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This chapter contains the following topics:
Cisco IMC Supervisor is a management system that allows you to manage rack-mount servers on a large scale. It allows you to create groups of rack-mount servers for monitoring and inventory purposes.
You can use Cisco IMC Supervisor to perform the following tasks:
Logically grouping servers and viewing summary per group
Collecting inventory for the managed servers
Monitoring servers and groups
Managing firmware including firmware download, upgrade, and activation
Provide Northbound REST APIs to discover, monitor and manage servers and perform firmware upgrades programmatically.
Managing standalone server actions including power control, LED control, log collection, KVM launch, and CIMC UI launch.
Restricting access using Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
Configuring email alerts
Configuring server properties using policies and profiles
Defining schedules to defer tasks such as firmware updates or server discovery
Diagnosing server hardware issues using UCS Server Configuration Utility
Cisco Smart Call Home provides proactive diagnostics, alerts, and remediation recommendations
Managing Cisco UCS C3260 Dense Storage Rack Server
Configuring the DNS server and other network settings through the Network Configuration policy
Assigning physical drives to server through the Zoning policy
Setting up multiple diagnostic images across different geographic locations
Customizing email rules to include individual servers within a group
UCS C-220 M3 and M4
UCS C-240 M3 and M4
UCS C-460 M4
UCS C-22 M3
UCS C-24 M3
UCS C-420 M3
UCS C3160
UCS C3260
UCS EN120E M2
UCS EN120S M2
UCS E-140S M2
UCS E-160D M2
UCS E-180D M2
UCS E-140S M1
UCS E-140D M1
UCS E-160D M1
UCS E-140DP M1
UCS E-160DP M1
Cisco IMC Supervisor supports up to 1000 UCS C-Series and E-Series servers. For more information about scalability, see Cisco IMC Supervisor Deployment and Scalability.
Servers |
Minimum Firmware Version |
---|---|
UCS C-series Servers |
1.5(4) |
UCS E-series Servers |
2.3.1 |
UCS C3260 Servers |
2.0(13e) onwards |
The Cisco IMC Supervisor environment must meet at least the minimum system requirements listed in the following table.
Element | Minimum Supported Requirement |
---|---|
vCPU |
4 |
Memory |
12 GB |
Hard Disk |
100 GB |
Minimum write speed for storage |
10 MB/sec |
Modify the following properties and values from the /opt/infra/inframgr/service.properties file:
Go to Shell Admin and restart the services by stopping and starting the Cisco IMC Supervisor services.
Cisco IMC Supervisor recommends the following based on the scale of rack servers you manage:
Element |
Small Deployment (1 - 250 rack servers) |
Medium Deployment (251 - 500 rack servers) |
Large Deployment (501 - 1000 rack servers) |
---|---|---|---|
vCPUs |
4 |
4 |
8 |
CPU Reservation |
10000 MHz |
10000 MHz |
10000 MHz |
Cisco IMC Supervisor VM Memory Allocation |
12 GB |
16 GB |
20 GB |
Cisco IMC Supervisor VM Memory Reservation |
12 GB |
16 GB |
20 GB |
Inframgr Memory Allocation |
6 GB |
8 GB |
10 GB |
Mysql InnoDB BufferPool Config |
1GB |
2 GB |
3 GB |
Disk write Speed (Direct IO) |
10 MB/sec |
10 MB/sec |
15 MB/sec |
Go to /opt/infra/inframgr/ and open the run.sh file using vi editor.
Navigate to -Xms6144m -Xmx6144m and replace it with -Xms10240m -Xmx10240m.
Xms stands for minimum and Xmx stands for maximum. This is where inframgr memory is allocated. For example, if you are managing 1000 rack servers then inframgr memory allocation must be set to 10 GB.
Note | Inframgr memory allocation must be increased only if the memory allocated to the VM is increased. If not, this process may crash due to high load. Hence, increase memory for the IMCS VM using vCenter UI, reserve the whole memory, and then change this parameter. |
Go to Shell Admin and restart the services by stopping and starting the Cisco IMC Supervisor services.
InnoDB buffer pool is the internal memory used by the mysqld process inside the Cisco IMC Supervisor VM. You must increase the memory based on the load. To modify this pool size, perform the following procedure:
Go to /etc/ and open the my.cnf file.
Navigate to the innodb_buffer_pool_size parameter.
For example, if you are managing 1000 servers, then the value must be innodb_buffer_pool_size=3072M.
Go to Shell Admin and restart the services and database by stopping and starting the Cisco IMC Supervisor services and database.
After Cisco IMC Supervisor VM is deployed, go to the command prompt and enter the dd if=/dev/zero of=test.img bs=4096 count=256000 oflag=direct command. The following output for example, is displayed:
[root@localhost ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=test.img bs=4096 count=256000 oflag=direct 256000+0 records in 256000+0 records out 1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 44.0809 s, 23.8 MB/s
Note | In the above example, 23.8 MB/s is the disk input/output speed. |
The list of applicable services and ports are listed in the following table.
Service |
Port Number |
---|---|
Servers |
Minimum Firmware Version |
SSH Port |
22 |
HTTP (S) |
80/443 |
DHCP |
UDP 67 & 68 |
Active Directory |
TCP / UDP 389/636 & TCP 3268/3269 |
DNS |
TCP/UDP 53 |
NTP |
TCP/UDP 123 |
MySQL |
3306 |
Cisco IMC Supervisor ↔ IMC Connectivity |
TCP 80/443 |
Note | If these ports and protocols are blocked by a firewall, you may experience timeouts or internal error when you are upgrading Cisco IMC Supervisor. |
A Cisco IMC Supervisor base license.
A Cisco IMC Supervisor bulk endpoint enablement license that you install after the Cisco IMC Supervisor base license.
A Cisco IMC Supervisor advanced license. You can add, edit, and delete policies and profiles with the base license but you cannot apply a policy or a profile to a server without the advanced license. An error occurs if this license is unavailable when you apply a policy.
A default embedded Cisco IMC Supervisor evaluation license. The evaluation license is generated automatically when the end user installs Cisco IMC Supervisor and all the services start for the first time. It is applicable for 50 servers.
If you are using an evaluation license for Cisco IMC Supervisor, note that when this license expires (90 days from the date the license is generated), retrieving inventory and system health information, such as faults, will not work. You will not be able to refresh system data, or even add new accounts. At that point, you must install a perpetual license to use all features of Cisco IMC Supervisor.
If the number of servers you have added during evaluation exceeds the number of server license purchased, inventory collection will go through fine for the servers already added during evaluation, but will prevent you from adding new servers. For example, if you have added about 100 servers during evaluation and you have purchased a 25 server license, once the evaluation license expires, you will be unable to add new servers. Also, you will be unable to perform configuration related operations without an advanced license.
While discovering and importing servers, if the number of imported servers exceed the license utilization limit, Cisco IMC Supervisor imports servers only until the limit and displays an error for additional servers.
The process for obtaining and installing the licenses is the same. For obtaining a license, perform the following procedures:
Before you install Cisco IMC Supervisor, generate the Cisco IMC Supervisor license key and claim a certificate (Product Access Key).
Register the Product Access Key (PAK) on the Cisco software license site, as described in Fulfilling the Product Access Key.
After you install Cisco IMC Supervisor, update the license as described in Updating the License.
After the license has been validated, you can start to use Cisco IMC Supervisor.
For various other licensing tasks you can perform, see Licensing Tasks.
Perform this procedure to register the Product Access Key (PAK) on the Cisco software license site.
You need the PAK number.
Step 1 | Navigate to the Cisco Software License website. | ||||||||||||||||
Step 2 | If you are directed to the Product License Registration page, you can take the training or click Continue to Product License Registration. | ||||||||||||||||
Step 3 | On the Product License Registration page, click Get New Licenses from a PAK or Token. | ||||||||||||||||
Step 4 | In the Enter a Single PAK or TOKEN to Fulfill field, enter the PAK number. | ||||||||||||||||
Step 5 | Click Fulfill Single PAK/TOKEN. | ||||||||||||||||
Step 6 | Complete the
additional fields in License Information to register your PAK:
| ||||||||||||||||
Step 7 | Click
Issue
Key.
The features for your license appear, and an email with the Digital License Agreement and a zipped license file is sent to the email address you provided. |
You can use the License menu to view the license details and the usage of resources. The following licensing procedures are available from Administration > License menu.
Tab |
Description |
---|---|
License Keys |
This tab displays the details of the license used in Cisco IMC Supervisor. You can also use this tab to upgrade the license. You can upgrade the license when a new version of Cisco IMC Supervisor is available, |
License Utilization |
This tab shows the licenses in use and details about each license, including license limit, available quantity, status, and remarks. License audits can also be run from this page. |
Resource Usage Data |
This tabs displays the details of the various resources used. |