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Caution | The Extra-Small TRC (UCS E160D M2 TRC1), Small TRCs (UCS C220 M3S TRC2, UCS C240 M4S TRC1) and the Small Plus TRCs (UCS C220 M3S TRC3, UCS C220 M4S TRC2) are preloaded with software if purchased as a Cisco Business Edition 6000 appliance. Certain Medium TRCs (UCS C240 M3S TRC2, UCS C240 M4S2 TRC1) and Large TRCs (UCS C240 M4SX TRC1) are preloaded with software if purchased as a Cisco Business Edition 7000 appliance. HyperFlex TRC (HX240cM4SX TRC1) is preloaded with virtualization and HyperFlex software. |
Step 1 | Ensure that your UCS Mini or Fabric Interconnect Switches, Blade Server Chassis, and Fabric Extenders are installed in the rack. |
Step 2 | Ensure that the network connections of your UCS Mini or Fabric Interconnect Switches are connected to their designated, trunked, switch ports. |
Step 3 | Ensure that your Fabric Interconnect Switches are properly connected to your Fabric Extenders. |
Step 4 | Ensure that you are able to access the blade remotely using UCS Manager software. |
Step 5 | For the remaining server installation, see Cisco documentation at http://www.cisco.com/go/ucs. |
Perform the following tasks to install and configure a virtual machine on a Cisco UCS server.
Review the “Preparation” chapter in this guide for the installation requirements for your server.
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | Install Cisco UCS C-Series or E-Series Server
|
Install the Cisco UCS Server. |
Step 2 | Configure Cisco Integrated Management Controller
|
Power on the server and configure Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) for remote management. |
Step 3 | Configure RAID using one of the following procedures: |
Configure the RAID settings on your server using either the Preboot CLI or GUI indicated above. |
Step 4 | Configure BIOS
|
Configure the BIOS boot order. |
Step 5 | Install and Configure VMware ESXi
|
Install and configure the VMware ESXi and the vSphere client. |
Step 6 | Download Virtual Machine Templates (OVA Templates)
|
Download an OVA for collaboration application software, such as Cisco Unified Communications Manager, onto your virtual machine. |
Step 7 | Use vSphere to create the VM on the server: |
Use vSphere to create the VM on the server. Map the OVA to the VM. |
Step 8 | Install Cisco Collaboration Applications on VMs
|
Install Collaboration applications such as Cisco Unified Communications Manager on the virtual machine. |
Configuring the Cisco IMC allows you to perform all subsequent configuration and installation using the Cisco IMC console. In addition, the Cisco IMC provides a measure of hardware monitoring.
Note | Virtualized Collaboration Applications does not prescribe any specific version of BIOS. The current version is assumed to be compatible with the latest release of ESXi. Business Edition appliances ship with BIOS version, configuration and settings that are compatible with the factory-preloaded release of ESXi at time of appliance build. Non-appliance servers, or appliances that have been in the field for extended period of time, may require modification of these settings. See the UCS Release, CIMC version or firmware package in UCS Interoperability Matrix as well as UCS OS drivers for ESXi. |
Review the table in RAID Configuration
Configure RAID using one of the following methods:
Caution | To be supported as a Tested Reference Configuration instead of UCS Specs-based, the RAID must be set up exactly as indicated below. Do not change the RAID configuration on a server ordered as Cisco Business Edition 6000 or Cisco Business Edition 7000. |
Refer to the following table for the RAID specifications for the type of virtual machine that you want to configure.
TRC |
Information |
---|---|
UCS C220 M4S TRC1 (Small TRC / BE6000M M4) |
|
UCS C220 M4S TRC2 (Small Plus TRC / BE6000H M4) |
|
UCS C240 M4S2 TRC1 (Medium TRC / BE7000M M4) |
|
UCS C240 M4SX TRC1 (Large TRC / BE7000H M4) |
|
(End of Sale) UCS C240 M3S TRC1 (Large TRC) |
|
(End of Sale) UCS C240 M3S TRC2 (Medium TRC / BE7000M M3) |
|
(End of Sale) UCS C220 M3S (Medium TRC) |
|
(End of Sale) UCS C220 M3S TRC3 (Small Plus TRC / BE6000H M3) |
|
(End of Sale) UCS C220 M3S TRC2 (Small TRC / BE6000M M3) |
|
UCS E160S M3 TRC1 (Extra-Small TRC) |
|
(End of Sale) UCS E160D M2 TRC1 (Extra-Small TRC / BE6000S M2) |
|
(End of Sale) UCS C260 M2 TRC1 (Extra-Large TRC) |
|
(End of Sale) UCS C210 M2/M1 TRCs (Medium TRC) |
|
(End of Sale) UCS C200 M2 TRC1 (Small TRC / BE6000M M2) |
If required, use the following settings for the Read and Write policies:
If UCS C-Series, do these settings:
Set Read Policy to read ahead = always.
Set Write Policy to one of the following:
write back with bbu – if you are using a RAID card with SuperCap (for example, RAID-9266CV).
Note | This write policy is not available on the C240 M3 rack-mount server TRC2. |
always write back – if you are using a RAID card with legacy Battery Backup (BBU) instead of SuperCap (for example, RAID-9266). This option helps prevent a UC application performance impact if the BBU goes into learning mode or the battery dies. Whenever possible, use the new RAID cards with SuperCap and make sure the UCS is attached to an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
If UCS E-Series M3, do these settings:
Strip Size = 64KB
Drives per Span = 2 (due to E160S M3 TRC1 shipping with two physical disks)
Span Depth = 1 (due to E160S M3 TRC1 using single LV, 2-disk RAID1)
Access Policy = Read-Write
Cache Policy = Direct
Read Ahead Policy = None
Requested Write Cache Policy = Write Through
Current Write Cache Policy = Write Through
Disk Cache Policy = Unchanged
Allow Background Init = true
Auto Snapshot = false
Auto Delete Oldest = true
Follow this procedure to configure a RAID array using the preboot CLI for M2 or M3 servers.
Step 1 | Check your
current RAID configuration:
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Step 2 | Use the
following sequence of commands to set the recommended RAID configuration:
| |||||||||||||||||
Step 3 | To determine
the enclosure ID and drive numbering, which is required before you can
configure RAID, run the following commands:
| |||||||||||||||||
Step 4 | The Cisco UCS
Rack-Mount Server enclosure ID is not predictable, so you need to substitute
the Device ID acquired above for <encl> in the commands below. When all
drives are in a single enclosure, the slot numbering starts at zero. This may
not be true in all cases, so verify the slot numbering with the following
command:
-pdinfo -physdrv [<encl>:0] -a0 If this command generates meaningful output, the drives start at zero. If it generates an error, the drives start at one. | |||||||||||||||||
Step 5 | Use the
following command to set up RAID on the existing drives on each RAID
controller:
| |||||||||||||||||
Step 6 | Set the Strip Size to 128 KB with the following command-line option on -cfgldadd command lines in step 5 above : -strpsz 128. Also set required Read Policy and Write Policy described above via appropriate command line options. E.g. -cfgldadd -r5 [26:1, 26:2, 26:3, 26:4, 26:5, 26:6, 26:7, 26:8] WB RA Cached NoCachedBadBBU -strpsz 128 -a0. | |||||||||||||||||
Step 7 | The following
commands are not necessary for new drives that have not been used.
| |||||||||||||||||
Step 8 | After you
configure the logical volume, exit the Preboot CLI by entering
q.
|
Use this procedure to configure a RAID array for a virtual drive on M3 servers. For servers with more than one virtual drive, perform these steps for each virtual drive.
Step 1 | During the boot process, ensure that Quiet Boot is disabled, and press Ctrl-H at the LSI screen when prompted. The MegaRaid BIOS Configuration utility opens and displays the LSI MegaRAID SAS adapters. Select Adapter 0 to begin and click Start. | ||
Step 2 | Select New Configuration and click Next. | ||
Step 3 | Select Manual Configuration. | ||
Step 4 | On the next screen, you need to add drives to a Drive Group. Select one drive and then select all others by holding down Shift and the Down Arrow key. Click Add to Array. | ||
Step 5 | Click Accept DG. | ||
Step 6 | Add the drive group to a span. Select DG0 and click Add to Span. | ||
Step 7 | After the drive group is part of a span, you can configure RAID on it. | ||
Step 8 | Set Read Policy to read ahead = always. | ||
Step 9 | Set
Write Policy to one of the following:
| ||
Step 10 | Click Update Size to finalize the RAID 5 volume and to determine the size of the resulting volume. A warning relating to BBU appears. Click Yes to accept a possible performance degradation if the BBU is over-tasked. | ||
Step 11 | Click Next on the next screen to accept the Virtual Drive you just created (VD 0). | ||
Step 12 | Click Next. At the next screen, you are presented with the option to initialize the array. Click: | ||
Step 13 | The RAID configuration is now complete for the first RAID controller. Go back to the controller selection by clicking on Controller selection. This time, select Adapter 1. | ||
Step 14 | Repeat all the steps that you performed for Adapter 0 with this new Adapter to set up the second RAID 5 array. |
Use this procedure if you have an M4 server and want to configure a RAID 5 Array on a virtual drive. For servers with more than one virtual drive, perform these steps for each virtual drive.
Step 1 | At the LSI screen, press CTRL-R. The Virtual Drive Management screen displays the list of unconfigured hard drives for the virtual drive. | ||
Step 2 | Under Virtual Drive Management screen, highlight the controller, and press F2 for Operations. | ||
Step 3 | If the
drives are unconfigured (and the
Create Virtual Drive option is not selectable),
perform the following from the F2 menu:
| ||
Step 4 | Select Create Virtual Drive and press Enter. | ||
Step 5 | For the RAID Level option, select RAID 5. | ||
Step 6 | Tab to the Drives area. For each hard drive that you want to add to this virtual drive, select the hard drive by pressing the space bar. When the drive is selected, an X appears in the ID box. | ||
Step 7 | Enter any name for the RAID. | ||
Step 8 | Select Advanced. | ||
Step 9 | Set Read Policy to read ahead = always. | ||
Step 10 | For the Write Policy, select Write Back with BBU.
We recommend that you select 128-KB from the Strip Size drop-down list. | ||
Step 11 | For the I/O Policy, select Cached. | ||
Step 12 | For the Disk Cache Policy, select Enable. | ||
Step 13 | Tab to the Initialize option and select the option by pressing the space bar. An X displays in the Initialize box. | ||
Step 14 | Select OK. Press Enter. When the Initialization is complete, a popup appears. | ||
Step 15 | Select OK and press Enter. The Virtual Drive Management screen appears. | ||
Step 16 | Press Ctrl-N twice to go to Ctrl Mgmt tab. | ||
Step 17 | Press TAB, until the Boot Device field is selected, then press Enter. | ||
Step 18 | Select the drive that you want to use to boot the virtual drive. | ||
Step 19 | Press TAB multiple times to highlight Apply, then press Enter. The Back Initialization process begins. It may take several minutes to initialize the virtual drive. | ||
Step 20 | Press Ctrl-N until the VD Mgmt screen is displayed. | ||
Step 21 | If your server has more than one virtual drive, repeat this process for each virtual drive. |
Use this procedure if you have an M2 server and want to configure a RAID 5 Array on a virtual drive.
Configure the UCS E160D M2 for RAID5. At the time of this writing, follow the instructions in the GUI Configuration Guide for Cisco UCS E-Series Servers and the Cisco UCS E-Series Network Compute Engine Integrated Management Controller located at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/e/3-1-1/sw/gui/config/guide/b_3_1_1_GUI_Config_Guide/b_3_x_GUI_Config_Guide_chapter_0100.html#task_2F69DDBC07194A419240DD1B09A8689B
Step 1 | In the Integrated Management Controller Navigation pane, click the Server tab. |
Step 2 | 2. On the Server tab, click RAID. |
Step 3 | 3. In the tabbed menu of the Storage Cards area, click the Virtual Drive Info tab. |
Step 4 | 4. In the Actions area of the Virtual Drive Info tab, click Create. |
Step 5 | 5. Complete the following fields:
|
You cannot select the hard drive in the BIOS Boot Order menu until the first logical volume has been defined. After RAID is configured, you need to make the second boot device the hard drive, as described in the following procedure:
Configure RAID with one of the following methods:
Step 1 | Press indicated function key (e.g. F2 for a UCS C-Series) during boot to enter BIOS setup. |
Step 2 | Move the cursor to Boot Options. |
Step 3 | Verify that the CD ROM, or Cisco Virtual CD/DVD (Virtual CD/DVD drive), is selected for Boot Option #1. |
Step 4 | Verify that the hard drive (the RAID 5 Array) is selected for Boot Option #2. |
Step 5 | Verify that virtual threading is enabled in advanced CPU options. |
Step 6 | Verify that VT
I/O Redirection is disabled in the CPU options.
The server will now try to boot the CD ROM drive first and the hard drive second. |
An example deployment including physical node placement, cabling, VLAN/subnet/IP address planning, and VM placement is available at http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-collaboration-storage-design-requirements.html#hyperflex.
Note | This TRC setup process assumes HX Release 1.8 and VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5. |
For installation requirements, review System Requirements and Requirements for Cisco Tested Reference Configuration Installation. Also refer to the “Installation Prerequisites” chapter of the Cisco HyperFlex Systems Getting Started Guide, Release 1.8, available at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/hyperconverged-systems/hyperflex-hx-data-platform-software/products-installation-and-configuration-guides-list.html.
Perform the following tasks to install and configure a virtual machine on a Cisco HyperFlex TRC node.
Step 1 | Verify installation
readiness, set up your 6200 Fabric Interconnect Switches, and prepare for
HyperFlex node installation.
Follow instructions in the Cisco HyperFlex Systems Getting Started Guide, Release 1.8 at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/hyperconverged-systems/hyperflex-hx-data-platform-software/products-installation-and-configuration-guides-list.html. |
Step 2 | Set up each HyperFlex node. Follow instructions in the Cisco HX240c M4 HyperFlex Node Installation Guide, Release 1.8 at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/hyperconverged-systems/hyperflex-hx-series/products-installation-guides-list.html. |
Step 3 | Complete procedure Download Virtual Machine Templates (OVA Templates). |
Step 4 | Download an OVA for collaboration application software, such as Cisco Unified CM onto your virtual machine. |
Step 5 | Use vSphere to create the VM on the server: |
Step 6 | Install Cisco Collaboration Applications on VMs. |
Step 7 | Install Collaboration applications such as Cisco Unified CM on the virtual machine. |
The following sections provide a sequence of steps for bringing ESXi into service at the customer site.
Before you install ESXi , make sure these tasks are completed:
The BIOS boot order is configured to boot the CD-ROM or virtual CD/DVD first..
Each virtual drives on your servers has been configured with a RAID array. For RAID configuration details for your, see RAID Configuration
For additional information about ESXi storage configurations, see https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/collaboration-virtualization-hardware.html.
For servers ordered as Cisco Business Edition 6000 or Cisco Business Edition 7000, these steps have been performed by the factory prior to shipping.
To determine which ESXi version is required for the application you are intending to deploy, see https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-software-requirements.html
Install ESXi on one of the RAID arrays. If there are multiple RAID arrays, any is acceptable but we recommend that you install ESXi on the first.
Note | You can install ESXi on the first RAID array. It is not required that you install ESXi on both arrays. |
ESXi Installation takes less than 5 minutes. After installation is complete, remove the install CD or the virtual DVD and reboot the machine.
Following a reboot, a gray and yellow ESXi console is displayed with two options:
At this point, press F2 and configure the system in accordance with your network.
Once the host is on the network, you can browse to its IP address to bring up a web-based interface. The vSphere client is Windows-based, so the download and install must be performed from a Windows PC.
This installation proceeds like any other Windows application installation, and takes only a few minutes to perform. After the vSphere client is installed, you can bring it up and log into the host using the hostname or IP address, the root login ID, and the password configured above.
The host may also be joined to a vCenter if available and if you wish to manage the host through vCenter.
The following options may be configured:
Simple vSwitch0 (default VMware virtual switch)
For larger data centers using vCenter, you can configure distributed virtual switches (for example, distributed vSwitch or the Nexus 1000V distributed virtual switch)
For all options, you must define a port group for each VLAN running on the virtual switch. These port groups are selected when configuring a Virtual Machine network adapter, to place the virtual machine on a given LAN.
The configuration of a Cisco Collaboration application virtual machine must match a supported virtual machine template.
Create the VM for your server type:
Depending on the servers and virtualization licenses that you purchase, virtualization software and Cisco application software can be delivered either physically or electronically.
Cisco provides templates on a URL to download and transfer to a host. Use the following procedure to use vSphere create the VM for servers with optical drives.
Step 1 | Deploy a blank virtual machine from the OVA template for your application using the Cisco.com URL as the source. |
Step 2 | Make the CD-ROM drive available to the newly deployed VM. |
Step 3 | Click on the next time the virtual machine boots, force entry into BIOS Setup Screen. |
Step 4 | Insert the application installation DVD from the media kit in the system CD-ROM drive. |
Step 5 | Power on the VM, select Boot and promote CD-ROM to boot before the hard drive. |
Step 6 | Save the BIOS settings and boot. The installation screens for your application appear at this point. |
Cisco provides templates on a URL to download and transfer to a host. Use the following procedure to use vSphere create the VM for servers without optical drives.
Step 1 | Deploy a blank virtual machine from the appropriate OVA template for your application using the cisco.com URL as the source. |
Step 2 | Associate the bootable application installation ISO file with the newly deployed VM. |
Step 3 | Set up the BIOS boot order. For instructions, see the release notes for the OVA that you are deploying. |
Step 4 | Map the ISO-format application installer file from the media kit to the physical or virtual CD/DVD drive.. |
Step 5 | Save the BIOS settings and boot. The normal installation screen for your application opens. |
For details on how to install Cisco Unified Communications Manager, refer to the Installation Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager at the following URL:
For details on how to install Cisco Business Edition 6000, refer to the Installation Guide for Cisco Business Edition 6000 at the following URL:
For details on how to install Cisco Business Edition 7000, refer to the Installation Guide for Cisco Business Edition 7000 at the following URL: