Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)
Cisco UCS combines industry-standard, x86-architecture servers with networking and storage access into a single unified system. The system is flexible, agile, and adaptable, and the portfolio of products supported by Cisco UCS includes blade, rack, multinode, and storage-intensive servers; Converged Infrastructure; Hyperconverged Infrastructure (Cisco HyperFlex systems); and solutions for the network edge such as Cisco UCS Mini and Cisco HyperFlex Edge.
We will discuss Cisco UCS in detail in Chapter 16, “Describing Cisco UCS Components.” However, Figure 1-9 provides a sneak peek at the Cisco UCS anatomy. Cisco UCS is built using the hierarchy of components illustrated in Figure 1-9.
Figure 1-9 Cisco UCS Component Hierarchy
Each Cisco UCS domain is established with a pair of Cisco UCS fabric interconnects, with a comprehensive set of options for connecting blade, rack, multinode, and storage servers to them either directly or indirectly. Cisco UCS fabric interconnects provide a single point of connectivity and management for an entire Cisco UCS system. Deployed as an active-active pair, the system’s fabric interconnects integrate all components into a single, highly available management domain. Cisco fabric interconnects support low-latency, line-rate, lossless Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity. A pair of Cisco UCS fabric interconnects forms the single point of connectivity for a Cisco UCS domain. Blade servers connect through fabric extenders, most rack servers can connect through optional fabric extenders, and rack servers, multinode rack servers, and storage servers can connect directly to the fabric interconnects, as illustrated in Figure 1-10.
Figure 1-10 Cisco UCS Connectivity Options for Blade, Rack, and Storage Servers
Cisco fabric extenders are zero-management, low-cost, low-power-consuming devices that distribute the system’s connectivity and management planes to rack servers and blade chassis to scale the system without adding complex switches or management points. Cisco fabric extenders eliminate the need for top-of-rack switches and blade-server-resident Ethernet and Fibre Channel switches and management modules, dramatically reducing the infrastructure cost per server. Rack and storage servers can be connected directly to Cisco fabric interconnects for outstanding dedicated network bandwidth.
Cisco UCS virtual interface cards (VICs) extend the network fabric directly to both servers and virtual switches so that a single connectivity mechanism can be used to connect both physical and virtual servers with the same level of visibility and control.
Cisco UCS B-Series blade servers provide massive amounts of computing power in a compact form factor, helping increase density in computation-intensive and enterprise application environments.
Cisco UCS C-Series rack servers can integrate into Cisco UCS through Cisco UCS fabric interconnects or be used as standalone servers with Cisco or third-party switches. These servers provide a wide range of I/O, memory, internal disk, solid-state disk (SSD) drive and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage device capacity, enabling you to easily match servers to workloads. Cisco UCS C4200 Series multinode rack servers are designed for clustered workloads where high core density is essential.
Cisco UCS S-Series storage servers are modular servers that support up to 60 large-form-factor internal drives to support storage-intensive workloads, including big data, content streaming, online backup, and Storage as a Service applications. The servers support one or two computing nodes with up to two CPUs each, connected to a system I/O controller that links the server to the network. These servers offer the flexibility of compute processing to balance the needed storage for workloads like big data, data protections, and software-defined storage.
Multiple management tools are available that use Cisco UCS Unified API to manage Cisco UCS. Cisco UCS Manager and Cisco Intersight are two of the most widely used management tools.
Cisco UCS Manager is embedded in each fabric interconnect. Running in a redundant, high-availability configuration, it creates a single, self-aware, self-integrating unified system that recognizes and integrates components as they are added to the system. It quickly and accurately configures computing, network, storage, and storage-access resources to reduce the chance of errors that can cause downtime. Its role- and policy-based approach helps organizations more easily align policies and configurations with workloads. Cisco UCS Manager requires an “always-on” connection.
Cisco Intersight Software as a Service provides a consistent management interface for all your Cisco UCS instances, Cisco HyperFlex clusters, edge deployments, and standalone rack servers, regardless of their location. You can access the Intersight platform through the cloud or through an optional management appliance. Intersight is designed to integrate management capabilities with a broader set of features, including a recommendation engine, integration with Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC), contract management, inventory management, and alerts.
