Hardware and Virtualization Software Reinstall
To setup hardware, follow the instructions in the install guide for the leveraged base server:
BE6000: Cisco UCS C220 M6 Server Installation and Service Guide
BE7000: Cisco UCS C240 M6 Server Installation and Service Guide
Note the following appliance characteristics:
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BE6000/7000 M6 appliances do not ship with Cable Management Arms, only Rack-mounting Kits.
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BE6000M (M6) appliance does not ship with any NICs, only motherboard LoM ports.
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BE7000M/H (M6) appliances ship with motherboard LoM ports as well as dual NICs (each quad 10-Gigabit-Ethernet copper).
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BE6000/7000 M6 appliances ship with latest firmware at time of factory build that is compatible with ESXi 7.0 U1. At install time, there may be newer firmware available that you can freshen the appliance to.
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BE6000M (M6) appliance requires single virtual drive, RAID5, physical disks 1-6.
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BE7000M (M6) appliance requires four virtual drives, each RAID5 with 4 physical disks.
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BE7000H (M6) appliance requires four virtual drives, each RAID5 with 6 physical disks.
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BE6000/7000 M6 appliances require virtual drives to be configured as:
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Access Policy Read Write
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Read Policy Always Read Ahead
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Cache policy as Cached IO
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Disk Cache policy as Enabled
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Write policy as Write Back Good BBU
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The first virtual drive is set as the Boot Drive.
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To install and setup VMware vSphere ESXi:
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Identify an ESXi version that is compatible with the appliance (minimum is ESX 7.0 U1) as well as the application versions you are running.
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Locate the Cisco UCS-specific installer image for ESXi, or contact TAC for assistance. BE6000/7000 use the same ESXi installer images as UCS C220 M6S / C240 M6SX.
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ESXi must be installed to the first virtual drive (configured as the Boot Drive).
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Other ESXi settings can be found at https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/cisco-collaboration-infrastructure.html .
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Apply your license for VMware vSphere ESXi. A license is required, but not included with the appliance.
After hardware setup and ESXi setup, follow steps in Set Up Your Appliance to complete the appliance rebuild.