Managing the Capability Catalog in Cisco UCS Central

This chapter includes the following sections:

Capability Catalog

The Capability Catalog is a set of tunable parameters, strings, and rules. Cisco UCS uses the catalog to update the display and configurability of components such as newly qualified DIMMs and disk drives for servers.

The catalog is divided by hardware components, such as the chassis, CPU, local disk, and I/O module. You can use the catalog to view the list of providers available for that component. There is one provider per hardware component. Each provider is identified by the vendor, model (PID), and revision. For each provider, you can also view details of the equipment manufacturer and the form factor.

For information about which hardware components are dependent upon a particular catalog release, see the component support tables in the Service Notes for the B- Series servers. For information about which components are introduced in a specific release, see the Cisco UCS Release Notes.

Contents of the Capability Catalog

The contents of the Capability Catalog include the following:

Implementation-Specific Tunable Parameters

  • Power and thermal constraints

  • Slot ranges and numbering

  • Adapter capacities

Hardware-Specific Rules

  • Firmware compatibility for components such as the BIOS, CIMC, RAID controller, and adapters

  • Diagnostics

  • Hardware-specific reboot

User Display Strings

  • Part numbers, such as the CPN, PID/VID

  • Component descriptions

  • Physical layout/dimensions

  • OEM information

Updates to the Capability Catalog

Capability Catalog updates are included in each Cisco UCS Infrastructure Software Bundle. Unless otherwise instructed by Cisco TAC, you only need to activate the Capability Catalog update after you've downloaded, updated, and activated a Cisco UCS Infrastructure Software Bundle.

As soon as you activate a Capability Catalog update, Cisco UCS immediately updates to the new baseline catalog. You do not have to perform any further tasks. Updates to the Capability Catalog do not require you to reboot or reinstall any component in a Cisco UCS domain.

Each Cisco UCS Infrastructure Software Bundle contains a baseline catalog. In rare circumstances, Cisco releases an update to the Capability Catalog between Cisco UCS releases and makes it available on the same site where you download firmware images.


Note

The Capability Catalog version is determined by the version of Cisco UCS that you are using. For example, Cisco UCS 2.0 releases work with any 2.0 release of the Capability Catalog, but not with 1.0 releases of the Capability Catalog. For information about Capability Catalog releases supported by specific Cisco UCS releases, see the Release Notes for Cisco UCS Software accessible through the Cisco UCS B-Series Servers Documentation Roadmap available at the following URL: http:/​/​www.cisco.com/​go/​unifiedcomputing/​b-series-doc.

Configuring a Capability Catalog Upgrade

Procedure
     Command or ActionPurpose
    Step 1UCSC# connect policy-mgr  

    Enters policy manager mode.

     
    Step 2UCSC(policy-mgr) # scope domain-group domain-group  

    Enters domain group root mode and (optionally) enters a domain group under the domain group root. To enter the domain group root mode, type / as the domain-group.

     
    Step 3UCSC(policy-mgr)/domain-group# scope fw-catalog-pack  

    Enters the capability catalog packages mode.

     
    Step 4UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group/fw-catalog-pack # set catalogversion <catalogversion>  

    Specifies the capability catalog version for this update.

     
    Step 5UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group/fw-catalog-pack* # commit-buffer  

    Commits the transaction to the system.

     

    The following example shows how to configure a capability catalog update for a domain group from Cisco UCS Central: 

    UCSC# connect policy-mgr
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group # fw-catalog-pack 
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group/fw-catalog-pack # set catalogversion 2.1(0.475)T
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group* # commit-buffer
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group* #

    Viewing a Capability Catalog in a Domain Group

    Procedure
       Command or ActionPurpose
      Step 1UCSC# connect policy-mgr  

      Enters policy manager mode.

       
      Step 2UCSC(policy-mgr) # scope domain-group domain-group  

      Enters domain group root mode and (optionally) enters a domain group under the domain group root. To enter the domain group root mode, type / as the domain-group.

       
      Step 3UCSC(policy-mgr)/domain-group# scope fw-catalog-pack default  

      Enters the capability catalog packages mode.

       
      Step 4UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group/fw-catalog-pack # show detail  

      Specifies the capability catalog version for this update.

       

      The following example shows how to view the capability catalog in a domain group from Cisco UCS Central CLI: 

      UCSC# connect policy-mgr
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group # fw-catalog-pack default
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group/fw-catalog-pack # show detail
Catalog Pack:    
Name: root/default    
Mode: Staged    
Catalog Version: 2.1(0.468)T    
Description: default
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group* #

      Deleting a Capability Catalog Policy

      Procedure
         Command or ActionPurpose
        Step 1UCSC# connect policy-mgr  

        Enters policy manager mode.

         
        Step 2UCSC(policy-mgr) # scope domain-group domain-group  

        Enters domain group root mode and (optionally) enters a domain group under the domain group root. To enter the domain group root mode, type / as the domain-group.

         
        Step 3UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group # delete fw-catalog-packname 

        Deletes the specified catalog policy from the domain group.

         
        Step 4UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group* # commit-buffer 

        Commits the transaction to the system.

         

        The following example shows how to delete a capability catalog policy from a domain group:

        UCSC# connect policy-mgr
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group # delete fw-catalog-pack default
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group* # commit-buffer
UCSC(policy-mgr) /domain-group* #