Chapter 1. Overview

Installing Cisco UCS Central, Release 1.3

Upgrading Cisco UCS Central to Release 1.3

Chapter 2. Introducing Cisco UCS Central 1.3

Overview of Cisco UCS Central 1.3 Features

Overview of Cisco UCS Central HTML 5 UI

Using the HTML5 UI

Behavior and Design Changes in HTML5 UI

Multi-version Management Support

Feature Support Matrix

Chapter 3. Installation Prerequisites

Supported Platforms

Supported Web Browsers

Required Ports

System Requirements

Important Prerequisites for Installing Cisco UCS Central

Chapter 4. Installing Cisco UCS Central

Overview of Installation

Obtaining the Cisco UCS Central Software from Cisco.com

Installing Cisco UCS Central in Standalone Mode

Installing the Cisco UCS Central OVA File in VMWare

Installing Cisco UCS Central ISO File in VMware

Installing Cisco UCS Central ISO File in Microsoft Hyper-V

Installing Cisco UCS Central ISO File in KVM Hypervisor

Installing Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode

Setting up the NFS Server for Shared Storage

Changing NFS Server or Directory

Changing RDM Shared Storage to NFS Shared Storage

Adding and Setting up an RDM Shared Storage on Hyper-V

Adding and Setting up an RDM Shared Storage on VMware

Installing Cisco UCS Central on Node A

Installing Cisco UCS Central on Node B

Database Server Information

Restoring the Cisco UCS Central VM in Standalone Mode

Restoring Cisco UCS Central VM in Cluster Mode

Chapter 5. Logging In and Setting Up

Overview of Logging In and Setting Up

Logging into and out of the Cisco UCS Central GUI

Logging into and out of the Cisco UCS Central CLI

Resetting the Admin Password

Password Guidelines

Resetting the Shared Secret

Resetting the Shared Secret in Cisco UCS Manager

Chapter 6. Upgrading Cisco UCS Central

Upgrading Cisco UCS Central to Release 1.3

Upgrading Cisco UCS Central in Standalone Mode

Upgrading Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode

Converting Cisco UCS Central from Standalone to Cluster Mode

Chapter 7. Working with Cisco UCS Manager

Cisco UCS Domains and Cisco UCS Central

Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

Preface

Audience

Conventions

Related Cisco UCS Documentation

Documentation Feedback

Copyright Page

Chapter 1. Overview

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Installing Cisco UCS Central, Release 1.3

- Upgrading Cisco UCS Central to Release 1.3

Installing Cisco UCS Central, Release 1.3

You can install Cisco UCS Central, release 1.3 using either one of the following two options:

- Standalone Mode—The standalone installation enables you to install Cisco UCS Central on a virtual machine in the same way as the previous releases.

- Cluster Mode—The cluster installation provides additional stability to the management environment. Using the cluster installation, you install Cisco UCS Central in primary and secondary nodes to enable fail over and high availability.

When you install Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode for high availability, you install Cisco UCS Central in two virtual machines. Both virtual machines should:

- Be on the same sub-net

- Share same virtual IP address

- Share same shared storage

- Must run same release version of Cisco UCS Central

One of them is the primary node, and the other is the standby node. If the primary node goes down, the standby node takes over with minimal interruption. The quorum information is stored in the registered Cisco UCS domains.

Shared Storage: When you install Cisco UCS Central in standalone mode, you can use additional shared storage (Raw Lun). If you convert the standalone installation to cluster setup, you can use the same storage as shared storage.

Upgrading Cisco UCS Central to Release 1.3

When you upgrade Cisco UCS Central to release 1.3, you can upgrade to a standalone or cluster mode. Cisco UCS Central features and functionality are the same in both standalone and cluster mode.

Important:
Before upgrading Cisco UCS Central, make sure the registered domains are upgraded to the supported Cisco UCS Manager release version. Cisco UCS Central, release 1.3 requires Cisco UCS Manager, release 2.1(2) or newer. If you do not upgrade Cisco UCS Manager before upgrading Cisco UCS Central, any registered Cisco UCS domains will stop receiving updates from Cisco UCS Central after the upgrade.

Before upgrading Cisco UCS Central to 1.3 you must do the following:

- Make sure you have Cisco UCS Manager to 2.1(2) or newer. It is recommended to upgrade Cisco UCS Manager to the latest version to ensure complete feature support.

- If you are planning to upgrade Cisco UCS Central from release 1.0 you must first upgrade to Cisco UCS Central 1.1(2a) and then upgrade to release 1.3. To upgrade Cisco UCS Central release 1.0 to 1.1(2a), see Click Here .

For supported upgrade options, requirements and procedures, see Upgrading Cisco UCS Central to Release 1.3.

Chapter 2. Introducing Cisco UCS Central 1.3

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Overview of Cisco UCS Central 1.3 Features

Overview of Cisco UCS Central 1.3 Features

Cisco UCS Central, release 1.3 allows you to take charge of the data center environment by delivering easy to use, integrated solution for managing Cisco UCS Domains from a single management point, both in data centers and remote management locations, with high availability. With Cisco UCS Central 1.3, you can efficiently manage server, storage and network policies and generate network traffic reports for your entire data center.

This release also introduces a new re-architected HTML5 based user interface. The following table lists major new features and functions in this release:

Feature

Functions

KVM Hypervisor

Ability to install Cisco UCS Central in KVM Hypervisor.

Scheduled backup

Ability to schedule domain backup time. Provides you flexibility to schedule different backup times for different domain groups.

NFS Shared storage

Support for NFS instead of RDM for the shared storage is required for Cisco UCS Central cluster installation for high availability.

Domain specific ID pools

The domain specific ID pools are now available to global service profiles.

vLAN consumption for Local Service Profiles

Ability to push vLANs to the UCS Manager instance through Cisco UCS Central CLI only without having to deploy a service profile that pulls the vLANs.

M-Series Servers

Pre-enabled support for Cisco M-Series Servers.

Other enhancements

- Connecting to SQL server that uses dynamic port.

- Support for SQL 2014 database and Oracle 12c Database.

- Overview of Cisco UCS Central HTML 5 UI

- Using the HTML5 UI

- Behavior and Design Changes in HTML5 UI

- Multi-version Management Support

- Feature Support Matrix

Overview of Cisco UCS Central HTML 5 UI

Cisco UCS Central HTML5 based user interface provides flexibility and task based usability for your management purposes.

The dashboard provides a quick overview of components in the system. You can pin the components you use frequently and customize the dashboard to suit your operational requirements. You can click on any object on the dashboard to go to the related page in the system. Click Play on this Video to view a brief introduction to the HTML 5 UI.

Using the HTML5 UI

Dashboard

You can pin dashboard widgets and customize the dashboard based on your operational requirements. The following is the basic dashboard structure:

Item

Description

1

Search bar. What are you looking for?. You can do the following:

- Select the entity type to search for any entity in the system by name. Empty search string returns all entities.

- Filter search results by location and status when applicable.

- Click on an entity in the search results to open the details in a new page.

2

Actions bar. What do you want to do?. You can Create, Schedule, Install, Export and Import from here:

- Click drop down to display available actions and select a task or type the task in the field and launch the dialog box and perform the task.

3

Dashboard widget. You can pin any widget on this dashboard. When you mouse over on the widget, other options are enabled on widget's menu bar.

4

From within any widget on the dashboard, when you display additional options, you can do the following:

- Refresh the displayed information for this specific widget.

- Unpin this widget from the dashboard.

- Launch the details page for this operation.

Navigation Icons

The following navigation icons help you navigate around the product to perform management tasks:

Item

Description

1

Search icon. Click to display physical and logical inventory related entities in the system such as, Domains, Fabric Interconnects, Servers, Chassis, FEX, vLANs, vSANs, Service Profiles, Templates, Pools, Policies and ID Universe. Click on any of these entities to launch related page and view details.

2

Organization icon. Click to display org root and other sub organizations in the system. You can click on the root or any sub org to launch the details page for a selected org.

3

Domain group icon. Click to display domain group root and other domain groups in the system. You can click on a domain group to launch the details page.

4

User Preferences icon. Click to launch User Settings. From here you can Change Password, Restore Dashboard Defaults, and Show First Launch Experience.

5

Alerts icon. Click to display and navigate to Pending Activities, System Faults, Domain Faults, Events, Audit Logs, Core Dumps, Sessions and Internal Services.

6

Operations icon. Click to display and navigate to Firmware, Backup & Restore, Export & Import, Licenses and Tech Support.

7

System Settings icon. Click to display and navigate to System Profiles, System Policies, Users, Authentication and SNMP.

8

Log out icon. Click to log out from the active UCS Central session.

9

Refresh icon. Click to Refresh information in all pinned widgets. Each widget has individual refresh icons to refresh data for individual widgets.

10

Dashboard widgets library icon. Click to view available widgets and click on the widget to pin it to the dashboard.

Behavior and Design Changes in HTML5 UI

Feature Support

The following features that are available in the current UI are not supported in the HTML5 UI at this time:

- Policy Import

- Threshold Policy

- Statistics

Behavior Changes Based on Design

- You can only create global service profiles using an initial or updating template that uses LAN or SAN connectivity policy. You must create the global service profile template before you can create a service profile.

- The following inline options are not available in a service profile:

- Manual vNIC

- iSCSI

- vHBA

- Boot Policy

- Static ID

If you have an existing global service profile with any of these options, you cannot edit the global service profile in the HTML5 UI.

- Any changes to the iSCSI boot parameters made in HTML5 UI will not be available in the Flex UI.

- You can use vNIC templates only in a LAN connectivity policy.

- You can use vHBA templates only in a SAN connectivity policy.

- vNIC and vHBA Placement is now referred to as Interface Placement.

- Registration Policy is now referred to as Domain Group Qualification Policy.

- ID Range Qualification Policy is now referred to as ID Range Access Control Policy.

- There are no qualified IP addresses for ID Range Access Control Policy.

- You can create server pool policies when creating a server pool. Select Server Pool Qualification Policies to create these policies. When assigning server pools, additional server pool qualification is not supported in the global service profile.

- The only backup option is config-all backup. Other backup types such as config logical and config system are not supported.

- Local service profile picks up Host Firmware Policy from the Org instead of the Domain Group.

- When Import fails in HTML 5 UI, the message displays the reason for import failure. Make sure to correct errors and resubmit the configuration for import.

- Local service profile inventory is not displayed.

- The maintenance policy and schedules that are currently used by local service porfiles and currently under domain groups will not be available in HTML5 UI.

Multi-version Management Support

Cisco UCS Central, release 1.1(2a) and newer provides you the ability to manage multiple Cisco UCS domains with different versions of Cisco UCS Manager at the same time. Cisco UCS Central identifies feature capabilities of each Cisco UCS domain at the time of domain registration. This ability enables you to seamlessly integrate multiple versions Cisco UCS Manager with Cisco UCS Central for management and global service profile deployment.

When you upgrade your Cisco UCS Central to a newer release, based on the features you are using, you might not have to upgrade all of your Cisco UCS Manager release versions to make sure the registered UCS domains are compatible with Cisco UCS Central.

When you register a Cisco UCS domain in Cisco UCS Central, along with the inventory information Cisco UCS Central receives the following information from the domain:

- Cisco UCS Manager release version

- List of available supported features in the domain

The available features are sent as a management capability matrix to Cisco UCS Central. Based on this information Cisco UCS Central builds a list of supported features for each registered domain. Based on the feature capabilities in a Cisco UCS domain, Cisco UCS Central decides if certain global management options are possible in the domain. When you perform management tasks, such as deploying a global service profile on a group of domains that include earlier versions of Cisco UCS Manager instances, based on the feature capability matrix, Cisco UCS Central does the following:

- Delivers the task only to the supported domains.

- Displays a version incompatibility message for the domains where the feature is not supported.

Supported Features in Cisco UCS Manager

You can view supported features in a Cisco UCS domain using the Cisco UCS Central CLI. Based on the Cisco UCS Manager versions in the registered Cisco UCS domains, Cisco UCS Central CLI builds list of supported features in the following four categories:

- Server Feature Mask: Includes global service profiles, policy mapping and Inband management, advanced boot order

- Network Feature Mask: None

- Storage Feature Mask: FC Zoning and ISCSI IPv6

- Environment Feature Mask: Power group, remote operations, UCS registration, estimate impact on reconnect

Management Exclusion

Multi-version support also provides you the ability to exclude some features from global management. You can log into a registered UCS domain and turn off a specific feature from Cisco UCS Manager CLI. You can disable the following global management capabilities:

- Global service profile deployment: If you deploy global service profile on a server pool, and you have disabled global service profile deployment in one of the servers in the pool, Cisco UCS Central excludes the server from the global service profile deployment.

- In band management: A service profile with inband management capability will not be deployed on the servers where you have excluded inband management feature.

- Policy mapping: This will disable importing policies or policy components from this Cisco UCS domain into Cisco UCS Central.

- Remote management: This will restrain controlling physical devices in a Cisco UCS domain from Cisco UCS Central.

You can enable these features any time using the Cisco UCS Manager CLI to restore global management capabilities in the registered Cisco UCS domains at anytime.

Feature Support Matrix

The following table provides a list of features in Cisco UCS Central, and Cisco UCS Manager release versions in which these features are supported:

Cisco UCS Central Features

Supported Cisco UCS Central Versions

Supported Cisco UCS Manager Versions

2.1(2a)/2.1(3x)

2.2(1x)

2.2(2x)/2.2(3x)

3.0(1x)

Multi-version management support and viewing supported Cisco UCS Manager features

1.1(2a)

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Importing policy/policy component and resources

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Specifying remote location for backup image files

No

No

Yes

Yes

3rd party certificate

No

No

Yes

Yes

IPv6 inband management support

No

No

Yes

Yes

Estimate Impact on Reconnect

1.2(1a)

No

No

Yes

Note:
Only supported from 2.2(3x)

Yes

Precision Boot Order Control

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Scriptable vMedia

1.2(1e) and later

No

No

Yes

Note:
Supported only in 2.2(2c) and later 2.2(x) releases.

No

Note:
Supported in 3.0(2) and later.

Note

- Searching for policy/policy components or resources is supported in Cisco UCS Manager, releases 2.1(2x) and 2.1(3x). To import policies, you must have Cisco UCS Manager, releases 2.2(1b) or higher

- For precision boot order control, the blade server must have CIMC version 2.2(1b) or above.

Chapter 3. Installation Prerequisites

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Supported Platforms

- Supported Web Browsers

- Required Ports

- System Requirements

- Important Prerequisites for Installing Cisco UCS Central

Supported Platforms

The following table describes the supported platforms for installing Cisco UCS Central.

Hypervisors

Supported Versions

Microsoft Hyper-V

Windows 2008 R2 with SP1

Windows 2012

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2

VMware ESX

- ESX 5.0 U3

- ESX 5.1

- ESX 5.5

- ESX 6.0

KVM Hypervisor

KVM Hypervisor on RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.5

Supported Web Browsers

The web browser support for the Cisco UCS Central GUI depends on the operating system of the computer on which you plan to run Cisco UCS Central GUI.

Operating System

Supported Web Browsers

Microsoft Windows

- Internet Explorer 9 and above

- Firefox 29 and above

- Chrome 34 and above

- Adobe Flash Player 11.7 and above

Mac OS

- Firefox 29 and above

- Chrome 34 and above

- Safari 6 and above

- Adobe Flash Player 11.7 and above

For the Chrome browser, remove the bundled flash player and install the flash player from Adobe.

Linux RHEL

- Firefox 29 and above

- Chrome 34 and above

- Adobe Flash Player 11.7 and above

Required Ports

Cisco UCS Manager communicates with Cisco UCS Central using the individual IP addresses of the FIs (FI-A or FI-B IP address) as the source destination. Cisco UCS Central communicates back to Cisco UCS Manager using the VIP as the destination address.

Communication between Cisco UCS Central and Cisco UCS Domain

Typically, the IP addresses for all existing Cisco UCS Management domains exist on a common administrative network. If this is not the case, Cisco UCS Central will work, provided that routing access is assured from Cisco UCS Central to all subordinate management domains. For this reason, care must be taken to ensure that any firewalls, proxies, and other security systems are configured to permit read/write access on the following ports for continuous communications between Cisco UCS Central and all registered Cisco UCS domains.

The ports listed in the following tables need to be opened on Cisco UCS Central. These ports are accessed by UCS domains.

Note

Depending on the version and UI that you are using, some ports may not be necessary. For example, NFS ports are not required for Cisco UCS Manager release 2.2(2) and above.

Ports required for Cisco UCS Manager release versions 2.1(x) and 2.2(1) and below.

Port Number

Daemon

Protocol

Usage

32803

LOCKD_TCPPORT

TCP/UDP

Linux NFS lock

892

MOUNTD_PORT

TCP/UDP

Linux NFS mount

875

RQUOTAD_PORT

TCP/UDP

Linux remote quota server port (NFS)

32805

STATD_PORT

TCP/UDP

Linux lock recovery - used by NFS file locking service

2049

NFS_PORT

Note:

TCP/UDP

Linux NFS listening port

111

SUNRPC

TCP/UDP

Linux RCPBIND listening port (NFS)

443

HTTPS_PORT

TCP/UDP

Enable communication through firewall from Cisco UCS Central to Cisco UCS Domain(s) and UCS Central GUI

80

HTTP

TCP

Communication from Cisco UCS Central to UCS domains with the Flash UI. This port can be configured using the Cisco UCS Central CLI.

Note:
This port is not required if you are using the Cisco UCS Manager HTML5 UI.

843

PRIVATE_PORT

TCP/UDP

UCS Central communications from Flash UI to UCS Central VM

Note:
This port is not required if you are using the Cisco UCS Manager HTML5 UI.

Ports required for Cisco UCS Manager release versions 2.2(2) and above, including UCS Mini, Cisco UCS Manager 3.0(1) or 3.0(2).

Port Number

Daemon

Protocol

Usage

443

HTTPS_PORT

TCP/UDP

Enable communication from Cisco UCS Central to Cisco UCS Domain(s) and the UCS Central GUI.

80

HTTP

TCP

Communication from Cisco UCS Central to UCS domains with the Flash UI. This port can be configured using the Cisco UCS Central CLI.

Note:
This port is not required if you are using the Cisco UCS Manager HTML5 UI.

843

PRIVATE_PORT

TCP/UDP

UCS Central communications from Flash UI to UCS Central VM

Note:
This port is not required if you are using the Cisco UCS Manager HTML5 UI.

Communication between Cisco UCS Central and Client browser

The following ports must be open on Cisco UCS Manager. The ports are accessed by Cisco UCS Central to enable communication between Cisco UCS Central and the client browser:

Port Number

Daemon

Protocol

Usage

443

HTTPS_PORT

TCP

Enable communication from Cisco UCS Central to UCS domains. This port is always required.

80

HTTP

TCP

Communication from Cisco UCS Central to UCS domains with the Flash UI. This port can be configured using the Cisco UCS Central CLI.

Note:
This port is not required if you are using the Cisco UCS Manager HTML5 UI.

AD Server Communication

The LDAP port 389 must be open on the AD server. This port is accessed by Cisco UCS Central for MS AD LDAP integration and communication.

Note

Cisco UCS Central uses STARTTLS for supporting LDAP over SSL/TLS. Port 389 is the only port required.

System Requirements

Standalone Installation

If you are installing Cisco UCS Central in a standalone mode, make sure you have the following system requirements.

Server Type

We recommend that you deploy Cisco UCS Central on a VMware or Hyper-V hypervisor running on standalone rack server(s) that is not managed by Cisco UCS Manager or integrated into a Cisco UCS domain. The server must have a high-speed data store, preferably one provisioned from a high-speed storage array.

Server Requirements

The following table describes the minimum requirements for installing Cisco UCS Central in the following platforms:

- ESX

- Hyper-V

- KVM Hypervisor

Item

Minimum Requirements for EXS, Hyper-V and KVM Hypervisor

Disk 1

40 GB

Disk 2

40 GB

RAM

12 GB

vCPU cores

4 cores

Disk read speed

> 75 MBps

>125 MBps is the recommended speed.

Note

- If you want to manage more servers, for example 200 domains/6000 servers, make sure to increase RAM to 16 GB.

- Performance of Cisco UCS Central is not guaranteed if you deploy it on a server that does not meet the minimum requirements for vCPU, RAM or Disk Speed.

- Make sure to power off before making any changes to the VM settings.

- If you are using NFS for cluster setup, make sure the network latency is less than .5ms to ensure good system performance.

If the disk read speed on the server is lower than the required minimum during the deployment of Cisco UCS Central, the installer displays a warning message but you can complete the deployment. However, if the disk read speed is lower than the required minimum during operation, Cisco UCS Central raises a fault, as shown in the following table, depending upon how low the disk read speed is:

Disk Read Speed on Server

Fault Level

<75 MBps

Critical fault

75 to 100 MBps

Major fault

100 to 125 MBps

Minor fault

>125 MBps

N/A

Supported Database Servers

The following are the supported database servers for statistics collection:

- Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64-bit Production or higher

- PostgreSQL Server 9.1.8 64-bit or higher

- Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (SP1) - 11.0.3000.0 (X64) or higher

- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 10.50.1600.1 (X64) SP1 or higher

When the statistics data is stored in external database server, Consider the following as a reference data for disk space requirements on the database server:

- If you register 20 Cisco UCS domains , the minimum storage space required to store statistics data for 1 year would be 400 GB.

- If you register 100 Cisco UCS domains , the minimum storage space required to store statistics data for 1 year would be 2 TB.

Client System

The minimum memory required for client system is 4 GB. However if you have 40 or more registered Cisco UCS Domains, it is recommended to have at least 8 GB memory on the client system.

Cluster Installation

If you want to enable high availability and install Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode, you must have all the requirements specified for standalone installation, and have the following Shared Storage:

- ESX Minimum Requirement : 40 GB

- Hyper-V Minimum Requirement: 40 GB

NFS Requirements for Windows

Make sure that you create a Windows translation file before installing Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode using Windows NFS.

Note

For more information, see How to Enable File Name Character Translation.

Managing Cisco UCS Domains in Remote Locations

To manage Cisco UCS domains in remote locations such as remote branch offices, the following are the minimum requirements for network connectivity between Cisco UCS domain and Cisco UCS Central:

- Bandwidth - 1.5 Mbps or higher

- Latency - 500 ms (round trip) or lower

Important Prerequisites for Installing Cisco UCS Central

You must have the following information before beginning to install Cisco UCS Central:

- Static IPv4 address for Cisco UCS Central

- IPv4 netmask

- Default gateway

- Password to be assigned to the Cisco UCS Central admin account. You will create this new password.

- Hostname for the virtual machine (VM)

- IPv4 address for the DNS server, if you plan to use one

- Name of the DNS domain in which you want to include Cisco UCS Central, if you plan to use one

- Shared secret. This is the required password when you register Cisco UCS domains with Cisco UCS Central

- Shared storage. This is optional for standalone installation and is required for cluster installation.

Chapter 4. Installing Cisco UCS Central

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Overview of Installation

- Obtaining the Cisco UCS Central Software from Cisco.com

- Installing Cisco UCS Central in Standalone Mode

- Installing Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode

- Database Server Information

- Restoring the Cisco UCS Central VM in Standalone Mode

- Restoring Cisco UCS Central VM in Cluster Mode

Overview of Installation

You can install Cisco UCS Central using either one of the following:

- OVA file

- ISO Image

Cisco UCS Central, release 1.1 and newer provides you the option to install in a standalone or cluster set up. You must obtain the software from Cisco.com and save it in your local drive before installation.

Obtaining the Cisco UCS Central Software from Cisco.com

Before You Begin

Make sure that you have your Cisco.com username and password ready to be able to successfully download the Cisco UCS Central software.

Procedure

Step 1

In a web browser, navigate to Cisco.com.

Step 2

Under Support, click All Downloads.

Step 3

In the center pane, click Unified Computing and Servers.

Step 4

If prompted, enter your Cisco.com username and password to log in.

Step 5

In the right pane, click the link for the Cisco UCS Central software in the format that you want.
You can download the Cisco UCS Central software in the following formats:

- An OVA file with a name such as ucs-central.1.3.1a.ova

- An ISO file with a name such as ucs-central.1.3.1a.iso

You can also download the admin password reset ISO image from this location.

Step 6

On the page from which you download the software, click the Release Notes link to download the latest version of the Release Notes.

Step 7

Click the link for the release of the Cisco UCS Central software that you want to download.

Step 8

Click one of the following buttons and follow the instructions provided:

- Download Now—Allows you to download the Cisco UCS Central software immediately.

- Add to Cart—Adds the Cisco UCS Central software to your cart to be downloaded at a later time.

Step 9

Follow the prompts to complete your download of the software.

Step 10

Read the Release Notes before deploying the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Installing Cisco UCS Central in Standalone Mode

You can install Cisco UCS Central through either the OVA file or ISO Image in standalone mode.

- Installing the Cisco UCS Central OVA File in VMWare

- Installing Cisco UCS Central ISO File in VMware

- Installing Cisco UCS Central ISO File in Microsoft Hyper-V

- Installing Cisco UCS Central ISO File in KVM Hypervisor

Installing the Cisco UCS Central OVA File in VMWare

Note

After the Cisco UCS Central VM starts up for the first time, it performs a one-time post-installation configuration. Allow the installation to complete before you log in.

Procedure

Step 1

Save the Cisco UCS Central OVA file to a folder that you can access from the hypervisor.

Step 2

From the VMware Virtual Center Console, choose File > Deploy OVF Template.

Step 3

Deploy the OVA file by choosing the ESX host on which you want to host the Cisco UCS Central VM.
Follow the steps to boot VM and wait until the process is 100% complete to proceed to the next step.

Step 4

(Optional)If you want to add shared storage to the standalone installation, add shared storage.
See Setting up a Shared Storage on VMware.

Step 5

If have not powered up the VM as part of importing the OVA file , power up the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 6

Open up a console window for the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 7

When the Cisco UCS Central VM has completed the initial part of the installation process, answer the following questions in the VM console window:

1. Setup new configuration or restore full-state configuration from backup [setup/restore] prompt, enter setup and press Enter.

2. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
You must enter a static IP address that is reserved for this Cisco UCS Central VM. Cisco UCS Central does not support Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

3. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Netmask : prompt, enter the netmask assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

4. At the Enter the Default Gateway : prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

5. At the Is this VM part of a cluster(select 'no' for standalone) (yes/no) prompt, select no and press Enter.
Selecting yes will setup Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode. For more information about setting up Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode, see Installing Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode.

6. At the Enter the UCS Central VM host name : prompt, enter the host name you want to use for the Cisco UCS Central VM and press Enter.

7. Optional: At the Enter the DNS Server IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address for the DNS server you want to use for Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
If you do not plan to use a DNS server for Cisco UCS Central, leave this blank and press Enter.

8. Optional: At the Enter the Default Domain Name : prompt, enter the domain in which you want to include Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
If you do not plan to include Cisco UCS Central in a domain, leave this blank and press Enter. Cisco UCS Central will use the default domain named localdomain.

9. At the Use Shared Storage Device for Database (yes/no) prompt, if you want to setup shared storage, enter yes, if not enter no and press Enter. See Setting up a Shared Storage on VMware

10. At the Enforce Strong Password(Yes/No) prompt, if you want to set up strong password alert, select yes and press Enter.

11. At the Enter the admin Password : prompt, enter the password you want to use for the admin account and press Enter.

12. At the Confirm admin Password : prompt, re-enter the password you want to use for the admin account and press Enter.

13. At the Enter the Shared Secret : prompt, enter the shared secret (or password) that you want to use to register one or more Cisco UCS domains with Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

14. At the Confirm Shared Secret : prompt, re-enter the shared secret and press Enter.

15. At the Do you want Statistics Collection (yes/no)prompt, if you want to enable statistics collection, enter yes and press Enter.
If you do not want to enable statistics collection now, you can enter no and proceed with the installation. You can enable the statistics collection using Cisco UCS Central CLI at any time. If you have entered yes, you will be prompted to provide the database server information. See Database Server Information

16. At the Proceed with this configuration. Please confirm[yes/no] prompt, enter yes and press Enter.
If you think you made an error when completing any of these steps, enter no and press Enter. You will then be prompted to answer the questions again.

After you confirm that you want to proceed with the configuration, the network interface reinitializes with your settings and Cisco UCS Central becomes accessible via the IP address.

Installing Cisco UCS Central ISO File in VMware

Procedure

Step 1

Create a VM with the following settings:

Setting

Recommended Value

Configuration

Custom configuration

Name

A descriptive name that includes information about the Cisco UCS Central deployment

Virtual machine type

7 or later

Guest operating system

A supported operating system, such as Linux RHEL 5.0(64-bit)

Number of vCPU

4

Memory

No less than 12GB

Virtual adapter

1 virtual adapter with VM network

SCSI controller

LSI Logic parallel

Virtual disk

No less than 40GB of available disk space

You also need to create a second 40 GB virtual disk in Step 2.

Advanced options

Virtual device node SCSI

Settings - RDM Lun (Optional shared storage for standalone)mode

No less than 40 GB in physical compatibility mode.

Step 2

In Edit Settings, add a new hard disk for the VM with no less than 40GB of available disk space for Standalone Installations and an additional 40GB for remote disk Cluster Installations.

Step 3

From the Options menu, do the following:

1. Check Force BIOS Setup to change the boot options.

2. Specify Power on Boot Delay.

3. Check Failed Boot Recovery.

Step 4

Mount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image to the CD/DVD drive.

Step 5

Start the VM and connect to the console.

Step 6

From the Cisco UCS Central Installation menu on the ISO image, choose Install Cisco UCS Central.
The Cisco UCS Central installer checks that the VM has the required RAM and disk space (two disks, both disks should be 40GB). If the VM meets the requirements, the installer formats the disks, transfers the files, and installs Cisco UCS Central.

Step 7

When the Cisco UCS Central VM has completed the initial part of the installation process, answer the following questions in the VM console window:

1. Setup new configuration or restore full-state configuration from backup [setup/restore] prompt, enter setup and press Enter.

2. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
You must enter a static IP address that is reserved for this Cisco UCS Central VM. Cisco UCS Central does not support Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

3. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Netmask : prompt, enter the netmask assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

4. At the Enter the Default Gateway : prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

5. At the Is this VM part of a cluster(select 'no' for standalone) (yes/no) prompt, select no and press Enter.
Selecting yes will setup Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode. For more information about setting up Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode, see Installing Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode.

6. At the Enter the UCS Central VM host name : prompt, enter the host name you want to use for the Cisco UCS Central VM and press Enter.

7. Optional: At the Enter the DNS Server IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address for the DNS server you want to use for Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
If you do not plan to use a DNS server for Cisco UCS Central, leave this blank and press Enter.

8. Optional: At the Enter the Default Domain Name : prompt, enter the domain in which you want to include Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
If you do not plan to include Cisco UCS Central in a domain, leave this blank and press Enter. Cisco UCS Central will use the default domain named localdomain.

9. At the Use Shared Storage Device for Database (yes/no) prompt, if you want to setup shared storage, enter yes, if not enter no and press Enter. See Setting up a Shared Storage on VMware

10. At the Enforce Strong Password(Yes/No) prompt, if you want to set up strong password alert, select yes and press Enter.

11. At the Enter the admin Password : prompt, enter the password you want to use for the admin account and press Enter.

12. At the Confirm admin Password : prompt, re-enter the password you want to use for the admin account and press Enter.

13. At the Enter the Shared Secret : prompt, enter the shared secret (or password) that you want to use to register one or more Cisco UCS domains with Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

14. At the Confirm Shared Secret : prompt, re-enter the shared secret and press Enter.

15. At the Do you want Statistics Collection (yes/no)prompt, if you want to enable statistics collection, enter yes and press Enter.
If you do not want to enable statistics collection now, you can enter no and proceed with the installation. You can enable the statistics collection using Cisco UCS Central CLI at any time. If you have entered yes, you will be prompted to provide the database server information. See Database Server Information

16. At the Proceed with this configuration. Please confirm[yes/no] prompt, enter yes and press Enter.
If you think you made an error when completing any of these steps, enter no and press Enter. You will then be prompted to answer the questions again.

Step 8

Unmount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image from the virtual CD/DVD drive.

Step 9

Reboot the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Installing Cisco UCS Central ISO File in Microsoft Hyper-V

Procedure

Step 1

Create a VM with the following settings:

Setting

Recommended Value

Name

A descriptive name that includes information about the Cisco UCS Central deployment

RAM

No less than 12GB

Network adapter

Default

Number of vCPU

4

Virtual disk

No less than 40GB of available disk space

You also need to create a second 40GB virtual disk under IDE Controller in Step 3.

Setting Physical hard disk (Optional for standalone mode)

No less than 40GB. To be mapped using a new SCSI controller.

Step 2

In the settings for the VM, do the following:

1. Delete the default network adapter.

2. Create a new legacy network adapter.

3. Click Apply.

Step 3

Under the same IDE controller as the first virtual drive, create a second virtual drive for the VM with no less than 40GB of available disk space.

Step 4

In the VM settings > Management > Integration Services, uncheck Time synchronization to disable it.

Step 5

Mount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image to the CD/DVD drive.

Step 6

Start the VM and connect to the console.

Step 7

From the Cisco UCS Central Installation menu on the ISO image, choose Install Cisco UCS Central.
The Cisco UCS Central installer checks that the VM has the required RAM and disk space (two disks, both with 40GBs). If the VM meets the requirements, the installer formats the disks, transfers the files, and installs Cisco UCS Central.

Step 8

When the Cisco UCS Central VM has completed the initial part of the installation process, answer the following questions in the VM console window:

1. Setup new configuration or restore full-state configuration from backup [setup/restore] prompt, enter setup and press Enter.

2. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
You must enter a static IP address that is reserved for this Cisco UCS Central VM. Cisco UCS Central does not support Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

3. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Netmask : prompt, enter the netmask assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

4. At the Enter the Default Gateway : prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

5. At the Is this VM part of a cluster(select 'no' for standalone) (yes/no) prompt, select no and press Enter.
Selecting yes will setup Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode. For more information about setting up Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode, see Installing Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode.

6. At the Enter the UCS Central VM host name : prompt, enter the host name you want to use for the Cisco UCS Central VM and press Enter.

7. Optional: At the Enter the DNS Server IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address for the DNS server you want to use for Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
If you do not plan to use a DNS server for Cisco UCS Central, leave this blank and press Enter.

8. Optional: At the Enter the Default Domain Name : prompt, enter the domain in which you want to include Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
If you do not plan to include Cisco UCS Central in a domain, leave this blank and press Enter. Cisco UCS Central will use the default domain named localdomain.

9. At the Use Shared Storage Device for Database (yes/no) prompt, if you want to setup shared storage, enter yes, if not enter no and press Enter. See Setting up a Shared Storage on VMware

10. At the Enforce Strong Password(Yes/No) prompt, if you want to set up strong password alert, select yes and press Enter.

11. At the Enter the admin Password : prompt, enter the password you want to use for the admin account and press Enter.

12. At the Confirm admin Password : prompt, re-enter the password you want to use for the admin account and press Enter.

13. At the Enter the Shared Secret : prompt, enter the shared secret (or password) that you want to use to register one or more Cisco UCS domains with Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

14. At the Confirm Shared Secret : prompt, re-enter the shared secret and press Enter.

15. At the Do you want Statistics Collection (yes/no)prompt, if you want to enable statistics collection, enter yes and press Enter.
If you do not want to enable statistics collection now, you can enter no and proceed with the installation. You can enable the statistics collection using Cisco UCS Central CLI at any time. If you have entered yes, you will be prompted to provide the database server information. See Database Server Information

16. At the Proceed with this configuration. Please confirm[yes/no] prompt, enter yes and press Enter.
If you think you made an error when completing any of these steps, enter no and press Enter. You will then be prompted to answer the questions again.

Step 9

Unmount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image from the virtual CD/DVD drive.

Step 10

Reboot the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Installing Cisco UCS Central ISO File in KVM Hypervisor

Note

When you install Cisco UCS Central on KVM Hypervisor, the set up runs in graphics mode. Installing in text mode is not supported.

Procedure

Step 1

Create a VM with the following settings:

Setting

Recommended Value

Name

A descriptive name that includes information about the Cisco UCS Central deployment

RAM

No less than 12GB

Network adapter

Default

Number of vCPU

4

Virtual disk

No less than 40GB of available disk space

You also need to create a second 40GB virtual disk under IDE Controller in Step 3.

Step 2

Under the same IDE controller as the first virtual drive, create a second virtual drive for the VM with no less than 40GB of available disk space.

Step 3

Mount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image to the CD/DVD drive.

Step 4

Start the VM and connect to the console.

Step 5

From the Cisco UCS Central Installation menu on the ISO image, choose Install Cisco UCS Central.
The Cisco UCS Central installer checks that the VM has the required RAM and disk space (two disks, both with 40GBs). If the VM meets the requirements, the installer formats the disks, transfers the files, and installs Cisco UCS Central.

Step 6

When the Cisco UCS Central VM has completed the initial part of the installation process, answer the following questions in the VM console window:

1. Setup new configuration or restore full-state configuration from backup [setup/restore] prompt, enter setup and press Enter.

2. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
You must enter a static IP address that is reserved for this Cisco UCS Central VM. Cisco UCS Central does not support Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

3. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Netmask : prompt, enter the netmask assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

4. At the Enter the Default Gateway : prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

5. At the Is this VM part of a cluster(select 'no' for standalone) (yes/no) prompt, select no and press Enter.
Selecting yes will setup Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode. For more information about setting up Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode, see Installing Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode.

6. At the Enter the UCS Central VM host name : prompt, enter the host name you want to use for the Cisco UCS Central VM and press Enter.

7. Optional: At the Enter the DNS Server IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address for the DNS server you want to use for Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
If you do not plan to use a DNS server for Cisco UCS Central, leave this blank and press Enter.

8. Optional: At the Enter the Default Domain Name : prompt, enter the domain in which you want to include Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.
If you do not plan to include Cisco UCS Central in a domain, leave this blank and press Enter. Cisco UCS Central will use the default domain named localdomain.

9. At the Use Shared Storage Device for Database (yes/no) prompt, enter no and press Enter.

10. At the Enforce Strong Password(Yes/No) prompt, if you want to set up strong password alert, select yes and press Enter.

11. At the Enter the admin Password : prompt, enter the password you want to use for the admin account and press Enter.

12. At the Confirm admin Password : prompt, re-enter the password you want to use for the admin account and press Enter.

13. At the Enter the Shared Secret : prompt, enter the shared secret (or password) that you want to use to register one or more Cisco UCS domains with Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

14. At the Confirm Shared Secret : prompt, re-enter the shared secret and press Enter.

15. At the Do you want Statistics Collection (yes/no)prompt, if you want to enable statistics collection, enter yes and press Enter.
If you do not want to enable statistics collection now, you can enter no and proceed with the installation. You can enable the statistics collection using Cisco UCS Central CLI at any time. If you have entered yes, you will be prompted to provide the database server information. See Database Server Information

16. At the Proceed with this configuration. Please confirm[yes/no] prompt, enter yes and press Enter.
If you think you made an error when completing any of these steps, enter no and press Enter. You will then be prompted to answer the questions again.

Step 7

Unmount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image from the virtual CD/DVD drive.

Step 8

Reboot the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Installing Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode

You can install Cisco UCS Central in two virtual machines in a highly available configuration. In cluster mode, one VM acts as the primary node and the other as the secondary node. This cluster configuration provides redundancy and high availability in case of a VM failure.

With a cluster configuration, the VMs use shared storage on a LUN disk for the database and the images repository. As a result, you download firmware images to the shared storage. The statistics used for reporting are also collected and stored in the shared storage.

Important:
When you install Cisco UCS Central in a cluster configuration, be aware of the following guidelines:

- The two VMs in the cluster are not on the same server. If both VMs are in the same server, a single host failure would bring down the cluster.

- Both hosts must have the same versions of ESX or HyperV installed on them.

- Both hosts must share same lun to configure shared storage.

- Both VMs must be on the same sub-net.

- You must install the same release version of Cisco UCS Central in both VMs.

- You must install the first node completely and then install the second node. Parallel installation may corrupt or overwrite the partition table and shared storage might lose all deployed data.

- In a cluster configuration, Cisco UCS Central supports RDM only with a single path, but not with multi-path.

Shared Storage Configuration for Cluster Mode

For Cisco UCS Central to perform well in cluster mode, make sure to configure and connect shared storage according to the industry best practices. Be aware of the following guidelines:

- Configure high speed SAN connections to enable quick access to shared storage.

- Select a better performing RAID type to configure the shared LUN.

- Make sure the storage is write cache enabled with enough space, proper page size and watermark settings. For example, if you have an EMC storage array, you should have the following cache configuration:

- Page Size: 8KB

- Low watermark: 60%

- High Watermark: 80%

Important:

- You must have only one path to the shared storage. Multi-path is not supported. If there is more than one path when you add the shared storage to Cisco UCS Central VM, you must disable all additional paths. To disable additional paths,

1. Click Edit VM Settings, select the shared storage and click Manage Paths.

2. Right click on all additional paths and click Disable.

- When you add shared storage to Node B, make sure to directly connect to the ESX host. You must add the disk as an RDM.

- Setting up the NFS Server for Shared Storage

- Adding and Setting up an RDM Shared Storage on Hyper-V

- Adding and Setting up an RDM Shared Storage on VMware

- Installing Cisco UCS Central on Node A

- Installing Cisco UCS Central on Node B

Setting up the NFS Server for Shared Storage

The NFS server stores database and images used by various applications on Cisco UCS Central. The initial configuration of NFS server might take sometime. Make sure to wait until the Timeout message ends.

Important:
The NFS server must be located as close to Cisco UCS Central VM as possible. We recommend that the NFS server is located in the same subnet as Cisco UCS Central.

Before You Begin

- Make sure to create a directory on the NFS server with 40Gb or more available space.

- Obtain the IP address of the NFS server.

- Make sure the network latency is less than .5ms for optimal system performance.

Procedure

Step 1

Create a partition or a volume with 40Gb or more.

Step 2

Export the NFS Directory.
Use an editor to open file /etc/exports and export the NFS directory.

Example: /nfs *(rw,sync,no_root_squash) Where /nfs is the directory which needs to be exported. You must export the directory with the options rw and no_root_squash

Step 3

Restart the NFS service.

Example:/sbin/service nfs restart

Step 4

Delete any firewall rules on the NFS server that may block the mount of NFS server directories from Cisco UCS Central VM.

- Changing NFS Server or Directory

- Changing RDM Shared Storage to NFS Shared Storage

Changing NFS Server or Directory

You can edit and change an existing NFS server or the NFS shared storage directory using the following commands:

- Changing an existing NFS server to a new server: edit-nfsIP Addreess for the new NFS server NFS shared directory name

- Changing the shared directory for the same server: edit-nfsNFS IP Address New NFS shared directory name

Changing RDM Shared Storage to NFS Shared Storage

You can change the shared storage from RDM to NFS using Cisco UCS Central CLI. Make sure to change to NFS server in the primary node. Changing the secondary node separately is not required.

Procedure

Step 1

UCSC # connect local-mgmt
Connects to local management.

Step 2

UCSC (local-mgmt) # swtich-to-nfsNFS IP Address Shared Storage Directory
Uses the NFS IP address to switch to the NFS directory and change the directory.

What to Do Next

You can log into the system after this massage and enter showstorage-device to confirm the storage device is changed.

Adding and Setting up an RDM Shared Storage on Hyper-V

Important:
You must have only one path to the shared storage. Multi-path is not supported.

If there is more than one path when you add the shared storage to Cisco UCS Central VM, you must disable all additional paths. To disable additional paths,

1. Click Edit VM Settings, select the shared storage and click Manage Paths.

2. Right click on all additional paths and click Disable.

Procedure

Step 1

Create a LUN which is no less that 40 GB on the storage array and map it to the Hyper-V host on which you have installed Node A.
The disk must be in offline mode.

Step 2

Add the disk to the VM as a 'Physical hard disk' using a new SCSI Controller.

Step 3

In Powershell command windows, run the Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted command.

Step 4

Disabling SCSI filtering is required for SCSI-3 PGR to work. To disable SCSI filtering for this disk, save and run the following script in both Hyper-V machines, with the virtual machine's name as the parameter:
Script:

$HyperVGuest = $args[0]
$VMManagementService = gwmi Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService -namespace "root\virtualization"
foreach ($Vm in gwmi Msvm_ComputerSystem -namespace "root\virtualization" -Filter "elementName='$HyperVGuest'")
{
$SettingData = gwmi -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "Associators of {$Vm} Where ResultClass=Msvm_VirtualSystemGlobalSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_ElementSettingData"
$SettingData.AllowFullSCSICommandSet = $true
$VMManagementService.ModifyVirtualSystem($Vm,$SettingData.PSBase.GetText(1)) | out-null
}

Example:If you have stored the script in Hyper-V host, for example in c:\, if Node A's name is UCSC-Node-1 and the file name is DisableSCSIFiltering.ps1, then open the Powershell window to run the script: C:\> .\DisableSCSIFiltering.ps1 UCSC-Node-1.
Important:
You must run this script on both Hyper-V machines with the right VM names.

You have now added shared storage on Hyper-V. Do the following to set up the shared storage.

Step 5

Map the LUN you added to Node A to the Hyper-V host on which you have installed node B.
This enables both Hyper-V hosts to view the same LUN.

Step 6

Add this LUN to Node B.

Note

In a cluster set up, when the RDM link goes down on the primary node, DMEs cannot write to the database. This causes a crash on the primary node and failover to the subordinate node. The subordinate node takes over as the primary node. The database is then mounted in read-write mode on the new primary node. Because the RDM link is down, umount fails on the old primary node. When the RDM link comes up, the database is mounted on the old primary (current subordinate) node in read-only mode.

As a workaround, you can restart pmon services on the current subordinate node or restart the node itself. Either of these processes will unmount the read-only partition and enable proper cleanup.

Adding and Setting up an RDM Shared Storage on VMware

Important:
You must have only one path to the shared storage. Multi-path is not supported.

If there is more than one path when you add the shared storage to Cisco UCS Central VM, you must disable all additional paths. To disable additional paths,

1. Click Edit VM Settings, select the shared storage and click Manage Paths.

2. Right click on all additional paths and click Disable.

Procedure

Step 1

Create a LUN which is no less that 40 GB on the storage array and map it to the ESXi host on which you have installed Node A.

Step 2

Add the storage array to the VM as Raw Device Mapping in physical compatibility mode. Make sure to select all default options.

Step 3

Change the path selection policy for raw Device mapping hard disk to Fixed (VMware). You have now added a shared storage to VMware. Do the following to setup the shared storage.

Step 4

Map the LUN you added to Node A to the ESXi host on which you have installed node B.
This enables both ESXi hosts to view the same LUN.

Step 5

Open a separate VSphere Client session for this ESXi Host.
You should not add the VM using the VCenter Server. If you do, that will disallow conflicting LUN mapping.

Step 6

Add it to the VM as Raw Device Mapping in physical compatibility mode. Make sure to select all default options.

Step 7

Change the path selection policy for Raw Device Mapping to Fixed VMware.

Note

In a cluster set up, when the RDM link goes down on the primary node, DMEs cannot write to the database. This causes a crash on the primary node and failover to the subordinate node. The subordinate node takes over as the primary node. The database is then mounted in read-write mode on the new primary node. Because the RDM link is down, umount fails on the old primary node. When the RDM link comes up, the database is mounted on the old primary (current subordinate) node in read-only mode.

As a workaround, you can restart pmon services on the current subordinate node or restart the node itself. Either of these processes will unmount the read-only partition and enable proper cleanup.

Installing Cisco UCS Central on Node A

Before You Begin

Note

The Cisco UCS Central VM performs a one-time installation process the first time it starts up. Allow the installation to complete before you log in.

Make sure you have the following information:

- Network data such as hostname, IP address, default gateway, DNS server, and DNS domain name

- Whether you are setting up a new cluster

- Admin username and password

- Shared secret for communications between the cluster nodes and with Cisco UCS Manager

- IP address of the peer Cisco UCS Central node

- Virtual IP address

Procedure

Step 1

Save the Cisco UCS Central OVA or ISO file to a folder that you can access from the hypervisor.

Step 2

Open or import the Cisco UCS Central OVA file into a supported hypervisor, as required by the hypervisor.
Do not continue with the next step until the VM has finished booting.

Step 3

Add shared storage. See Adding and Setting up a Shared Storage on VMware or Adding and Setting up a Shared Storage on Hyper-V.

Step 4

Power up the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 5

Open up a console window to the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 6

When the Cisco UCS Central VM has completed the initial part of the installation process, answer the following questions in the VM console window:

1. At the Setup new configuration or restore full-state configuration from backup [setup/restore] prompt , enter setup and press Enter.

2. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Address prompt, enter the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

3. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Netmask prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

4. At the Enter the VM IPv4 Default Gateway prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

5. At the Is this VM part of a cluster(select 'no' for standalone) (yes/no) prompt, enter yes and press Enter.

6. At the Is this VM part of a new cluster(select 'no' to add to an existing cluster) (yes/no) prompt, enter yes and press Enter.

7. At the Enter the UCS Central VM Hostname prompt, enter the hostname assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

8. At the Enter the DNS Server IPv4 Address prompt, enter the DNS server IPv4 address used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

9. At the Enter the Default Domain Name prompt, enter the default domain name used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

10. At the Use RDM or NFS for shared storage[rdm/nfs] prompt, enter rdm or nfs and press Enter.
Important:
KVM Hypervisor only supports NFS shared storage. RDM shared storage is not supported for KVM Hypervisor.

11. If you entered rdm, at the Enter the Shared Storage Device from the above list (enter serial no.) prompt, enter the serial number of the shared storage device and press Enter.

12. If you entered nfs, at the Enter the NFS IPv4 Address prompt, enter the NFS IPv4 Address and press Enter.

13. If you entered nfs, at the Enter the NFS Direcotry prompt, enter the NFS directory Enter.

14. At the Enforce Strong Password (yes/no) prompt. enter no and press Enter.

15. At the Enter the admin Password prompt, enter the admin password and press Enter.

16. At the Confirm the admin Password prompt, enter the admin password again and press Enter.

17. At the Enter the Shared Secret prompt, enter the shared secret and press Enter.

18. At the Confirm Shared Secret prompt, enter the shared secret again and press Enter.

19. At the Enter the Peer UCS Central Node IPv4 Address prompt, enter the IPv4 address of the peer UCS central node and press Enter.

20. At the Enter the Virtual IPv4 Address prompt, enter the virtual IPv4 address used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

21. At the Do you want Statistics Collection (yes/no)prompt, if you want to enable statistics collection, enter yes and press Enter.
If you do not want to enable statistics collection now, you can enter no and proceed with the installation. You can enable the statistics collection using Cisco UCS Central CLI at any time. If you have entered yes, you will be prompted to provide the database server information. See Database Server Information

22. At the Proceed with this configuration? Please confirm (yes/no) prompt, enter yes and press Enter to initiate the system installation.

Installing Cisco UCS Central on Node B

Before You Begin

Make sure you have the following information:

- UCS Central IPv4 address, IPv4 netmask, and IPv4 default gateway

- The IP Address, admin username and password of the peer node

Procedure

Step 1

Save the Cisco UCS Central OVA or ISO file to a folder that you can access from the hypervisor.

Step 2

Open or import the Cisco UCS Central OVA file into a supported hypervisor, as required by the hypervisor.
Do not continue with the next step until the VM has finished booting.

Step 3

Setup the shared storage. See Adding and Setting up a Shared Storage on VMware or Adding and Setting up a Shared Storage on Hyper-V.

Step 4

Power up the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 5

Open up a console window to the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 6

When the Cisco UCS Central VM has completed the initial part of the installation process, answer the following questions in the VM console window:

1. At the Setup new configuration or restore full-state configuration from backup [setup/restore] prompt , enter setup and press Enter.

2. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Address prompt, enter the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

3. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Netmask prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

4. At the Enter the VM IPv4 Default Gateway prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

5. At the Is this VM part of a cluster(select 'no' for standalone) (yes/no) prompt, enter yes and press Enter.

6. At the Is this VM part of a new cluster(select 'no' to add to a new cluster) (yes/no) prompt, enter no and press Enter.

7. At the Enter the Peer UCS Central Node IPv4 Address prompt, enter IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

8. At the Enter the admin Username on Peer Node prompt, enter the admin username of the peer node and press Enter.

9. At the Enter the admin Password on Peer Node prompt, enter the admin password of the peer node and press Enter.

10. At the Proceed with this configuration? Please confirm (yes/no) prompt, enter yes and press Enter to initiate a system reboot.

Database Server Information

If you answer yes to enable Statistics Collection question during install , then you must specify the database details during Cisco UCS Central installation.

- D : Default (internal Postgres db). The internal database is not recommended if you have more than 5 Cisco UCS domains registered with Cisco UCS Central.

- P : Postgre

- O: Oracle

- M: Microsoft SQL Server

If you select either P or O for either of the external database options, make sure you have the following Database information ready:

- Type : Oracle, PostgreSQL and MSSQL are the supported options.

- Server Name or IP Address: This must be accessible from Cisco UCS Central.

- Port: You can configure any custom DB port for accessing the Database server. You must have enabled this port in the firewall settings to enable Cisco UCS Central access the database server through this port.

- Default port for Oracle: 1521

- Default port for PostgreSQL: 5432

- Default port for MSSQL: 1433

Check your database administrator for port information.

- Name : Name of the database where statistics data would be stored.

- Username: The user with administrative privileges to the database to create, delete, read and write.

- Password: We recommend to have password expiry set to never or 1 year, so the statistics collection is not interrupted due to expired DB password.

Restoring the Cisco UCS Central VM in Standalone Mode

You cannot use a Cisco UCS Central, release 1.1 OVA file to restore a full-state backup from Cisco UCS Central, release 1.0.

Note

This procedure describes the process to restore using an OVA file.

Before You Begin

You must have a backup file with extension .tgz from a Cisco UCS Central system that you want to use to restore the configuration of the Cisco UCS Central VM. For information on how to back up a Cisco UCS Central system, see Managing Back up and Restore in Cisco UCS Central User Manual and CLI Reference Manual.

Procedure

Step 1

Save the Cisco UCS Central OVA file to a folder that you can access from the hypervisor.

Step 2

Open or import the Cisco UCS Central OVA file into a supported hypervisor, as required by the hypervisor.
Do not continue with the next step until the VM has finished booting.

Step 3

If you have not already done so as part of importing the OVA file, power up the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 4

Open up a console window to the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 5

When the Cisco UCS Central VM has completed the initial part of the installation process, answer the following questions in the VM console window:

1. Setup new configuration or restore full-state configuration from backup [setup/restore] prompt, enter restore and press Enter.

2. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

3. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Netmask : prompt, enter the netmask assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

4. At the Enter the Default Gateway : prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

5. At the Enter the File copy protocol[tftp/scp/ftp/sftp] : prompt, enter the supported protocol that you want to use to copy the backup file to the Cisco UCS Central VM and press Enter.

6. At the Enter the Backup server IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address assigned to the server where the backup file is stored and press Enter.

7. At the Enter the Backup file path and name : prompt, enter the full file path and name of the backup file on the server and press Enter.

8. At the Enter the Username to be used for backup file transfer : prompt, enter the username the system should use to log in to the remote server and press Enter.

9. Optional: At the Enter the Password to be used for backup file transfer : prompt, enter the password for the remote server username and press Enter.

10. At the Proceed with this configuration. Please confirm[yes/no] prompt, enter yes and press Enter.
If you think you made an error when completing any of these steps, enter no and press Enter. You will then be prompted to answer the questions again.

After you confirm that you want to proceed with the configuration, the network interface reinitializes with your settings and Cisco UCS Central becomes accessible via the IP address.

What to Do Next

After Cisco UCS Central is restored, login to Cisco UCS Central and download the firmware images into Image library. If any firmware images are referenced in the service profiles, then you must make sure that the images are downloaded and available in the image library before you re-acknowledge a Cisco UCS domain from the suspended state.

Restoring Cisco UCS Central VM in Cluster Mode

The restored VM is configured to Node A by default. If this is a new cluster, you must install Node B and add it to the cluster mode.

Note

We recommend that you use a different NFS shared directory, or completely clean up the previously used NFS shared directory before starting the full-state restore.

Before You Begin

You must have a backup file with extension .tgz from a Cisco UCS Central system that you want to use to restore the configuration of the Cisco UCS Central VM. For information on how to back up a Cisco UCS Central system, see Managing Back up and Restore in Cisco UCS Central User Manual and CLI Reference Manual.

When you are restoring a cluster setup, you must map shared storage before initiating restore.

Procedure

Step 1

Save the Cisco UCS Central OVA or ISO file to a folder that you can access from the hypervisor.

Step 2

Open or import the Cisco UCS Central OVA file into a supported hypervisor, as required by the hypervisor.
Do not continue with the next step until the VM has finished booting.

Step 3

Add shared storage. See Adding and Setting up a Shared Storage on VMware or Adding and Setting up a Shared Storage on Hyper-V.

Step 4

Power up the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 5

Open up a console window to the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 6

When the Cisco UCS Central VM has completed the initial part of the installation process, answer the following questions in the VM console window:

1. At the Setup new configuration or restore full-state configuration from backup [setup/restore] prompt , enter restore and press Enter.

2. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Address prompt, enter the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

3. At the Enter the UCS Central VM eth0 IPv4 Netmask prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

4. At the Enter the VM IPv4 Default Gateway prompt, enter the default gateway used by Cisco UCS Central and press Enter.

5. At the Enter File copy protocol]tftp/scp/ftp/sftp]: prompt, enter the supported protocol that you want to use to copy the backup file to the Cisco UCS Central VM and press Enter.

6. At the Enter the Backup server IPv4 Address : prompt, enter the IP address assigned to the server where the backup file is stored and press Enter.

7. At the Enter the Backup file path and name : prompt, enter the full file path and name of the backup file on the server and press Enter.

8. At the Enter the Username to be used for backup file transfer : prompt, enter the username the system should use to log in to the remote server and press Enter.

9. Optional: At the Enter the Password to be used for backup file transfer : prompt, enter the password for the remote server username and press Enter.

10. At the Proceed with this configuration? Please confirm (yes/no) prompt, enter yes and press Enter to initiate the system installation.
If you think you made an error when completing any of these steps, enter no and press Enter. You will then be prompted to answer the questions again. After you confirm that you want to proceed with the configuration, a message will appear:

The Shared Storage Device (Lun ID as present in the backup file) was not detected on this system.

11. At the Enter Shared Storage Device from the above list (enter serial no) prompt, enter the serial number of the shared storage device you want to configure and press Enter.
Note:
This shared storage device(lun) can be different from the expected storage. It will reconfigure a new storage and update the configuration files of the new setup.

12. (Optional) At the Shared Storage device (lun id) will be formatted as part of the restore operation and any existing data will be wiped out. Do you want to proceed[y/n]? prompt, enter yes
The network interface re-initializes with IP details in the backup file, shared storage is configured for Database and Cisco UCS Central becomes accessible via the IP address.

What to Do Next

Map the same shared storage device to node B, configure Node B for the cluster. See Installing Cisco UCS Central on Node B

Chapter 5. Logging In and Setting Up

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Overview of Logging In and Setting Up

- Resetting the Admin Password

- Password Guidelines

- Resetting the Shared Secret

Overview of Logging In and Setting Up

You can log in and work with Cisco UCS Central using both Cisco UCS Central GUI and Cisco UCS Central CLI. You can perform almost all of the Cisco UCS Central operations, with very few exceptions, using both the interfaces.

To access the Cisco UCS Central GUI, you can use both HTTP and HTTPS protocols.

Access to some features requires that a user have the required privileges. For more information, see the Cisco UCS Central configuration guides.

- Logging into and out of the Cisco UCS Central GUI

- Logging into and out of the Cisco UCS Central CLI

Logging into and out of the Cisco UCS Central GUI

The following are the default HTTP and HTTPS web links to log into the Cisco UCS Central GUI.

- HTTP—The default HTTP web link for the Cisco UCS Central GUI is http://UCSCentral_IP. If you are using the HTML5 UI, then the path is http://UCSCentral_IP/ui

- HTTPS—The default HTTPS web link for the Cisco UCS Central GUI is https://UCSCentral_IP. . If you are using the HTML5 UI, then the path is https://UCSCentral_IP/ui

Note

UCSCentral_IP represents the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central. For a cluster configuration, this IP address is the virtual IP address, not one for a specific node.

Procedure

Step 1

In your web browser, type the Cisco UCS Central GUI web link or select the book mark in your browser.

Step 2

On the launch page, do the following:

1. Enter your user name and password.

2. Click Log In.

What to Do Next

Logging Out

After you have completed your tasks on the Cisco UCS Central GUI, click Log Out on the upper right corner. The Cisco UCS Central GUI logs you out immediately and returns your browser to the launch page.

Logging into and out of the Cisco UCS Central CLI

Use an SSH or telnet client to access the Cisco UCS Central CLI.

The default address to log into the Cisco UCS Central CLI is UCSCentral_IP

Note

The UCSCentral_IP in represents the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central. For a cluster configuration, this IP address is the virtual IP address, not one for a specific node.

Procedure

Step 1

From the SSH client, connect to the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Central.

Step 2

At the log in as: prompt, enter your Cisco UCS Central user name and press enter.

Step 3

At the password: prompt, enter your Cisco UCS Central password and press enter.

What to Do Next

Logging Out

After you have completed your tasks on the Cisco UCS Central CLI, type exit and press enter. Continue to type exit and press enter until the window closes.

Note

Cisco UCS Central CLI clears the buffer of all uncommitted transactions when you exit.

Resetting the Admin Password

If you misplaced the admin password that you created for your account when you first installed the Cisco UCS Central software, you must reset your password before you can perform any admin-specific tasks. Make sure you have obtained the password reset image when obtaining the software from Cisco.com. If not, you can obtain the password reset image any time. Example of password reset image name: ucs-central-passreset.1.3.1a.iso

Note

If you have installed Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode, you must reboot both VM's, mount the ISO separately on both VM's and reset the same password in both VM's.

Procedure

Step 1

If necessary, reboot the VM and change the boot options to boot from CD ROM.

Step 2

Mount the Password Reset ISO image with the virtual CD/DVD drive.

Step 3

On the UCS Central Admin Password Reset page, do the following:

1. In the Admin Password field, enter the new admin password.

2. In the Confirm Admin Password field, re-enter the new admin password.

3. Click Next.

Step 4

After the password change is complete, unmount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image from the virtual CD/DVD drive.

Step 5

Reboot the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Password Guidelines

Cisco recommends that each Cisco UCS Central user have a strong password. A password is required when you create each locally authenticated user account in Cisco UCS Central. A user with admin, aaa or domain-group-management privileges can configure Cisco UCS Central to perform a password strength check on the user passwords. The password that you create need to be unique.

If the password strength check is enabled, each user must have a strong password. Cisco UCS Central rejects any password that does not meet the following requirements:

- Must contain a minimum of 8 characters and a maximum of 80 characters.

- Must contain at least three of the following:

- Upper case letter

- Lower case letters

- Numbers

- Special characters

- Must not contain a character that is repeated more than 3 times consecutively. For example: aaabbb111@@@

- Must not be identical to the user name or the reverse of the user name.

- Must pass password dictionary check. For example, the password must not be based on a standard dictionary word.

- Must not contain the following symbols. $ (dollar sign), ? (question mark), and = (equal sign).

- Must not be blank for local users and admin users.

- If you are creating strong password, then the password must not contain three consecutive characters or number in any order.

Resetting the Shared Secret

Procedure

Command or Action

Purpose

Step 1

UCSC # connect local-mgmt

Enters local management mode.

Step 2

UCSC (local-mgmt) # set shared-secret

Allows you to set a new shared secret.

Step 3

At the prompt, enter the new shared secret.

The following example shows how to reset the shared secret for Cisco UCS Central:

UCSC # connect local-mgmt
UCSC(local-mgmt) # set shared-secret
Enter Shared Secret: passW0rd2

What to Do Next

If you reset the shared secret in Cisco UCS Central, you must update the shared secret in Cisco UCS Manager for each registered Cisco UCS domain.

Important:
Do not unregister the Cisco UCS domains.

- Resetting the Shared Secret in Cisco UCS Manager

Resetting the Shared Secret in Cisco UCS Manager

If you reset the shared secret in Cisco UCS Central, you must update the shared secret in Cisco UCS Manager for each registered Cisco UCS domain.

Important:
Do not unregister the Cisco UCS domains.

Procedure

Command or Action

Purpose

Step 1

Log into the Cisco UCS Manager CLI for the registered domain.

Step 2

UCS-A# scope system

Enters system mode.

Step 3

UCS-A /system # scope control-ep policy

Enters control-ep policy mode.

Step 4

UCS-A /system/control-ep # set shared-secret

Enter the shared secret (or password) that matches the new shared secret in Cisco UCS Central.

Step 5

UCS-A /system/control-ep # commit-buffer

Commits the transaction to the system configuration.

The following example shows how to update the shared secret in Cisco UCS Manager:

UCS-A # scope system
UCS-A /system # scope control-ep policy
UCS-A /system/control-ep # set shared-secret
Shared Secret for Registration: passW0rd2
UCS-A /system/control-ep* # commit-buffer
UCS-A /system/control-ep #

Chapter 6. Upgrading Cisco UCS Central

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Upgrading Cisco UCS Central to Release 1.3

Upgrading Cisco UCS Central to Release 1.3

You can upgrade Cisco UCS Central release 1.1(2a) or 1.2 to 1.3 in either standalone or cluster mode. If you are already in a standalone mode installation, when you upgrade to release 1.3, you can also configure your environment in cluster mode. For upgrading a cluster setup, see Upgrading Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode

Make sure your system meets the system requirements for Cisco UCS Central, release 1.3. See System Requirements.

Important:

- Cisco UCS Central, release 1.3 requires a minimum of 12GB RAM and 40 GB storage space. Make sure that the VM RAM meets this requirement and disk1 size is upgraded to 40 GB. Otherwise, the upgrade will fail.

- Use the ISO image for an upgrade Cisco UCS Central.

- After the upgrade, make sure to clear browser cache before logging into the Cisco UCS Central GUI.

Caution

Cisco UCS Central, release 1.3 supports Cisco UCS Manager, release 2.1(2), 2.1(3), 2.2(x), 2.5(x)MS, and 3.0(x). You must first upgrade Cisco UCS Manager to one of the supported release versions before upgrading Cisco UCS Central. If you do not upgrade Cisco UCS Manager first, Cisco UCS Central generates version mismatch errors and any registered Cisco UCS domains stop receiving updates from Cisco UCS Central.

Supported Upgrade Path to Release 1.3

You can only upgrade Cisco UCS Central to release 1.3(1a) from any of the following two releases:

- From 1.1(2a) to 1.3(1a)

- From 1.2 to 1.3(1a)

Important:

- Before upgrading Cisco UCS Central to 1.3 you must do the following:

- Make sure you have Cisco UCS Manager to 2.1(2) or newer. It is recommended to upgrade Cisco UCS Manager to the latest version to ensure complete feature support.

- Upgrade Cisco UCS Central 1.0 to one of supported Cisco UCS Central 1.1 patch release.

- Make sure to take a full state backup before starting the upgrade process.

- Only ISO upgrade is supported for upgrade from release 1.0 to 1.1. The ISO upgrade is preferred upgrade method for upgrade from release 1.1 to any newer releases.

- You can use backup and restore option to ensure that you can recreate the environment in case of any failure. Backup and restore is not recommended for upgrades. The following is the recommended best practice for back up and restore:

- Use full state backup for disaster recovery scenario, where the Cisco UCS Central VM is lost.

- Use configuration import for importing configuration from a backup file on an existing Cisco UCS Central VM.

- Full State backup does not backup firmware images downloaded in Cisco UCS Central. When deploying new Cisco UCS Central VM and restoring from a full state backup, make sure to download the firmware images again in Cisco UCS Central. After a full state restore, you must download the firmware images before acknowledging the Cisco UCS domains from suspend mode.

- The following options are NOT supported in 1.3(1a):

- Erase samdb config import.

- Upgrade from Cisco UCS Central releases 1.0 and 1.1(1a)

- Taking a full state back up from Cisco UCS Central release 1.0 or 1.1(1a) to restore Cisco UCS Central release 1.3.

- Taking a config export from Cisco UCS Central release 1.0 or 1.1(1a) to config import from Cisco UCS Central release 1.3.

- Downgrade from Cisco UCS Central release 1.3 to and Cisco UCS Central releases 1.0 or 1.1.

- Upgrading Cisco UCS Central in Standalone Mode

- Upgrading Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode

- Converting Cisco UCS Central from Standalone to Cluster Mode

Upgrading Cisco UCS Central in Standalone Mode

This procedure upgrades the current running version of the RHEL kernel and all Cisco UCS Central components. It also retains all Cisco UCS Central data.

Before You Begin

You must have obtained the Cisco UCS Central, release 1.3 ISO image. See Obtaining the Cisco UCS Central Software from Cisco.com. We recommend that you backup your Cisco UCS Central data before you perform this procedure.

Procedure

Step 1

If necessary, reboot the VM and change the boot options to boot from CD ROM.

Step 2

Mount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image with the virtual CD/DVD drive.

Step 3

From the Cisco UCS Central Installation menu on the ISO image, choose Upgrade Existing Cisco UCS Central.

Step 4

After the upgrade is complete, unmount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image from the virtual CD/DVD drive.

Step 5

Reboot the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Upgrading Cisco UCS Central in Cluster Mode

Important:

- You must complete ISO upgrade on both the nodes in the cluster. You can perform the upgrade in any order on both nodes. The cluster setup is available only after both the nodes are running same release versions of Cisco UCS Central.

- Make sure to perform the following Step 1 through Step 5 on both Node A and Node B in the cluster.

Before You Begin

You must have obtained the Cisco UCS Central ISO image for this release. See Obtaining the Cisco UCS Central Software from Cisco.com. We recommend that you backup your Cisco UCS Central data before you perform this procedure. Make sure to retain the Shared storage connectivity.

Procedure

Step 1

Shutdown the UCS Central VM in Node A or B and change the boot options to boot from CD ROM.

Step 2

Power on and Mount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image with the virtual CD/DVD drive..

Step 3

From the Cisco UCS Central Installation menu on the ISO image, choose Upgrade Existing Cisco UCS Central.

Step 4

After the upgrade is complete, unmount the Cisco UCS Central ISO image from the virtual CD/DVD drive.

Step 5

Reboot the Cisco UCS Central VM.

Step 6

Repeat steps 1 through 6 in the other node.

Step 7

After upgrading both nodes, wait for the HA election to complete and check the cluster state on one of the nodes.

UCSC-A# show cluster state
Cluster Id: 0xYYYYYY
A: UP, PRIMARY
B: UP, SUBORDINATE
HA READY/HA NOT READY

Any one of the nodes will be selected as the primary and the other one would be the secondary.

Depending on the registration status and availability of Cisco UCS domains, the HA status would be remain similar to the state before the upgrade.

Note

In a cluster set up, when the RDM link goes down on the primary node, DMEs cannot write to the database. This causes a crash on the primary node and failover to the subordinate node. The subordinate node takes over as the primary node. The database is then mounted in read-write mode on the new primary node. Because the RDM link is down, umount fails on the old primary node. When the RDM link comes up, the database is mounted on the old primary (current subordinate) node in read-only mode.

As a workaround, you can restart pmon services on the current subordinate node or restart the node itself. Either of these processes will unmount the read-only partition and enable proper cleanup.

Converting Cisco UCS Central from Standalone to Cluster Mode

Before You Begin

We recommend that you backup your Cisco UCS Central data before you perform this procedure.

Upgrade Cisco UCS Central from 1.0 to 1.1 using the ISO image. See Upgrading Cisco UCS Central in Standalone Mode

Procedure

Step 1

Shutdown the VM.

Step 2

Add shared storage device to the VM. See Adding and Setting up a Shared Storage on Hyper-V or Adding and Setting up a Shared Storage on VMware.

Step 3

Start the VM and wait for the VM to come up.

Step 4

Run the local management command to connect to local management.

1. Enter the central-lun connect local-mgmt# and press Enter.

2. Enter the command UCS(local-mgmt)# enable cluster[Peer Node IP][Cluster Virtual IP]and press Enter.

This command will enable cluster mode on this step.  You cannot change it back to stand-alone.
All system services and database will also be restarted.
Are you sure you want to continue? (yes/no)

Step 5

At the enable cluster mode prompt, enter yes and press Enter to continue.

Step 6

When prompted to enter the Shared Storage Device, enter the number of the shared storage device and press Enter.
This VM becomes Node A of the cluster is made Forced Primary by default.

The system now transfers all data from the local disk to the shared disk, converting the system from standalone mode to cluster mode.

Step 7

Check cluster state. The node should display as elected primary.
You can add the Node B to the cluster. See Installing Cisco UCS Central on Node B

Caution:
If the VM is rebooted before the Cisco UCS Central secondary node is installed, the database and services on the primary node will not be operational. Run cluster force primary command to recover the databases and services on the VM for the primary node.

Chapter 7. Working with Cisco UCS Manager

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Cisco UCS Domains and Cisco UCS Central

- Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

- Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

- Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

- Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

Cisco UCS Domains and Cisco UCS Central

Cisco UCS Central provides centralized management capabilities to multiple Cisco UCS domains across one or more data centers. Cisco UCS Central works with Cisco UCS Manager to provide a scalable management solution for a growing Cisco UCS environment. Cisco UCS Central does not replace Cisco UCS Manager, which is the basic engine for managing a Cisco UCS domain. Instead, it builds on the capabilities provided by Cisco UCS Manager and works with Cisco UCS Manager to effect changes in individual domains.

Cisco UCS Central does not reduce or change any local management capabilities of Cisco UCS Manager, such as its API. This allows you to continue using Cisco UCS Manager the same way you did before Cisco UCS Central. This also allows all existing third party integrations to continue to operate without change.

Registering Cisco UCS Domains

To manage Cisco UCS Manager through Cisco UCS Central, you must register the Cisco UCS domains in Cisco UCS Central. You can register a Cisco UCS domain as a part of a domain group or as an ungrouped domain. When you have domain group, all registered domains in the domain group can share common policies and other configurations.

You can use a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) or IP address to register Cisco UCS domains in Cisco UCS Central.

Note

During the initial registration process with Cisco UCS Central, all the active Cisco UCS Manager GUI sessions will be terminated.

Before registering a domain in Cisco UCS Central, do the following:

- Configure an NTP server and the correct time zone in both Cisco UCS Manager and Cisco UCS Central to ensure that they are in sync. If the time and date in the Cisco UCS domain and Cisco UCS Central are out of sync, the registration might fail.

- Obtain the hostname or IP address of Cisco UCS Central. You cannot use the same hostname for both Cisco UCS Central and Cisco UCS Manager. For standalone mode, use individual VM IP address. If you plan to setup in cluster mode, use virtual IP address.

Note

We recommend that you always register Cisco UCS domains using a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

- Obtain the shared secret that you configured when you deployed Cisco UCS Central.

Note

- If you register Cisco UCS domains using a domain name, Cisco UCS Manager can gracefully move to a different IP address.

If you register a Cisco UCS domain in Cisco UCS Central using an IP address, you cannot change or swap the IP address used by Cisco UCS Manager. If you need to change or swap the IP address, you must contact Cisco TAC.

- You can register or un-register a Cisco UCS domain using Cisco UCS Manager GUI or CLI.

- If the registered Cisco UCS domains have a latency of greater than 300ms for a round trip from Cisco UCS Central, there might be some performance implications for the Cisco UCS domains.

- When you unregister a Cisco UCS domain from Cisco UCS Central the global service profiles become local service profiles in Cisco UCS Manager.

Warning

You should upgrade the Cisco UCS Manager to Release 2.1(2) before registering with Cisco UCS Central. If you try to register Cisco UCS Manager, Release 2.1(1) with Cisco UCS Central Release 1.1, Cisco UCS Manager will display the registration as positive. But Cisco UCS Central inventory will not display the registered Cisco UCS Domain. Cisco UCS Central faults will display a critical fault on the registration failure.

Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Procedure

Step 1

In Cisco UCS Manager Navigation pane, click Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > Communication Management.

Step 3

Click the UCS Central node.

Step 4

In the Actions area, click Register With UCS Central.

Step 5

In the Register with UCS Central dialog box,

1. Enter the host name or IP address in the Hostname/IP Address field.
We recommend that you use a hostname rather than an IP address. To use a hostname, you must configure a DNS server. If the Cisco UCS domain is not registered with Cisco UCS Central, or DNS management is set to local, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager. If the Cisco UCS domain is registered with Cisco UCS Central and DNS management is set to global, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Central.

2. Enter the shared secret or password in the Shared Secret field.

Step 6

In the Policy Resolution Control area, click Global if you want the policy or configuration to be managed by Cisco UCS Central or click Local to manage the policy or configuration by Cisco UCS Manager.

Step 7

Click OK.

Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

Procedure

Command or Action

Purpose

Step 1

UCS-A# scope system

Enters system mode.

Step 2

UCS-A/system # create control-ep policy ucs-central

Creates the policy required to register the Cisco UCS Domain with Cisco UCS Central.

ucs-central can be the hostname or IP address of the virtual machine where Cisco UCS Central is deployed.

Note:
We recommend that you use a hostname rather than an IP address. To use a hostname, you must configure a DNS server. If the Cisco UCS domain is not registered with Cisco UCS Central, or DNS management is set to local, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager. If the Cisco UCS domain is registered with Cisco UCS Central and DNS management is set to global, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Central.

Step 3

Shared Secret for Registration: shared-secret

Enter the shared secret (or password) that was configured when Cisco UCS Central was deployed.

Step 4

UCS-A/system/control-ep # commit-buffer

Commits the transaction to the system configuration.

The following example registers a Cisco UCS Domain with a Cisco UCS Central system with a FQDN, and commits the transaction:

UCS-A# scope system
UCS-A /system # create control-ep policy UCSCentral.MyCompany.com
Shared Secret for Registration: S3cretW0rd!
UCS-A /system/control-ep* # commit-buffer
UCS-A /system/control-ep #

Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Caution

If you want to unregister any registered Cisco UCS Domain in a production system, contact Cisco Technical Support.

When you unregister a Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central,

- You can no longer manage the service profiles, policies and other configuration for the Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central.

- All global service profiles and policies become local and continues to operate as local entities. When you re-register the domain, the service profiles and polices still remain local.

Procedure

Step 1

In Cisco UCS Manager Navigation pane, click Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > Communication Management.

Step 3

Click the UCS Central node.

Step 4

In the Actions area, click Unregister With UCS Central.

Step 5

If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

Step 6

Click OK.

Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

Caution

If you want to unregister any registered Cisco UCS Domain in a production system, contact Cisco Technical Support.

When you unregister a Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central,

- You can no longer manage the service profiles, policies and other configuration for the Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central.

- All global service profiles and policies become local and continues to operate as local entities. When you re-register the domain, the service profiles and polices still remain local.

Procedure

Command or Action

Purpose

Step 1

UCS-A# scope system

Enters system mode.

Step 2

UCS-A/system # delete control-ep policy

Deletes the policy and unregisters the Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central.

Step 3

UCS-A/system # commit-buffer

Commits the transaction to the system configuration.

The following example unregisters a Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central and commits the transaction:

UCS-A# scope system
UCS-A /system # delete control-ep policy
UCS-A /system* # commit-buffer
UCS-A /system #

Preface

This preface includes the following sections:

- Audience

- Conventions

- Related Cisco UCS Documentation

- Documentation Feedback

Audience

This guide is intended primarily for data center administrators with responsibilities and expertise in one or more of the following:

- Server administration

- Storage administration

- Network administration

- Network security

Conventions

Text Type

Indication

GUI elements

GUI elements such as tab titles, area names, and field labels appear in this font.

Main titles such as window, dialog box, and wizard titles appear in this font.

Document titles

Document titles appear in this font.

TUI elements

In a Text-based User Interface, text the system displays appears in this font.

System output

Terminal sessions and information that the system displays appear in this font.

CLI commands

CLI command keywords appear in this font.

Variables in a CLI command appear in this font.

[ ]

Elements in square brackets are optional.

{x | y | z}

Required alternative keywords are grouped in braces and separated by vertical bars.

[x | y | z]

Optional alternative keywords are grouped in brackets and separated by vertical bars.

string

A nonquoted set of characters. Do not use quotation marks around the string or the string will include the quotation marks.

< >

Nonprinting characters such as passwords are in angle brackets.

[ ]

Default responses to system prompts are in square brackets.

!, #

An exclamation point (!) or a pound sign (#) at the beginning of a line of code indicates a comment line.

Note

Means reader take note. Notes contain helpful suggestions or references to material not covered in the document.

Tip

Means the following information will help you solve a problem. The tips information might not be troubleshooting or even an action, but could be useful information, similar to a Timesaver.

Caution

Means reader be careful. In this situation, you might perform an action that could result in equipment damage or loss of data.

Timesaver

Means the described action saves time. You can save time by performing the action described in the paragraph.

Warning

IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS

This warning symbol means danger. You are in a situation that could cause bodily injury. Before you work on any equipment, be aware of the hazards involved with electrical circuitry and be familiar with standard practices for preventing accidents. Use the statement number provided at the end of each warning to locate its translation in the translated safety warnings that accompanied this device.

SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS

Related Cisco UCS Documentation

Documentation Roadmaps

For a complete list of all B-Series documentation, see the Cisco UCS B-Series Servers Documentation Roadmap available at the following URL: Click Here .

For a complete list of all C-Series documentation, see the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Documentation Roadmap available at the following URL: Click Here .

For information on supported firmware versions and supported UCS Manager versions for the rack servers that are integrated with the UCS Manager for management, refer to Release Bundle Contents for Cisco UCS Software.

Other Documentation Resources

Follow Cisco UCS Docs on Twitter to receive document update notifications.

Documentation Feedback

To provide technical feedback on this document, or to report an error or omission, please send your comments to ucs-docfeedback@cisco.com. We appreciate your feedback.

THE SPECIFICATIONS AND INFORMATION REGARDING THE PRODUCTS IN THIS MANUAL ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL STATEMENTS, INFORMATION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS IN THIS MANUAL ARE BELIEVED TO BE ACCURATE BUT ARE PRESENTED WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. USERS MUST TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR APPLICATION OF ANY PRODUCTS.

THE SOFTWARE LICENSE AND LIMITED WARRANTY FOR THE ACCOMPANYING PRODUCT ARE SET FORTH IN THE INFORMATION PACKET THAT SHIPPED WITH THE PRODUCT AND ARE INCORPORATED HEREIN BY THIS REFERENCE. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO LOCATE THE SOFTWARE LICENSE OR LIMITED WARRANTY, CONTACT YOUR CISCO REPRESENTATIVE FOR A COPY.

The Cisco implementation of TCP header compression is an adaptation of a program developed by the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) as part of UCB's public domain version of the UNIX operating system. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1981, Regents of the University of California.

NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER WARRANTY HEREIN, ALL DOCUMENT FILES AND SOFTWARE OF THESE SUPPLIERS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS" WITH ALL FAULTS. CISCO AND THE ABOVE-NAMED SUPPLIERS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THOSE OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL CISCO OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS OR LOSS OR DAMAGE TO DATA ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS MANUAL, EVEN IF CISCO OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: Click Here . Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)