Describing Cisco UCS Components
Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System The Cisco UCS X-Series Modular system, shown in Figure 16-17, is the latest generation of the Cisco UCS. Here are the major new features: Figure 16-17 Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System The new Cisco UCS X9508 chassis provides a new and adaptable substitute for the first generation of the […]
Cisco UCS Blade Chassis The Cisco UCS 5108 chassis incorporates unified fabric; integrated, embedded management; and Fabric Extender technology. It uses fewer physical components, has no need for independent management, and enables greater energy efficiency than traditional blade server chassis. This simplicity eliminates the need for dedicated chassis management and blade switches, reduces cabling, and […]
Cisco IOM Product Overview Cisco UCS 2200 Series Fabric Extenders, shown in Figure 16-9, bring the unified fabric into the blade server enclosure, providing multiple 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections between blade servers and the Fabric Interconnect, simplifying diagnostics, cabling, and management. This series is a second-generation I/O module (IOM) that shares the same form factor as […]
Zoning Configuration The configuration of the zoning on the Cisco MDS and Nexus switches is specific to Cisco’s implementation of the Fibre Channel Protocol, and even though it is based on the Fibre Channel Protocol standard, there’s still the need to have a more flexible approach that also considers features such as the VSANs—something that […]
FLOGI Process After the N_Port and the F_Port are physically connected, the negotiations at the physical layer are successful, and the electrical parameters are in sync, the link negotiation and the registration to the fabric start. This is the FLOGI process, which can be described as the initial bootstrap process that occurs when an N_Port […]
PLOGI Process After a successful FLOGI process, the N_Port can communicate in the switched fabric. This means sending FC frames to another FC node. That other FC node (either an initiator or target) is connected to the fabric through an N_Port as well. As you already know, FCP is a protocol that is focused on […]
Cisco Unified Fabric Historically, data centers have always had two separate major communication infrastructures: the local area network (LAN) and the storage area network (SAN). The LAN infrastructure provides connectivity between the users and the applications running on the servers, and between the various applications in the data center, such as databases, application front ends, […]
FCoE Initialization Protocol The FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) is defined by the T11 FC-BB-5 standard as the control plane component of the FCoE protocol. The FCoE protocol is the other component from that standard, and it is defined as the data plane. This means that FIP is responsible for exchanging the needed information, performing the […]
Fibre Channel Flow Control One of the major goals for the FC Protocol communication is to create a secure and reliable environment that allows all the FC frames to be received at the destination and to be received in the correct order. You saw how the whole FC switched fabric converges as well as how […]
VSAN Overview It’s very common to use the analogy of Ethernet’s VLANs when explaining FC VSANs. Certainly, there are a lot of similarities between the two, but do not forget that these are features of two very different communication protocols, so there are some fundamental differences. So, what is a VSAN, and why do you […]