Configuring Policies

This chapter includes the following sections:

Configuring Dynamic vNIC Connection Policies

Dynamic vNIC Connection Policy


Note

In an SR-IOV topology, such as a Hyper-V or KVM cluster, a Virtual Function (VF) takes the place of the dynamic vNIC. The VF is essentially a restricted version of the dynamic vNIC, in which all system communication and configuration of the VF is performed through the associated physical function (PF).

The dynamic vNIC connection policy determines how the connectivity between VMs and dynamic vNICs is configured. This policy is required for Cisco UCS domains that include servers with VIC adapters on which you have installed VMs and configured dynamic vNICs.

Ethernet Adapter Policy

Each dynamic vNIC connection policy includes an Ethernet adapter policy and designates the number of vNICs that can be configured for any server associated with a service profile that includes the policy.

For Hyper-V, use the predefined Ethernet adapter policy named Windows.

Static vNICs


Note

In a VM-FEX deployment, a VM will attach to a dynamic vNIC only if the VIC adapter has two static vNICs, one for each fabric. If a server contains more than one VIC adapter, each adapter must have two static vNICs configured.

Server Migration


Note

If you migrate a server that is configured with dynamic vNICs, the dynamic interface used by the vNICs fails and notifies you of that failure.

When the server comes back up, assigns new dynamic vNICs to the server. If you are monitoring traffic on the dynamic vNIC, you must reconfigure the monitoring source.

Creating a Dynamic vNIC Connection Policy

Procedure
      Command or Action Purpose
    Step 1 UCS-A# scope org org-name  

    Enters organization mode for the specified organization. To enter the root organization mode, enter / as the org-name .

     
    Step 2 UCS-A /org # create dynamic-vnic-conn-policy policy-name  

    Creates the specified vNIC connection policy and enters organization vNIC connection policy mode.

    This name can be between 1 and 32 alphanumeric characters. You cannot use spaces or any special characters other than - (hyphen), _ (underscore), : (colon), and . (period), and you cannot change this name after the object has been saved.

    Note   

    Do not specify "default" as the value for the dynamic vNIC connection policy name. Cisco UCS Manager automatically resolves any empty policy references to "default". Any service profiles or service profile templates with only static vNICS defined will automatically reference the policy "default" when it is present. If you specify “default” for the dynamic vNIC connection policy name, then unexpected dynamic vNICs might be created on those service profiles or service profile templates.

     
    Step 3 UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy # set desc description   (Optional)

    Provides a description for the policy.

    Enter up to 256 characters. You can use any characters or spaces except ` (accent mark), \ (backslash), ^ (carat), " (double quote), = (equal sign), > (greater than), < (less than), or ' (single quote).

    If your description includes spaces or nonalphanumeric characters, you must begin and end your description with double quotation marks. The quotation marks do not appear in the description field of any show command output.

     
    Step 4 UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy # set adapter-policy policy-name  

    Specifies the Ethernet adapter policy to use for this policy. The adapter policy must already exist.

     
    Step 5 UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy # set dynamic-eth {dynamic-eth-num | off}  

    Specifies the number of dynamic vNICs to use for this policy.

     
    Step 6 UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy # set protection {protected | protected-pref-a | protected-pref-b}  
    Dynamic vNICs are always protected in Cisco UCS, but this command allows you to select a preferred fabric, if any. You can choose one of the following options:
    • protected—Cisco UCS uses whichever fabric is available.
    • protected-pref-a—Cisco UCS attempts to use fabric A, but fails over to fabric B if necessary.
    • protected-pref-b—Cisco UCS attempts to use fabric B, but fails over to fabric A if necessary.
     
    Step 7 UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy # commit-buffer  

    Commits the transaction.

     

    The following example shows how to create a dynamic vNIC connection policy named MyDynVnicConnPolicy that uses the system-provided Ethernet adapter policy for 12 dynamic vNICs and commit the transaction: 

    UCS-A# scope org /
UCS-A /org # create dynamic-vnic-conn-policy MyDynVnicConnPolicy
UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy* # set adapter-policy 
UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy* # set desc "Dynamic vNIC for Eth policy"
UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy* # set dynamic-eth 12
UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy* # commit-buffer
UCS-A /org/dynamic-vnic-conn-policy #

    Deleting a Dynamic vNIC Connection Policy

    Procedure
        Command or Action Purpose
      Step 1 UCS-A# scope org org-name  

      Enters organization mode for the specified organization. To enter the root organization mode, tenter / as the org-name .

       
      Step 2 UCS-A /org # delete dynamic-vnic-conn-policy policy-name  

      Deletes the specified vNIC connection policy.

       
      Step 3 UCS-A /org # commit-buffer  

      Commits the transaction.

       

      The following example shows how to delete the dynamic vNIC connection policy named MyDynVnicConnPolicy and commit the transaction:

      UCS-A# scope org /
UCS-A /org # delete dynamic-vnic-conn-policy MyDynVnicConnPolicy
UCS-A /org* # commit-buffer
UCS-A /org #

      Viewing Dynamic vNIC Properties in a VM

      Before You Begin

      The VM must be running.

      Procedure
          Command or Action Purpose
        Step 1 UCS-A# scope system  

        Enters system mode.

         
        Step 2 UCS-A /system # scope vm-mgmt  

        Enters VM management mode.

         
        Step 3 UCS-A /system/vm-mgmt # show virtual-machine   (Optional)

        Displays the running virtual machines.

         
        Step 4 UCS-A /system/vm-mgmt # scope virtual-machine uuid  

        Enters command mode for the virtual machine that contains the dynamic vNIC.

         
        Step 5 UCS-A /system/vm-mgmt/virtual-machine # show vnic [detail]  

        Displays the vNIC properties.

         

        The following example shows how to display the properties of a dynamic vNIC in a VM:

        UCS-A# scope system
UCS-A /system # scope vm-mgmt

UCS-A /system/vm-mgmt # show virtual-machine
Virtual Machine:
    UUID: 420a00c8-934b-4ae3-6af5-2ce9b8bd0f44
    Service Profile: org-root/ls-PTS-ch6-7
    Server: sys/chassis-6/blade-7
    Status: Online
.
.
.
UCS-A /system/vm-mgmt # scope virtual-machine 420a08b0-cda7-9e0a-424f-01ec8653eea0
UCS-A /system/vm-mgmt/virtual-machine # show vnic detail
 
vNIC:
    Name: 4479
    Status: Online
    MAC Address: 00:50:56:8A:07:B5
    Profile Name: VM-mgmt
    Virtual Adapter: sys/chassis-1/blade-1/adapter-1/host-eth-9
    Vnic Dn: org-root/ls-PTS-ch1-1/ether-dynamic-prot-009
    Current Task:

UCS-A /system/vm-mgmt/virtual-machine #

        Creating a Custom Adapter Policy for SR-IOV

        The predefined SRIOV Ethernet adapter policy supports up to 32 CPU threads. If the server has more than 32 CPU threads, you must follow this procedure to create and specify a custom adapter policy that supports a number of interrupts equal to the number of CPU threads.

        For more information about creating an adapter policy, see "Configuring Ethernet Adapter Policies" in the Cisco UCS Manager CLI Configuration Guide.

        Before You Begin

        Determine the number of CPU threads used by your server using the show server cpu chassis/blade detail command.

        Procedure
            Command or Action Purpose
          Step 1 UCS-A# scope org org-name  

          Enters organization mode for the specified organization. To enter the root organization mode, type / as the org-name .

           
          Step 2 UCS-A /org # create eth-policy name  

          Creates an Ethernet adapter policy and enters organization Ethernet policy mode.

          This name can be between 1 and 16 alphanumeric characters. You cannot use spaces or any special characters other than - (hyphen) and _ (underscore), and you cannot change this name after the object has been saved.

           
          Step 3 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set descr description   (Optional)

          Provides a description for the policy.

          Note   

          If your description includes spaces, special characters, or punctuation, you must begin and end your description with quotation marks. The quotation marks will not appear in the description field of any show command output.

           
          Step 4 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set trans-queue count 1  

          Configures the Ethernet transmit queue.

           
          Step 5 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set trans-queue ring-size 256    
          Step 6 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set recv-queue count 4  

          Configures the Ethernet receive queue.

           
          Step 7 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set recv-queue ring-size 512    
          Step 8 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set comp-queue count 5  

          Configures the Ethernet completion queue.

           
          Step 9 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set interrupt coalescing-time 125    
          Step 10 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set interrupt coalescing-type min    
          Step 11 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set interrupt count interrupt-count  

          Set interrupt-count equal to the number of CPU threads used by the server.

           
          Step 12 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set interrupt mode msi-x    
          Step 13 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set offload large-receive enabled    
          Step 14 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set offload tcp-rx-checksum enabled    
          Step 15 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set offload tcp-segment enabled    
          Step 16 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set offload tcp-tx-checksum enabled    
          Step 17 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # set rss receivesidescaling enabled    
          Step 18 UCS-A /org/eth-policy # commit-buffer  

          Commits the transaction to the system configuration.

           

          The following example configures a custom Ethernet adapter policy for SR-IOV with 40 threads and commits the transaction: 

          UCS-A# scope org /
UCS-A /org # create eth-policy SRIOV
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set descr "This is an Ethernet adapter policy for SR-IOV."
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set trans-queue count 1
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set trans-queue ring-size 256
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set recv-queue count 4
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set recv-queue ring-size 512
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set comp-queue count 5
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set interrupt coalescing-time 125
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set interrupt coalescing-type min
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set interrupt count 40
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set interrupt mode msi-x
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set offload large-receive enabled
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set offload tcp-rx-checksum enabled
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set offload tcp-segment enabled
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set offload tcp-tx-checksum enabled
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # set rss receivesidescaling enabled
UCS-A /org/eth-policy* # commit-buffer
UCS-A /org/eth-policy #