LAN and SAN Connectivity for a Cisco UCS Blade
Document ID: 110202
Contents
Introduction
Prerequisites
Requirements
Components Used
Network Diagram
Conventions
Background Information
Main Task
Task
Create Global VLAN
Create Global VSAN
Create vHBAs
Create vNICs
Associate Server to Service Profile
Verify
Troubleshoot
Related Information
Introduction
In order to understand blade management in the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), it is key to
understand the Service Profile or logical server. The Service Profile represents a logical view of a single blade
server, without the need to know exactly which blade you discuss. The profile object contains the server
personality, for example, identity and network information and so forth. The profile can then be associated
with a single blade at a time.
The concept of profiles was invented to support the notion of logical server mobility or the transfer of identity
transparently from one blade to another, as well as pooling concept. Even if you intend to manage the blade
server as a traditional individual server, and do not take advantage of mobility or pooling, you still have to
create and manage a service profile for the blade. While you can boot a blade without a service profile, it does
not have a network or SAN connectivity.
This is a summary of contents of a service profile in Cisco UCS:
Identity information for Server (UUID)•
World−Wide Node Name (Server−wide)•
LAN/SAN configuration (through vNIC/vHBA configuration)
Identity of NIC/HBA (MAC/WWN)♦
Ethernet NIC Profile♦
VLAN/ VSAN configuration information♦
•
Boot Order•
Various Policies•
This document assumes Cisco UCS Manager connectivity works and all hardware was discovered correctly.
Prerequisites
Requirements
Cisco recommends that you have knowledge of Cisco UCS Server Blade hardware administration.
Components Used
The information in this document is based on the Cisco UCS.
The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab environment. All of the
devices used in this document started with a default configuration. If your network is live, make sure that you
understand the potential impact of any command.
Network Diagram
This document uses this network setup, which is a typical Cisco UCS topology:
Conventions
Refer to the Cisco Technical Tips Conventions for more information on document conventions.
Background Information
vNICs and vHBAs are the trickiest part of service profiles. vNICs are identified on MAC and vHBA are
identified on WWN.
For adapters with only physical NICs, for example, Cisco UCS CNA M71KR and Cisco UCS 82598KR, you
must create a vNIC for each NIC you want to make usable on the network within Cisco UCS. Then vNIC has
a switch setting and a failover flag. For Cisco UCS 82598KR, you must match the physical setting so that the
first adapter goes to Fabric Interconnect A and the second to Fabric Interconnect B, and you cannot choose
failover. For Cisco UCS CNA M71KR, each vNIC is associated with a particular Fabric Interconnect, but you
can enable failover.
Each vNIC must be associated with one or more VLANs, which means each VLAN must be globally
configured, and the default VLAN (VLAN 1) must still be specifically associated with a vNIC if any default
network traffic is to reach the adapter on the blade associated with the profile that contains the vNIC. The
most typical simple configuration is a vNIC which supports only the default VLAN.
There is a flag, most often associated with the default VLAN, that declares a VLAN the default network for a
particular vNIC. This flag indicates that traffic on that VLAN comes through to the NIC untagged, so in other
words, the NIC in the OS can remain VLAN−unaware.
If a vNIC supports VLANs, which are not the default network for that particular vNIC, traffic for those
VLANs come through to the NIC with VLAN tagging intact. This NIC must then be configured in its OS as
VLAN−aware.
Physical Adapter For adapters with only physical NICs (Cisco UCS M71KR, Cisco UCS 82598KR), you
must create a vNIC for each NIC you want to make usable on the network within Cisco UCS. Then, vNIC has
a switch setting and a failover flag. For the Cisco UCS 82598KR, you must match the physical setting so that
the first adapter goes to switch A and the second to switch B, and you cannot choose failover. For the Cisco
UCS M71KR, each vNIC is associated with a particular switch, but you can enable failover.
Virtualization Capable Adapter The Cisco UCS M81KR adapter supports NIC virtualization for either
single OS or for VMware ESX. Inside a single OS, each Cisco UCS M81KR vNIC is presented as a physical
adapter. For VMware, a special feature allows Cisco UCS M81KR vNICs to be presented directly to the guest
OS, bypassing the VMWare virtual switch layer. This allows efficiency and also allows Cisco UCS to
reconfigure network infrastructure if virtual machines migrate between ESX server instances on different
blades.
Main Task
Task
No network or SAN connectivity for the blade server through Cisco UCS fabric exists without a service
profile. This document shows how to configure basic LAN and SAN connectivity for a Cisco UCS blade with
the creation of a Service Profile with these objects in order to enable a Cisco UCS blade for LAN and SAN
connectivity:
Create global VLAN (Make sure this is already created before the creation of a Service Profile)1.
Create global VSAN (Make sure this is already created before the creation of a Service Profile)2.
Create vHBAs within this Service Profile3.
Create vNICs within this Service Profile4.
Associate the created Service Profile to a Cisco UCS blade5.
This document assumes that Cisco UCS Manager connectivity works and all hardware was discovered
correctly.
Create Global VLAN
For any VLAN to be supported on any blade, a VLAN object must be created in the global Cisco UCS
configuration in the LAN tab on the navigation panel. You can also create VLANs associated with only Fabric
Interconnect A or only Fabric Interconnect B; but it is more flexible to just create them globally, and for the
VLANs to be enabled on either Fabric Interconnect.
Note: You need a unique VLAN ID for each named VLAN that you create. You cannot create VLANs with
IDs from 3968 to 4048. This range of VLAN IDs is reserved.
In the Navigation pane, choose the LAN tab.1.
Choose LAN > LAN Cloud.2.
Choose the VLANs tab in Work Pane, choose VLANs, then choose + in order to begin the VLAN
creation .
3.
Enter this information in the Create VLAN dialog box and then click OK:
In the Name field, enter a unique name for the VLAN.a.
In the ID field, enter the network ID assigned to the VLAN.
Cisco UCS Manager GUI adds the VLAN to the VLANs node under LAN Cloud.
b.
4.
VLANs that are accessible to both Fabric Interconnects are visible only in LAN Cloud >
VLANs node. You cannot see them under the Fabric Interconnect > VLANs node, which
displays only the VLANs accessible to just that Fabric Interconnect. Verify that you have
successfully created a global VLAN.
In the Navigation pane, choose the LAN tab.5.
In the LAN tab, choose LAN > LAN Cloud.6.
In the LAN Cloud, choose VLAN.7.
Choose the Global VLAN you created. Then confirm the VLAN property in the Work Pane to the
right.
8.
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