Cisco UCS Manager Configuration
This chapter describes monitoring and configuring your RAID controller using Cisco UCS Manager. The Cisco B-Series servers have built-in monitoring and configuration tools for storage, including RAID.
Note |
Cisco UCS Manager is used both with B-series blade servers and C-series rack servers that have been integrated. |
Cisco UCS Manager interfaces with the LSI controllers and software and creates RAID configurations as part of creating local disk configuration policies, which allow the same configuration steps to be applied to many servers at once.
Local Disk Configuration Policy
This policy configures any optional SAS local drives that have been installed on a server through the on-board RAID controller of the local drive. This policy enables you to set a local disk mode for all servers that are associated with a service profile that includes the local disk configuration policy.
The local disk modes include the following:
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No Local Storage—For a diskless server or a SAN-only configuration. If you select this option, you cannot associate any service profile that uses this policy with a server that has a local disk.
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RAID 0 Striped—Data is striped across all disks in the array, providing fast throughput. There is no data redundancy, and all data is lost if any disk fails.
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RAID 1 Mirrored—Data is written to two disks, which provides complete data redundancy if one disk fails. The maximum array size is equal to the available space on the smaller of the two drives.
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Any Configuration—For a server configuration that carries forward the local disk configuration without any changes.
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No RAID—For a server configuration that removes the RAID and leaves the disk MBR and payload unaltered.
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RAID 5 Striped Parity—Data is striped across all disks in the array. Part of the capacity of each disk stores parity information that can be used to reconstruct data if a disk fails. RAID 5 provides good data throughput for applications with high read request rates.
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RAID 6 Striped Dual Parity—Data is striped across all disks in the array, and two parity disks are used to provide protection against the failure of up to two physical disks. In each row of data blocks, two sets of parity data are stored.
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RAID10 Mirrored and Striped— RAID 10 uses mirrored pairs of disks to provide complete data redundancy and high throughput rates.
You must include this policy in a service profile, and that service profile must be associated with a server for the policy to take effect.
Guidelines for all Local Disk Configuration Policies
Before you create a local disk configuration policy, consider the following guidelines:
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No Mixed HDDs and SSDs
Mixing HDD and SSDs in a single server or RAID configuration is not supported.
Block size should be same for each disk involved.
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Do Not Assign a Service Profile with the Default Local Disk Configuration Policy from a B200 M1 or M2 to a B200 M3
Due to the differences in the RAID/JBOD support provided by the storage controllers of B200 M1 and M2 servers and those of the B200 M3 server, you cannot assign or reassign a service profile that includes the default local disk configuration policy from a B200M1 or M2 server to a B200 M3 server. The default local disk configuration policy includes the Any Configuration or JBOD modes.
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Impact of Upgrade to Release 1.3(1i) or Higher
An upgrade from an earlier Cisco UCS firmware release to release 1.3(1i) or higher has the following impact on the Protect Configuration property of the local disk configuration policy the first time servers are associated with service profiles after the upgrade.
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Unassociated Servers
After you upgrade the Cisco UCS domain, the initial server association proceeds without configuration errors whether or not the local disk configuration policy matches the server hardware. Even if you enable the Protect Configuration property, Cisco UCS does not protect the user data on the server if there are configuration mismatches between the local disk configuration policy on the previous service profile and the policy in the new service profile.
Note
If you enable the Protect Configuration property and the local disk configuration policy encounters mismatches between the previous service profile and the new service profile, all subsequent service profile associations with the server are blocked.
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Associated Servers
Any servers that are already associated with service profiles do not reboot after the upgrade. Cisco UCS Manager does not report any configuration errors if there is a mismatch between the local disk configuration policy and the server hardware.
When a service profile is disassociated from a server and a new service profile associated, the setting for the Protect Configuration property in the new service profile takes precedence and overwrites the setting in the previous service profile.
Guidelines for Local Disk Configuration Policies Configured for RAID
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No Mixed HDDs and SSDs
Do not include HDDs and SSDs in a single RAID configuration.
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Server May Not Boot After RAID 1 Cluster Migration if Any Configuration Mode Specified in Service Profile
After RAID 1 clusters are migrated, you must associate a service profile with the server. If the local disk configuration policy in the service profile is configured with Any Configuration mode rather than RAID 1, the RAID LUN remains in an “inactive” state during and after association. As a result, the server cannot boot.
To avoid this issue, ensure that the service profile you associate with the server contains the identical local disk configuration policy as the original service profile before the migration and does not include the Any Configuration mode.
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Configure RAID Settings in Local Disk Configuration Policy for Servers with MegaRAID Storage Controllers
If a blade server or integrated rack-mount server has a MegaRAID controller, you must configure RAID settings for the drives in the Local Disk Configuration policy included in the service profile for that server.
If you do not configure your RAID LUNs before installing the OS, disk discovery failures might occur during the installation and you might see error messages such as “No Device Found.”
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Do Not Use JBOD Mode on Servers with MegaRAID Storage Controllers
Do not configure or use JBOD mode or JBOD operations on any blade server or integrated rack-mount server with MegaRAID storage controllers. JBOD mode and operations are not supported on these servers.
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Maximum of One RAID Volume Using RAID 0 or RAID 1 Disk Policy
A rack-mount server that has been integrated with Cisco UCS Manager can have a maximum of one RAID 1 or RAID 0 volume using the Local Disk Policy irrespective of how many hard drives are present on the server. If you require multiple volumes you must use the “Any Configuration” local drive policy and configure the volumes using the LSI tools outside of UCSM.
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Number of Disks Selected in Mirrored RAID Should Not Exceed Two
If the number of disks selected in the Mirrored RAID exceed two, RAID 1 is created as a RAID 10 LUN. This issue can occur with the Cisco UCS B440 M1 and B440 M2 servers.
Creating a Local Disk Configuration Policy
SUMMARY STEPS
- In the Navigation pane, click the Servers tab.
- On the Servers tab, expand .
- Expand the node for the organization where you want to create the policy.
- Right-click Local Disk Config Policies and choose Create Local Disk Configuration Policy.
- In the Create Local Disk Configuration Policy dialog box, complete the following fields:
- Click OK.
DETAILED STEPS
Command or Action | Purpose | |||||||||||||||||
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Step 1 |
In the Navigation pane, click the Servers tab. |
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Step 2 |
On the Servers tab, expand . |
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Step 3 |
Expand the node for the organization where you want to create the policy. |
If the system does not include multi-tenancy, expand the root node. |
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Step 4 |
Right-click Local Disk Config Policies and choose Create Local Disk Configuration Policy. |
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Step 5 |
In the Create Local Disk Configuration Policy dialog box, complete the following fields: |
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Step 6 |
Click OK. |
Changing a Local Disk Configuration Policy
This procedure describes how to change a local disk configuration policy from an associated service profile. You can also change a local disk configuration policy from the Policies node of the Servers tab.
SUMMARY STEPS
- In the Navigation pane, click the Servers tab.
- On the Servers tab, expand .
- Expand the organization that includes the service profile with the local disk configuration policy you want to change.
- In the Work pane, click the Policies tab.
- In the Actions area, click Change Local Disk Configuration Policy.
- In the Change Local Disk Configuration Policy dialog box, choose one of the following options from the Select the Local Disk Configuration Policy drop-down list.
- Click OK.
- (Optional) Expand the Local Disk Configuration Policy area to confirm that the change has been made.
DETAILED STEPS
Command or Action | Purpose | |||||||||
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Step 1 |
In the Navigation pane, click the Servers tab. |
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Step 2 |
On the Servers tab, expand . |
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Step 3 |
Expand the organization that includes the service profile with the local disk configuration policy you want to change. |
If the system does not include multi-tenancy, expand the root node. |
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Step 4 |
In the Work pane, click the Policies tab. |
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Step 5 |
In the Actions area, click Change Local Disk Configuration Policy. |
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Step 6 |
In the Change Local Disk Configuration Policy dialog box, choose one of the following options from the Select the Local Disk Configuration Policy drop-down list. |
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Step 7 |
Click OK. |
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Step 8 |
(Optional) Expand the Local Disk Configuration Policy area to confirm that the change has been made. |
(Optional) |
Deleting a Local Disk Configuration Policy
SUMMARY STEPS
- In the Navigation pane, click the Servers tab.
- On the Servers tab, expand .
- Expand the Local Disk Config Policies node.
- Right-click the policy you want to delete and choose Delete.
- If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.
DETAILED STEPS
Command or Action | Purpose | |
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Step 1 |
In the Navigation pane, click the Servers tab. |
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Step 2 |
On the Servers tab, expand . |
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Step 3 |
Expand the Local Disk Config Policies node. |
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Step 4 |
Right-click the policy you want to delete and choose Delete. |
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Step 5 |
If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes. |