Overview of the Cisco UCS C-Series Network Adapters
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The procedures in this chapter are available only when a Cisco UCS C-Series network adapter is installed in the chassis. |
A Cisco UCS C-Series network adapter can be installed to provide options for I/O consolidation and virtualization support. The following adapters are available:
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Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card
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Cisco UCS VIC 1225 Virtual Interface Card
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Cisco UCS VIC 1227T Virtual Interface Card
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Cisco UCS VIC 1385 Virtual Interface Card
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Cisco UCS VIC 1387 Virtual Interface Card
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You must have same generation VIC cards on a server. For example, you cannot have a combination of 3rd generation and 4th generation VIC cards on a single server. |
The interactive UCS Hardware and Software Interoperability Utility lets you view the supported components and configurations for a selected server model and software release. The utility is available at the following URL: http://www.cisco.com/web/techdoc/ucs/interoperability/matrix/matrix.html
Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card
The Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card is optimized for virtualized environments, for organizations that seek increased mobility in their physical environments, and for data centers that want reduced costs through NIC, HBA, cabling, and switch reduction and reduced management overhead. This Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) PCIe card offers the following benefits:
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Allows up to 16 virtual Fibre Channel and 16 virtual Ethernet adapters to be provisioned in virtualized or nonvirtualized environments using just-in-time provisioning, providing tremendous system flexibility and allowing consolidation of multiple physical adapters.
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Delivers uncompromising virtualization support, including hardware-based implementation of Cisco VN-Link technology and pass-through switching.
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Improves system security and manageability by providing visibility and portability of network polices and security all the way to the virtual machine.
The virtual interface card makes Cisco VN-Link connections to the parent fabric interconnects, which allows virtual links to connect virtual NICs in virtual machines to virtual interfaces in the interconnect. In a Cisco Unified Computing System environment, virtual links then can be managed, network profiles applied, and interfaces dynamically reprovisioned as virtual machines move between servers in the system.
Cisco UCS VIC 1225 Virtual Interface Card
The Cisco UCS VIC 1225 Virtual Interface Card is a high-performance, converged network adapter that provides acceleration for the various new operational modes introduced by server virtualization. It brings superior flexibility, performance, and bandwidth to the new generation of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers.
The Cisco UCS VIC 1225 implements the Cisco Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX), which unifies virtual and physical networking into a single infrastructure. It provides virtual-machine visibility from the physical network and a consistent network operations model for physical and virtual servers. In virtualized environments, this highly configurable and self-virtualized adapter provides integrated, modular LAN interfaces on Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers. Additional features and capabilities include:
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Supports up to 256 PCIe virtual devices, either virtual network interface cards (vNICs) or virtual host bus adapters (vHBAs), with high I/O operations per second (IOPS), support for lossless Ethernet, and 20 Gbps to servers.
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PCIe Gen2 x16 helps assure optimal bandwidth to the host for network-intensive applications with a redundant path to the fabric interconnect.
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Half-height design reserves full-height slots in servers for Cisco certified third-party adapters.
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Centrally managed by Cisco UCS Manager with support for Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux, VMware vSphere, and Citrix XenServer.
Cisco UCS VIC 1385 Virtual Interface Card
The Cisco UCS VIC 1385 Virtual Interface Cardis a dual-port Enhanced Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable (QSFP) 40 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)-capable half-height PCI Express (PCIe) card designed exclusively for Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers. It incorporates Cisco’s next-generation converged network adapter (CNA) technology, with a comprehensive feature set, providing investment protection for future feature software releases. The card enables a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present over 256 PCIe standards-compliant interfaces to the host that can be dynamically configured as either network interface cards (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs). In addition, the Cisco UCS VIC 1385 card supports Cisco Data Center Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology, which extends the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect ports to virtual machines, simplifying server virtualization deployment.
The personality of the card is determined dynamically at boot time using the service profile associated with the server. The number, type (NIC or HBA), identity (MAC address and World Wide Name [WWN]), failover policy, bandwidth, and quality-of-service (QoS) policies of the PCIe interfaces are all determined using the service profile. The capability to define, create, and use interfaces on demand provides a stateless and agile server infrastructure. Additional features and capabilities include:
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Each PCIe interface created on the VIC is associated with an interface on the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect, providing complete network separation for each virtual cable between a PCIe device on the VIC and the interface on the fabric interconnect
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The Cisco UCS VIC 1385 Virtual Interface Card provides high network performance and low latency for the most demanding applications such as SMB-Direct, VMQ, DPDK, and Cisco NetFlow
Cisco UCS VIC 1227T Virtual Interface Card
The Cisco UCS VIC 1227T Virtual Interface Card is a dual-port 10GBASE-T (RJ-45) 10-Gbps Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)–capable PCI Express (PCIe) modular LAN-on-motherboard (mLOM) adapter designed exclusively for Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers. New to Cisco rack servers, the mLOM slot can be used to install a Cisco VIC without consuming a PCIe slot, which provides greater I/O expandability. It incorporates next-generation converged network adapter (CNA) technology from Cisco, providing Fibre Channel connectivity over low-cost twisted pair cabling with a bit error rate (BER) of 10 to 15 up to 30 meters and investment protection for future feature releases. The mLOM card enables a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present up to 256 PCIe standards-compliant interfaces to the host that can be dynamically configured as either network interface cards (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs). In addition, the Cisco UCS VIC 1227T Virtual Interface Card supports Cisco Data Center Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology, which extends the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect ports to virtual machines, simplifying server virtualization deployment. Additional features and capabilities include:
- Stateless and agile design - The personality of the card is determined dynamically at boot time using the service profile associated with the server. The number, type (NIC or HBA), identity (MAC address and World Wide Name [WWN]), failover policy, bandwidth, and quality-of-service (QoS) policies of the PCIe interfaces are all determined using the service profile. The capability to define, create, and use interfaces on demand provides a stateless and agile server infrastructure.
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Each PCIe interface created on the VIC is associated with an interface on the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect, providing complete network separation for each virtual cable between a PCIe device on the VIC and the interface on the fabric interconnect.
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Cisco SingleConnect technology provides an exceptionally easy, intelligent, and efficient way to connect and manage computing in the data center. Cisco SingleConnect technology dramatically simplifies the way that data centers connect to rack and blade servers, physical servers, virtual machines, LANs, SANs, and management networks.
Cisco UCS VIC 1387 Virtual Interface Card
The Cisco UCS VIC 1387 Virtual Interface Card is a dual-port Enhanced Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable (QSFP) 40 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)-capable half-height PCI Express (PCIe) card designed exclusively for Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers. It incorporates Cisco’s next-generation converged network adapter (CNA) technology, with a comprehensive feature set, providing investment protection for future feature software releases. The card enables a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present over 256 PCIe standards-compliant interfaces to the host that can be dynamically configured as either network interface cards (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs). In addition, the Cisco UCS VIC 1387 card supports Cisco Data Center Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology, which extends the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect ports to virtual machines, simplifying server virtualization deployment.
The personality of the card is determined dynamically at boot time using the service profile associated with the server. The number, type (NIC or HBA), identity (MAC address and World Wide Name [WWN]), failover policy, bandwidth, and quality-of-service (QoS) policies of the PCIe interfaces are all determined using the service profile. The capability to define, create, and use interfaces on demand provides a stateless and agile server infrastructure. Additional features and capabilities include:
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Each PCIe interface created on the VIC is associated with an interface on the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect, providing complete network separation for each virtual cable between a PCIe device on the VIC and the interface on the fabric interconnect
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The Cisco UCS VIC 1387 Virtual Interface Card provides high network performance and low latency for the most demanding applications such as SMB-Direct, VMQ, DPDK, and Cisco NetFlow