© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Highly Confidential – Controlled AccessUCS TAB 1

UCS 1.4 Direct Connect Storage Guide v3.2

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Highly Confidential – Controlled AccessUCS TAB 2

Topics

� New Topologies and Features Overview

� New Storage Port Types Behavior Examined

� Details on FC and FCoE Direct Connect Implementation

� Appliance ports (NAS Direct Connect)

� Details on new Storage and Appliance Clouds and scope of objects

Links, VLANs, VSANs

� iSCSI Boot Status and Roadmap

� Interoperability with Storage and UCS Resources

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Highly Confidential – Controlled AccessUCS TAB 3

Exec Summary: UCS 1.4 Storage Features

� New Direct Connect Topologies introduced

Allows lower cost point for small UCS Pod like deployments

Remote Location scenarios

Migration from FC to FCoE Use Case

� FC Port Channeling and VSAN Trunking

More flexibility in engineering FC traffic vs. 1 VSAN per uplink

Catch-up with N5K “expected” feature set

Requires MDS or N5K to Work (both features)

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Feature Overview

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� Support for NetApp and EMC direct attached storage

� Ability to turn On/Off Fibre Channel switching mode

� Zoning configuration not supported, but zoning may be inherited from upstream switch

� Default zoning available, no access by default (details discussed later)

� Ethernet and FC switching modes are independent

� Note: No management integration with FC Storage layer

� Support to directly connect FC/ FCoE storage to 6100

� End to end FCoE topologies possible� Lower cost point for small deployments (no access

layer FC switches)

Customer benefits

Feature details

UCS B-Series

UCS 6100 UCS 6100

FCoE Storage FC Storage

1.4 Release Feature Preview

Enable Direct Connection of FC Storage

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Key Considerations of FC Direct Connect.

� No FC Zoning without upstream connection to MDS or N5K

Upstream MDS/N5K allows zoneset merges but no zoning configuration exposed on UCS Software.

Without zoneset merge only security is using LUN Mapping on the array

Typically ok for smaller homogeneous (OS) deployments

LUN masking has a long history and in use today already but not as sole security measure in most environments.

� External SAN Management Software

N5K MIBs are all exposed but READ ONLY

6100 can be added to Fabric Manager (FM) but the manageability through FM is limited

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� Support for NAS (Ethernet appliance) in End Host (general best practice) without putting 6100 in switch mode

� New “Appliance port” to support this functionality.

� Provides Ethernet connectivity in End Host Mode to a third party appliance

� Note: No management integration with storage filer

� Supported advanced configuration on Appliance ports:

� Port Mode – Access or Trunk

� Specify allowed VLAN

� Pin-group configuration - Static or Dynamic

� QOS policy

� Static Mac Address

� Storage appliance (NAS) to be connected to Fabric interconnects in “END HOST” Mode

� Eliminates additional access-layer switches and hops

Customer benefits

Feature details

UCS B-Series

Switch Mode

NAS Appliance

UCS B-Series

End Host

NAS Appliance

UCS 1.4

Current

NAS port

uplink Port

1.4 Release Feature Preview

Enable Direct Connection of NAS Appliances

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� vHBAs can be on different VSANs

� Uplink FC ports will be in NPV mode (N-Port) by default

� All VSANs will be trunked on every uplink FC port

Selecting a subset of VSANs for individual uplink ports not supported

� Scalability: Max of 32 VSANs per UCS system

� VSAN trunking supported in FC switch mode as well

� VSAN Trunking is not available for direct connect FC (or FCoE) Storage Port types

� Provide isolation to SAN traffic over the same physical FC link

� Help consolidate FC infrastructure

Customer benefits

Feature details

SAN A SAN B

vFCs

VSAN A

VSAN B

VSAN C

VSAN D

FC Port Trunking (Multiple VSANs per Link)

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� Up to 16 FC ports can be aggregated together for a single port channel

� Different combination of FC ports from different expansion modules on the FI can be placed on the same port channel

� In case of port speed mis match – port channel forces port speed to highest commonly supported speed

� VSANs can be trunked over the port channel

� VSAN trunking and port channel supported for both NPV and switch mode FI operation

� FC Port channeling is not available for direct connect FC Storage Port types

� Aggregate and maximize available bandwidth while maintaining isolation

� Increases resiliency and guard against port failures

Customer benefits

Feature details

SAN A SAN B

vFCs

VSAN A

VSAN B

VSAN C

VSAN D

ISL Port Channel

1.4 Release Feature Preview

FC Port Channels

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New Port Types Behavior and Management View

New Port Types and When they are Valid

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UCS 1.4 and Direct Connect Storage

� Concept is to eliminate need for access layer FC or Ethernet switch for connecting UCS 6120/40 to Storage.

� Fabric Interconnect can operate in different modes that are independent of each other

FC Switching

Ethernet Switching

� Three New Port types in UCS 1.4 related to the new capability

Storage FC Port

Storage FCoE Port

Appliance Port (allows direct connect NAS without putting FI into switch mode)

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UCS Manager View of New Ports

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Port Types vs. FI Operating Mode (green means valid in mode of operation)

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Functional Role of Ports (External View)

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Describing the New Port Types (Implementation details covered in later slides)

� FCoE Storage Ports

Ethernet port with vfc bound

No additional controls provided

� Appliance Ports (NAS = iSCSI, CIFS or NFS)

Act like server ports

Normal MAC-learning (EHM Uplink Ports MACs are not learned)

Trunk allowed VLAN(s), Native VLAN (optional)

QoS Policy on Interface (optional)

Interface speed (1G/10G with normal port rules)

Static Pin-Group or allow default dynamic

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Supported Topologies at GA

Direct Connect and Hybrid

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Highly Confidential – Controlled AccessUCS TAB 17

Direct Storage Only Topology

UCS B-Series

UCS 6100 UCS 6100

FCoE Storage FC Storage

Fibre Channel

Ethernet

Unified I/O

FCoE

� Security

ONLY via LUN Masking

iGroup – NetApp

Storage Group – EMC

� No FC Zoning

Default zoning must be enabled per VSAN

� No Domain ID config

� Limited Number of initiators and targets

See Docs for Values

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Highly Confidential – Controlled AccessUCS TAB 18

Hybrid Topology with direct-attach and SAN

UCS B-Series

UCS 6100 UCS 6100

FCoE StorageFC Storage

Fibre Channel

Ethernet

Unified I/O

FCoE

Core

Fabric A Fabric B

SAN Fabric Storage Arrays

SAN Edge A SAN Edge B

Direct Attach

� Security via Zoneset Merge

AND

� Security via LUN Masking

� LUN masking always used tosome extent

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Unsupported Storage Topologies in UCS 1.4

� Multi-Hop FCoE or FCoE “northbound” on Ethernet Uplinks

This is planned for 2012 Release

6100 to N5K for FC to FCoE bridging is still valid with 1.4 in NPV mode

� FC connections between the two Fabric Interconnects running in FC switch mode (ISL)

� Connecting any other L2 based object off of the Appliance Ports

Untested, unsupported until further notice

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Configuration Details

How to Establish Connectivity With Your Storage

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Overview of the Operational Flow for FC Direct Connect(Getting it Up and Running)

1. Put the Fabric Interconnects into FC Switching Mode

Note: This will reboot both Fabric Interconnects and cause system wide downtime for 10-15 minutes.

2. Configure your FC Storage Ports (direct connect)

3. Enable Access to the default zones per VSAN

4. Configure the right VSAN per FC Storage Port

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Highly Confidential – Controlled AccessUCS TAB 22

Upgrading from Prior UCS Releases

� Pre-1.4 Required Upstream FC Switch to be in NPIV Mode.

� If you upgrade from 1.x to 1.4 and place the 6100s into FC switching mode and you still have an upstream FC switch connected, it will have to be placed back into E mode.

� Summary

If running in FC end-host mode (NPV mode), the port-mode on the upstream switches need to be in F mode

If running in FC switching mode (non-NPV mode), the port-mode on the upstream switches need to be in E mode

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How to Place FI into FC Switching Mode

• This operation results in both FIs going into reboot

cycles which takes 15 min or so, system wide downtime, by design

• When FC switch mode is

turned on, all the FC ports

come up in TE mode

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Configuring an FC storage port

• To connect an FC storage device directly into one of the 6100’s FC port, the user must configure the port as an FC storage port.

• Internally, the port is configured as follows:

As a F_Port

As an access port

The speed is kept as auto

The user is also allowed to select a named VSAN for that port.

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Configuring an FC storage port (GUI)

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You Must Enable Default Zoning per VSAN

� Default Zoning is not enabled by default

� SJ2-151-B26-A# scope fc-storage

� SJ2-151-B26-A /fc-storage # scope vsan default

� SJ2-151-B26-A /fc-storage/vsan # set default-zoning enabled

� SJ2-151-B26-A /fc-storage/vsan # commit-buffer

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Configuring a VSAN on a FC port (GUI)

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FCoE Details and Considerations