Cisco Unified Compute System

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Contrasting UCS From Legacy Compute

Leif Berntsson
Data Center Systems Engineer

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Overview
UCS Overview

Key UCS Differentiation

Unified Fabric

Unified Management
Policy-Based Computing
UCSM Open API Integration
Cisco Innovation

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Cisco Unified Computing System

Summary of UCS Components
Anatomy of
Cisco Unified Computing System

Cisco UCS Manager

BEYOND EFFICIENCY
MORE EFFECTIVE IT

Cisco UCS breeds simplicity

Agile, flexible, high-performance,

self-integrating IT

Reduced staff costs

Increased uptime

Automation

Rapid return on investment

TECCOM-2001

Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects

Cisco UCS and Cisco Nexus Fabric Extenders
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers
Cisco UCS Blade Server Chassis
Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Cards for B-Series

& C-Series Servers

Cisco Public

Cisco UCS Broad Server Portfolio

Blade

Extensibility

Rack-Mount

Mainstream

Extended Memory

Intensive and Mission Critical

C240 M3
C24 M3

C260 M2

C460 M2

C220 M3

C250 M2

C22 M3

Coming
Soon

C210 M2
C200 M2

B200 M3

B440 M2

B250 M2

B22 M3

B230 M2

2S EP

2S EX

4S EX

Cisco UCS: Many Form Factors, One System

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

UCS Fabric Infrastructure Portfolio

Cisco UCS 6200 and 2200 with Unified Ports
Cisco

UCS

High End Deployments

Typical Deployments

6100 and 2100

96 Port Fabric Interconnect

48 Port Fabric Interconnect

At UCS Launch
UCS 6296 FI

UCS 6248 FI

UCS Fabric
Interconnects

Cisco UCS 6140/ 6120

Forward compatible
with Second Generation
I/O Modules

1TB switching throughput

48 ports in 1RU

Unified Ports

Investment protection

2TB switching throughput

96 ports in 2RU

Unified Ports

Investment protection
40 Port I/O Module

20 Port I/O Module

UCS I/O
Modules

Cisco UCS 2104

I/O Module

Forward compatible
with Second Generation
Interconnects

TECCOM-2001

New!

UCS 2208 IOM

UCS 2204 IOM

160G per chassis

80G per chassis

40G to the Blade

20G to the Blade

Lower Latency

Entry point pricing

Port Channel Capable

Port Channel Capable

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

New!

Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Chassis

Chassis

6 RU / 32 deep

Up to 8 half slot blades

Up to 4 full slot blades

8x fans

2x Chassis IO Module

All devices hot-pluggable

Power Supplies

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

4x 2,500W hot-plug power supplies

90+% efficient

N+N redundancy

Single Phase 220V

Cisco Public

Key UCS
Differentiation

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Evolution of the Mini-Rack Architecture

Traditional Rack

Duplicate Infrastructure
for Every 16 Servers

Divide into Mini-Racks

Blade Mini-Rack 1
(16 blade servers)

Blade Mini-Rack 2
(16 blade servers)

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Legacy Blade Architecture

Additional
Additional LAN and
LAN and SAN
SAN Connections
Connections

MGMT
SAN
LAN

MGMT
SAN
LAN

Over the Past 10 Years

Additional
Management
Connections

Multiple Ethernet
Connections

An evolution of size, not thinking

More servers and switches than ever

More switches per server

Management applied, not integrated

An Accidental Architecture

Multiple
SAN Connections

Separate Remote
Management
per Chassis

Result: Complexity

More points of management

More difficult to maintain policy coherence

More difficult to secure

More difficult to scale

Multiple Management
Modules

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Cisco UCSReducing Complexity

Additional
LAN and SAN
Connections

MGMT
SAN
LAN

Additional
Management
Connections

MGMT
SAN
LAN

Embed management
Remove unnecessary:
Switches
Adapters
Management modules

Multiple Ethernet
Connections

Unify the Fabric

Network, Storage, Mgmt

Multiple
SAN Connections

Power and cooling

1/3rd less infrastructure
Lower power

Separate Remote
Management
per Chassis

Built for virtualization

Processor density
VM/host ratio

Multiple Management
Modules

TECCOM-2001

I/O improvement
Extended memory
2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

What Is Unified Computing?

UCS is Unified Fabric
Increase workload agility, lower costs, lower power, higher
reliability, simplified setup, higher asset utilization, higher
application performance

UCS is Revolutionary Embedded Management

Simplified setup, increased control, lower costs, faster
deployment, higher reliability, higher productivity, fewer errors

UCS is Policy Computing (Stateless)

Servers waiting for their identity based on Application needs.
Service Profiles push out configuration to available HW.

UCS is Cisco Innovation

World Class System Performance
Cisco Developed Adapters and Fabric

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

12

Unified Fabric

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Unified
Fabric

Cisco Public

Infrastructure
consolidation

13

UCS Fabric Topologies:

Chassis Bandwidth Options

20G per Chassis

40G per Chassis

80G per Chassis

1st Generation UCS Fabric

2nd Generation UCS Fabric
Wire once architecture
All links active

All Servers Connected to LAN/SAN

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

160G per Chassis

Cisco Unified Computing System

Form Factor Independence and Cloud Scale

Mgmt

Simplicity

LAN

SAN A

Any IEEE Compliant LAN

Any ANSI T11

Compliant SAN

SAN B
Any ANSI T11
Compliant SAN

One Logical Chassis to Manage

LAN Connectivity Server Identity

Management
SAN Networking
Monitoring,
Blade Chassis
Troubleshooting
Server Blades
Etc.
Rack Servers

160 Servers per UCS Domain, 10,000 Servers with UCSM and UCS Central

Cloud Scale Increases Mobility, Utilisation and Availability

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Legacy Blades vs. Cisco UCS

Competitors

UCS
LAN

LAN

MGMT

SAN A

LAN

SAN B

SAN B

SAN A

MGMT

160 blades
160 blades

Chassis 1
Convergence only inside
each chassis

Chassis 1

Chassis 1
Network Devices

Chassis Management Devices

Chassis 4

8
8

Chassis 1/2

Chassis 10

20
20

True FCoE of LAN/SAN &

MGMT

Chassis 3/4

Chassis 5/6

Chassis 7/8

Chassis 19/20

Network Devices

UCS Advantages

Why?

UCS = Unified Management, Comprehensive

Service Profiles, Open XML API

UCS converges management in the fabric to provide a

single, feature-rich, point for all LAN, SAN, and HW
Mgmt. UCS Service Profiles simplify deployment and
ongoing management at no extra cost.

Unified Fabric = Unified Ports, Flexibility, Scalability,

Simplicity
Policy-based VM connectivity and mobility with VIC
1280 (Virtual Interface Card); Up to 80Gb I/O per
HW-blade!
TECCOM-2001

Chassis Management Devices

Unified Fabric presents up to 80Gb of redundant BW

and all of the benefits of the award-winning VIC card.

Confidential
Internal
2012 Cisco and/orCisco
its affiliates.
All rights reserved.

Use Only

Cisco Public

16

UCS Is Unified
Management

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Open API for

integration
into existing
environments

Cisco Public

Single
Unified
System

17

Legacy Is Separate Management Fabric

Legacy Management Servers
Required for Full Functionality

Have to size, configure, maintain,

separate servers and OS
Management Server Not redundant
Pairs of management controller boards
in EACH enclosure
Legacy Management Software
Sits on high and pokes/peeks hardware

Tries to present single pain of glass to

multiple hodgepodge of tools

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

18

Legacy Blade Management Approach

Simplify by
- adding software layers
- providing professional services

Layering software on hardware only

increases overall system complexity
- Complexity increases exponentially with the
number of independent variables
- Everything has to tested with everything

SW Multi-Chassis LAN/SAN
MGMT

$$

$$

SW Energy MGMT & Power

$$
Capping
SW Remote Support & Phone
$$
Home

Central MGMT SW on Separate

Server tries to present Single
Pane

LAN/SAN Switch MGMT Tools

Legacy mentality =
- Difficult to scale & change
- High OpEx , High CapEx

Result:
- Complex infrastructure stacks
- Fragile Data Center environments
- Increasing management costs

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Management Module Board(s)

Blade FW and BIOS

Chassis/Power/Networking FW

Health And Alerting

Cisco Public

19

Unified Computing System Manager

More Than A Single Pain of Glass A BMaaS Mission Control
Embedded, Redundant
device manager for family
of UCS components
Enables stateless
computing via Service
Profiles
Efficient scale: Similar effort
for 1 to 10,000 blades
APIs for integration with
new and existing data
center infrastructure

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

UCSM Is
Policy-Based

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Policy-based
automation
Integrated
management

Cisco Public

Unified
ModelBased
Mgmt.

21

UCS Is Stateless Computing

Servers as a Resource, Awaiting Their Identity
UCS = Every server already attached to LAN/SAN/Mgmt
This is the key to a highly utilized and flexible environment
Question: What would it take for you to do this in your DC today?

UCSM = Redundant fabric holds workload DNA. Why?

Settings (FW, BIOS, Adapter, LAN, SAN, Storage, and many more) are pushed out as
profiles to available hardware.
Legacy server vendors update hardware with bundles/revisions in anticipation of
application. UCS configures HW instantly based on the profile for that workload type.

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

22

Traditional Element Configuration

Storage
SME

Server
SME

LAN

Network
SME

SAN

QoS settings
Border port assignment
per vNIC
NIC Transmit/Receive
Rate Limiting

Subject matter experts

consumed by manual
configuration chores
Serial processes and multiple
touches inhibit provisioning
speed
Configuration drift and
maintenance challenges

TECCOM-2001

FC Fabric assignments for

HBAs

VLAN assignments for NICs

VLAN tagging config for NICs

Number of vHBAs
HBA WWN
assignments
FC Boot Parameters
HBA firmware

Number of vNICs
PXE settings\
NIC firmware
Advanced feature settings

Remote KVM IP settings

Call Home behavior
Remote KVM firmware

RAID settings
Disk scrub actions

Server UUID
Serial over LAN settings
Boot order
IPMI settings
BIOS scrub actions
BIOS firmware
BIOS Settings

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Policy-Based Management
Unified Management Enables Service Profile Templates
Server Name
UUID, MAC, WWN
Boot Information
LAN, SAN Config
Firmware Policy

Unified
Management

Server Name
UUID, MAC, WWN
Boot Information
LAN, SAN Config
Firmware Policy

Subject Matter Experts

Define Policies
Storage
SME

Server
SME

Adapter Firmware Packages

Network
SME

Server Name
UUID, MAC, WWN
Boot Information
LAN, SAN Config
Firmware Policy

Policies Used
to Create
Service Profile Templates

Storage Controller Firmware Pack

Fibre Channel Adapters Firmware

BIOS Firmware Packages
HBA Option ROM Packages

TECCOM-2001

Server Name
UUID, MAC, WWN
Boot Information
LAN, SAN Config
Firmware Policy

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Server Name
UUID, MAC, WWN
Boot Information
LAN, SAN Config
Firmware Policy

3
Service Profile
Templates
Create Service Profiles

Cisco Public

Associating Service
Profiles with Hardware
Configures Servers
Automatically
24

Stateless Computing: Service Profiles

Theyre like Software Defined Computing
SERVER IDENTITY

UCS
Service
Profile

Adds:
Portability
More flexibility
Improved uptime

TECCOM-2001

NIC MACs
HBA WWNs
Server UUID
VLAN Assignments
VLAN Tagging
FC Fabrics Assignments
FC Boot Parameters
Quantity of NICs
Boot Order
PXE Settings
IPMI Settings
Quantity of HBAs
QoS Settings
Call Home
Statistic Thresholds
System Firmware
Adapter Firmware
CIMC Firmware
RAID Settings
NIC Teaming in HW
BIOS Settings
etc., etc., etc.

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

SAN

LAN

Cisco Public

UCS Is Open API

Management

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Open API for

integration
into existing
environments

Cisco Public

Single
Unified
System

26

UCSM Is Redefining Server Management

Seamlessly Monitor and Manage 10,000 UCS Servers
Standards-based XML API presents bidirectional single interface to entire solution
UCS offers the customers the broadest choice of Cisco or 3rd party management tools
UCS
Dashboard

UCS
Central

goUCS Automation Tools

CDN .NET/PowerShell, Perl XML
UCS Platform Emulator

UCS CLI

Cisco UCSM

UCSM + Multi-UCS Mgmt.

Third Party

XML API
UCSM
Single UCS Domains

TECCOM-2001

UCSM
Data Center 1

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

UCSM
Data Center 2,3..

Cisco Public

Customer

Example: Compare 800 Server Solution

UCS Central = $0
License (5 Domains)!
No Requirement to Give
Up Local UCSM Control!
10 Fabric Interconnects

Global FW Updates, ID
Pools, Backups, Admin
Policies, etc.
Common UCSM XML API
Global Service Profiles*

Legacy 800 Servers =

$250,000 - Enterprise
Switch Manager is
$5000/16-Blades!
Must Give Up Local
Virtual Connect Control

UCS Manager

UCS Manager

Revolutionary Unified
management of multi-UCS

Delivers global policies, service

profiles, ID pools and templates

10,000 UCS Servers Supported

(Both Blade AND Rack)!

No Charge for features like

Advanced Power Capping

CMS SW + Enterprise Switch SW

Uses Plug-Ins to Manage

layers of SW/HW from
above.

Only shares Switch

Profile Settings

*UCS Central Phase 2 Feature

TECCOM-2001

100 Networking Switches

to Monitor/Power/
Manage!

Legacy Mgmt

Cisco UCS Central

UCS Manager

100 Mgmt. IP Addresses

to Manage!

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Only Supports Switch

Domains
No Single Common API,
Multiple SW/FW/HW Points

Looking At IaaS, Hybrid Or Private Cloud?

Single XML API To Manage Your Bare Metal Near or Far

Legacy vendors offer only launch points to

their embedded and licensed management
tools for configuration.
UCS is Stateless Computing with every
server connected to LAN/SAN awaiting DNA
from Service Profiles/Templates.
What would it take for you to do this in
your DC today?

TECCOM-2001

Cloud
Consumer
Cloud
Auditor
Security
Audit
Privacy
Impact
Audit
Performanc
e Audit

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cloud
Broker

Cloud Provider
Service
Orchestration
Service Layer

Cloud
Service
Management

SaaS

Business
Support

PaaS
IaaS
Resource
Abstraction and
Cisco
Unified
Control Layer

Physical Resource
Computing
Layer System
Hardware
Facility

Provisioning/
Configuratio
n
Portability/
Interoperabil
ity

Service
Intermediatio
n
Privacy

With UCS, it is a single API for blades and

racks; not multiple touch points with many
different interfaces.
How may integration points will you
have with HP, IBM, Dell into the
mighty Orchestration Layer?

Security

Service
Aggregation

Service
Arbitrage

Cloud Carrier

Cisco Public

29

UCS Is Cisco
Innovation

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

High-Density
design
Extended
Server
Memory
Innovations Technology,
IndustryStandard
Servers

Cisco Public

30

UCS IS World-Class ASIC Innovation

Balanced, Open Standards-Based, Delivering Unmatched Capabilities
ASIC Innovation in a Unified System
Cisco Unified
Fabric

Cisco Virtual
Interface
Cards

Fabric

0.5 Tbps Fabric

3.2 uS Latency
Dozens of Servers

20 Gb
128 Virtual Adapters

I/O

2 Tbps Fabric
Sub 2 uS Latency
Thousands of Servers

Cisco ASIC
Innovation

40 Gb; 80Gb Burst

256 Virtual Adapters

Unified Management
Cisco Extended
Memory
Technology

Memory

4X Memory at
Highest Speeds

Highest Memory Density for 2 Socket Servers

48 DIMMs in 2 socket blades
64 DIMMs in 2 socket racks

2009

2012

Generations of Open ASIC Innovation Developed in Concert

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

UCS IS Cisco Innovation

Power Optimized

Industry-Changing Examples
Fabric Failover

VIC 1280

VM-FEX Architecture
LAN

LAN

IOM-A

Dual 4x10 Gbps into fabric

PCIe x16 GEN2 host interface

116 Virtual Interfaces (Capable of
256 PCIe devices)

Same host side drivers as VIC

Retains VIC features with

enhancements

CNA

Port 1

vNIC 1
Local Area Connection
0
1.1.1.1

OS

2nd Generation VIC

UCS Blade Server

SR-IOV capable device

TECCOM-2001

Nexus 5500

IOM-B

Logical Switch

Port 2
CNA

FEX

vNIC 2
Local Area Connection
1
2.2.2.2

Chassis backplane (or

Fabric) provides
redundant path for each
vNIC

Failures detected on
border ports or fabric
ports

Transparent to OS

Unlike OS NIC Teaming,

redundancy provided with
single interface

iSCSI boot, Fabric Failover

Switch

Fabric Interconnect
B

Logical Switch

Fabric Interconnect
A

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

A
pp
OS

Hypervisor

VM-FEX

A
pp
OS

Designed from the

ground up for
optimal cooling.

A
pp
OS

Management Plane
Integration between
Cisco and Hypervisor
Manager

Unified Fabric =
fewer components,
more airflow on
backplane

Glues each VM to its own

logical switch port on
UCS Fabric Interconnect

Full Support of all

Intel CPUs

Cisco Public

Summary
Unified Fabric Is The Key
Enables simplicity and efficient scalability for true right-sizing

Revolutionary Embedded Management

Unified Fabric enables the redundant UCSM magic

Policy-Based Computing
Embedded Management enables Service Profiles, Templates, RBAC

XML API
Programmatic interface is open and Industry Standard and allows choice

Designed For The Cloud

Single API for server management, HW innovation, Next-generation ready

UCS is Cisco Innovation

14 Cisco custom developed ASICs in current solution
TECCOM-2001

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33

Cloupia

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Cloupia Unified Infrastructure Controller (CUIC)

End-to-end Management and Automation Solution

Self-Service
Delivery

Secure Cloud Container

Model-based
Management

vFiler
Storage

Network

Compute

Virtualization
Manager

VMs

Policy-Driven
Provisioning
Cloupia Unified Infrastructure Controller

Enables Unified Service Delivery

Plug-ins

Single Pane of
Glass
End-to-End
Management
and Automation

Adaptive, intelligent provisioning

Virtualization

Compute
Network
Manager

Network

Storage
Storage
Manager
Manager

Tenant Tenant Tenant

A
B
C
Storage

Reduced time to market / time to value

Improved IT responsiveness
2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Compute
Manager

Results in Reduced OpEx and CapEx costs

TECCOM-2001

35
Cisco Public

Cloupia One Management system, Multiple Clouds

LDAP, CMDB,
Metering DB
End
Users

IT
Admins

Modular
Open Automation for easy
third-party extensibility
Northbound
Deployed as an on-premise
Virtual Appliance(s)

IT Operations

Roll-based Access

Self Service
Catalog

Admin
Console

Enterprise
Systems
Integration

Dashboard

Mobile Devices

Cloupia Unified Infrastructure Controller

Multi-tenant & integrated cloud platform

Unified Infrastructure Controller

Cloupia
Cloupia
Cloupia
Network
Services
Network
NetworkServices
Services
Agent
Agent
Agent

Blade Server
Managers

Integrated Multi-tenant Cloud Platform

Storage
APIs

Network
Manager

vCenter

VMware

SCVMM

Hyper-V

Amazon,
Rackspace,

RHEVM

KVM

Savvis VPDC,
Terremark,
Other
Providers

Physical Infrastructure
Virtual Infrastructure
Public Clouds
Cloupia Provides Centralized Management of Private and Public Clouds
TECCOM-2001

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Cisco Public

Data Center and Cloud Automation Made Easy

CloudGenie Mobile Platform Application
Industrys first iPad/Android app for cloud and data
center management
Simple cloud resource management
Self-service

CloudGenie Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiIEb-DuqnQ

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

Cisco-on-Cisco Results:
ROI Achieved by Cisco IT
Average
TCO

-37%

-32%

Speed of delivery

6-8 Weeks

Average
TCO

2-3 Weeks
IT Maintenance /
IT Innovation

IT Maintenance /
IT Innovation

70/30
100% Physical,
Legacy Computer Platform

Average
TCO

40% Physical, 60% Virtual,

Legacy Computer Platform

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

15 Minutes
IT Maintenance /
IT Innovation

40/60

60/40

Virtualization

TECCOM-2001

Speed of Delivery

Speed of Delivery

35% Physical, 65% Virtual,

Unified Computing Platform,
100% Automated

Unified Computing
and Automation

Cisco Public

How are you getting to the cloud?

TECCOM-2001

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Public

39