Cisco dCloud

Cisco UCS Central 2.0

Last Updated: 03-APRIL-2018

About This Demonstration

This is an approximately 30-minute demonstration that provides a customer with an overview of Cisco UCS Central 2.0. For a
deeper dive, see Cisco UCS Central 2.0 Basic Lab v1 and Cisco UCS Central 2.0 Advanced Lab v1 lab guides, which are also
available on dCloud.

This guide for the preconfigured demonstration includes:

• Requirements

• About This Solution

• Topology

• Session Users

• Get Started

• Scenario 1: Overview of User Interface

• Scenario 2: Register a UCS Manager Domain in UCS Central

• Scenario 3: Assign a Service Profile to a Domain

Requirements
The table below outlines the requirements for this preconfigured demonstration.

Table 1. Requirements

Required Optional

● Laptop ● Cisco AnyConnect®

About This Cisco Solution

Cisco UCS® Central extends the functions and concepts of Cisco UCS Manager. It dramatically simplifies operations, automates
routine tasks, enhances consistency, and reduces risk. Cisco UCS Central software provides unified management and scalability
of multiple Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS) domains for up to 6000 servers. It addresses the need to deploy
workloads and infrastructure and enforce policy compliance across widely separated locations. Cisco UCS Central supports global
management of inventory and resources, such as resource pools, and Cisco UCS service profiles implement automated, role- and
policy-based management on a global scale.

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Application Overview & Use Cases

Cisco UCS Central 2.0 is a virtual appliance that is downloaded as an OVA or ISO image from cisco.com and communicates with
cisco.com for HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) and firmware updates. It supports the three main virtualization platforms –
VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Linux KVM. (In this demonstration, UCS Central is deploved as an OVA on VMware’s
vSphere ESXi hypervisor.)

Other features and resource requirements, which can be briefly explained to the customer, are as follows:

• Verified to support 10,000 physical servers, although the exact upper limit is unknown at this time.

• Resource requirements: 4 CPUs, 12GB memory, 40GB disk space

• Connectivity requirements: 1.5Mbps+ bandwidth

• Latency: 500ms round trip globally

• Best practice is a single Cisco UCS installation, protected by Hypervisor HA

• Supports DR failover scenarios as long as the FQDN is constant (IP address can change) and UCS domains are
reachable

Use Case 1: UCS Information Dashboard

UCS Central is informed by the physical and logical inventory that takes place during domain registration, as well as the domain
fault roll-up and transfer of policy maps. All of the identifiers (such as UUIDs, MAC Addresses, WWNs), inventory (down to the
blade and adapter level and serial numbers), and faults are visible in UCS Central as a single pane of glass.

This use case is the basis for Scenario 1.

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Use Case 2: UCS Domain Configuration

UCS Central 2.0 provides the ability to push initial configuration information to domains during registration, without logging into the
domains individually. This includes authentication, NTP server information, firmware upgrades, backup & configuration import
scheduling, service profiles, and policies. The information can be customized on a per-domain basis and rolled out to several
domains at the same time through membership in logical groupings called domain groups, for example to domain groups that have
been configured with different NTP servers or different backup repositories.

This use case is the basis for Scenario 2.

Use Case 3: Global UCS Object Repository

The UCS Central service profile contains all the ID pools, policies, VLANs, VSANs, VNIC and VHBA templates that are needed for
domain configuration. Rather than logging into every server and using a configuration file, these entities can be pushed from UCS
Central to all the servers in a domain group at the same time.

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This use case, and use case 4, are the basis for Scenario 3.

Use Case 4: Global UCS Profile Manager

UCS Central service profile templates can include any of the items in the global repository. They provide the ability to define a
configuration once, and then replicate it via service profiles to many servers at the same time. It also allows UCS admins to make
changes on all the servers with service profiles from the same template at the same time, by making the change to an updating
service profile template. Moving service profiles from one domain to another (for site maintenance, upgrades, or outages) with
aliased VLANs and VSANs is also an advantage of using global profiles.

Topology
This content includes preconfigured users and components to illustrate the scripted scenarios and features of the solution. Most
components are fully configurable with predefined administrative user accounts. You can see the IP address and user account

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credentials to use to access a component by clicking the component icon in the Topology menu of your active session and in the
scenario steps that require their use.

Figure 1. dCloud Topology

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Get Started
BEFORE PRESENTING

Cisco dCloud strongly recommends that you perform the tasks in this document with an active session before presenting in front
of a live audience. This will allow you to become familiar with the structure of the document and content.

It may be necessary to schedule a new session after following this guide in order to reset the environment to its original
configuration.

PREPARATION IS KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATION.

Follow the steps to schedule a session of the content and configure your presentation environment.

1. Initiate your dCloud session. [Show Me How]

NOTE: It may take up to 10 minutes for your session to become active.

2. Connect to the workstation with one of the following two methods:

• Cisco AnyConnect VPN [Show Me How] and the local RDP client on your laptop [Show Me How]

• Workstation 1: 198.18.133.36, (DCLOUD\demouser/C1sco12345

• Cisco dCloud Remote Desktop Client [Show Me How]

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Scenario 1. Dashboard Overview

The purpose of this scenario is to explore the UCS Central user interface.

Steps

1. From the wkst1 desktop, open a Chrome browser window and click the UCS Central shortcut.

2. Log in to UCS Central (admin/C1sco12345).

3. Click the Dashboard Widgets Library icon to review a list of widgets that users can add to the dashboard.

4. Click any widget to add it to the dashboard. Which ones will be available depends on the permissions of the user.

5. Scroll down to the ID Universe widget to show how it provides the health status of all IDs in the system. This information is
collected automatically from day one, immediately following domain registration.

6. Click the Show Detail icon to drill down into the widget.

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7. Click the MAC wheel, then click any MAC address with a status of In Use to show the granularity of information that is
provided. As time and customer interest permit, repeat the process for other ID types.

8. Explain that UCS Central will pick up conflicts in MAC Addresses or UUIDs. IDs in newly registered domains could overlap
with IDs already assigned in UCS Central.. Such conflicts will be captured, and the admin alerted, in UCS Central.

9. Return to the Dashboard tab and demonstrate moving the widgets around on the customizable dashboard to give the
audience an idea of the flexibility of the interface.

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10. In the vertical menu, point out the Domain Groups navigation icon, which enables navigation to registered components by
domain group. The setup of the domain groups, which are physical groups of servers, as cities or countries generally mirrors
the infrastructure of the physical data center(s).

11. The Equipment menu shows the UCS domains and equipment. If desired click Domains on the equipment menu to show the
domains that are already registered.

12. The Organizations menu shows the logical network components – profiles, pools, templates, etc.

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NOTE: Role-based access control (RBAC) is tied to the organizational structure, so that individual users can be assigned a custom
view according to what they are responsible for.

13. Click down the vertical menu, showing the other sections for managing service profiles, templates, policies, LAN & SAN,
identifiers, backup and maintenance schedules, tag management and globalizations tasks. Open and explore each section
based on customer interest or as needed. In the resulting tab for each opened section, note the filters that are available on
each page to refine the view. Below are suggested talking points for some of the menus:

a. Click the Profiles menu to show the available service profiles, and note that both global and local service profiles are
displayed on this page.

b. On the Templates menu, note that templates can be used to create service profiles,

c. On the VLANs menu, note that VLAN groups are supported.

d. On the Tag Management menu, explain the power of tagging in UCS Central. Any managed object can be tagged.
Possible use cases include tagging domains in different domain groups with a tag, and scheduling a backup or a
configuration export against the tag rather than against each domain individually.

e. On the Globalization Tasks menu, explain that this feature allows local service profiles to be registered with UCS
Central and globalized without a service disruption.

14. Close all tabs to return to the dashboard.

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Scenario 2. Register a UCS Domain to UCS Central

The purpose of this scenario is to register a UCS domain with UCS Central, move the domain to a Domain Group, then explore
some global settings and the effects of global settings on domains within a domain group.

There are two ways to register a domain with UCS Central – the process can be completed either from within UCS Central, or from
within UCS Manager. This scenario shows registration from UCS Central.

During the registration process, a certificate exchange takes place between the domain and UCS Central, using a Shared Secret
that is configured during the installation process. An exhaustive physical and logical inventory takes place, as well as domain fault
roll-up and the transfer of policy usage maps if any exist. The policy usage mapping would include any local service profiles or
policies that have been created, which will now be visible in UCS Central.

Steps
1. If UCS Central is not already open, open a Chrome browser and log in (admin/C1sco12345).

2. Open a new Chrome tab and click the UCSM1 bookmark.

3. In the HTML area, click Launch UCS Manager. (It may be necessary to refresh the browser tab to make the link clickable.)

4. Log in (admin/C1sco12345).

5. Scroll down and click Admin in the side menu.

6. In the resulting navigation pane, expand Time Zone Management and click Timezone.

7. Note that the time zone is not set for this domain.

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Register a Domain to UCS Central

1. Return to UCS Central.

2. Enter Register in the Actions bar and click Register Domain to UCS Central in the resulting menu.

3. In the Basic tab screen of the Domain to UCS Central Register window, enter configuration parameters as follows:

• UCS Domain Hostname/IP Address: 198.18.133.91

• UCS Domain User Name: admin

• UCS Domain Password: C1sco12345

• Registration Hostname/IP address from UCS Central: ucs-ctl1.dcloud.cisco.com (default)

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4. Click the Policy Resolution Control tab.

5. In the Policy Resolution Control tab screen, verify that all parameters are set to Global except Infrastructure & Catalog
Firmware and Backup and Export Policies, and click Register.

NOTE: These settings might vary in a production environment.

6. Monitor the registration status, refreshing until registration is complete (approximately 90 seconds).

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7. When the Registration Status is Registered, click Equipment > Domains in the side menu.

8. Note the presence in the list of UCSM1 (New York) as an Ungrouped domain, which means that it does not belong to a UCS
Central Domain Group. Until it is assigned to a domain group, UCS Central will not push any policies down to it.

Assign the Domain to a Domain Group

1. Click UCSM1 to open a tab for the domain.

2. On the UCSM1 tab, click the System Tools icon and select Assign Domain to Domain Group.

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3. Select DG-SJC from the Domain Group Location drop-down to add UCSM1 to DG-SJC. Click Assign.

9. An Assign Domain to Domain Group window will appear to advise of potential policies and services that could be impacted
and verify domain group assignment. Click Assign.

Explore Global vs Local Parameters (Optional)

The purpose of this section is to use the Timezone setting in UCS Manager to show the effects of global vs. local parameter
settings in UCS Central registration. When the time zone is set to local, the user has control over it from UCS Manager. Once it is
set to global, it takes the setting from UCS Central and is not editable from UCS Manager.

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1. Return to the UCSM1 browser tab, which is still open to the Timezone screen in the work pane, and verify that the time zone
has changed to America/Los Angeles. This is because the Time Zone Management parameter was set for Global
management during registration with UCS Central, so the domain takes on the setting of the Time Zone Management
parameter of the UCS Central Domain Group. Note that the time zone is not editable.

2. In the navigation pane of UCS Manager, expand Communication Management and click UCS Central to review which
settings are Global and which are Local. If you see the message about Unsaved Changes, click Yes:

3. Change Time Zone Management to Local and click Save Changes.

4. Click OK on the pop-up.

5. Click Time Zone Management > Timezone in the navigation pane. Note that the Time Zone drop-down in the work pane is
not grayed out anymore – the field is editable.

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Scenario 3. Assign a Service Profile

The purpose of this scenario is to assign a service profile that exists in UCS Central to the recently created domain.

The first association of a service profile to a domain takes longer than usual because all the VLANs and VSANs are initially pushed
down to the domain. These elements remain even if the service profile is later dissociated from the domain, with the expectation
that a new service profile will be added to the domain.

For a deeper dive, and to show how to create a service profile, see the basic and advanced guides for Cisco UCS Central 2.0 Lab
v1 on dCloud.

Steps
1. If UCS Central is not already open, open a Chrome browser and log in (admin/C1sco12345).

2. In the vertical menu, click Profiles. Click GSP-DEMO-1.

3. On the GSP-DEMO-1 tab, click the Tools icon and click Assign Server Manually on the resulting menu.

4. Filter the list of all servers by selecting the following filters: UCSM1 under UCS Domain, and UCSB-B200-M4 under Server
Model.

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5. Select UCSM1 1/1 from the list of servers, and click Assign.

NOTE: Some error messages may appear on the GSP-DEMO-1 tab as the service profile is associated, these can be safely
ignored.

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6. Click the Alerts icon and select Configuration Status to monitor the configuration status until the profile is assigned to the
server and the progress status is at 100%.

7. Close the Configuration Status window.

8. Refresh until the indicator bar on the service profile is green.

NOTE: During the association of the service profile, the initial Configuration Error that will appear concerning the uplink ports is a
function of the UCSPE emulators not having real uplinks and can be safely ignored (i.e. ‘Failed to find any operational uplink
port…’). The Configuration Error will clear shortly after the service profile association is 100% complete and the screen refreshed.

9. Click the UCSM1 browser tab, or open a new browser tab, click the UCSM1 bookmark, and log in to the UCS Manager for
UCSM1 (admin/C1sco12345).

10. Click Servers in the side menu of the navigation pane, and navigate to Servers > Service Profiles > root > Sub-
Organizations > PRODUCTION to see the GSP-DEMO-1 service profile.

11. Click GSP-DEMO-1.

12. In the Work Pane under the General tab, click the Status Details bar to see the
Associated State and the Assigned State of the Global Service Profile created globally in UCS Central now running locally
on UCSM1.

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NOTE: Global Service Profiles can also be transferred between different registered UCS domains through UCS Central.

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