Downloads |
Cisco Unified Computing System Overview
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 system integrates a low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric with enterprise-class, x86-architecture servers. The system is an integrated, scalable, multichassis platform in which all resources participate in a unified management domain (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Cisco Unified Computing System Is a Highly Available Cohesive Architecture
Product Overview
The Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers are crucial building blocks of the Cisco Unified Computing System, delivering scalable and flexible computing for today's and tomorrow's data center while helping reduce TCO.
The Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers are based on industry-standard server technologies and provide:
• Up to two Intel Intel Xeon Series 5500 multicore processors
• Two optional front-accessible, hot-swappable SAS hard drives
• Support for up to two dual-port mezzanine card connections for up to 40 Gbps of redundant I/O throughput
• Industry-standard double-data-rate 3 (DDR3) memory
• Remote management through an integrated service processor that also executes policy established in Cisco UCS Manager software
• Local keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) access through a front console port on each server
• Out-of-band access by remote KVM, Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol, and virtual media (vMedia) as well as Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)
The Cisco UCS B-Series offers two blade server models: the Cisco UCS B200 M1 2-Socket Blade Server and the Cisco UCS B250 M1 2-Socket Extended Memory Blade Server (Figure 2). The Cisco UCS B200 M1 is a half-width blade with 12 DIMM slots for up to 96 GB of memory; it supports one mezzanine adapter. The Cisco UCS B250 M1 is a full-width blade with 48 DIMM slots for up to 384 GB of memory; it supports up to two mezzanine adapters.
Figure 2. Cisco UCS B200 M1 and UCS B250 M1 Blade Servers
Table 1 compares the features of the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers.
Table 1. Comparison of Cisco UCS B200 M1 and UCS B250 M1 Features
Features and Benefits
The Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers are designed to increase performance, energy efficiency, and flexibility for demanding virtualized and nonvirtualized applications. Based on Intel Xeon Series 5500 processors, Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers adapt processor performance to application demands and intelligently scale energy use based on utilization.
Each Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Server uses converged network adapters (CNAs) for access to the unified fabric. This design reduces the number of adapters, cables, and access-layer switches while still allowing traditional LAN and SAN connectivity. This Cisco innovation reduces capital expenditures and operating expenses, including administrative overhead and power and cooling costs.
Cisco's innovative service profile technology embedded in the Cisco UCS Manager, provisions Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers and their I/O properties (for more information, please see Cisco UCS Manager At-a-Glance). Infrastructure policies needed to provision servers and deploy applications, such as policies for power and cooling, security, identity, hardware health, and Ethernet and storage networking, are encapsulated in the service profiles. Use of service profiles helps reduce the number of manual steps needed for provisioning, the opportunities for human error, and server and network deployment times. In addition, service profiles improve policy consistency and coherency across the entire Cisco Unified Computing System.
The Cisco UCS B250 M1 increases performance and capacity for demanding virtualization and large-data-set workloads with up to 384 GB of industry-standard memory. This technology offers a cost-effective memory footprint for demanding workloads
The Cisco UCS B200 M1 balances simplicity, performance, and density for production-level virtualization and other mainstream data center workloads.
Table 2 summarizes the features and benefits of the Cisco UCS B-Series.
Table 2. Features and Benefits
Specifications
The Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers are designed for use in the Cisco Unified Computing System environment and require Cisco UCS Manager, UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects, UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis, and UCS 2100 Series Fabric Extenders to function in this integrated environment.
Table 3 summarizes the specifications for the Cisco UCS B-Series. Table 4 summarizes regulatory standards compliance.
Table 3. Product Specifications
Table 4. Regulatory Standards Compliance: Safety and EMC
Warranty Information
Find warranty information at Cisco.com on the Product Warranties page.
Cisco Unified Computing Services
Using a unified view of data center resources, Cisco and our industry-leading partners deliver services that accelerate your transition to a unified computing environment. Cisco Unified Computing Services help you quickly deploy your data center resources and optimize ongoing operations to better meet your business needs. For more information about these and other Cisco Data Center Services, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/dcservices.
Why Cisco?
Cisco has significant experience in listening to customer requirements and providing solid technology innovation for the enterprise data center. Cisco delivers standards-based solutions backed by a broad partner ecosystem of industry leaders to provide end-to-end customer solutions. Unified computing elevates the traditional product classification of network, server, storage, operating systems, and applications to a data center-wide vision. Cisco, as one of the largest technology providers in the world, has the resources, expertise, and customer focus to deliver on the unified computing vision.
For More Information
For more information about Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers, visit http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10280/index.html or contact your local Cisco representative.