Release Notes for Cisco UCS Platform

Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1)

First Published: September 16, 2014

Current Release: 2.2(3aPE1)

This document describes system requirements, new features, images information, known caveats and
workarounds for Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1). This document also includes
current information that became available after the technical documentation was published.
Use this release notes as a supplement with the other documents listed in the documentation roadmap
http://www.cisco.com/go/unifiedcomputing/b-series-doc.
Make sure to review other available documentation on Cisco.com to obtain current information on Cisco
UCS Platform Emulator.

Contents
This document includes the following sections:
• Revision History, page 2
• Introduction, page 3
• New Hardware Features, page 4
• New Software Features, page 4
• Known Limitations, page 5
• Open Caveats for Release 2.2(3aPE1), page 6
• Related Documentation, page 7

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 Revision History

Revision History
Table 1 shows the revision history:

Table 1 Online History Changes

Release Date Description
2.1(1aPE1) November 26, 2012 Created Release notes for Cisco UCS
Platform Emulator, Release 2.1
2.1(1aPE2) December 20, 2012 Updated release information to support
Release 2.1(1aPE2).
Updated: New Software Features and
Known Limitations
Added: CSCud75075
2.1(1aPE3) February 21, 2012 Added: CSCud77593, CSCud93243,
CSCue20944, CSCud92761, and
CSCue27490.
2.1(2aPE1) July 25, 2013 Updated release information to support
Release 2.1(2aPE1).
Updated: New Hardware Features, New
Software Features, Known Limitations
Added: CSCui24389, CSCue30603
CSCuh85876, CSCue13729, and
CSCui21714
2.1 (3aPE1) September 11, 2013 Added:
• New SmartPlay Bundles
• New Intel Ivy Bridge Processors
2.2 (1bPE1) December 17, 2013 Updated the following information to
support UCS PE 2.2(1bPE1)
Updated: New Hardware Features, New
Software Features, Known Limitations
Added: CSCul42638, CSCul28894,
CSCul49145, CSCum00462 and
CSCum05692
2.2 (2cPE1) June 4, 2014 Updated the following information to
support UCS PE 2.2(2cPE1)
Updated: New Hardware Features, New
Software Features, Open Caveats for
Release 2.2 (2cPE1)
Added: CSCup15041and CSCum09806
2.2(3aPE1) September 16, 2014 Updated the following information to
support UCS PE 2.2(3aPE1)
Updated: New Hardware Features, New
Software Features, Open Caveats for
Release 2.2(3aPE1)

Release Notes for Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1)

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 Introduction

Introduction
Cisco UCS Platform Emulator is the Cisco UCS Manager application bundled into a virtual machine
(VM). The VM includes software that emulates hardware communications for the Cisco Unified
Computing System (Cisco UCS) hardware that is configured and managed by Cisco UCS Manager. For
example, you can use Cisco UCS Platform Emulator to create and test a supported Cisco UCS
configuration, or to duplicate an existing Cisco UCS environment for troubleshooting or development
purposes.

Note Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1) replaces Release 2.2 (2cPE1). You should recreate a
new Cisco UCS Platform Emulator VM with the newest Cisco UCS Platform Emulator version to use
the latest features.

Cisco UCS Platform Emulator Virtual Machine Packaging

Cisco UCS Platform Emulator is packaged as a compact virtual machine (VM) with the CentOS open
source Linux distribution. This VM can run a Cisco UCS Manager multichassis, multiblade simulation
on a laptop or desktop computer and does not require an Internet connection. Cisco UCS Platform
Emulator is delivered as a zip file and as an .ova file. The zip file includes the.vmx file. The filename of
the zip file includes the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator release number, such as
Cisco_UCS_Platform_Emulator_2.2.3aPE1.zip. The file size is approximately 490 to 500 MB.

System Requirements
Before installing Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, ensure the system meets the following requirements:
• 2 GB free RAM
• 8 GB disk space
• 1.8-GHz single CPU
• A Mozilla-compatible browser (Firefox or Google Chrome)
• Java Runtime Environment 1.6 or later. You can download files from http://www.java.com

Virtual Machine Prerequisites

Before installing Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, install one of the following supported virtual machine
(VM) hypervisors:
• VMware Player 4.0 and above for Microsoft Windows and Linux
• VMware Workstation 7 and above for Microsoft Windows and Linux
• VMware Fusion 4.0 and above for Mac OS X
• VMware vSphere ESXi 4.0 and above
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server
• Java Runtime Environment Version 1.7

Release Notes for Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1)

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 New Hardware Features

New Hardware Features

Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1), adds support for the following new hardware:
• New Blade Server UCSB-B200-M4 added
• Added support for the following rack servers:
– Cisco UCSC-C220-M4S
– Cisco UCSC-C220 - M4L
– Cisco UCSC-C240-M4S
– Cisco UCSC-C240-M4L
– Cisco UCSC-C240-M4S2
– Cisco UCSC-C240-M4SX
• Added support for the following Network Adapters:
– UCSB-MLOM-40G-03
– UCSC-MLOM-CSC-02
– UCSB-VIC-M83-8P
• Added the following new templates for UCSB-B200-M4, UCSC-C240-M4L/M4S/M4S2/M4SX,
and UCSC-C220-M4L/M4S servers:
– B200M4Large
– B200M4Low
– B200M4Medium1
– B200M4Medium2
– B200M4Medium3
– B200M4Medium4
– C220M4SHigh
– C220M4SMedium1
– C220M4SMedium2
– C240M4SXMedium
– C240M4SXHigh1
– C240M4SXHigh2

New Software Features

This section briefly describes the new features introduced in Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release
2.2(3aPE1). For detailed information about the features listed, see the documents listed in the “Related
Documentation” section.
Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1) includes the following new features:
• Fabric Interconnect-IOM Links Configuration support
• Automatic update of DB Persistence value to reset DB on performing a configuration change on the
control panel

Release Notes for Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1)

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 Known Limitations

• Extended Direct Connect Rack support to configure multiple and different adapters on a rack
server
• New default configuration containing a mix of M3 and M4 blade and rack servers.

Known Limitations
Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1) has the following limitations:
• Download of stripped-down version of UCS Firmware- From UCS PE 2.2(1bPE1) onwards, only
the stripped-down version of size less than 50 KB is available for download. The download of
regular (non-stripped version) version is not supported anymore.
• Import from a running Cisco UCS system and import from XML—If you import a setup with
rack servers, we recommend that the setup is either a true high-availability (HA) or a true
stand-alone setup. If there is a mixed configuration then the import may not work.
• Recommission and decommission—Chassis and blade server recommission and decommission are
not supported. Only rack servers can be recommissioned or decommissioned.
• Domain Name Server (DNS) resolution— DNS resolution is not available for Cisco UCS Platform
Emulator. All domain names must be resolved manually using a static IP address.
• Blade server discovery—When a blade server discovery is complete, performing a power ON/OFF
to boot the server is not supported.
• Syslog—Cisco UCS Platform Emulator and Cisco UCS Manager integrated with Cisco UCS
Platform Emulator does not produce a syslog.
• Data path—Cisco UCS Platform Emulator does not emulate network data flow. The software
emulates the functions that are necessary for the management plane.
• XML Export in Google Chrome—The Startup Hardware Configuration user interface allows you
to save the XML-formatted hardware configuration to a local computer. This is the client computer
that is running the browser. To save the file, click Export Configuration to XML File > Save as…
and then save the XML text to a local file. However, If you are using Google Chrome, you must save
the file as a .txt file. If you save the file in another format such as .xml, Google Chrome adds
unnecessary HTML tags in the saved file produces an incorrect XML format.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer—Microsoft Internet Explorer does not support the Cisco UCS
Platform Emulator Model Object Browser and Start-up Inventory features. To use these features,
you must use a Mozilla-compatible browsers such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. Internet
Explorer Version 8.0 and later supports other Cisco UCS Platform Emulator features.
• Cut-through interfaces—Cut-through interfaces to equipment such as IPMI and SNMP, are not
supported. Servers in a Cisco UCS domain contain integrated management controllers (CIMCs),
each of which supports an IPMI interface. The fabric interconnect components of Cisco UCS
support an SNMP interface. However, because both fabric interconnects and CIMC are considered
to be endpoints of the Cisco UCS management system, these interfaces are cut-through interfaces
that bypass Cisco UCS Manager, the central management system.
• Serial over LAN, FTP, TFTP, Telnet— Similarly to SNMP and IPMI interfaces, serial over LAN,
TFTP, FTP, and Telnet access (through user-facing or management-plane-facing Ethernet interfaces)
is not available because they bypass the management software and are considered cut-through
access. SSH is supported only to the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator management IP through the
config user for Cisco UCS Manager CLI access.

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 Open Caveats for Release 2.2(3aPE1)

• Keyboard/Video/Mouse (KVM)— KVM is a cut-through interface. Cisco UCS Platform Emulator

does not support KVM because there are no physical servers attached to the emulation system to
which KVM could connect. Launching the KVM console does not display an error message.
• Emulation of high-availability failover— No failover scenario is supported. If one management
process dies, the other does not take over.
• Configuration of UCSC-PCIE-CSC-02 adaptor
• AAA-based authentication (LDAP, RADIUS, TACACs)— In emulation mode, Cisco UCS
Manager accepts security configuration changes, but does not enforce local or remote password
authentication. Any username and password combination can successfully log in to the Cisco UCS
Manager GUI with administrator privileges. If a local user is created with a role and locale, Cisco
UCS Platform Emulator enforces role, privilege, and locale definitions for the user logging in,
allowing an end user to test how roles, privileges, and locales function in Cisco UCS Manager.
• Remote monitoring (SNMP, Syslog, Call Home, Smart Call Home)—Cisco UCS Platform
Emulator does not support remote monitoring of Cisco UCS Manager on any interface except the
Cisco UCS Manager XML API. You can configure SNMP (traps or gets), local or remote syslog,
Call Home, and Smart Call Home remote monitoring in Cisco UCS Platform Emulator but you
cannot send or query data through those interfaces.
• Cisco UCS Manager database backup and restore—Cisco UCS Platform Emulator does not
support full- state back up or restore configurations from within Cisco UCS Manager. If a user
imports a system backup which consists of switch configurations such as VLAN, CallHome, and so
on, the import operation fails.
• Capability catalog—Cisco UCS Platform Emulator does not support updating the capability
catalog in Cisco UCS Manager. Cisco UCS Platform Emulator supports only the original capability
catalog.
• Hardware changes—The following list describes the hardware changes:
– Cisco UCS Platform Emulator does not support adding or removing hardware, such as servers,
chassis, I/O modules, and power supplies, dynamically in the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator
control panel. Adding, modifying, or removing hardware in the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator
startup hardware configuration requires you to restart the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator
application software.
• Import from Direct Connectivity set up - The following list describes the limitations:
– While importing from Direct Connect Rack set up, the Live Import feature imports only a pure
set up (Rack servers are directly connected to the switch with no Fabric Extenders (FEX) or can
have a dangling Fabric Extender (FEX) connected only to the switch). If there is a mixed
configuration then, the import may fail to work.

Open Caveats for Release 2.2(3aPE1)

This section lists the open caveats for this release.

Release Notes for Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1)

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 Related Documentation

Bug ID Symptom Workaround

CSCul28894 On performing an auto-install two or more times Restart UCSPE and perform
subsequently, a few BIOS firmwares do not get auto-install directly to the
updated and show a failure. firmware version desired.
CSCum00462 Unpacking the regular (non-stripped) UCSM Factory Reset operation is
bundle fails and UCS Platform Emulator is required to recover the setup.
unresponsive.
CSCum05692 On auto-install, some servers might show up a Update firmware for that specific
major fault with board controller firmware server using service profile or
update failing. restart UCSPE and try
auto-install again.

Related Documentation
For more information, you can access related documents from the following links:
• Link to bundle images document
• Cisco UCS Documentation Roadmap

Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

For information on obtaining documentation, using the Cisco Bug Search Tool (BST), submitting a
service request, and gathering additional information, see What’s New in Cisco Product Documentation
at: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html.
Subscribe to What’s New in Cisco Product Documentation, which lists all new and revised
Cisco technical documentation, as an RSS feed and deliver content directly to your desktop using a
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This document is to be used in conjunction with the documents listed in the “Related Documentation” section.

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Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any
examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only.
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Release Notes for Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(3aPE1)

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