Server Management Overview

Server Management Overview

Cisco UCS Manager enables you to manage general and complex server deployments. For example, you can manage a general deployment with a pair of Fabric Interconnects (FIs), which is the redundant server access layer that you get with the first chassis that can scale up to 20 chassis' and up to 160 physical servers. This can be a combination of blades and rack mount servers to support the workload in your environment. As you add more servers, you can continue to perform server provisioning, device discovery, inventory, configuration, diagnostics, monitoring, fault detection, and auditing.

By default, the Cisco UCS 6332 40 GB FIs, the UCS Mini 6324 40 GB FIs, and the UCS 6200 Series 10 GB FIs include centralized management. You can manage the UCS Blade Servers and Rack-Mount Servers that are in the same domain from one console. You can also manage the UCS Mini from the Cisco UCS Manager.

To ensure the optimum server performance, you can configure the amount of power that you allocate to servers. You can also set the server boot policy, the location from which the server boots, and the order in which the boot devices are invoked. You can create service profiles for the UCS B-Series Blade Servers and the UCS Mini to assign to servers. Service profiles enable you to assign BIOS settings, security settings, the number of vNICs and vHBAs, and anything else that you want to apply to a server.

Cisco UCS Manager User Documentation

Cisco UCS Manager offers you a new set of smaller, use-case based documentation described in the following table:

Guide

Description

Cisco UCS Manager Getting Started Guide

Discusses Cisco UCS architecture and Day 0 operations, including Cisco UCS Manager initial configuration and configuration best practices.

Cisco UCS Manager Administration Guide

Discusses password management, role-based access configuration, remote authentication, communication services, CIMC session management, organizations, backup and restore, scheduling options, BIOS tokens, and deferred deployments.

Cisco UCS Manager Infrastructure Management Guide

Discusses physical and virtual infrastructure components used and managed by Cisco UCS Manager.

Cisco UCS Manager Firmware Management Guide

Discusses downloading and managing firmware, upgrading through Auto Install, upgrading through service profiles, directly upgrading at endpoints using firmware auto sync, managing the capability catalog, deployment scenarios, and troubleshooting.

Cisco UCS Manager Server Management Guide

Discusses the new licenses, registering Cisco UCS domain with Cisco UCS Central, power capping, server boot, server profiles, and server-related policies.

Cisco UCS Manager Storage Management Guide

Discusses all aspects of storage management, such as SAN and VSAN in Cisco UCS Manager.

Cisco UCS Manager Network Management Guide

Discusses all aspects of network management, such as LAN and VLAN connectivity in Cisco UCS Manager.

Cisco UCS Manager System Monitoring Guide

Discusses all aspects of system and health monitoring, including system statistics in Cisco UCS Manager.