy > Plan/Design > Implement > Optimize

Page 72: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

Register for CiscoLive! – San Francisco

74

CiscoLive! – San FranciscoMay 18 – 22, 2014www.ciscolive.com/us

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© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Presentation_ID Cisco PublicLocal Edition

76

Reminders

• Drawing for the Cisco and sponsor prizes will be at 2:15 where lunch was served. You must be present to win.

• Visit the sponsor booths during breaks, at lunch, and between sessions.

• Complete your event evaluation so we can have events like this in the future.

• Scan the QR code to the right or visit http://www.slideshare.net/CiscoPublicSector/tagged/CLLE%20Midsouth to access and download all the presentations and other information.

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77

Data Center ScheduleTime Session Name

8:00 to 8:30 Arrival and registration8:30 to 9:45 Unified Computing System9:45 to 10:00 Break and visit with sponsors10:00 to 11:00 Desktop Virtualization11:00 to 12:00 Invicta Accelerated Storage12:00 to 1:00 Lunch1:00 to 2:15 Datacenter Fabric Futures2:15 to 2:30 Break, visit with sponsors, and drawings2:30 to 3:30 UCS Management Best Practices and Tools3:30 to 4:30 UCS Director4:30 Conclusion of Cisco Live Local Edition event

Page 75: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4

Local Edition

Page 76: Ucs management-best-practices-and-tools clle-2014-v4