Cisco UCS: CCNA: DC?

Deathmage

Hey guys,

So I want to start getting versed in UCS, and I'm pondering if that's correlated to the DC track from Cisco and if so, could I buy used UCS hardware off ebay?

If so what would be some older models to look for so I can get used to the technology, would like to deploy this in the home-lab, will buy the necessary hardware for the servers and home-based SAN.

Any feedback is always appreciated, I like staying ahead of the curve.

joelsfood

The Data center and cloud tracks both cover UCS hardware.

Used UCS gear is available, though its' not cheap, it's loud, and ti's 220V for the B models, which are the real UCS gear (or C series connected to an FI). UCS Platform emulator is free, a quick download, and will give you a good view on most UCS management.

Vbrownbag should be starting their CCNA DC presentations in the near future.

kohr-ah

I'd use the emulator. Simple VM you load up that does a large majority of the functions.
Otherwise you can get UCS C Series equipment off ebay for a few hundred dollars per 1U server.

joelsfood

C Series are cheap, but unless you're using them in conjunction with an FI, there's not really much of a difference between a C220 and any other rackmount server. Not bad servers, just won't really let you learn anything useful about UCS

Deathmage

Thanks for the feedback guy. Where could I find this emulator?

kohr-ah

https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-37827

Deathmage

Thanks!

joelsfood

vBrownbag should be starting their new CCNA DC series here in March too, if you're looking for material to get started on your studying.

#vBrownBag

Deathmage

joelsfood wrote: »

vBrownbag should be starting their new CCNA DC series here in March too, if you're looking for material to get started on your studying.

#vBrownBag

Koodos!!

Deathmage

Ahhh so UCS is basically just run in VMware..... this I can like....

is UCS, software-defined networking but from Cisco?

joelsfood

No, UCS is server hardware, with unifieed fabric (ethernet and storage) provided by a pair of fabric interconnects. The system state of the servers (MAC addresses, WWPNs, BIOS policies, UUIDs, etc) is all controled by UCS Manager, which runs on the fabric interconnects. This gives you essentially stateless hardware, ywhere you can take the service profile, which contains a server's MAC/BIOS settings/WWPN/boot info/etc and move it from a blade in one chassis to a balde in anotehr and not lose any of the settings, whether you're movin it to a blade with more RAM, a chassis with more network connectivity, or even just replacing a failed blade.

UCS Platform Emulator is a virtual machine that runs just UCS manager, without the hardware, for study/practice. This is what runs on VMware.

It gets a lot more complicated than that of course. The IO Modules in each chassis (and the VIC cards in the servers) are essentially FEXs, making use of VNLink. This allows an IOModule to basically act as a line card to the allows the VIC cards to create virtual NICs and vHBAs.

Deathmage

Ahhh, I see. It's pretty neat, I must say.

It 'feels' like basically taking an entire ESXi host and making the whole hypervisor like a template that can be moved from host to host. This is what I take UCS as, basically just a virtual template of settings that, as you mentioned, can be moved from platform to platform without losing any of the settings.

Thought: could you use UCS to make a nested ESXi cluster that can be moved from host to host while still working like a traditional ESXi cluster sitting on a physical host box?

joelsfood

UCS doesn't emulate hardware, you still only run one service profile per blade or rack server. You can certainly install ESXi on one of the blades (ti's what I run on most of mine) and then install a nested ESXi instance under that first one if you want, but UCS it won't let you run two service profiles on one blade and virtualize it, no.

Deathmage

hmmm, so UCS is a Cisco version of virtualization completely separate from VMware or designed to be integrated with it?

joelsfood

UCS is not a hypervisor. UCS simply makes the settings that comprise a physical server (MAC, WWPN, UUID, etc) portable and stateless so that you can then apply them to a particular blade. That profile simply defines the characteristics of the server though. T he blade itself is still a standard x86 server that you install whatever OS you want on

networker050184

UCS is more pointed towards the hardware side of the house.

joelsfood

Robert has a pretty good introduction here

Cisco UCS for beginners – an end-user’s overview | rsts11 – Robert Novak on system administration