The Cisco UCS S3260 is a dense storage rack server that supports dual server nodes. It can also have one optimized for large datasets used in environments such as Big data, cloud, object storage, and content delivery. It belongs to the Cisco UCS C-Series rack-mount servers product family.

The Cisco UCS S3260 Dense Storage Rack Server is designed to operate in a standalone environment and as part of the Cisco Unified Computing System with Cisco IMC Supervisor integration. The Cisco UCS S3260 Dense Storage Rack Server includes the following features:

• Enterprise-class redundancy with full featured Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) plus Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD)

• Standalone management interface (Cisco Integrated Management Controller)

• No data migration required when replacing or upgrading server nodes

• No need for extended depth racks

For more information about Cisco UCS S3260 dense storage rack server, see Cisco UCS S3260 Rack Server.

Architectural Overview

The Cisco UCS S3260 uses a modular server architecture that, using Cisco’s blade technology expertise, allows you to upgrade the computing or network nodes in the system without the need to migrate data from one system to another. It delivers:

• Dual server nodes

• Up to 24 computing cores per server node

• Up to 60 drives mixing a large form factor (LFF) with up to 14 solid-state disk (SSD) drives plus 2 SSD SATA boot drives per server node

• Up to 512 GB of memory per server node (1 terabyte [TB] total)

• Support for 12-Gbps serial-attached SCSI (SAS) drives

• A system I/O Controller with Cisco VIC 1300 Series Embedded Chip supporting Dual-port 40Gbps

• High reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features with tool-free server nodes, system I/O controller, easy-to-use latching lid, and hot-swappable and hot-pluggable components

The system uses a chassis management controller (CMC) to manage the server nodes. Each system I/O controller (SIOC) module contains an onboard CMC. If you have two SIOCs, the two CMCs act in an active/standby organization. The CMC in the SIOC that you log into with the Cisco IMC interface becomes the active CMC and it allows you to manage the BMCs in both server nodes.

When you connect to the system to manage the server nodes' BMCs via the Cisco IMC interface, you physically connect to the management port (RJ-45) on a SIOC. When you log into the Cisco IMC interface, you use the Virtual Management IP address that has been assigned to the CMC in that SIOC.

All user interfaces run only on the active CMC. Configuration changes are automatically synchronized between the active and standby CMCs.

When you power-cycle the system, the CMC in SIOC 1 is the active CMC by default. The active CMC will fail over to the standby CMC when any of the following conditions occur:

• The active CMC is rebooted or fails.

• The SIOC with active CMC is removed.

• Network connectivity is lost on the active CMC.

For configuring the S3260 rack server, see Cisco UCS S3260Rack Server Specification Sheet.

Cisco IMC Supervisor-Managed Dense Storage Rack Servers support all features that come along with C-Series Rack Servers. It also provides additional reports for the These features and concepts are detailed in the following sections:

• Overview —Provides detailed information about the architecture of Cisco UCS S3260, and its connectivity when managed through Cisco IMC Supervisor.

• Adding a Rack Account—Describes, and provides detailed information about adding a Cisco UCS 3260 chassis rack account.

• Managing Chassis—Describes, and provides detailed information about the management of the Dense Storage Rack Chassis.

• Policies and Profiles— Describes, and provides detailed information about the Cisco UCS 3260 chassis related policies and profiles.

• Upgrading Firmware—Provides detailed information about Chassis Firmware Packages and the endpoints of Cisco UCS S3260 on which firmware can be updated manually.

• Viewing Cisco UCS S3260 rack server details—View details such as PSUs, VIC Adapters, Chassis Summary, and SAS Expander.

To add a rack account you can now provide a Virtual Management IP in the Server IP field. For more information about adding a rack account, see Adding a Rack Account. You can view the servers managed by the Cisco UCS S3260 Rack Server after inventory collection from the Rack Servers tab.

Note	If you add a CMC 1 or CMC 2 IP address, an error occurs.

Tagging is used to assign a label to an object, such as a resource group, Cisco UCS S3260 Dense Storage Rack Server, or a rack-mount server. Tags can be used to provide information such as rack locations, responsible support groups, purpose, or Operating System. For information about adding or modifying tags for Cisco UCS S3260 Dense Storage Rack Server or for rack-mount server, see Managing Tags for a Rack-Mount Server.

Note	You can manage tags for aserver only when the server is included as a Rack Account within a Rack Group.

Cisco IMC Supervisor includes a new Cisco UCS S3260 option to create Cisco UCS S3260 chassis policies and profiles where you can add the chassis information.

These new chassis policies will be known as the User Administration policies and the existing rack mount server policies will be known as the Compute Node policies in this document. You can view the differentiated User Administration policies and Compute Node policies listed in the Hardware Policies table. The Server Platform for User Administration policies are displayed as Cisco UCS S3260 and Compute Node policies are displayed as All C-Series and E-Series except Cisco UCS S3260.

The policies and profile reports have a column Server Platform indicating if the policy is Cisco UCS S3260 or others. Chassis policies irrespective of User Administration Policies or Compute Node polices are displayed as Cisco UCS S3260. For the other C-Series and E-Series platforms or non Cisco UCS S3260 policies it is displayed as All C-Series and E-Series except Cisco UCS S3260.

You can either create a Cisco UCS S3260 chassis profile or a rack-mount server profile. Selecting a Compute Node policy allows you to choose the server nodes where you want to apply the policy.

Applying a Policy

To apply a policy you have created, select from a list of Cisco UCS 3260 Rack Servers and Rack Mount servers. You can either select a Cisco UCS S3260 chassis or a rack-mount server based on the selected server platform. For more information about creating and applying policies, see Hardware Policies.

The following policies are User Administration Policies and Compute Node policies:

Note

IPMI Over LAN and Network Policy have a mix of both BMC and CMC configuration details for Cisco UCS 3260 Rack Server. Zoning Policy is only applicable to Cisco UCS 3260 Rack Server. Hence, the Cisco UCS S3260 check box in the UI is checked. Legacy Boot Order and Flex Flash policies are not applicable for Cisco UCS 3260 Rack Server.

Applying a Profile

To apply a Cisco UCS S3260 profile you have created, select from a list of Cisco UCS 3260 Rack Servers. You can only select a Cisco UCS S3260 chassis. Only Cisco UCS S3260 policies can be added to the profile. For Compute Node Policies, you can choose the Apply Policy To field to indicate the server node to which the policy should be applicable while applying a profile. For more information about creating and applying profiles, see Hardware Profiles.

Cisco IMC Supervisor firmware upgrade can be performed at a server level. However, during server upgrade, the chassis components as well as the Hard Disk Drive components associated with the server are upgraded too. When you upgrade a server, the chassis and disk drive firmware are automatically updated. For more information about upgrading firmware, see Upgrading Firmware.

Note	You can upgrade only one server node at a time.