Storage Profiles

Storage Profiles

To allow flexibility in defining the number of storage disks, roles and usage of these disks, and other storage parameters, you can create and use storage profiles. A storage profile encapsulates the storage requirements for one or more service profiles. LUNs configured in a storage profile can be used as boot LUNs or data LUNs, and can be dedicated to a specific server. You can also specify a local LUN as a boot device. However, LUN resizing is not supported. The introduction of storage profiles allows you to do the following:

  • Configure multiple virtual drives and select the physical drives that are used by a virtual drive. You can also configure the storage capacity of a virtual drive.

  • Configure the number, type and role of disks in a disk group.

  • Associate a storage profile with a service profile.

You can create a storage profile both at an org level and at a service-profile level. A service profile can have a dedicated storage profile as well as a storage profile at an org level.

Disk Groups and Disk Group Configuration Policies

Servers in a chassis can use storage that is centralized in that chassis. You can select and configure the disks to be used for storage. A logical collection of these physical disks is called a disk group. Disk groups allow you to organize local disks. The storage controller controls the creation and configuration of disk groups.

A disk group configuration policy defines how a disk group is created and configured. The policy specifies the RAID level to be used for the disk group. It also specifies either a manual or an automatic selection of disks for the disk group, and roles for disks. You can use a disk group policy to manage multiple disk groups. However, a single disk group can be managed only by one disk group policy.

A hot spare is an unused extra disk that can be used by a disk group in the case of failure of a disk in the disk group. Hot spares can be used only in disk groups that support a fault-tolerant RAID level. In addition, a disk can be allocated as a global hot spare, which means that it can be used by any disk group.

Virtual Drives

A disk group can be partitioned into virtual drives. Each virtual drive appears as an individual physical device to the Operating System.

All virtual drives in a disk group must be managed by using a single disk group policy.

Configuration States

Indicates the configuration states of a virtual drive. Virtual drives can have the following configuration states:

  • Applying—Creation of the virtual drive is in progress.

  • Applied—Creation of the virtual drive is complete, or virtual disk policy changes are configured and applied successfully.

  • Failed to apply—Creation, deletion, or renaming of a virtual drive has failed due to errors in the underlying storage subsystem.

  • Orphaned—The service profile that contained this virtual drive is deleted or the service profile is no longer associated with a storage profile.


    Note

    Orphaned LUNs cannot be used for booting OS. Although an image can be installed on these LUNs, booting from these drives will fail. To use any specific orphaned LUN, you must reassociate the storage profile, which will return it to the “Equipped” presence state.

  • Not in use—The service profile that contained this virtual drive is in the disassociated state.

Deployment States

Indicates the actions that you are performing on virtual drives. Virtual drives can have the following deployment states:

  • No action—No pending work items for the virtual drive.

  • Creating—Creation of the virtual drive is in progress.

  • Deleting—Deletion of the virtual drive is in progress.

  • Modifying—Modification of the virtual drive is in progress.

  • Apply-Failed—Creation or modification of the virtual drive has failed.

Operability States

Indicates the operating condition of a virtual drive. Virtual drives can have the following operability states:

  • Optimal—The virtual drive operating condition is good. All configured drives are online.

  • Degraded—The virtual drive operating condition is not optimal. One of the configured drives has failed or is offline.

  • Cache-degraded—The virtual drive has been created with a write policy of write back mode, but the BBU has failed, or there is no BBU.


    Note

    This state does not occur if you select the always write back mode.

  • Partially degraded—The operating condition in a RAID 6 virtual drive is not optimal. One of the configured drives has failed or is offline. RAID 6 can tolerate up to two drive failures.

  • Offline—The virtual drive is not available to the RAID controller. This is essentially a failed state.

  • Unknown—The state of the virtual drive is not known.

Presence States

Indicates the presence of virtual drive components. Virtual drives have the following presence states:

  • Equipped—The virtual drive is available.

  • Mismatched—A virtual drive deployed state is different from its configured state.

  • Missing—Virtual drive is missing.

Configuring a Disk Group Policy

You can configure the disks in a disk group policy automatically or manually.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Storage.

Step 2

Expand Storage > Storage Provisioning > Storage Policies

Step 3

Expand the node for the organization where you want to create the disk group policy.

Step 4

Right-click Disk Group Policies in the organization and select Create Disk Group Policy.

Step 5

In the Create Disk Group Policy dialog box, specify the following:

Name Description
Name field

The name of the policy

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

Description field

A description of the policy. We recommend that you include information about where and when the policy should be used.

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

RAID Level drop-down list

This can be one of the following:

  • RAID 0 Striped

  • RAID 1 Mirrored

  • RAID 5 Striped Parity

  • RAID 6 Striped Dual Parity

  • RAID 10 Mirrored and Striped

Note 

When you create a disk group with RAID 1 policy and configure four disks for it, a RAID 1E configuration is created internally by the storage controller.

Step 6

To automatically configure the disks in a disk group policy, select Disk Group Configuration (Automatic) and specify the following:

Name Description
Number of drives field

Specifies the number of drives for the disk group.

The range for drives is from 0 to 24 drives. Unspecified is the default number of drives. When you select the number of drives as Unspecified, the number of drives will be selected according to the disk selection process.

Drive Type field

Drive type for the disk group. You can select:

  • HDD

  • SSD

  • Unspecified

Unspecified is the default type of drive. When you select the drive type as Unspecified, the first available drive is selected. After this drive is selected, subsequent drives will be of a compatible type. For example, if the first was SSD, all subsequent drives would be SSD.

Number of Hot Spares field

Number of dedicated hot spares for the disk group.

The range for dedicated hot spares is from 0 to 24 hot spares. Unspecified is the default number of dedicated hot spares. When you select the number of dedicated hot spares as Unspecified, the hot spares will be selected according to the disk selection process.

Min Drive Size field

Minimum drive size for the disk group. Only disks that match this criteria are available for selection.

The range for minimum drive size is from 0 to 10240 GB. Unspecified is the default minimum drive size. When you select the minimum drive size as Unspecified, drives of all sizes will be available for selection.

Step 7

To manually configure the disks in a disk group policy, select Disk Group Configuration (Manual) and do the following:

  1. On the icon bar to the right of the table, click +

  2. In the Create Local Disk Configuration Reference dialog box, complete the following fields:

Name Description
Slot field

Slot for which the local disk reference is configured.
Role field

Role of the local disk in the disk group. You can select:

  • Normal

  • Dedicated Hot Spare

  • Global Hot Spare
Span ID field

Specifies the ID of the span group to which the disk belongs. Disks belonging to a single span group can be treated as a single disk with a larger size. The values range from 0 to 8. For RAID-10, RAID-50, and RAID-60, minimum 2 spans are required and maximum 8 spans are supported. You can also set the Span ID as Unspecified, when spanning information is not required.

Step 8

In the Virtual Drive Configuration area, specify the following:

Name Description
Strip Size (KB) field

Stripe size for a virtual drive. This can only be Platform Default.

Access Policy field

Access policy for a virtual drive. This can be one of the following:

  • Platform Default

  • Read Write

  • Read Only

  • Blocked

Read Policy field

Read policy for a virtual drive. This can be one of the following:

  • Platform Default

  • Read Ahead

  • Normal

Write Cache Policy field

Write-cache-policy for a virtual drive. This can be one of the following:

  • Platform Default

  • Write Through

  • Write Back Good Bbu

  • Always Write Back

IO Policy field

I/O policy for a virtual drive. This can be one of the following:

  • Platform Default

  • Direct

  • Cached

Drive Cache field

State of the drive cache. This can be one of the following:

  • Platform Default

  • No Change

  • Enable

  • Disable

All virtual drives in a disk group should be managed by using the same disk group policy.

Step 9

Click OK.

Note 

When you accept the virtual drive (VD) default values and associate the disk group policy to a service profile, you can modify the VD configuration after it is associated to a service profile. If you modify the VD default values from the WebBIOS to use the non-default values, a properties fault is not generated to verify the changed values.

RAID Levels

The RAID level of a disk group describes how the data is organized on the disk group for the purpose of ensuring availability, redundancy of data, and I/O performance.

The following are features provided by RAID:

  • Striping—Segmenting data across multiple physical devices. This improves performance by increasing throughput due to simultaneous device access.

  • Mirroring—Writing the same data to multiple devices to accomplish data redundancy.

  • Parity—Storing of redundant data on an additional device for the purpose of error correction in the event of device failure. Parity does not provide full redundancy, but it allows for error recovery in some scenarios.

  • Spanning—Allows multiple drives to function like a larger one. For example, four 20 GB drives can be combined to appear as a single 80 GB drive.

The supported RAID levels include the following:

  • RAID 0 Striped—Data is striped across all disks in the array, providing fast throughput. There is no data redundancy, and all data is lost if any disk fails.

  • RAID 1 Mirrored—Data is written to two disks, providing complete data redundancy if one disk fails. The maximum array size is equal to the available space on the smaller of the two drives.

  • RAID 5 Striped Parity—Data is striped across all disks in the array. Part of the capacity of each disk stores parity information that can be used to reconstruct data if a disk fails. RAID 5 provides good data throughput for applications with high read request rates.

    RAID 5 distributes parity data blocks among the disks that are part of a RAID-5 group and requires a minimum of three disks.

  • RAID 6 Striped Dual Parity—Data is striped across all disks in the array and two sets of parity data are used to provide protection against failure of up to two physical disks. In each row of data blocks, two sets of parity data are stored.

    Other than addition of a second parity block, RAID 6 is identical to RAID 5 . A minimum of four disks are required for RAID 6.

  • RAID 10 Mirrored and Striped—RAID 10 uses mirrored pairs of disks to provide complete data redundancy and high throughput rates through block-level striping. RAID 10 is mirroring without parity and block-level striping. A minimum of four disks are required for RAID 10.

  • RAID 50 Striped Parity and Striped—Data is striped across multiple striped parity disk sets to provide high throughput and multiple disk failure tolerance.

  • RAID 60 Striped Dual Parity and Striped—Data is striped across multiple striped dual parity disk sets to provide high throughput and greater disk failure tolerance.

Automatic Disk Selection

When you specify a disk group configuration, and do not specify the local disks in it, Cisco UCS Manager determines the disks to be used based on the criteria specified in the disk group configuration policy. Cisco UCS Manager can make this selection of disks in multiple ways.

When all qualifiers match for a set of disks, then disks are selected sequentially according to their slot number. Regular disks and dedicated hot spares are selected by using the lowest numbered slot.

The following is the disk selection process:

  1. Iterate over all local LUNs that require the creation of a new virtual drive. Iteration is based on the following criteria, in order:

    1. Disk type

    2. Minimum disk size from highest to lowest

    3. Space required from highest to lowest

    4. Disk group qualifier name, in alphabetical order

    5. Local LUN name, in alphabetical order

  2. Select regular disks depending on the minimum number of disks and minimum disk size. Disks are selected sequentially starting from the lowest numbered disk slot that satisfies the search criteria.

    Note

    If you specify Any as the type of drive, the first available drive is selected. After this drive is selected, subsequent drives will be of a compatible type. For example, if the first drive was SATA, all subsequent drives would be SATA. Cisco UCS Manager Release 2.5 supports only SATA and SAS.

    Cisco UCS Manager Release 2.5 does not support RAID migration.

  3. Select dedicated hot spares by using the same method as normal disks. Disks are only selected if they are in an Unconfigured Good state.

  4. If a provisioned LUN has the same disk group policy as a deployed virtual drive, then try to deploy the new virtual drive in the same disk group. Otherwise, try to find new disks for deployment.

Supported LUN Modifications

Some modifications that are made to the LUN configuration when LUNs are already deployed on an associated server are supported.

The following are the types of modifications that can be performed:

  • Creation of a new virtual drive.

  • Deletion of an existing virtual drive, which is in the orphaned state.

  • Non-disruptive changes to an existing virtual drive. These changes can be made on an existing virtual drive without loss of data, and without performance degradation:

    • Policy changes. For example, changing the write cache policy.

    • Modification of boot parameters

The removal of a LUN will cause a warning to be displayed. Ensure that you take action to avoid loss of data.

Unsupported LUN Modifications

Some modifications to existing LUNs are not possible without destroying the original virtual drive and creating a new one. All data is lost in these types of modification, and these modifications are not supported.

Disruptive modifications to an existing virtual drive are not supported. The following are unsupported disruptive changes:

  • Any supported RAID level change that can be handled through reconstruction. For example, RAID0 to RAID1.

  • Increasing the size of a virtual drive through reconstruction.

  • Addition and removal of disks through reconstruction.

  • Expand To Available option is not supported for already deployed LUN.

Destructive modifications are also not supported. The following are unsupported destructive modifications:

  • RAID-level changes that do not support reconstruction. For example, RAID5 to RAID1.

  • Shrinking the size of a virtual drive.

  • RAID-level changes that support reconstruction, but where there are other virtual drives present on the same drive group.

  • Disk removal when there is not enough space left on the disk group to accommodate the virtual drive.

  • Explicit change in the set of disks used by the virtual drive.

Disk Insertion Handling

When the following sequence of events takes place:

  1. The LUN is created in one of the following ways:

    1. You specify the slot specifically by using a local disk reference

    2. The system selects the slot based on criteria specified by you

  2. The LUN is successfully deployed, which means that a virtual drive is created, which uses the slot.

  3. You remove a disk from the slot, possibly because the disk failed.

  4. You insert a new working disk into the same slot.

The following scenarios are possible:

Non-Redundant Virtual Drives

For non-redundant virtual drives (RAID 0), when a physical drive is removed, the state of the virtual drive is Inoperable. When a new working drive is inserted, the new physical drive goes to an Unconfigured Good state.

For non-redundant virtual drives, there is no way to recover the virtual drive. You must delete the virtual drive and re-create it.

Redundant Virtual Drives with No Hot Spare Drives

For redundant virtual drives (RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, RAID 50, RAID 60) with no hot spare drives assigned, virtual drive mismatch, virtual drive member missing, and local disk missing faults appear until you insert a working physical drive into the same slot from which the old physical drive was removed.

If the physical drive size is greater than or equal to that of the old drive, the storage controller automatically uses the new drive for the virtual drive. The new drive goes into the Rebuilding state. After rebuild is complete, the virtual drive goes back into the Online state.

Redundant Virtual Drives with Hot Spare Drives

For redundant virtual drives (RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, RAID 50, RAID 60) with hot spare drives assigned, when a drive fails, or when you remove a drive, the dedicated hot spare drive, if available, goes into the Rebuilding state with the virtual drive in the Degraded state. After rebuilding is complete, that drive goes to the Online state.

Cisco UCSM raises a disk missing and virtual drive mismatch fault because although the virtual drive is operational, it does not match the physical configuration that Cisco UCSM expects.

if you insert a new disk in the slot with the disk missing, automatic copy back starts from the earlier hot spare disk to the newly inserted disk. After copy back, the hot spare disk is restored. In this state all faults are cleared.

If automatic copy back does not start, and the newly inserted disk remains in the Unconfigured Good, JBOD, or Foreign Configuration state, remove the new disk from the slot, reinsert the earlier hot spare disk into the slot, and import foreign configuration. This initiates the rebuilding process and the drive state becomes Online. Now, insert the new disk in the hot spare slot and mark it as hot spare to match it exactly with the information available in Cisco UCSM.

Replacing Hot Spare Drives

If a hot spare drive is replaced, the new hot spare drive will go to the Unconfigured Good, Unconfigured Bad, JBOD, or Foreign Configuration state.

Cisco UCSM will raise a virtual drive mismatch or virtual drive member mismatch fault because the hot spare drive is in a state different from the state configured in Cisco UCSM.

You must manually clear the fault. To do this, you must perform the following actions:

  1. Clear the state on the newly inserted drive to Unconfigured Good.

  2. Configure the newly inserted drive as a hot spare drive to match what is expected by Cisco UCSM.

Inserting Physical Drives into Unused Slots

If you insert new physical drives into unused slots, neither the storage controller nor Cisco UCSM will make use of the new drive even if the drive is in the Unconfigured Good state and there are virtual drives that are missing good physical drives.

The drive will simply go into the Unconfigured Good state. To make use of the new drive, you will need to modify or create LUNs to reference the newly inserted drive.

Virtual Drive Naming

When you use Cisco UCS Manager to create a virtual drive, Cisco UCS Manager assigns a unique ID that can be used to reliably identify the virtual drive for further operations. Cisco UCS Manager also provides the flexibility to provide a name to the virtual drive at the time of service profile association. Any virtual drive without a service profile or a server reference is marked as an orphan virtual drive.

In addition to a unique ID, a name is assigned to the drive. Names can be assigned in two ways:

  • When configuring a virtual drive, you can explicitly assign a name that can be referenced in storage profiles.

  • If you have not preprovisioned a name for the virtual drive, Cisco UCS Manager generates a unique name for the virtual drive.

You can rename an orphan virtual drive on a blade or a rack server that are not referenced by any service profile or server.


Note

The renaming an orphan virtual drive is not supported for Cisco boot optimized M.2 Raid controller (UCS-M2-HWRAID).

LUN Dereferencing

A LUN is dereferenced when it is no longer used by any service profile. This can occur as part of the following scenarios:

  • The LUN is no longer referenced from the storage profile

  • The storage profile is no longer referenced from the service profile

  • The server is disassociated from the service profile

  • The server is decommissioned

When the LUN is no longer referenced, but the server is still associated, re-association occurs.

When the service profile that contained the LUN is disassociated, the LUN state is changed to Not in use.

When the service profile that contained the LUN is deleted, the LUN state is changed to Orphaned.

Controller Constraints and Limitations

  • The following table provides the maximum supported virtual drives for servers:

    Servers/Storage Controllers

    Maximum Virtual Drives

    UCSB-MRAID12G-M6

    16

    UCSC-C240-M5, UCSC-C480-M5

    32

    UCS-S3260-M5, UCSC-C3X60-M4, UCSC-C3K-M4

    64

    UCSC-C240-M4, UCSC-C240-M3, UCSC-C24-M3

    24

    UCSB-MRAID12G

    16

    UCS-M2-HWRAID

    2

    For all other servers.

    18

    Note

    • Storage controllers support the check max feature.

    • When servers with multiple storage controllers are managed by the same storage profile, the maximum virtual drives are limited to the maximum value supported by the server.

  • In Cisco UCS Manager Release 2.2(4), blade servers do not support drives with a block size of 4K, but rack-mount servers support such drives. If a drive with a block size of 4K is inserted into a blade server, discovery fails and the following error message appears:Unable to get Scsi Device Information from the system.

  • In Cisco UCS Manager Release 3.1(2) and later releases, RAID Controller that does not support Out of band inventory (OOB) in C240 M4 servers, display Operability as NA and Drive State as Unknown.

Storage Profiles

Creating a Storage Profile

You can create storage profile policies from the Storage tab in the Navigation pane. Additionally, you can also configure the default storage profile that is specific to a service profile from the Servers tab.


Caution

If you have a Cisco UCS blade or rack server with a default local disk configuration present in a Service Profile or Service Profile Template from an earlier release of UCS Manager and you upgrade to the 3.1 release and later releases, you can successfully create a Storage Profile with local LUNs in the same Service Profile or Service Profile Template if you change the Local Disk Configuration Default policy to Any Configuration instead of RAID level options in the local disk policy. The legacy LUN is thereafter part of the storage inventory.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Storage.

Step 2

Expand Storage > Storage Profiles

Step 3

Expand the node for the organization where you want to create the storage profile.

If the system does not include multi tenancy, expand the root node.

Step 4

Right-click the organization and select Create Storage Profile.

Step 5

In the Create Storage Profile dialog box, specify the storage profile Name. You can provide an optional Description for this storage profile.

Step 6

(Optional) In the LUNs area, create Local LUNs and add them to this storage profile.

See Configuring Local LUNs for more information.

Step 7

In the LUNs area, create Controller Definitions and add them to this storage profile.

See Creating a Storage Profile PCH Controller Definition for more information.

Step 8

In the LUNs area, create Security Policy and add them to this storage profile.

See Creating a Local Security Policy and Creating a Remote Security Policy for more information.

Step 9

Click OK.

Creating a Specific Storage Profile

Procedure

Step 1

Expand Servers > Service Profiles.

Step 2

Expand the node for the organization that contains the service profile for which you want to create a specific storage profile.

If the system does not include multi tenancy, expand the root node.

Step 3

Choose the service profile for which you want to create a specific storage profile.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the Storage > LUN Configuration tab.

Step 5

In the Actions area, click Modify Storage Profile.

Step 6

In the Modify Storage Profile dialog box, click the Specific Storage Profile tab.

Step 7

Click Create Specific Storage Profile.

Step 8

(Optional) In the Specific Storage Profile area, complete the Description field to set the description of the storage profile.

Each service profile can have only one specific storage profile. Hence, the name of this storage profile is provided by default.

Step 9

In the Storage Items area, Create Local LUNs and add them to this storage profile.

Step 10

Click OK.

Step 11

If a confirmation dialog box displays, click Yes.

Deleting a Storage Profile

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Storage.

Step 2

Expand Storage > Storage Profiles

Step 3

Expand the node for the organization that contains the storage profile that you want to delete.

Step 4

Right-click the storage profile that you want to delete and select Delete.

Step 5

Click Yes in the confirmation box that appears.

Local LUNs

Configuring Local LUNs

You can create local LUNs within a storage profile policy from the Storage tab in the Navigation pane. Additionally, you can also create local LUNs within the default storage profile that is specific to a service profile from the Servers tab.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Storage.

Step 2

Expand Storage > Storage Profiles

Step 3

Expand the node for the organization that contains the storage profile within which you want to create a local LUN.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 5

In the Actions area, click Create Local LUN.

Step 6

In the Create Local LUN dialog box, complete the following fields:

Name Description

Create Local LUN option

(Appears when you create a local LUN) Selected by default when you create a local LUN.

Prepare Claim Local LUN option

(Appears when you create a local LUN) Select when you want to claim an orphan LUN.

Name field

The name of the local LUN.

This name can be between 1 and 10 alphanumeric characters. You cannot use spaces or any special characters other than - (hyphen), _ (underscore), : (colon), and . (period), and you cannot change this name after the object has been saved.

Note 

If the name given in Prepare Claim Local LUN is different from the name to be claimed, this LUN name and the Virtual drive name appearing in the LUN properties are different.

Size (GB) field

Size of this LUN in GB.

Note 

You do not need to specify a LUN size while claiming an orphaned LUN.

Fractional Size (MB) field

The fractional size of this LUN in MB.

Auto Deploy radio buttons

Whether the local LUN should be automatically deployed or not. This can be one of the following:

  • Auto Deploy

    —Automatically deploys the local LUN.

  • No Auto Deploy

    —Does no automatically deploy the local LUN.

Expand To Available checkbox

(Only available for rack and blade servers) Specifies that this LUN can be expanded to use the entire available disk group.

For each service profile, only one LUN can use this option.

Expand To Available option is not supported for already deployed LUN.

Select Disk Group Configuration drop-down list

Chose the disk group configuration to be applied to this local LUN from the drop-down list.

Create Disk Group Policy link

Displays the Create Disk Group Policy dialog box to create a new disk group.

Step 7

(Optional) Click Create Disk Group Policy to create a new disk group policy for this local LUN.

Step 8

Click OK.

Displaying Details of All Local LUNs Inherited By a Service Profile

Storage profiles can be defined under org and as a dedicated storage profile under service profile. Thus, a service profile inherits local LUNs from both possible storage profiles. It can have a maximum of 2 such local LUNs. You can display the details of all local LUNs inherited by a service profile by using the following command:

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Servers.

Step 2

Expand Servers > Service Profiles.

Step 3

Expand the node for the organization that contains the service profile that you want to display.

Step 4

Choose the service profile whose inherited local LUNs you want to display.

Step 5

In the Work pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 6

Click the Storage Profiles subtab, and then click the Local LUNs tab.

Displays the following detailed information about all the local LUNs inherited by the specified service profile:

  • Name—LUN name in the storage profile.

  • RAID Level—Summary of the RAID level of the disk group used.

  • Size (MB)—Size, in MB, of the LUN specified in the storage profile.

  • Config State—State of LUN configuration. The states can be one of the following:

    • Applying—Admin state is online, the LUN is associated with a server, and the virtual drive is being created.

    • Applied—Admin state is online, the LUN is associated with a server, and the virtual drive is created.

    • Apply Failed—Admin stage is online, the LUN is associated with a server, but the virtual drive creation failed.

    • Not Applied—The LUN is not associated with a server, or the LUN is associated with a service profile, but admin state is undeployed.

  • Deploy Name—The virtual drive name after deployment.

  • LUN ID—LUN ID.

  • Drive State—State of the virtual drive. The states are:

    • Unknown

    • Optimal

    • Degraded

    • Inoperable

    • Partially Degraded

Deleting Local LUNs

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Storage.

Step 2

Expand Storage > Storage Profiles

Step 3

Expand the node for the organization that contains the storage profile from which you want to delete a local LUN.

Step 4

Expand Local LUNs for the storage profile that you want and select the LUN that you want to delete.

Step 5

Right-click the LUN that you want to delete and select Delete.

A confirmation dialog box appears.
Step 6

Click Yes.

Configuring Aero Controllers

Autoconfiguration Mode for Aero Storage Controllers

Cisco UCS C220M6/C240M6 C-series M6 servers support Aero PCIe SAS316-port storage controllers for Direct Attached Storage. Aero controllers support an Autoconfiguration mode in which the state of a newly inserted disk is automatically moved to the Unconfigured-good state.

Because of this, you can choose whether or not to use Autoconfiguration by creating a Storage Profile and associating it with the server. The default is that the automatic configuration feature is disabled, which retains the drive state when the server is rebooted.

If Autoconfiguration is used, you must select a drive state from one of the following:

  • unconfigured-good

  • JBOD

  • raid0-writeback

This is because the Aero firmware changes the behavior of systemPD to EPD-PT. EPD-PT is internally a RAID0 volume without any drive DDF metadata. The controller stores the metadata for identifying it as a RAID0 volume. The EPD-PT drives are considered as JBOD drives so the drive status is reported as JBOD and online.

The table below shows the behavior of Autoconfiguration in different scenarios.

Autoconfig Mode

Reboot/OCR

Hotplug

User Action

unconfigured-good (OFF)

  • All UG drives remain UG.

  • All previously configured EPD remain EPD.

  • Inserted drive remains UG

  • EPD from a different server remains UG on this controller.

Disabling Autoconfig has no impact on the existing configuration

jbod (EPD-PT)

  • All UG are converted to EPD.

  • Any UG will remain UG until next boot.

  • During boot, UG is converted to UPD.

Inserted device converted to EPD.

All UG drives on the controller while running Autoconfig will be converted to EPD.

raid0-writeback (RAID0 WB)

  • All UG converted to RAID0 WB.

  • Any UG will remain UG across control boot.

Inserted device converted to RAID0 WB.

All UG drives on the controller while running Autoconfig will be converted to RAID0 WB.

Selecting EPD-PT (JBOD) as the default configuration does not retain the unconfigured-good state across host reboot. The drive state can be retained by disabling the automatic configuration feature. If the Autoconfig option is used, the default automatic configuration will always mark a drive as unconfigured-good.

When Autoconfig is selected, then the drive is configured to the desired drive state, the JBOD and unconfigured drives will set the drive state accordingly on the next controller boot or OCR,

The following table shows sample use cases for different Autoconfig scenarios.

Use Case Scenario

Autoconfig Option

Using the server for JBOD Only (for example: Hyper converged, Hadoop data node etc )

jbod

Using the server for RAID volume (for example: SAP HANA database)

unconfigured-good

Using the server for Mixed JBOD and RAID volume

unconfigured-good

Using the server for per drive R0 WB (for example: Hadoop data node)

raid0-writeback

Creating an Autoconfiguration Storage Profile

The Autoconfiguration (Auto Config) mode option for storage is only available on Cisco UCS M6 servers with Aero controllers.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Storage.

Step 2

Go to Profiles. Expand the root node.

Step 3

Right click on Storage.

Step 4

In the Create Storage Profile menu, name the profile. The menu will come up with Auto Config Mode marked as Unspecified.

Step 5

To enable the Auto Config Mode option with a specific state to be retained on reboot, de-select Unspecified, then choose the desired state: Unconfigured Good, JBOD, or RAID 0. The state selection will be pushed to the BMC when the system is rebooted.

If Auto Config is left as Unspecified, it will retain whatever state was configured prior to reboot.

Note 

Service profile association will fail if no Aero controllers are present.
Step 6

Click OK.

SPDM Authentication

The Security Protocol and Data Model (SPDM) is used by the BMC for authentication with the storage controller. It requires that the storage controller firmware is secure booted as well as having a Broadcom certificate chain installed in the slot0. During a firmware update, the Broadcom firmware will retain the older measurements for the storage firmware until the OCR or host reboots. If device authentication fails, the firmware will allow only inventory related commands and no set operations can be performed.

PCH Controller Definitions

PCH SSD Controller Definition

Cisco UCS Manager Platform Controller Hub (PCH) Solid State Drive (SSD) Controller Definition provides a local storage configuration in storage profiles where you can configure all the disks in a single RAID or in a JBOD disk array.


Note

You must re-acknowledge the server if you remove or insert disks managed by the PCH Controller.

The PCH Controller Definition configuration provides the following features:

  • Ability to configure a single LUN RAID across two internal SSDs connected to the onboard PCH controller

  • A way to configure the controller in two modes: AHCI (JBOD) and SWRAID (RAID).

  • Ability to configure the PCH storage device in an Embedded Local LUN and Embedded Local Disk boot policy so precision control for boot order is achieved even with the presence of other bootable local storage devices in the server. Do not use the Local LUN or the Local JBOD options to boot from PCH disks

  • Scrub policy support for the internal SSD drives. This is applicable only for the SWRAID mode. This does not apply for the AHCI and NORAID of PCH Controller modes.See the UCS Manager Server Management Guide.

  • Firmware upgrade support for the internal SSD drives.

    • For M4 and below servers, disk firmware upgrade is supported only when the PCH Controller is in SWRAID mode. It is not supported for AHCI mode.

You can configure PCH controller SSDs in a storage profile policy. You can enable or disable protect configuration which saves the LUN configuration even after a service profile disassociation. You choose a controller mode. The PCH controller configuration supports only these two RAID options: RAID0 and RAID1. Use No RAID configuration option for AHCI mode where all the disks connected to the controller configured as JBOD disks. The configuration deployment happens as part of the storage profile association to a service profile process.

Cisco UCS Manager supports PCH managed internal SSDs in the following M4 servers:

  • UCSC-C240-M4L

  • UCSC-C240-M4SX

For the PCH Controller Definition configuration in a Cisco UCS Manager boot policy two new devices exist to select: PCH LUN and PCH Disk. EmbeddedLocalLun represents the boot device in SWRAID mode and EmbeddedLocalDisk represent the boot devices in AHCI mode.

The system uses the same scrub policy is used to scrub supported SSDs. If the scrub is Yes, configured LUNs are destroyed as part of disassociation or re-discovery. If the scrub is No, configured LUNs are saved during disassociation and re-discovery.

Cisco UCS Manager supports firmware upgrade for the internal SSDs only when the PCH Controller is in SWRAID mode. It is not supported in AHCI mode.

FCH Controller Configuration

Fusion Controller Hub (FCH) SSD Controller Definition provides a local storage configuration in storage profiles for AMD based Cisco UCS C125 M5 Server. For AMD processor based servers, the PCH controller is referred to as FCH controller. The controller type remains as PCH in the Cisco UCS Manager GUI.

The FCH Controller works the same as PCH Controller except for the following differences:

  • FCH is only in AHCI (JBOD) mode.


    Note

    Cisco UCS Manager GUI shows the RAID support as RAID0, RAID1, however, Cisco UCS C125 M5 Server supports only AHCI mode.


    Note

    You must re-acknowledge the server if you remove or insert disks managed by the PCH Controller.

  • There are two FCH controllers:

    • First PCH controller manages SATA disks in the front panel (in the absence of a separate PCIe storage controller)

    • Second PCH controller manages the M.2 SSDs


    Note

    For Cisco UCS C125 M5 Server, the PCH IDs are 3 and 4.


Note

Further information and procedures related to PCH controller in this document are applicable to both Intel and AMD based servers.

Creating a Storage Profile PCH Controller Definition

The PCH Controller Definition provides a storage configuration in Storage Profiles where you can configure internal SSDs connected to a PCH controller. You create a name for the controller definition, specify whether you want the storage profile to retain the configuration even if the storage profile is disassociated from the service profile, and chose the RAID level to indicate the controller mode.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Storage > Storage Profiles.

Step 2

Choose the storage profile where you want to create the controller definition.

Step 3

Click the Controller Definitions tab and then click Add at the bottom of the panel or right-click the storage profile and select Create Controller Definition.

Step 4

In Create Controller Definition dialog box, configure the following information:

Name Description

Name field

The name of the storage controller.

Note 

Once you save a PCH Controller Definition, you cannot modify the name from the General Tab Properties area.

Enter up to 16 characters. You can use any alphanumeric characters. Special characters and spaces are not supported.

Protect Configuration check box

If checked, the storage profile retains the configuration even if the storage profile is disassociated from the service profile.

Note 

If you disassociate the storage profile from a service profile with this option enabled, and then associate it with a new service profile that includes a local disk configuration policy with different properties, the server returns a configuration mismatch error and the association fails.

RAID Level drop-down list

This can be one of the following disk policy modes:

  • Disable Local Storage—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) This disk policy mode is to disable the SATA AHCI Controller. This mode can be set only when disks are not present under the SATA AHCI controller. To re-enable this controller and to bring the controller back to its default value (AHCI), you can select No RAID or No Local Storage mode.

  • No Local Storage—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) For a diskless server or a SAN only configuration. If you select this option, you cannot associate any service profile which uses this policy with a server that has a local disk.

  • RAID 0 Striped—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across all disks in the array, providing fast throughput. There is no data redundancy, and all data is lost if any disk fails.

  • RAID 1 Mirrored—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is written to two disks, providing complete data redundancy if one disk fails. The maximum array size is equal to the available space on the smaller of the two drives.

  • Any Configuration—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) For a server configuration that carries forward the local disk configuration without any changes.

  • No RAID—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) All the disks can be used individually without interdependency similar to JBOD disks. If you choose No RAID and you apply this policy to a server that already has an operating system with RAID storage configured, the system does not remove the disk contents. Therefore, there may be no visible differences on the server after you apply the No RAID mode. This can lead to a mismatch between the RAID configuration in the policy and the actual disk configuration shown in the Inventory > Storage tab for the server.

    To make sure that any previous RAID configuration information is removed from a disk, apply a scrub policy that removes all disk information after you apply the No RAID configuration mode.

  • RAID 5 Striped Parity—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across all disks in the array. Part of the capacity of each disk stores parity information that can be used to reconstruct data if a disk fails. RAID 5 provides good data throughput for applications with high read request rates.

  • RAID 6 Striped Dual Parity—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across all disks in the array and two parity disks are used to provide protection against the failure of up to two physical disks. In each row of data blocks, two sets of parity data are stored.

  • RAID 10 Mirrored and Striped—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) RAID 10 uses mirrored pairs of disks to provide complete data redundancy and high throughput rates.

  • RAID 50 Striped Parity and Striped—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across multiple striped parity disk sets to provide high throughput and multiple disk failure tolerance.

  • RAID 60 Striped Dual Parity and Striped—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across multiple striped dual parity disk sets to provide high throughput and greater disk failure tolerance.

    Note 

    Some Cisco UCS servers require a license for certain RAID configuration options. When Cisco UCS Manager associates a service profile containing this local disk policy with a server, Cisco UCS Manager verifies that the selected RAID option is properly licensed. If there are issues, Cisco UCS Manager displays a configuration error during the service profile association.

    For RAID license information for a specific Cisco UCS server, see the Hardware Installation Guide for that server.

Step 5

Click OK.

The new PCH Controller Definition appears in the navigation pane.

What to do next

For specific operating system software RAID driver installation procedures, see:

Modifying a Service Profile PCH Controller Definition

Before you begin

If you want to modify RAID level from RAID 0 Striped or RAID 1 Mirrored to NO RAID, then perform the following steps before starting the procedure:

  1. Ensure that you have a scrub policy in the associated service profile. Refer Creating a Service Profile with the Expert Wizard in Cisco UCS Manager Server Management Guide.

  2. Disassociate the server from the service profile. Refer Disassociating a Service Profile from a Server or Server Pool in Cisco UCS Manager Server Management Guide.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 2

Expand Storage Profiles to the specific storage profile name that you want.

Step 3

Expand Controller Definitions and click the specific controller definition that you want.

Step 4

On the General tab, modify the following information:

Name Description

Name field

The name of the storage controller.

Note 

Once you save a PCH Controller Definition, you cannot modify the name from the General Tab Properties area.

Enter up to 16 characters. You can use any alphanumeric characters. Special characters and spaces are not supported.

Protect Configuration check box

If checked, the storage profile retains the configuration even if the storage profile is disassociated from the service profile.

Note 

If you disassociate the storage profile from a service profile with this option enabled, and then associate it with a new service profile that includes a local disk configuration policy with different properties, the server returns a configuration mismatch error and the association fails.

RAID Level drop-down list

This can be one of the following disk policy modes:

  • Disable Local Storage—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) This disk policy mode is to disable the SATA AHCI Controller. This mode can be set only when disks are not present under the SATA AHCI controller. To re-enable this controller and to bring the controller back to its default value (AHCI), you can select No RAID or No Local Storage mode.

  • No Local Storage—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) For a diskless server or a SAN only configuration. If you select this option, you cannot associate any service profile which uses this policy with a server that has a local disk.

  • RAID 0 Striped—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across all disks in the array, providing fast throughput. There is no data redundancy, and all data is lost if any disk fails.

  • RAID 1 Mirrored—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is written to two disks, providing complete data redundancy if one disk fails. The maximum array size is equal to the available space on the smaller of the two drives.

  • Any Configuration—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) For a server configuration that carries forward the local disk configuration without any changes.

  • No RAID—(Supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) All the disks can be used individually without interdependency similar to JBOD disks. If you choose No RAID and you apply this policy to a server that already has an operating system with RAID storage configured, the system does not remove the disk contents. Therefore, there may be no visible differences on the server after you apply the No RAID mode. This can lead to a mismatch between the RAID configuration in the policy and the actual disk configuration shown in the Inventory > Storage tab for the server.

    To make sure that any previous RAID configuration information is removed from a disk, apply a scrub policy that removes all disk information after you apply the No RAID configuration mode.

  • RAID 5 Striped Parity—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across all disks in the array. Part of the capacity of each disk stores parity information that can be used to reconstruct data if a disk fails. RAID 5 provides good data throughput for applications with high read request rates.

  • RAID 6 Striped Dual Parity—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across all disks in the array and two parity disks are used to provide protection against the failure of up to two physical disks. In each row of data blocks, two sets of parity data are stored.

  • RAID 10 Mirrored and Striped—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) RAID 10 uses mirrored pairs of disks to provide complete data redundancy and high throughput rates.

  • RAID 50 Striped Parity and Striped—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across multiple striped parity disk sets to provide high throughput and multiple disk failure tolerance.

  • RAID 60 Striped Dual Parity and Striped—(Not supported for PCH SSD Controller Definition) Data is striped across multiple striped dual parity disk sets to provide high throughput and greater disk failure tolerance.

    Note 

    Some Cisco UCS servers require a license for certain RAID configuration options. When Cisco UCS Manager associates a service profile containing this local disk policy with a server, Cisco UCS Manager verifies that the selected RAID option is properly licensed. If there are issues, Cisco UCS Manager displays a configuration error during the service profile association.

    For RAID license information for a specific Cisco UCS server, see the Hardware Installation Guide for that server.

Step 5

Click OK.

The system displays whether it saved the modified PCH Controller Definition successfully.

What to do next

If you had disassoicated the server from the service profile to modify RAID level from RAID 0 Striped or RAID 1 Mirrored to NO RAID, then perform the following steps:

  1. For any M4 server, re-acknowledge the server. Refer Reacknowledging a Rack-Mount Server in Cisco UCS Manager Server Management Guide.

  2. Associate the service profile to the server. Refer Associating a Service Profile with a Server or Server Pool in Cisco UCS Manager Server Management Guide.

Deleting a Storage Profile PCH Controller Definition

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 2

Expand Storage Profiles.

Step 3

Expand PCH Controller Definitions.

Step 4

In the Navigation pane, click the specific Controller Definition that you want to delete.

Step 5

In the General tab Actions area, click Delete.

Step 6

Confirm whether you want to delete the definition.

The system displays whether it deleted the definition successfully. if not, see PCH Controller Definition Configuration Troubleshooting

Step 7

If successfully deleted, click OK.

PCH Controller Definition Configuration Troubleshooting

PCH Controller Definition Creation

Unsuccessful PCH Controller Definition configuration exists under the following situations:

  • You try to configure a Controller definition for an unsupported server model

  • You try to use the legacy local disk configuration policy and also configures the PCH storage in storage profile

  • You try to configure same controller using storage profile controller definition and also by using storage profile Local LUN configuration interface

  • If the Protect Configuration checkbox is ON and you configured the RAID Type differently than the deployed configuration in SWRAID mode.

  • If the Protect Configuration checkbox is ON and the RAID Type does not match the present controller mode.


Warning

Any configuration change in the PCH storage configuration (like Controller mode change, RAID level change or controller qualifier change) for an already associated server triggers a PNUOS boot to happen causing a down time for the host OS.

Boot Policy

A configuration error occurs for any of the following cases:

  • You select PCH Disk in boot policy but the primary or secondary target path slot number did not match with any of the inventoried internal SSD slot numbers.

  • You select both PCH LUN and PCH Disk at the sam a time in the boot policy.

Firmware

For an incompatible software combination, there will not be any configuration error to at the time of association. However the storage configuration for the PCH SSD controller might fail or might not be deployed during association if you do not use the supported software combinations. Also, booting from the PCH SSD controller internal SSD might fail at the end of association for an incompatible software combination.

Replacing a Faulty M.2 Disk

Perform this procedure to replace a faulty M.2 disk.

Before you begin

Ensure that the SWRAID controller definition is configured and the replacement disk formatted empty drive.

Procedure

Step 1

Gracefully power down the server.

Step 2

Physically remove the faulty M.2 drive. Use the Serial Number and Disk Slot to identity the faulty disk.

Step 3

Insert the replacement M.2 drive.
Step 4

Power on the server.
Step 5

Wait for the disk to rebuild and then re-acknowledge the server.

Note 

SWRAID rebuild may take anywhere between 35 to 75 minutes depending on the disk size, disk speed, OS content, and other parameters.

AHCI is a NORAID configuration and hence rebuild is not applicable.
Note 

After replacing the faulty M.2 drive, the operability state and drive-state of the drive in other slot change to Degraded and Rebuilding. To bring back the drive to normal state, decommission and recommission the blade.

Associating a Storage Profile with an Existing Service Profile

You can associate a storage profile with an existing service profile or a new service profile. See Creating a Service Profile with the Expert Wizard.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Servers.

Step 2

Expand Servers > Service Profiles.

Step 3

Expand the node for the organization that contains the service profile that you want to associate with a storage profile.

Step 4

Choose the service profile that you want to associate with a storage profile.

Step 5

In the Work pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 6

Click the LUN Configuration subtab.

Step 7

In the Actions area, click Modify Storage Profile. The Modify Storage Profile dialog box appears.

Step 8

Click the Storage Profile Policy tab.

Step 9

To associate an existing storage profile with this service profile, select the storage profile that you want to associate from the Storage Profile drop-down list, and click OK. The details of the storage profile appear in the Storage Items area.

Step 10

To create a new storage profile and associate it with this service profile, click Create Storage Profile, complete the required fields, and click OK. Creating a Storage Profile provides more information on creating a new storage profile.

Step 11

(Optional) To dissociate the service profile from a storage profile, select No Storage Profile from the Storage Profile drop-down list, and click OK.

Configuring Storage Profiles

Importing Foreign Configurations for a RAID Controller on a Blade Server

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers.

Step 3

Choose the server of the RAID controller for which you want to import foreign configurations.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the Inventory tab and then the Storage subtab.

Step 5

Click the Controller subtab.

Step 6

In the Actions area, click Import Foreign Configuration.

Importing Foreign Configurations for a RAID Controller on a Rack Server

Configuring Local Disk Operations on a Blade Server

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers.

Step 3

Choose the server for which you want to configure local disk operations.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the Inventory tab and then the Storage subtab.

Step 5

Click the Disks subtab.

Step 6

Right-click the disk that you want and select one of the following operations:

  • Clear Foreign Configuration State—Clears any foreign configuration that exists in a local disk when it is introduced into a new configuration.
  • Set Unconfigured Good—Specifies that the local disk can be configured.
  • Set Prepare For Removal—Specifies that the local disk is marked for removal from the chassis.
  • Set Undo Prepare For Removal—Specifies that the local disk is no longer marked for removal from the chassis.
  • Mark as Dedicated Hot Spare—Specifies the local disk as a dedicated hot spare. You can select the virtual drive from the available drives.
  • Remove Hot Spare—Specifies that the local disk is no longer a hot spare.
  • Set JBOD to Unconfigured Good—Specifies that the new local disk can be configured after being marked as Unconfigured Good.

Configuring Local Disk Operations on a Rack Server

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Rack Mounts > Servers.

Step 3

Choose the server for which you want to configure local disk operations.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the Inventory tab and then the Storage subtab.

Step 5

Click the Disks subtab.

Step 6

Right-click the disk that you want and select one of the following operations:

  • Clear Foreign Configuration State—Clears any foreign configuration that exists in a local disk when it is introduced into a new configuration.
  • Set Unconfigured Good—Specifies that the local disk can be configured.
  • Set Prepare For Removal—Specifies that the local disk is marked for removal.
  • Set Undo Prepare For Removal—Specifies that the local disk is no longer marked for removal.
  • Mark as Dedicated Hot Spare—Specifies the local disk as a dedicated hot spare. You can select the virtual drive from the available drives.
  • Remove Hot Spare—Specifies that the local disk is no longer a hot spare.
  • Set JBOD to Unconfigured Good—Specifies that the new local disk can be configured after being marked as Unconfigured Good.

Configuring Local Disk Operations

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 4

Click the Disks subtab.

Step 5

Right-click the disk that you want and select one of the following operations:

  • Clear Foreign Configuration State—Clears any foreign configuration that exists in a local disk when it is introduced into a new configuration.
  • Set Unconfigured Good—Specifies that the local disk can be configured.
  • Set Prepare For Removal—Specifies that the local disk is marked for removal from the chassis.
  • Set Undo Prepare For Removal—Specifies that the local disk is no longer marked for removal from the chassis.
  • Mark as Dedicated Hot Spare—Specifies the local disk as a dedicated hot spare. You can select the virtual drive from the available drives.
  • Remove Hot Spare—Specifies that the local disk is no longer a hot spare.
  • Set JBOD to Unconfigured Good—Specifies that the new local disk can be configured after being marked as Unconfigured Good.

Deleting an Orphan Virtual Drive

Procedure
Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 4

Click the LUNs subtab.

Step 5

Right-click the virtual drive that you want and select Delete Orphaned LUN.

A confirmation dialog box appears.

Step 6

Click Yes.

Deleting an Orphan Virtual Drive on a Rack Server

Procedure
Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Rack Mounts > Servers.

Step 3

Choose the server for which you want to delete an orphan virtual drive.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the Inventory tab and then the Storage subtab.

Step 5

Click the LUNs subtab.

Step 6

Right-click the virtual drive that you want and select Delete Orphaned LUN.

A confirmation dialog box appears.

Step 7

Click Yes.

Renaming an Orphan Virtual Drive on a Blade Server

Procedure
Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers.

Step 3

Choose the server for which you want to rename an orphan virtual drive.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the Inventory tab and then the Storage subtab.

Step 5

Click the LUNs subtab.

Step 6

Right-click the virtual drive that you want and select Rename Referenced LUN.

Step 7

In the Rename Referenced LUN dialog box that appears, enter the new LUN Name.

Step 8

Click OK.

Renaming an Orphan Virtual Drive on a Rack Server

Procedure
Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Rack Mounts > Servers.

Step 3

Choose the server for which you want to rename an orphan virtual drive.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the Inventory tab and then the Storage subtab.

Step 5

Click the LUNs subtab.

Step 6

Right-click the virtual drive that you want and select Rename Referenced LUN.

Step 7

In the Rename Referenced LUN dialog box that appears, enter the new LUN Name.

Step 8

Click OK.

Boot Policy for Local Storage

You can specify the primary boot device for a storage controller as a local LUN or a JBOD disk. Each storage controller can have one primary boot device. However, in a storage profile, you can set only one device as the primary boot LUN.


Note

Cisco UCS S3260 M3 server nodes do not support Any as an option for the Local LUN Image Path while adding a local LUN to the boot policy through the Cisco UCS Manager GUI. In the Cisco UCS Manager CLI, Cisco UCS S3260 M3 server nodes do not support the local-any command option.

Configuring the Boot Policy for an Embedded Local LUN


Note

  • For a Cisco UCS S3260 M3 server node, before you migrate the boot policy from a local LUN or JBOD to an embedded local LUN or disk, you must delete the local storage configuration, wait for the association to complete and finally add the new local storage configuration. This will enable the boot operation from the PCH disks or LUNs.

  • Specify one bootable LUN as either primary or secondary boot device. If you specify the bootable LUN as both primary and secondary boot devices, the boot policy will result in the service profile configuration error.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Servers.

Step 2

Expand Servers > Policies.

Step 3

Expand the node for the organization where you want to create the policy.

If the system does not include multitenancy, expand the root node.

Step 4

Select the boot policy that you want to configure.

Step 5

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 6

Click the down arrows to expand the Local Devices area.

Step 7

Click Add Embedded Local LUN to configure the boot order of the local LUN.

Step 8

To configure the local LUN as the primary boot device, select Primary.

Step 9

In the LUN Name field, enter the name of the LUN to be configured as the primary boot device.

Step 10

Click OK.

Configuring the Boot Policy for an Embedded Local Disk


Note

For UCSC-C125 server, if there is no separate PCIe storage controller, then do not configure boot policy for embedded local disk. Instead, use Add Local Disk option.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Servers.

Step 2

Expand Servers > Policies.

Step 3

Expand the node for the organization where you want to create the policy.

If the system does not include multitenancy, expand the root node.

Step 4

Select the boot policy that you want to configure.

Step 5

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 6

Click the down arrows to expand the Local Devices area.

Step 7

Click Add Embedded Local Disk to configure the local JBOD device as the primary boot device.

BOD is supported only on the following servers:

  • Cisco UCS B200 M3 blade server

  • Cisco UCS B260 M4 blade server

  • Cisco UCS B460 M4 blade server

  • Cisco UCS B200 M4 blade server

  • Cisco UCS C220 M4 rack-mount server

  • Cisco UCS C240 M4 rack-mount server

  • Cisco UCS C460 M4 rack-mount server

  • All Cisco UCS M5 servers

  • Cisco UCS S3260 M4 and M5 servers
Step 8

In the Disk Slot Number field, enter the slot number of the JBOD disk to be configured as the primary boot device.

Step 9

Click OK.

Local LUN Operations in a Service Profile

Preprovisioning a LUN Name

Preprovisioning a LUN name can be done only when the admin state of the LUN is Undeployed. If this LUN name exists and the LUN is orphaned, its is claimed by the service profile. If this LUN does not exist, a new LUN is created with the specified name.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Servers.

Step 2

Expand Servers > Service Profiles > Service_Profile_Name.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 4

Click the LUN Configuration tab.

Step 5

In the Local LUNs subtab, right-click the LUN for which you want to preprovision a LUN name and select Pre-Provision LUN Name.

Step 6

In the Set Pre-Provision LUN Name dialog box, enter the LUN name.

Step 7

Click OK.

Claiming an Orphan LUN

Claiming an orphan LUN can be done only when the admin state of the LUN is Undeployed. You can explicitly change the admin state of the LUN to Undeployed for claiming an orphan LUN.

If the LUN name is empty, set a LUN name before claiming it.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Servers.

Step 2

Expand Servers > Service Profiles > Service_Profile_Name.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 4

Click the LUN Configuration tab.

Step 5

In the Local LUNs subtab, right-click the LUN that you want to claim and select Claim Orphan LUN.

Step 6

In the Claim Orphan LUN dialog box that appears, select an orphaned LUN.

Step 7

Right-click the LUN and select Set Admin State.

Step 8

In the Set Admin State dialog box that appears, select Undeployed to undeploy a LUN and claim ownership.

Step 9

Click OK.

Deploying and Undeploying a LUN

You can deploy or undeploy a LUN. If the admin state of a local LUN is Undeployed, the reference of that LUN is removed and the LUN is not deployed.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Servers.

Step 2

Expand Servers > Service Profiles > Service_Profile_Name.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 4

Click the LUN Configuration tab.

Step 5

In the Local LUNs subtab, right-click the LUN that you want to deploy or undeploy and select Set Admin State.

Step 6

In the Set Admin State dialog box that appears, select Online to deploy a LUN or Undeployed to undeploy a LUN.

Step 7

Click OK.

Renaming a Service Profile Referenced LUN

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Servers.

Step 2

Expand Servers > Service Profiles > Service_Profile_Name.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Storage tab.

Step 4

Click the LUN Configuration tab.

Step 5

In the Local LUNs subtab, right-click the LUN for which you want to rename the referenced LUN, and select Rename Referenced LUN.

Step 6

In the Rename Referenced LUN dialog box that appears, enter the new name of the referenced LUN.

Step 7

Click OK.