The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product. Learn more about how Cisco is using Inclusive Language.
Cisco offers a physical appliance that can be purchased with the ISO image pre-installed and tested. You can deploy this appliance within your network. The Cisco APIC-EM can be deployed as a single host (single appliance in standalone mode) or within a multi-host environment (multiple appliances in multi-host mode).
We recommend that you install and deploy Cisco APIC-EM in multi-host mode for enhanced scalability and redundancy. For information about multi-host support, see Multi-Host Support.
Step |
Description |
---|---|
1 |
Review the pre-install checklists for the appliance (standalone and multi-host modes). |
2 |
Review information about the different types of appliances and their specifications, including the following: |
3 |
Review information about port usage for the controller. |
4 |
Prepare the appliance for installation. |
5 |
(Optional) Install the appliance in a rack. |
6 |
Connect power to the appliance and power it on. |
7 |
Check the appliance LEDs. See Checking the LEDs. |
8 |
(Optional) Install and/or replace appliance components, if necessary. |
9 |
(Optional) Install a new ISO on the appliance, if necessary. |
10 |
Proceed to configure the Cisco APIC-EM in standalone or multi-host mode. Refer to the following sections for information about the configuration wizard process: |
Review the following checklists before beginning a single-host Cisco APIC-EM installation (standalone mode).
Note | A host is defined as an appliance, physical server, or virtual machine with instances of a Grapevine root and clients running. The Grapevine root is located in the host OS and the clients are located within Linux containers. The clients run the services within the Linux containers. You can set up either a single host deployment or multi-host deployment (2 or 3 hosts) for your network. For high availability and scale, your multi-host deployment must contain three hosts. All inbound traffic to the controller in a single host deployment is through the host IP address that you configure using the configuration wizard. All inbound traffic to the controller in a multi-host deployment is through a Virtual IP that you configure using the configuration wizard. |
Networking Requirements
This Cisco APIC-EM installation requires that the network adapters (NICs) on the host (physical or virtual) are connected to the following networks:
Internet (network access required for Make A Wish requests and telemetry collection)
Network with NTP server(s)
Network with devices that are to be managed by the Cisco APIC-EM
Note | The Cisco APIC-EM should never be directly connected to the Internet. It should not be deployed outside of a NAT configured or protected datacenter environment. |
IP Address Requirements
Ensure that you have available at least one IP address for the network adapter (NIC) on the host.
The IP address is used as follows:
Note | If your host has 2 NICs, then you may want to have two IP addresses available and configure one IP address for each NIC. |
Review the following checklist before beginning a multi-host Cisco APIC-EM installation (multi-host mode).
You must satisfy the requirements for the single host installation as described in the previous section for each host.
Additionally, you must establish a network connection between each of the hosts using either a switch or a router. Each host must be routable with the other two hosts.
You must configure a virtual IP (VIP).
You configure one or more NICs on each host using the configuration wizard. Each NIC that you configure must point to a non-routable network (if all your networks are routable, then you only need one NIC). A VIP is required per non-routable network. For example, if you configure 2 NICs on all 3 hosts in a multi-host cluster and each NIC points to a separate, non-routable network, then you need to configure 2 VIPs. The VIP provides an interface redundancy feature for your multi-host deployment. With a VIP, the IP address can float between the hosts.
When deploying the controller in a multi-host configuration:
You provide a VIP address when configuring the controller using the wizard.
On startup, the controller will bring up the VIP on one of the hosts.
All inbound requests into controller from the external network are made via this VIP (instead of the host IP address), and the requests are routed to the services running on different hosts via the reverse-proxy service.
If the host on which has the VIP fails, then Grapevine will bring up the VIP on one of the remaining two hosts.
The VIP must reside in the same subnet as the three hosts.
If you are planning to obtain a certificate issued for a multi-host environment, then it is important to get the certificate issued against the virtual IP or the host name resolvable to the virtual IP.
For a multi-host configuration with Cisco APIC-EM located behind a NAT within your network, note the following information and requirement:
The Virtual IP address of the Cisco APIC-EM controller is intended as a destination address for HTTP(S) traffic such as Cisco PnP and PKI download requests.
Any outbound connections initiated from the Cisco APIC-EM controller, such as during a Discovery, Inventory Collection, etc., will use the host IP address of one of the three Cisco APIC-EM hosts.
Therefore, you need to PAT (Port Address Translation) the host IP addresses of the Cisco APIC-EM hosts to a global public facing IP address for outbound connections from Cisco APIC-EM controller.
A multi-host deployment has three physical IP addresses and one virtual IP that floats across the IP addresses by design in order to provide high availability. This capability to float also means that any SSH client that wants to connect to the virtual IP address will see different host-identity public SSH keys each time the virtual IP moves its residence from one host to another host. Most SSH clients will complain that the new host is not trusted, since an entry already exists (as you might have accepted the key earlier for the older host which owned that virtual IP address before). To prevent this inconvenience, you may want to add the host keys of all the three hosts to your known hosts list as described below.
For example on a Linux or Apple Mac OS client machine, run the ssh-keyscan command on each of the three host physical IP addresses as follows:
$ ssh-keyscan -t rsa 209.165.200.30 # 209.165.200.30 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2.3 209.165.200.30 ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDA1B6/1JpKPFOmG3S82eE8OKZkGYmRd SYnuCHfDiY5Pptt3BmaPgC6OlER4wwDL8VP2Rx2kxj3diIzFpUOyDqTbFxIRKVzlwtHHZdhO6G93MyLLGsWq XSMWs4xVcqpembKeCrdjakPaPAXqiAeKW9oimdv.....
$ ssh-keyscan -t rsa 209.165.200.31 # 209.165.200.31 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2.3 209.165.200.31 ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDF57F90z2His86tEj4s75pTc7h0nfzF 2c3QweHCNN2ov474HJJcPrnWTw4DAoPpPCU6zWvR0QLxunURDb+pMeZrIIyd49xn9+OBSmBpzrnety7UB2uP XzL1RvVxayw8mkXkj779LhFh9vkXR4DtX7XLjg.....
$ ssh-keyscan -t rsa 209.165.200.32 # 209.165.200.32 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2.3 209.165.200.32 ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC9kwzodGzGkh/UFXVa9fptGe+sa3CBR 6SNerXxpCmfT9AOXH8xuk3/CBX+DDUQgGJVmqw6maCYKOy0RtAhGxdsNdPL6ETTKzxYB5uzw3KhcDJ6D6ob6 jdzkR6yRuXVFi2OE+u1Aqs7J8GO66FfdavU8.....
Next, change the IP address in the SSH key line of each output to the virtual IP address of the following and append all three key lines to the ~/.ssh/known_hosts file and save it.
Assuming that 209.165.200.33 is the virtual IP address in the above multi-host example, you would add three lines in the ~/.ssh/known_hosts file of your client machine as follows:
209.165.200.33 ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDA1B6/1JpKPFOmG3S82eE8OKZkGYmRdSYnuCHfDiY5Pptt3BmaPgC6OlER4 wwDL8VP2Rx2kxj3diIzFpUOyDqTbFxIRKVzlwtHHZdhO6G93MyLLGsWqXSMWs4xVcqpembKeCrdjakPaPAXqiAeKW9 oimdvPbrQPua7Zg9oblDxaBPn0Fqj00YDjKqTkp/IkZHEfHbDM996GLEbWlOvoHeCCqeZ1nWgFIqzAF+ty8+X5Z/fh hmGe+w2tQlMfrs9pcZDaEEmq/w1W+uRohxLKs+OHnHYAbMzC6O+5fLEr2BwaZf8W016eo1WpPsxUVK6StbXBOQZrcH0 bPsUbIjKJkzafpft9Dp73pSd/vwaoB3DrvNec/PiEJYk+R.....
After the above change, the client will have no trouble performing uninterrupted SSH into the virtual IP address of the hosts even with the IP address floating.
Cisco provides a dedicated Cisco APIC-EM physical appliance that can be purchased from Cisco with the ISO image preinstalled and tested. The following physical appliances are currently available for purchase from Cisco:
Cisco APIC-EM Controller Appliance 10C-64G-2T (Part Number APIC-EM-APL-R-K9)
Cisco APIC-EM Controller Appliance 20C-128G-4T (Part Number APIC-EM-APL-G-K9)
The following table describes the basic system configurations for these appliances.
Platform |
APIC-EM-APL-R-K9 |
APIC-EM-APL-G-K9 |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Physical CPU |
1 physical CPU |
2 physical CPUs |
||||
CPU (cores) |
10
|
20
|
||||
RAM |
64 GB |
128 GB |
||||
Total Disk Space |
1.7 TB |
3.4 TB |
||||
Ethernet NICs |
2 (Gigabit Ethernet ports) |
2 (Gigabit Ethernet ports) |
For the latest, detailed information about the Cisco APIC-EM appliances and scale limits, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Release Notes.
The following table lists the physical specifications for the Cisco APIC-EM appliances.
Description |
Specification |
---|---|
Height |
1.7 in. (4.3 cm) |
Width |
16.9 in. (42.9 cm) |
Depth (length) |
29.8 in. (75.8 cm) |
Maximum weight (fully loaded chassis) |
SFF 8-drive: 37.9 lb. (17.2 Kg) LFF 4-drive: 39.9 lb. (18.1 Kg) |
The following table lists the environmental specifications for the Cisco APIC-EM appliances.
Description |
Specification |
---|---|
Temperature, operating |
41 to 95°F (5 to 35°C) Derate the maximum temperature by 1°C per every 305 meters of altitude above sea level. |
Temperature, non-operating (when the server is stored or transported) |
–40 to 149°F (–40 to 65°C) |
Humidity (RH), operating |
10 to 90% |
Humidity, non-operating |
5 to 93% |
Altitude, operating |
0 to 10,000 feet |
Altitude, non-operating (when the server is stored or transported) |
0 to 40,000 feet |
Sound power level Measure A-weighted per ISO7779 LwAd (Bels) Operation at 73°F (23°C) |
5.4 |
Sound pressure level Measure A-weighted per ISO7779 LpAm (dBA) Operation at 73°F (23°C) |
37 |
The power specifications for the power supply are listed in the following section.
Note | You can get more specific power information for your exact appliance configuration by using the Cisco UCS Power Calculator: http://ucspowercalc.cisco.com |
Caution | Do not mix power supply types in the appliance. Both power supplies must be identical. |
The following table lists the specifications for each 770 W AC power supply (Cisco part number UCSC-PSU1-770W).
Description |
Specification |
---|---|
AC input voltage |
Nominal range: 100–120 VAC, 200–240 VAC (Range: 90–132 VAC, 180–264 VAC) |
AC input frequency |
Nominal range: 50 to 60Hz (Range: 47–63 Hz) |
Maximum AC input current |
9.5 A at 100 VAC 4.5 A at 208 VAC |
Maximum input volt-amperes |
950 VA at 100 VAC |
Maximum output power per PSU |
770 W |
Maximum inrush current |
15 A (sub-cycle duration) |
Maximum hold-up time |
12 ms at 770 W |
Power supply output voltage |
12 VDC |
Power supply standby voltage |
12 VDC |
Efficiency rating |
Climate Savers Platinum Efficiency (80Plus Platinum certified) |
Form factor |
RSP2 |
Input connector |
IEC320 C14 |
The following figure displays the Cisco APIC-EM appliance front panel (APIC-EM-APL-G-K9 ).
Note | The Cisco APIC-EM appliance front panel (APIC-EM-APL-R-K9) shares a similar design. |
Component |
Description |
---|---|
1 |
Drives (up to eight 2.5-inch drives) |
2 |
Pull-out asset tag |
3 |
Operations panel buttons and LEDs |
4 |
Power button/power status LED |
5 |
Unit identification button/LED |
6 |
System status LED |
7 |
Fan status LED |
8 |
Temperature status LED |
9 |
Power supply status LED |
10 |
Network link activity LED |
11 |
KVM connector (used with KVM cable that provides two USB 2.0, one VGA, and one serial connector) |
The following figure displays the Cisco APIC-EM appliance rear panel (APIC-EM-APL-G-K9 ).
Note | The Cisco APIC-EM appliance rear panel (APIC-EM-APL-R-K9) shares a similar design. |
Component |
Description |
---|---|
1 |
PCIe riser 1/slot 1 |
2 |
PCIe riser 2/slot 2 |
3 |
Modular LAN-on-motherboard (mLOM) card slot |
4 |
Grounding-lug hole (for DC power supplies) |
5 |
USB 3.0 ports (two) |
6 |
1-Gb Ethernet dedicated management port |
7 |
Serial port (RJ-45 connector) |
8 |
Dual 1-Gb Ethernet ports (LAN1 and LAN2) |
9 |
VGA video port (DB-15) |
10 |
Rear unit identification button/LED |
11 |
Power supplies (up to two, redundant as 1+1) |
The following table lists the Cisco APIC-EM appliance series features.
Feature |
Description |
---|---|
Chassis |
One rack-unit (1RU) chassis. |
Processors |
Up to two Intel Xeon CPU E5-2650 v3 Series processors. |
Memory |
24 DDR4 DIMM sockets on the motherboard (12 each CPU). |
Baseboard management |
BMC, running Cisco Integrated Management Controller (Cisco IMC) firmware. Depending on your Cisco IMC settings, Cisco IMC can be accessed through the 1-Gb dedicated management port, the 1-Gb Ethernet LOM ports, or a Cisco virtual interface card. |
Network and Management I/O |
Supported connectors:1
|
Modular LOM |
Dedicated socket that can be used to add an mLOM card for additional rear-panel connectivity (up to four 1-Gb or 10-Gb Ethernet ports). |
Power |
Two power supplies: Do not mix power supply types or wattages in the server. Redundant as 1+1. |
Cooling |
Six hot-swappable fan modules for front-to-rear cooling. |
Storage |
|
Disk Management (RAID) |
Hardware-based RAID at RAID Level 10 |
Video |
VGA video resolution up to 1920 x 1200, 16 bpp at 60 Hz, and up to 256 MB of video memory. |
The following tables list the Cisco APIC-EM ports that permit incoming traffic, as well as the Cisco APIC-EM ports that are used for outgoing traffic. You should ensure that these ports on the controller are open for both incoming and outgoing traffic flows.
Note | Ensure that proper protections exist in your network for accessing port 22. For example, you can configure a proxy gateway or secure subnets to access this port. |
Port Number |
Permitted Traffic |
Protocol (TCP or UDP) |
---|---|---|
22 |
SSH |
TCP |
80 |
HTTP |
TCP |
123 |
NTP |
UDP |
162 |
SNMP |
UDP |
443 2 |
HTTPS |
TCP |
500 |
ISAKMP In order for deploying multiple hosts across firewalls in certain deployments, the IPSec ISAKMP (Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol) UDP port 500 has to be allowed to be traversed. |
UDP |
16026 |
SCEP |
TCP |
Port Number |
Permitted Traffic |
Protocol (TCP or UDP) |
||
---|---|---|---|---|
22 |
SSH (to the network devices) |
TCP |
||
23 |
Telnet (to the network devices) |
TCP |
||
53 |
DNS |
UDP |
||
80 |
Port 80 may be used for an outgoing proxy configuration. Additionally, other common ports such as 8080 may also be used when a proxy is being configured by the Cisco APIC-EM configuration wizard (if a proxy is already in use for your network).
|
TCP |
||
123 |
NTP |
UDP |
||
161 |
SNMP agent |
UDP |
||
443 3 |
HTTPS |
TCP |
||
500 |
ISAKMP In order for deploying multiple hosts across firewalls in certain deployments, the IPSec ISAKMP ( (Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol) UDP port 500 has to be allowed to be traversed. |
UDP |
This section provides information about preparing for the Cisco APIC-EM series appliance installation.
Caution | When handling internal appliance components, wear an ESD strap and handle modules by the carrier edges only. |
Tip | Keep the shipping container in case the appliance requires shipping in the future. |
Note | The chassis is thoroughly inspected before shipment. If any damage occurred during transportation or any items are missing, contact your customer service representative immediately. |
Warning | To prevent the system from overheating, do not operate it in an area that exceeds the maximum recommended ambient temperature of: 40° C (104° F). Statement 1047 |
Warning | The plug-socket combination must be accessible at all times, because it serves as the main disconnecting device. Statement 1019 |
Warning | This product relies on the building’s installation for short-circuit (overcurrent) protection. Ensure that the protective device is rated not greater than: 250 V, 15 A. Statement 1005 |
Warning | Installation of the equipment must comply with local and national electrical codes. Statement 1074 |
Caution | To ensure proper airflow it is necessary to rack the appliances using rail kits. Physically placing the units on top of one another or “stacking” without the use of the rail kits blocks the air vents on top of the appliances, which could result in overheating, higher fan speeds, and higher power consumption. We recommend that you mount your appliances on rail kits when you are installing them into the rack because these rails provide the minimal spacing required between the appliances. No additional spacing between the appliances is required when you mount the units using rail kits. |
Caution | Avoid UPS types that use ferroresonant technology. These UPS types can become unstable with systems such as the Cisco UCS, which can have substantial current draw fluctuations from fluctuating data traffic patterns. |
When you are installing an appliance, use the following guidelines:
Plan your site configuration and prepare the site before installing the appliance. For reference, see the Cisco UCS Site Preparation Guide for the recommended site planning tasks.
Ensure that there is adequate space around the appliance to allow for servicing the appliance and for adequate airflow. The airflow in this appliance is from front to back.
Ensure that the air-conditioning meets the thermal requirements listed in the Environmental Specifications.
Ensure that the cabinet or rack meets the requirements listed in the following "Rack Requirements" section.
Ensure that the site power meets the power requirements listed in the Power Specifications. If available, you can use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to protect against power failures.
This section provides the requirements for the standard open racks.
The rack must be of the following type:
A standard 19-in. (48.3-cm) wide, four-post EIA rack, with mounting posts that conform to English universal hole spacing, per section 1 of ANSI/EIA-310-D-1992.
The rack post holes can be square 0.38-inch (9.6 mm), round 0.28-inch (7.1 mm), #12-24 UNC, or #10-32 UNC when you use the supplied slide rails.
The minimum vertical rack space per server must be one RU, equal to 1.75 in. (44.45 mm).
The slide rails sold by Cisco Systems for this appliance do not require tools for installation.
This appliance supports two rail kit options:
Do not attempt to use a rail kit that was for the Cisco UCS C220 M3 server; the rail kits for the Cisco APIC-EM appliance have been designed specifically for it.
The slide rails for this server have an adjustment range of 24 to 36 inches (610 to 914 mm).
The optional cable management arm (CMA) adds additional length requirements:
This section describes how to install the appliance in a rack using the rack kits that are sold by Cisco.
Warning | To prevent bodily injury when mounting or servicing this unit in a rack, you must take special precautions to ensure that the system remains stable. The following guidelines are provided to ensure your safety: This unit should be mounted at the bottom of the rack if it is the only unit in the rack. When mounting this unit in a partially filled rack, load the rack from the bottom to the top with the heaviest component at the bottom of the rack. If the rack is provided with stabilizing devices, install the stabilizers before mounting or servicing the unit in the rack. Statement 1006 |
If necessary for your installation, install the cable management arm.
The following procedure describes how to install the cable management arm.
The CMA is reversible left to right. To reverse the CMA, see Reversing the Cable Management Arm (Optional) section, before installation.
Step 1 | With the server pushed fully into the rack, slide the CMA tab of the CMA arm that is farthest from the server onto the end of the stationary slide rail that is attached to the rack post (see the figure below). Slide the tab over the end of the rail until it clicks and locks. | ||||||||
Step 2 | Slide the CMA tab that is closest to the server over the end of the inner rail that is attached to the server (see the figure below). Slide the tab over the end of the rail until it clicks and locks. | ||||||||
Step 3 | Pull out the width-adjustment slider that is at the opposite end of the CMA assembly until it matches the width of your rack (see the figure below). | ||||||||
Step 4 | Slide the CMA tab that is at the end of the width-adjustment slider onto the end of the stationary slide rail that is attached to the rack post (see figure below). Slide the tab over the end of the rail until it clicks and locks. | ||||||||
Step 5 | Open the hinged
flap at the top of each plastic cable guide and route your cables through the
cable guides as desired.
The following table describes the components of the CMA.
|
The following procedure describes how to reverse the cable management arm.
Step 1 | Rotate the entire CMA assembly 180 degrees. The plastic cable guides must remain pointing upward. | ||||
Step 2 | Flip the tabs at the end of each CMA arm so that they point toward the rear of the server. | ||||
Step 3 | Pivot the tab
that is at the end of the width-adjustment slider. Depress and hold the metal
button on the outside of the tab and pivot the tab 180 degrees so that it
points toward the rear of the server.
Refer to the following figure when reversing the cable management arm.
|
This section describes how to power on the appliance and assign an IP address to connect to it.
Step 1 | Attach a
supplied power cord to each power supply in the appliance and then attach the
power cord to a grounded AC power outlet. See the
Power Specifications, for power specifications.
Wait for approximately two minutes to let the appliance boot in standby power during the first bootup. You can verify the power status by looking at the Power Status LED:
| ||
Step 2 | Connect a USB
keyboard and VGA monitor by using the supplied KVM cable connected to the KVM
connector on the front panel.
| ||
Step 3 | Refer to the following sections for configuring and using CIMC to assign an IP address to the appliance: |
When the Cisco APIC-EM series appliances have been started up and are running, observe the state of the front-panel and rear-panel LEDs. The following sections describe the LED color, its power status, activity, and other important status indicators that are displayed for the Cisco APIC-EM series appliance.
The following table describes the appliance front panel LEDs and buttons on the appliance.
Note | The minimum network interface speed for the appliance should be 1 GB a second. |
LED Name |
State |
---|---|
Front Panel LEDs and Buttons |
Off—There is no AC power to the appliance. Amber—The appliance is in standby power mode. Power is supplied only to the CIMC and some motherboard functions. Green—The appliance is in main power mode. Power is supplied to all server components. |
Identification |
Off—The Identification LED is not in use. Blue—The Identification LED is activated. |
System status |
Green—The appliance is running in a normal operating condition. Green, blinking—The appliance is performing system initialization and memory checks. Amber, steady—The appliance is in a degraded operational state, which may be due to one of the following: – Power supply redundancy is lost. – CPUs are mismatched. – At least one CPU is faulty. – At least one DIMM is faulty. – At least one drive in a RAID configuration failed. Amber, blinking—The appliance is in a critical fault state, which may be due to one of the following: – Boot failed. – Fatal CPU and/or bus error is detected. – Server is in an over-temperature condition. |
Fan status |
Green—All fan modules are operating properly. Amber, steady—One fan module has failed. Amber, blinking—Critical fault, two or more fan modules have failed. |
Temperature status |
Green—The appliance is operating at normal temperature. Amber, steady—One or more temperature sensors have exceeded a warning threshold. Amber, blinking—One or more temperature sensors have exceeded a critical threshold |
Power supply status |
Green—All power supplies are operating normally. Amber, steady—One or more power supplies are in a degraded operational state. Amber, blinking—One or more power supplies are in a critical fault state. |
Network link activity |
Off—The Ethernet link is idle. Green—One or more Ethernet LOM ports are link-active, but there is no activity. Green, blinking—One or more Ethernet LOM ports are link-active, with activity. |
Hard drive fault |
Off—The hard drive is operating properly. Amber—The hard drive has failed. Amber, blinking—The device is rebuilding. |
Hard drive activity |
Off—There is no hard drive in the hard drive sled (no access, no fault). Green—The hard drive is ready. Green, blinking—The hard drive is reading or writing data. |
The following table describes the appliance rear panel LEDs and buttons on the appliance.
Note | The minimum network interface speed for the appliance should be 1 GB a second. |
LED Name |
State |
---|---|
Power supply fault |
Off—The power supply is operating normally. Amber, blinking—An event warning threshold has been reached, but the power supply continues to operate. Amber, solid—A critical fault threshold has been reached, causing the power supply to shut down (for example, a fan failure or an over-temperature condition). |
Power supply AC OK |
Off—There is no AC power to the power supply. Green, blinking—AC power OK, DC output not enabled. Green, solid—AC power OK, DC outputs OK. |
1 Gb Ethernet dedicated management link speed |
Off—link speed is 10 Mbps. Amber—link speed is 100 Mbps. Green—link speed is 1 Gbps. |
1 Gb Ethernet dedicated management link status |
Off—No link is present. Green—Link is active. • Green, blinking—Traffic is present on the active link. |
1 Gb Ethernet link speed |
Off—link speed is 10 Mbps. Amber—link speed is 100 Mbps. Green—link speed is 1 Gbps. |
1 Gb Ethernet link status |
Off—No link is present. Green—Link is active. Green, blinking—Traffic is present on the active link. |
Identification |
Off—The Identification LED is not in use. Blue—The Identification LED is activated. |
Refer to the Cisco UCS C220 Server Installation and Service Guide for information on how to install or replace the Cisco APIC-EM appliance components.
Under certain circumstances, you may need to install a new or the latest Cisco ISO image on the appliance. This section describes the following procedures that you can use to perform this task:
Downloading the Cisco APIC-EM ISO image
Installing the Cisco APIC-EM ISO image on the Cisco APIC-EM series appliances using one of the following procedures:
Install the ISO image using the CIMC Remote Management Utility
Install the ISO image using a USB flash drive
Install the ISO image using an external DVD drive with a USB port
You can download the latest Cisco APIC-EM ISO image from Cisco.com
After you download the ISO image, you can perform a fresh installation on your Cisco APIC-EM series appliance by using any of the following methods:
Install the ISO image using the CIMC Remote Management Utility.
You must configure the CIMC to perform this remote installation. For information about configuring CIMC, see Configuring CIMC.
Install the ISO image using a USB flash drive.
Create a bootable USB disk from the USB flash drive.
Connect the bootable USB disk to the Cisco APIC-EM series appliance.
Install the Cisco APIC-EM software release using the local KVM or remotely using the CIMC KVM.
Note | For information about creating a bootable USB disk from a USB flash drive, see Creating a Bootable USB Disk and Attaching the ISO. |
Note | If your Cisco APIC-EM series appliance is running an earlier version of the controller software, you can upgrade it to the latest version by following the upgrade procedure using the GUI as described in the Release Notes for the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module. Currently, reimaging your existing Cisco APIC-EM series appliance to perform an upgrade to the latest release is not supported. |
Note | For installing the Cisco APIC-EM software release using a USB flash device or an external DVD with a USB port, the CIMC configuration is optional. Choose one of these options if you do not prefer a remote installation. |
You can perform all operations on Cisco APIC-EM series appliances using the CIMC. To do this, you must first configure an IP address and IP gateway to access the CIMC from a web-based browser.
Step 1 | Attach a keyboard and monitor to the USB ports on the rear panel of the appliance or by using a KVM cable and connector to access the appliance console. |
Step 2 | Plug in the power cord. |
Step 3 | Press the
Power button to boot the server. Watch for the
prompt to press
F8 as shown in the following screen.
|
Step 4 | During bootup,
press
F8 when prompted to open the BIOS CIMC Configuration
Utility. The following screen appears.
|
Step 5 | In the Configuration Utility window, change the following fields as specified: |
Step 6 | Press F1 to specify additional settings. |
Step 7 | Make the
following changes on the Additional Settings window:
|
Step 8 | Press F10 to save the settings. |
Step 9 | Press escape to exit and reboot the server. |
Step 10 | After the
settings are saved, open a browser and enter the following URL:
https://CIMC_ip_address where CIMC_IP_address is the IP address that you entered in Step 5. |
Use CIMC to install the Cisco APIC-EM software release on a Cisco APIC-EM series appliance. For information about this procedure, see Using CIMC to Configure a Cisco APIC-EM Series Appliance.
Follow the procedure described below to create a bootable USB disk for the Cisco APIC-EM appliance.
There are many ways to create a bootable USB disk and this procedure is only one example of such a process of creating a bootable USB disk. This procedure uses the Rufus freeware utility (version 2.6.818) to create a bootable USB disk using a Windows machine. The URL for the Rufus freeware utility download is located at: https://rufus.akeo.ie/.
The USB flash drive that you are using to create a bootable USB disk should have a minimum capacity of at least 8 GB.
Step 1 | Download a
freeware utility to create a bootable USB disk to your Windows machine (laptop
or desktop).
After download, open and install the utility.
| ||
Step 2 | Connect your
USB drive to your Windows machine where you downloaded the utility.
After connecting your USB drive, the utility GUI appears. Review the following default values from the drop-down menus for the bootable USB disk:
Do not change any of the displayed default values in the GUI. | ||
Step 3 | Click the
Click to
select image icon located in the middle of the GUI.
The Click to select image icon is an image of a CD-ROM that is located in the middle of the GUI field. It is next to the Format Option, Create a bootable disk using, with FreeDOS selected from the drop-down menu. Keep the drop-down menu set at FreeDOS. | ||
Step 4 | Navigate to the Cisco APIC-EM ISO image on your network and select it. | ||
Step 5 | Click
Start to begin copying the ISO image to the USB
drive.
This action creates the USB drive as a bootable USB disk with the Cisco APIC-EM ISO image installed. | ||
Step 6 | Remove the bootable USB disk from the laptop or desktop and use it wherever you will install the controller. |
Insert the bootable USB disk into the server or appliance where you will install the controller.
After you configure the CIMC for your appliance, you can use it to manage a Cisco APIC-EM series appliance. You can perform all operations including BIOS configuration through the CIMC.
Ensure that you have connected and powered up the appliance by following the recommended procedures in this guide.
Ensure that you have configured the CIMC on your appliance. For information about this procedure, see Configuring CIMC
Ensure that you have the Cisco APIC-EM ISO image on the client machine from which you are accessing the CIMC or you have a bootable USB with the image for installation.
Ensure that you have your Cisco APIC-EM program parameter information available and the requirements ready for deployment (for example, NTP servers).
Step 1 | Connect to the
CIMC for appliance management.
Connect the Ethernet cables from the LAN to the appliance using the ports selected by the Network Interface Card (NIC) Mode setting. The active-active and active-passive NIC redundancy settings require you to connect to two ports. |
Step 2 | Use a browser
and the IP address of the CIMC to log in to the CIMC Setup Utility.
The IP address is based on the CIMC configuration that you made. The default username for the server is admin. The default password is password. |
Step 3 | Click Launch KVM Console in the CIMC GUI . |
Step 4 | Use your CIMC credentials to log into the KVM console. |
Step 5 | Click Virtual Media on the KVM Console menu bar. |
Step 6 | Click Activate Virtual Devices from the Virtual Media drop down menu. |
Step 7 | Browse to the Cisco APIC-EM ISO image in the Virtual Media - Map CD/DVD window. |
Step 8 | Once the
Cisco APIC-EM
ISO image appears in the
Drive/Image File field, click the
Map
Device button.
The Read Only check box should be checked in this window. |
Step 9 | Choose Macros |
Static
Macros |
Ctrl-Alt-Del to boot the Cisco APIC-EM series
appliance using the ISO image. A screen similar to the one shown in the
following figure appears.
|
Step 10 | Press
F6 to bring up the boot menu. A screen similar to
the following one appears.
|
Step 11 | Choose the DVD
that you mapped and press
Enter.
After pressing Enter, the Cisco APIC-EM ISO software and files are installed on your appliance. After these files are installed, the Ubuntu screen briefly appears. Next, the Cisco APIC-EM configuration wizard starts. |
Step 12 | Proceed to
configure the
Cisco APIC-EM
using the wizard.
If the configuration wizard does not start, then enter the config_wizard command initiate the configuration process. Refer to the following sections for information about the configuration wizard process: After you are done with the configuration wizard and have rebooted, the Cisco APIC-EM GUI Login window appears. The Cisco APIC-EM is now ready to use. |
At the Cisco APIC-EM GUI Login window, you are prompted to enter the web-based admin login credentials (username and password) to access the Cisco APIC-EM user interface. You can initially access the web interface by using the GUI admin user’s username and password that you defined during the setup process.
After you log in to the Cisco APIC-EM user interface, you can then configure your controller settings including discovery credentials, SNMP values, and certificates. See the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Administrator Guide, for information about configuring the controller settings.