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Release Notes for
Cisco VFrame Data Center 1.1

These release notes are for use with Cisco VFrame Data Center 1.1. They contain
the following sections:

• Product Documentation, page 2

• Key Features, page 3

• System Requirements, page 6

• Supported Devices, page 7

• Open Caveats, page 12

• Obtaining Documentation, Obtaining Support, and Security Guidelines,

page 15

Product Documentation

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Release Notes for Cisco VFrame Data Center 1.1

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Product Documentation

We sometimes update the printed and electronic documentation after original
publication. Therefore, you should also review the documentation on Cisco.com
for any updates.

Tabl e 1 describes the available VFrame Data Center documentation.

Table 1 VFrame Data Center Documentation

Document Title Available Formats

Release Notes for
Cisco VFrame Data Center 1.1

On Cisco.com.

1

1. All Cisco VFrame Data Center 1.1 documentation can be accessed through the following location:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps8463/tsd_products_support_series_home.html

Cisco VFrame Data Center 1.1
Installation and Configuration Guide

This guide is available in the following formats:

• On the product recovery CD-ROM.

• On Cisco.com.

• Printed document available by order

(part number DOC-7817674=).

2

2. For information on ordering documentation, see Obtaining Documentation, Obtaining Support, and Security Guidelines,

page 15.

Cisco VFrame Data Center 1.1
Administration Guide

This guide is available in the following formats:

• On Cisco.com.

• Included in the online help in HTML and PDF formats.

Cisco VFrame Data Center 1.1
Programmer’s Guide

On Cisco.com.

Cisco VFrame Data Center 1.1
Regulatory Compliance Information

Printed document included with the product.

Important Safety Information Printed document included with the product.

Context-sensitive online help To access online help, perform any of the following tasks:

• Choose Help > Contents to open the help system.

• Choose Help > For This Page to obtain help on the

page currently in the window.

• Click the Help button in a dialog box.

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Key Features

Key Features

VFrame Data Center is an appliance-based service orchestration solution for the
data center. With VFrame, customers can define end-to-end virtualized
application services. VFrame can discover physical resources within the data
center. Based on requirements defined for the application infrastructure resources,
VFrame can allocate appropriate physical or virtual resources and power the
application service network.

Key features of VFrame Data Center 1.1 include the following:

• Service Templates

• Service Networks

• Discovery

• Resource Pooling

• Policies

• Macros

• Lights Out Management Macros

• Storage Macros

• Role Based Access Control

• Server Remote Boot Management

• Server Image Management

• VFrame Data Center Appliance

• VFrame API and SDK

Service Templates

This is a logical definition of the application infrastructure. It defines the building
blocks (such as server groups, load balancers, and so on) and the connectivity that
is required among them. A template can be used to create multiple service
networks.

A template is like a “class” definition in object oriented programming. It defines
the basic structure and behavior of the service.

Key Features

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Service Networks

These are instantiations of a service template. These represent the running
application service network. Physical resources get mapped to a service network.

A service network is an equivalent of an “object” in object oriented programming.
It gets derived out of general “class” (template) but has specific properties
associated with the applications that it is running.

Discovery

VFrame discovers x86 based servers, Network attached and Fiber Channel
attached storage, Ethernet and Fiber Channel switches and network services
modules such as firewalls and load balancers.

Resource Pooling

The discovered physical resources can be grouped into various groups based on
capabilities, performance, types, availability, and other user defined filters based
on the discovered attributes.

Policies

VFrame has built-in policies that allow changes to the application infrastructure.
VFrame monitors server capacity and load through a host-based agent. The
built-in policies allow server adds and deletes for CPU or memory-based
thresholds, or time-based events.

External policies can be input through the VFrame web services interface.

This allows data center administrators to manage asynchronous workloads much
more efficiently by not having dedicated servers that will idle during non-peak
hours associated with each application.

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Key Features

Macros

An open scripting interface that uses XML and Perl. This feature allows the
execution of custom user commands at predetermined events.

Lights Out Management Macros

Adapter scripts that provide power management functions for servers. These are
modular and provide a very flexible way to add server support.

Storage Macros

Modular adapters that provide a simple mechanism for Storage Array integration.

Role Based Access Control

VFrame allows multiple users to be given unique access privileges through role
definitions. The management of resources can also be segmented through the use
of virtual contexts. Virtual contexts provide separation between different
departments or customers accessing a common pool of resources.

Server Remote Boot Management

VFrame can provide PXE-based NFS boot for Linux servers and PXE/SAN-based
Fire Channel boot services for both Linux and Windows servers.

Server Image Management

Creates seamless server image snapshots to produce network-stored golden boot
images.