Cisco UCS C240 M5Sx Rack Server for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI Data Sheet

 

Cisco UCS C240 M5Sx Rack Server (QLogic) with Cisco UCS 6332 Fabric Interconnect

Overview

Cisco UCS^® for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI offers highly available and scalable software-defined hyperconverged systems based on Microsoft Azure Stack HCI operating system technology.

If you run your business on Microsoft software, you need a solution that uses hardware designed specifically for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI. Look no further. Cisco and Microsoft have partnered to deliver a solution that accelerates access to data, provides comprehensive data management tools, and is powered by the latest Intel^® Xeon^® Scalable Processors to set a new standard of excellence.

Main benefits

Cisco UCS for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI offers these main benefits:

●      Provides unified management: Cisco UCS Manager service profiles help ensure consistent server setup. They integrate with Microsoft System Center and PowerShell toolkit and, when combined with the Cisco Intersight^™ solution, enable cloud-management expansion to meet future requirements.

●      Delivers fault tolerance: Built-in resiliency handles storage, server, and switch failures with continuous availability. Larger deployments can also be configured for chassis and rack fault tolerance. When hardware fails, just swap it out; the software heals itself, with no complicated management steps.

●      Provides massive resilient storage: Help ensure the security of your critical data for applications, databases, and hybrid-cloud initiatives with Cisco UCS for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI.

●      Reduces operating expenses (OpEx): Integrated storage with enterprise-class performance, reliability, and capabilities allows one team to manage your entire Microsoft environment.

●      Provides enterprise-class performance: The Cisco UCS C240 M5Sx Rack Server (Figure 1) uses the latest Intel Xeon Scalable Processor technology. With a configuration of up to 3 TB per server and up to 16 servers, the system infrastructure can accommodate your enterprise-class workloads. The solution uses 40 Gigabit Ethernet from end to end to help ensure enough bandwidth for large workloads. It uses RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) to enable Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) to help ensure that performance requirements are met.

●      Offers true scalability: Start with from 4 to 16 servers in increments of 1, configure 24 to 56 Intel processor cores per server, configure 384 GB to 3 TB of system memory per server, configure a 30- to 121-TB SSD storage per server, and configure Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage to help ensure enterprise-class performance. To scale out, simply add drives or servers; Storage Spaces Direct will automatically configure the new drives and begin using them. Storage efficiency and performance improve predictably at scale.

●      Get exceptional availability: Users of Azure Stack HCI will benefit because the system does not have a single point of failure. If a server fails, Cisco UCS Manager can assign the service profile for the workload to another server in the cluster that may be running a lower-priority workload. The profile is reassigned, and another server can replace the failed node, all without the user taking any action. Also, if a fabric interconnect fails, its partner fabric interconnect maintains a copy of its configuration. Therefore, a replacement fabric interconnect can be cabled in and the configuration restored from the partner fabric interconnect.

●      Delivers one-stop support: Azure Stack HCI hosts the Azure Stack HCI 21H2+ operating system from Microsoft. Cisco can also provide level-1 and level-2 support, with level-3 support directed to Microsoft. One phone call to Cisco can address your support requirements.

●      Global world-class support: Microsoft and Cisco work together to help ensure that all support issues are handled in a timely manner. Cisco^® solution support is bundled with every system, providing the highest level of solution support for our customers, and ca simple set of questions help ensure that your call is routed to the correct support team within Cisco or Microsoft to provide support for Cisco UCS for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI.

Cisco UCS C240 M5Sx Rack Server

Solution example

Table 1 and Figure 2 show a sample configuration.

Table 1.        Sample configuration components

 

 

 

Sample Azure Stack HCI configuration

Ordering information

Table 2 lists the part numbers for the solution. The solution has a 4-node minimum configuration and is expandable to 16 nodes.

Table 2.        Ordering information

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Why choose Cisco?

For 10 years Cisco, with the Cisco Unified Computing System^™ (Cisco UCS), has partnered with Microsoft to deliver system infrastructures that provide leading performance, availability, security, and ease of management. Through Cisco UCS Manager, workloads do not need to be tied to individual servers, because Cisco UCS Manager is hosted on the Cisco UCS 6332 Fabric Interconnects. Thus, each server is configured exactly the same, a new server can be added in minutes, and servers can easily be repurposed if needed.

Note that configurations must adhere to the specifications provided in the Cisco Validated Design to be fully supported by Microsoft and Cisco.

For more information

For more information about Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers, visit: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/computing/servers-unified-computing-systems/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/index.html

For more information about the Cisco UCS 6332 Fabric Interconnect, visit: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-6332-fabric-interconnect/index.html?dtid=osscdc000283

For more information about Microsoft Azure Stack HCI: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/azure-stack/hci/

For more information about Cisco UCS and Microsoft, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/microsoft