{"id":473,"date":"2011-09-19T10:57:17","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T16:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benincosa.com\/blog\/?p=473"},"modified":"2014-11-19T11:24:53","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T17:24:53","slug":"be-gentle-its-my-first-time-setting-up-a-ucs-blade-system-from-scratch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/?p=473","title":{"rendered":"Be gentle, its my first time: Setting up a UCS Blade System from scratch"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. \u00a0Get your basic wiring down:<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Get management IP addresses<\/h3>\n

Make sure you have at least 3 IP addresses for the Fabric Interconnect (FI) management network. \u00a0You will also need an IP address for each blade’s CIMC (translation: \u00a0From HP this is the iLO IP address, From IBM this is the IMM IP address). \u00a0The CIMCs and the 3 IP addresses for the FIs should be in the same subnet\/VLAN. \u00a0If I had 8 blades then I would need 11 IP addresses.<\/p>\n

It is easy to get confused on this because people look at the management port coming from the back of the Fabric Interconnect and think its just the management port of the Fabric Interconnect. \u00a0However, internally there is an ASIC that performs level 2 switching so all the blade CIMCs go up through this port as well. \u00a0That’s why you need to keep this on the same network and VLAN.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Cable the chassis to the Fabric Interconnects.<\/h3>\n

We usually put all the ports on the left side of the back of the chassis up to the top fabric interconnect and all the ports on the right side to the bottom fabric interconnect. \u00a0When I first saw this I thought: \u00a0Where is the redundancy? \u00a0It seemed to me that each I\/O module in the back of the chassis should be redundantly cross connected to each FI. \u00a0Well, that’s not how it goes. \u00a0Look at it like those cables going from the I\/O modules (IOMs) to the FIs are just part of the backplane. \u00a0Its just that UCS externalizes the backplane to be able to manage more chassis with one management infrastructure. \u00a0(One of the big selling points of UCS! \u00a0No mini-racks<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Connect 10GbE uplinks<\/h3>\n

The 10 GbE connections from the FIs to the main switches can cross connect and you can create a VPC across them. \u00a0This should get you started.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Configure FI-A<\/h3>\n

With my Mac, I connect a USB serial adapter<\/a> to the serial cable to the serial port on the top FI. (which I call FI-A) \u00a0From there I run:<\/p>\n

screen \/dev\/tty.usbserial<\/pre>\n
and press enter. \u00a0Then I’m in. \u00a0I still have issues with this on my Mac where I need to change USB ports to make it work. \u00a0But eventually, I’m always able to get something.<\/p>\n
From here I get:<\/p>\n
Enter the configuration method. (console\/gui) ? console<\/strong>\r\n\r\n  Enter the setup mode; setup newly or restore from backup. (setup\/restore) ? setup<\/strong>\r\n\r\n  You have chosen to setup a new Fabric interconnect. Continue? (y\/n): y<\/strong>\r\n\r\n  Enforce strong password? (y\/n) [y]: y<\/strong> \r\n\r\n  Enter the password for \"admin\":\r\n  Confirm the password for \"admin\":\r\n\r\n  Is this Fabric interconnect part of a cluster(select 'no' for standalone)? (yes\/no) [n]: yes<\/strong>\r\n\r\n  Enter the switch fabric (A\/B) []: A<\/strong>\r\n  ...<\/pre>\n
Then it asks for IP address information, etc.  Its pretty easy. \u00a0It also asks for a system name. \u00a0I usually give it a name like UCS0001, so that you can buy up to 9,999 UCS systems before you have to change your naming convention. \u00a0\ud83d\ude09 \u00a0Each FI gets its own IP address and then there is a Virtual IP address that they both share (remember: \u00a0this should be on the same VLAN, and this is why you need 3 IP addresses for the FIs).<\/p>\n
The system will reinitialize and settings will take effect. \u00a0Make sure you can ping this IP address before moving on. \u00a0You may get an error like: \u00a0“Clustering services are not available on other fabric interconnect”. \u00a0Don’t worry, just move along.<\/p>\n
6. \u00a0Configure FI-B<\/h3>\n
Same thing as the first, but when you first log in, you’ll give it an IP and netmask and then it will ask you to join the other FI in its cluster. \u00a0You’ll enter the password and you’ll be up!<\/p>\n
7. \u00a0Log in!<\/h3>\n
Point your browser to the Virtual IP address and you’ll open a Java JNLP program and start\u00a0administering\u00a0your UCS system. \u00a0Wasn’t that easy?<\/p>\n
Now what?<\/h3>\n
This section deserves a blog of its own. Basically, you’ll start setting up policies and pools, VLANs, VSANs, etc. \u00a0Then create a service profile templates from those resources. \u00a0Once this is complete, you are ready to install your OS and BAM! \u00a0You are up and running.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1. \u00a0Get your basic wiring down: 2. \u00a0Get management IP addresses Make sure you have at least 3 IP addresses for the Fabric Interconnect (FI) management network. \u00a0You will also need an IP address for each blade’s CIMC (translation: \u00a0From HP this is the iLO IP address, From IBM this is the IMM IP address)….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[990,992],"tags":[135,134],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2780,"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions\/2780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benincosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}