Introduction

Overview of the Cisco UCS C885A M8 Rack Server

The Cisco UCS C885A M8 Rack Server is a dense-GPU server designed to deliver massive, scalable accelerated compute capabilities to address the most demanding AI workloads, including deep learning/Large Language Model (LLM) training, model fine-tuning, large model inferencing, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

To deliver massive accelerated compute performance in a single server, the server offers a choice of eight GPUs of the following types:

  • NVIDIA® HGX H200 Server PCI Exrepess Module (SXM) or Nvidia HGX H100 SXM GPUs. SXM is a socket-based GPU interconnect method used by NVIDIA GPUs.

  • AMD MI300X OCP Accelerator Model (OAM) GPUs.

For north-south traffic, the server also supports up to two NVIDIA® BlueField B3220 DPUs or 2x200G ConnectX-7 NICs to scale AI model training across a cluster of dense-GPU servers. Up to eight NVIDIA® 1x400G ConnectX-7 or Bluefield-3 B3140H SuperNIC are supported for east-west traffic between GPUs.

Introduction

The Cisco Baseboard Management Controller (Cisco BMC) web GUI is HTML5 based and added security with SSL (HTTPS). It helps you manage the Cisco UCS C885A M8 Rack Server using the following options:

Hardware and Component Management

The Inventory feature enables administrators to record hardware devices and components on each server, such as central processing units (CPUs), memory modules, hard drives, network cards, and more.

Status and Checks

The Inventory feature also provides status and checks for hardware and software devices. This information can include device health status, temperature, voltage, connection status, and more.

Function

Description

Log in

Username

Password

Overview

BMC date and time

SOL console

System information

Status information

Logs

Event logs

Post code logs

Tech-support logs

Hardware status

Inventory and LEDs

Sensors

Operations

Factory reset

KVM

Firmware update

OEM Firmware

Reboot BMC

SOL console

Server power operations

Virtual media

Settings

Date and time

Network

Power restore policy

Security and access

Sessions

LDAP

User management

Policies

Certificates

Resource management

Power

GPU Management

Information

Sensors

Powers

Event Logs

Firmware

Date and Time

Note

 

This option is available only for few Cisco UCS C885A M8 Rack Server configurations.

Requirements

Table 1. Operating System and Browser Requirements

Recommended Browser

Version Tested

Minimum Recommended Operating System

Mozilla Firefox

132.0.2 (AArch64)

macOS 15.1 (24B83)

132.0 (64-bit)

Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS

132.0.2 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise

Apple Safari

Version 18.1 (20619.2.8.11.10)

macOS 15.1 (24B83)

Google Chrome

131.0.6778.71 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise

Microsoft Edge

131.0.2903.51 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise

Logging into Cisco BMC

Before you begin

Ensure that all prerequisites are satisfied before attempting to log in.

Procedure

Step 1

In your web browser, type or select the web link for Cisco BMC.

Step 2

If a security dialog box displays, do the following:

  1. (Optional) Check the check box to accept all content from Cisco.

  2. Click Yes to accept the certificate and continue.

Step 3

In the log in window, enter your username and password.

Note

 

When logging in for the first time to an unconfigured system, use root as the username and password as the password.

The following situations occur when you login to the Web UI for the first time:

  • You cannot perform any operation until you change default credentials on the Web UI.

  • You cannot close or cancel the password change pop-up window and opening it in a tab or refreshing the browser page will continue to display the pop-up window. This pop-up window appears when you login after a factory reset.

  • You cannot choose the word password as your new password. If this creates problems for any scripts you may be running, you could change it to password by logging back into the user management options, but this is ENTIRELY at your own risk. It is not recommended by Cisco.

Step 4

Click Log In.

Overview Page

After logging into the Cisco BMC GUI, you are directed to the Overview page. From this page, you can quickly access important features and information. Below are the key properties and sections of the Overview page:

BMC Date and Time

Table 2. BMC Date and Time

Name

Description

BMC date and time field

This field allows you to view and set the date and time on the BMC system.

SOL button

This button initiates the Serial over LAN (SOL) session for remote management and troubleshooting. For more information, see Viewing Serial over LAN (SOL) console.

System Information

Table 3. Server Information

Name

Description

Model field

This field displays the model of the server.

Serial number field

This field shows the unique serial number assigned to the server.

Server manufacturer field

This field identifies the manufacturer of the server.

View more link

Click to see more information. Viewing Inventory and LEDs.

Table 4. Firmware Information

Name

Description

Running field

This field indicates the current version of the firmware running on the system.

View more link

Click to see more information. Viewing BMC Firmware Version.

Table 5. Network Information

Name

Description

Hostname field

This field displays the network hostname assigned to the server.

Link status field

This field shows the current status of the network link (e.g., LinkUp).

Static IPv4 field

This field indicates the static IPv4 address, if configured, for the server.

DHCPv4 field

This field displays the IPv4 address assigned to the server via DHCP.

View more link

Click to see more information. Network Management in Cisco BMC.

Table 6. Power Information

Name

Description

CPU 0 Power field

This field shows the power consumption of CPU 0.

CPU 1 Power field

This field shows the power consumption of CPU 1.

View more link

Click to see more information. Viewing CPU Power Configuration.

Status Information

Table 7. Event Logs

Name

Description

Critical field

This field displays the number of critical events logged in the system.

Warning field

This field indicates the number of warning events logged in the system.

Export all link

Click to export the logs.

Depending on your browser settings, you may be prompted to open or save the JSON log file.

View more link

Click to see more information. Viewing Event Logs.

Table 8. Inventory and LEDs

Name

Description

System identify LED field

This field shows the status of the system identification LED, which can be toggled on or off to identify the system physically.

View more link

Click to see more information. Viewing Inventory and LEDs.