Cisco Unified Computing System

The Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) is a computer data center marketing program composed of computing hardware, virtualization software, switching fabric, and management software. The idea behind the system is to reduce total cost of ownership and improve scalability by integrating the different components into a cohesive platform that can be managed as a single unit. Just-In-Time deployment of resources and 1:N redundancy are also possible with a system of this type.

Computing

The computing component of the UCS is available in two versions; the B-Series (a modular package consisting of a powered chassis and full or half slot blade servers), and the C-series rackmount servers (that can be used with or without UCS, or mixed with blade UCS systems). Both form factors utilize the same standard components seen throughout the industry, including Intel Nehalem processors and DIMM memory. The servers are distinctive for supporting Converged Network Adapters (CNAs), Port Virtualization, and in some models the Catalina chipset (ASICs that expand the number of memory sockets than can be connected to a single memory bus.

Virtualization

Cisco UCS supports several hypervisors including VMware ESX, ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and others. VMware Virtualization is provided through a partnership with VMWare and uses a version of that company's ESXi. Unlike other VMWare software, ESX and ESXi run directly on the system hardware without the need for any other software, and provide the necessary hypervisor functions to host several guest operating systems (such as Windows or Linux) on the physical server. Guest operating systems are limited to 255 gigabytes of RAM and 8 processors.

Networking

The Cisco 6100 Series switch (called a "Fabric Interconnect") provides network connectivity for the chassis and blade servers connected to it through 10 Gigabit and Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). The Fabric Interconnects are derived from the Nexus 5000 and run NX-OS as well as the UCS Manager software. The FCoE component is necessary for connection to SAN storage, since the UCS system itself has very little storage capacity. Cisco currently produces two models: the 20-port Cisco UCS 6120XP and the 40-port Cisco UCS 6140XP.

The Fabric Interconnect can further connect to multiple Fabric Extenders, Port Extenders using VNTag to the Fabric Interconnects, allowing a large number of servers to be managed by one Fabric Interconnect (or two in Active-Active failover).

Management

Management of the system is handled by the Cisco UCS Manager software embedded into the 6100 series switch, which is accessed by the administrator through a common browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. Virtual machines can be moved from one physical chassis to another, applications may be moved between virtual machines, and management may even be conducted remotely from an iPhone using SiMU - Simple iPhone Management of UCS. In addition to the embedded software, administrators may also manage the system from VMWare's vSphere. The Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) is also used to configure and manage C-Series stand-alone servers. The CIMC can also be used to manage B-Series blades in addition to the UCS Manager application if configured.

References

Cisco, Inc. “Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers”. (2010). Retrieved from Cisco Product Datasheet

SiMU - Simple iPhone Monitoring of UCS. (2010) Retrieved from Blogspot.com

External links

• Unified Computing on Cisco website
• Product Datasheet for UCS Blade systems on cisco.com
• UCS-SIMU Blog on blogspot.com
• Edge Virtual Switching
• Nehalem memory with catalina on haywood.org
• Cisco UCS 6120XP 20-Port Fabric Interconnect on company website