Configuring SAN Pin Groups

This chapter includes the following sections:

SAN Pin Groups

Cisco UCS uses SAN pin groups to pin Fibre Channel traffic from a vHBA on a server to an uplink Fibre Channel port on the fabric interconnect. You can use this pinning to manage the distribution of traffic from the servers.

To configure pinning for a server, you must include the SAN pin group in a vHBA policy. The vHBA policy is then included in the service profile assigned to that server. All traffic from the vHBA will travel through the I/O module to the specified uplink Fibre Channel port.

You can assign the same pin group to multiple vHBA policies. As a result, you do not need to manually pin the traffic for each vHBA.

Important:

Changing the target interface for an existing SAN pin group disrupts traffic for all vHBAs which use that pin group. The fabric interconnect performs a log in and log out for the Fibre Channel protocols to re-pin the traffic.

Creating a SAN Pin Group

In a system with two fabric interconnects, you can associate the pin group with only one fabric interconnect or with both fabric interconnects.

Procedure
Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the SAN tab.
Step 2   In the SAN tab, expand SAN > SAN Cloud .
Step 3   Right-click SAN Pin Groups and select Create SAN Pin Group.
Step 4   Enter a unique name and description for the pin group.
Step 5   To pin traffic for fabric interconnect A, do the following in the Targets area:
  1. Check the Fabric A check box.
  2. Click the drop-down arrow on the Interface field and navigate through the tree-style browser to select the uplink Fibre Channel port you want to associate with the pin group.
Step 6   To pin traffic for fabric interconnect B, do the following in the Targets area:
  1. Check the Fabric B check box.
  2. Click the drop-down arrow on the Interface field and navigate through the tree-style browser to select the uplink Fibre Channel port you want to associate with the pin group.
Step 7   Click OK.
What to Do Next

Include the pin group in a vHBA template.

Deleting a SAN Pin Group

Procedure
Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the SAN tab.
Step 2   In the SAN tab, expand SAN > SAN Cloud > SAN Pin Groups .
Step 3   Right-click the SAN pin group you want to delete and select Delete.
Step 4   If Cisco UCS Manager displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.