UCS Central
Best Practices
UCS
Jeff Silberman (jesilber@cisco.com)
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UCS Manager
Domain
Server
Single
Datacenter
Global
Datacenters
Chassis
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Administrative power is HIGHLY concentrated

Slightest changes can have broadest consequences
Everything is “Opt-In” and “Bottom-Up”
•
-
•
Registration is Bottom Up
Global Policy Resolution is not the default
UCS Central does not “take control”. Control is given
Migrate to Global Policies over time, as comfort increases
o
•
Global resolution can revert back to Local
Global Policy resolution promotes administrative scalability
UCS Central :
•
-
Depends on UCS Manager
Is an extension of UCS Manager and the UCS Management Model
Is NOT a replacement for UCS Manager
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• Global Policies and Global Service Profiles
• Cluster-mode High Availability
• Statistics with optional External Database Support
• Improved Graphics Display
Solid Fit For:
• Global Inventory Visibility, Global Faults,
• Global Operational Policies (Backups, TZ, DNS, …)
• Global Service Profiles for Net-new Workload
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• UCS Central 1.0(1a) works with UCSM 2.1.1 and above
• UCS Central 1.1(1a) works with UCSM 2.1.2 and above (UCSM 2.1.3 recommended)
• 4 vCPUs , 12GB Memory
• Licenses:
•L-UCS-CTR-INI=
•L-UCS-CTR-LIC=
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• Admin-defined grouping
• Any domain can only be in one DG at a time
• Domains are in “Ungrouped Domain Group” by
default
UCS Central
• Operational Policies resolve on DGs
• Domains can move between DG’s --- but it might
be disruptive
Domain Group
EUROPE
• Hierarchical Policy resolution allows local overrides
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Sub
Domain
Group
NEW
YORK
DALLAS
Domain Group
• Domain Group Policy Qualifications allow for “auto-
join” in to a DG
Sub
Domain
Group
US
Domain Group
ASIA-PACIFIC
Sub
Domain
Group
LOS
ANGELES
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• UCS Central 1.1(1a) supports either Local or LDAP
• LDAP Attribute-based authentication requires a schema change
UCS Role to LDAP Group support is currently missing
• UCS Central uses “root” DG for authentication.
If using global authentication, then do not populate the “root” DG with UCS domains
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• Use “G-” prefix for Global Objects
• Avoid using “global-default” or “default”
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Best
Practice
• Maintain the default local policy resolution. Gain comfort and understanding, prior
to a broader adoption of global policies
• Use “Import” when possible
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Best
Practice
• Use the UCS Platform Emulator
• Use UCS Central with Global Objects for Net-New Workload deployments
• Leave existing workloads in Locally managed mode, until end of lifecycle
• Local Affinity exists for External IP Pools and Boot Policies
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Best
Practice
• Just Do It
UCS Central Objects can’t be automatically re-created from UCS backups

Domain Groups don’t’ exist in UCSM

Operational Policies terminate on Domain Groups
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o Global Objects visible from “drop-down” menus, or “pulled in” to UCSM when needed
upon deployment of Global Service Profiles --- but are not pushed upon creation
o Maintenance Policies
•
•
For user acknowledgement locally within UCSM, create and use Maintenance Policies
based on “user-ack”.
For acknowledgement within UCS Central, chose “timer-automatic”, and select a
Schedule that uses the “user-ack”option.
o Host OS version coverage.
Check release notes
o External Statistics Database is not backed up automatically
o UCSM may require a forced Time sync
o Avoid Hypervisor Resource Contention with other VMs
o Cluster HA Mode requires proper configuration of Shared Disk
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UCS Central Admin policies are in “root” DG
•
LDAP Authentication missing Group mappings
•
Adopting Global IDs causes service interruption in UCSM 2.1.1 and 2.1.2
•
Global UUID Pools can’t be easily adopted for existing workload
•
Domain Group Re-assignment based on DG Policy now requires “Re-evaluate Membership”
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Server Pool members are not masked by RBAC
•
Fault Summary occasionally goes blank
•
Host FW and Maintenance Policies now under “Orgs” instead of DG’s (some backward compatibility issues exist)
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VLANs can appear unreferenced
•
Default FCoE VLAN is “1” (VHBAs won’t configure, since VLAN conflicts with “default”)
•
VLANs and VSANs may persist locally, even if domain is de-registered
•
Local backups will not have global references
•
Moving objects from Local to Global mode (or back) is not supported
•
SDK programmability is a work in progress
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• The UCS Community Space
https://communities.cisco.com/ucs
• UCS Central Release Notes
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps12502/prod_installation_guides_list.html
• The UCS Central Best Practice Guide
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-35264
• The UCS Platform Emulator
http://developer.cisco.com/web/unifiedcomputing/ucsemulatordownload
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Be Conservative
•
Create a Test/Dev Sandbox, using PE’s to get comfortable
o PE’s can even be populated from live UCSM configs
•
UCS Central is the most important and ambitious product
since UCS Manager itself
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Please Be Careful
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Thank you.