User guide

3.0 Infrastructure Components

The following sections detail the infrastructure components used in this configuration.

3.1 Cisco Unified Computing System

The Cisco Unified Computing System is a next-generation data center platform that unites compute, network,

storage access, and virtualization into a cohesive system designed to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and

increase business agility. The Cisco Unified Computing System server portfolio consists of the Blade Server

platform, B-Series and the C-Series Rack Mount platform. We chose the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Server

platform for this study. The system integrates a low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric

with enterprise-class, x86-architecture servers. The system is an integrated, scalable, multi-chassis platform in

which all resources participate in a unified management domain.

The main system components include:

Compute—the system is based on an entirely new class of computing system that incorporates blade servers

based on Intel Xeon 5500 Series Processors. The Cisco UCS blade servers offer patented Cisco Extended

Memory Technology to support applications with large datasets and allow more virtual machines per server.

Network—the system is integrated onto a low-latency, lossless, 10-Gbps unified network fabric. This network

foundation consolidates what today are three separate networks: LANs, SANs, and high-performance computing

networks. The unified fabric lowers costs by reducing the number of network adapters, switches, and cables, and

by decreasing power and cooling requirements.

Virtualization—the system unleashes the full potential of virtualization by enhancing the scalability, performance,

and operational control of virtual environments. Cisco security, policy enforcement, and diagnostic features are

now extended into virtualized environments to better support changing business and IT requirements.

Storage access—the system provides consolidated access to both SAN storage and Network Attached Storage

(NAS) over the unified fabric. Unifying storage access means that the Cisco Unified Computing System can

access storage over Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and iSCSI, providing

customers with choice and investment protection. In addition, administrators can pre-assign storage-access

policies for system connectivity to storage resources, simplifying storage connectivity and management while

helping increase productivity.

Management—the system uniquely integrates all the system components, enabling the entire solution to be

managed as a single entity through the Cisco UCS Manager software. The Cisco UCS Manager provides an

intuitive graphical user interface (GUI), a command-line interface (CLI), and a robust application programming

interface (API) to manage all system configuration and operations. The Cisco UCS Manager helps increase IT

staff productivity, enabling storage, network, and server administrators to collaborate on defining service profiles

for applications. Service profiles are logical representations of desired physical configurations and infrastructure

policies. They help automate provisioning and increase business agility, allowing data center managers to

provision resources in minutes instead of days.

Working as a single, cohesive system, these components unify technology in the data center. They represent a

radical simplification in comparison to traditional systems, helping simplify data center operations while reducing

power and cooling requirements. The system amplifies IT agility for improved business outcomes. The Cisco

Unified Computing System components illustrated in Figure 1 include, from left to right, fabric interconnects, blade

server chassis, blade servers, and in the foreground, fabric extenders and network adapters.