Firmware on the storage controller (RAID or HBA) must be verified for compatibility with the current Cisco IMC and BIOS versions that are installed on the server. If not compatible, upgrade or downgrade the storage controller firmware using the Host Upgrade Utility (HUU) for your firmware release to bring it to a compatible level.

Note

For servers running in standalone mode only: After you replace controller hardware (HX-RAID-M6, HX-RAID-M6HD, HX-SAS-M6, or HX-SAS-M6HD), you must run the Cisco UCS Host Upgrade Utility (HUU) to update the controller firmware, even if the firmware Current Version is the same as the Update Version. This is necessary to program the controller's suboem-id to the correct value for the server SKU. If you do not do this, drive enumeration might not display correctly in the software. This issue does not affect servers controlled in UCSM mode.

See the HUU guide for your Cisco IMC release for instructions on downloading and using the utility to bring server components to compatible levels: HUU Guides.

This server supports installation of one Supercap unit. The unit mounts to a bracket in-line with the fan modules.

The optional SCPM provides approximately three years of backup for the disk write-back cache DRAM in the case of a sudden power loss by offloading the cache to the NAND flash.

For Supercap unit replacement instructions, see Replacing the Supercap (RAID Backup).

For this server and other Cisco Generation M6 servers, the default write-cache policy for the Cisco Modular RAID controllers is flash-back write cache (FBWC). This utilizes the optimal performance characteristics of the controller.

You can change the write policy using the following methods:

• For standalone servers, use the Cisco IMC interface to set Virtual Drive Properties > Write Policy. See the “Managing Storage Adapters” section in your Cisco IMC Configuration Guide.

  Cisco IMC GUI and CLI Configuration Guides

• Use the LSI Option ROM Configuration Utility.

• When you mix HDDs and SSDs ensure that:

  • all HDDs have their own RAID volume

  • all SSDs have their own RAID volume

• When using a Cisco M6 12G SAS RAID controller or Cisco 12G SAS HBA, you can mix SAS HDDs and SAS/SATA SSDs.

• SED drives can be mixed with the non-SED drives

This section describes cabling for the storage controllers and backplanes. The SAS/SATA cables are factory-installed and are used for all supported internal controllers.

This section also contains diagrams that show the cable-to-drive mapping.