Overview of Cisco UCS Manager GUI

This chapter includes the following sections:

Overview of Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Cisco UCS Manager GUI is the Java application that provides a GUI interface to Cisco UCS Manager. You can start and access Cisco UCS Manager GUI from any computer that meets the following requirements:


  • Has Java 1.6 or higher installed

  • Runs a supported operating system

  • Has HTTP or HTTPS access to the fabric interconnect

Each time you start Cisco UCS Manager GUI, Cisco UCS Manager uses Java Web Start technology to cache the current version of the application on your computer. As a result, you do not have to download the application every time you log in. You only have to download the application the first time that you log in from a computer after the Cisco UCS Manager software has been updated on a system.


Tip

The title bar displays the name of the Cisco UCS instance to which you are connected.

Fault Summary Area

The Fault Summary area displays in the upper left of Cisco UCS Manager GUI. This area displays a summary of all faults that have occurred in the Cisco UCS instance.

Each type of fault is represented by a different icon. The number below each icon indicates how many faults of that type have occurred in the system. If you click an icon, Cisco UCS Manager GUI opens the Faults tab in the Work area and displays the details of all faults of that type.

The following table describes the types of faults each icon in the Fault Summary area represents:

Fault Type Description

Critical Alarms

Critical problems exist with one or more components. These issues should be researched and fixed immediately.

Major Alarms

Serious problems exist with one or more components. These issues should be researched and fixed immediately.

Minor Alarms

Problems exist with one or more components that may adversely affect system performance. These issues should be researched and fixed as soon as possible before they become major or critical issues.

Warning Alarms

Potential problems exist with one or more components that may adversely affect system performance if they are allowed to continue. These issues should be researched and fixed as soon as possible before the problem grows worse.


Tip

If you only want to see faults for a specific object, navigate to that object and then review the Faults tab for that object.

Navigation Pane

The Navigation pane displays on the left side of Cisco UCS Manager GUI below the Fault Summary area. This pane provides centralized navigation to all equipment and other components in the Cisco UCS instance. When you select a component in the Navigation pane, the object displays in the Work area.

The Navigation pane has five tabs. Each tab includes the following elements:


  • A Filter combo box that you can use to filter the navigation tree to view all nodes or only one node.

  • An expandable navigation tree that you can use to access all components on that tab. An icon next to an folder indicates that the node or folder has subcomponents.

The following table describes the tabs in the Navigation pane:

Tab name

Description

Equipment tab

This tab contains a basic inventory of the equipment in the Cisco UCS instance. A system or server administrator can use this tab to access and manage the chassis, fabric interconnects, servers, and other hardware. A red, orange, or yellow rectangle around a device name indicate that the device has a fault.

Servers tab

This tab contains the server-related components, such as service profiles, polices, and pools. A server administrator typically accesses and manages the components on this tab.

LAN tab

This tab contains the components related to LAN configuration, such as LAN pin groups, quality of service classes, VLANs, policies, pools, the internal domain, and VM systems. A network administrator typically accesses and manages the components on this tab.

SAN tab

This tab contains the components related to SAN configuration, such as pin groups, VSANs, policies, and pools. A storage administrator typically accesses and manages the components on this tab.

VM tab

This tab contains the components required to configure VN-Link in Hardware for servers with the Cisco M81KR VIC adapter. For example, you use components on this tab to configure the connection between Cisco UCS Manager and VMware vCenter, to configure distributed virtual switches, port profiles, and to view the virtual machines hosted on servers in the Cisco UCS instance.

Admin tab

This tab contains system-wide settings, such as user manager and communication services, and troubleshooting components, such as faults and events. The system administrator typically accesses and manages the components on this tab.

Toolbar

The toolbar displays on the right side of Cisco UCS Manager GUI above the Work pane. You can use the menu buttons in the toolbar to perform common actions, including the following actions:


  • Navigate between previously viewed items in the Work pane

  • Create elements for the Cisco UCS instance

  • Set options for Cisco UCS Manager GUI

  • Access online help for Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Work Pane

The Work pane displays on the right side of Cisco UCS Manager GUI. This pane displays details about the component selected in the Navigation pane.

The Work pane includes the following elements:


  • A navigation bar that displays the path from the main node of the tab in the Navigation pane to the selected element. You can click any component in this path to display that component in the Work pane.

  • A content area that displays tabs with information related to the component selected in the Navigation pane. The tabs displayed in the content area depends upon the selected component. You can use these tabs to view information about the component, create components, modify properties of the component, and examine a selected object.

Status Bar

The status bar displays across the bottom of Cisco UCS Manager GUI. The status bar provides information about the state of the application.

On the left, the status bar displays the following information about your current session in Cisco UCS Manager GUI:


  • A lock icon that indicates the protocol you used to log in. If the icon is locked, you connected with HTTPS and if the icon is unlocked, you connected with HTTP.

  • The username you used to log in.

  • The IP address of the server where you logged in.

On the right, the status bar displays the system time.

Table Customization

Cisco UCS Manager GUI enables you to customize the tables on each tab. You can change the type of content that you view and filter the content.

Table Customization Menu Button

This menu button in the upper right of every table enables you to control and customize your view of the table. The drop-down menu for this button includes the following options:

Menu Item Description

Column Name

The menu contains an entry for each column in the table.

Click a column name to display or hide the column.

Horizontal Scroll

If selected, adds a horizontal scroll bar to the table. If not selected, when you widen one of the columns, all columns to the right narrow and do not scroll.

Pack All Columns

Resizes all columns to their default width.

Pack Selected Column

Resizes only the selected column to its default width.

Table Content Filtering

The Filter button above each table enables you to filter the content in the table according to the criteria that you set in the Filter dialog box. The dialog box includes the following filtering options:

Name Description

Disable option

No filtering criteria is used on the content of the column. This is the default setting.

Equal option

Displays only that content in the column which exactly matches the value specified.

Not Equal option

Displays only that content in the column which does not exactly match the value specified.

Wildcard option

The criteria you enter can include one of the following wildcards:


  • _ (underscore) or ? (question mark)—replaces a single character

  • % (percent sign) or * (asterisk)—replaces any sequence of characters

Less Than option

Displays only that content in the column which is less than the value specified.

Less Than Or Equal option

Displays only that content in the column which is less than or equal to the value specified.

Greater Than option

Displays only that content in the column which is greater than the value specified.

Greater Than Or Equal option

Displays only that content in the column which is greater than or equal to the value specified.

LAN Uplinks Manager

The LAN Uplinks Manager provides a single interface where you can configure the connections between Cisco UCS and the LAN. You can use the LAN Uplinks Manager to create and configure the following:


  • Ethernet switching mode

  • Uplink Ethernet ports

  • Port channels

  • LAN pin groups

  • Named VLANs

  • Server ports

  • QoS system classes

Some of the configuration that you can do in the LAN Uplinks Manager can also be done in nodes on other tabs, such as the Equipment tab or the LAN tab.

Internal Fabric Manager

The Internal Fabric Manager provides a single interface where you can configure server ports for a fabric interconnect in a Cisco UCS instance. The Internal Fabric Manager is accessible from the General tab for that fabric interconnect.

Some of the configuration that you can do in the Internal Fabric Manager can also be done in nodes on the Equipment tab, on the LAN tab, or in the LAN Uplinks Manager.

Hybrid Display

For each chassis in a Cisco UCS instance, Cisco UCS Manager GUI provides a hybrid display that includes both physical components and connections between the chassis and the fabric interconnects.

This tab displays detailed information about the connections between the selected chassis and the fabric interconnects. It has an icon for the following:


  • Each fabric interconnect in the system

  • The I/O module (IOM) in the selected chassis, which is shown as an independent unit to make the connection paths easier to see

  • The selected chassis showing the servers and PSUs

The lines between the icons represent the connections between the following:


  • DCE interface on each server and the associated server port on the IOM. These connections are created by Cisco and cannot be changed.

  • Server port on the IOM and the associated port on the fabric interconnect. You can change these connections if desired.

You can mouse over the icons and lines to view tooltips identifying each component or connection, and you can double-click any component to view properties for that component.

If there is a fault associated with the component or any of its subcomponents, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a fault icon on top of the appropriate component. If there are multiple fault messages, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the icon associated with the most serious fault message in the system.

Logging in to Cisco UCS Manager GUI through HTTPS

The default HTTPS web link for Cisco UCS Manager GUI is https://UCSManager_IP, where UCSManager_IP represents the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Manager. This IP address can be one of the following:


  • Cluster configuration: UCSManager_IP represents the virtual or cluster IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Manager. Do not use the IP addresses assigned to the management port on the fabric interconnects.

  • Standalone configuration: UCSManager_IP represents the IP address for the management port on the fabric interconnect

Procedure
Step 1   In your web browser, type the Cisco UCS Manager GUI web link or select the bookmark in your browser.
Step 2   If a Security Alert dialog box appears, click Yes to accept the security certificate and continue.
Step 3   On the Cisco UCS Manager page, click Launch.

Depending upon the web browser you use to log in, you may be prompted to download or save the .JNLP file.

Step 4   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 5   In the Login dialog box, enter your username and password.
Step 6   Click Login.

Logging in to Cisco UCS Manager GUI through HTTP

The default HTTP web link for Cisco UCS Manager GUI is http://UCSManager_IP, where UCSManager_IP represents the IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Manager. This IP address can be one of the following:


  • Cluster configuration: UCSManager_IP represents the virtual or cluster IP address assigned to Cisco UCS Manager. Do not use the IP addresses assigned to the management port on the fabric interconnects.

  • Standalone configuration: UCSManager_IP represents the IP address for the management port on the fabric interconnect

Procedure
Step 1   In your web browser, type the Cisco UCS Manager GUI web link or select the bookmark in your browser.
Step 2   In the Cisco UCS Manager page, click Launch.

Depending upon the web browser you use to log in, you may be prompted to download or save the .JNLP file.

Step 3   In the Login dialog box, enter your username and password.
Step 4   Click Login.

Logging Off Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Procedure
Step 1   In Cisco UCS Manager GUI, click Exit in the upper right.

Cisco UCS Manager GUI blurs on your screen to indicate that you cannot use it and displays the Exit dialog box.
Step 2   From the drop-down list, select one of the following:

  • Exit to log out and shut down Cisco UCS Manager GUI.

  • Log Off to log out of Cisco UCS Manager GUI and log in a different user.
Step 3   Click OK.

Changing the Cisco UCS Manager GUI Properties

Procedure
Step 1   In the toolbar, click Options to open the Properties dialog box.
Step 2   (Optional) To specify if Cisco UCS Manager GUI will require confirmation for certain procedures, do the following:
  1. In the right pane, click Confirmation Messages.
  2. In the left pane, complete the following fields:
    Name Description

    Confirm Deletion check box

    If checked, Cisco UCS Manager GUI requires that you confirm all delete operations.

    Confirm Discard Changes check box

    If checked, Cisco UCS Manager GUI requires that you confirm before the system discards any changes.

    Confirm Modification/Creation check box

    If checked, Cisco UCS Manager GUI requires that you confirm before the system modifies or creates objects.

    Confirm Successful Operations check box

    If checked, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation when operations are successful.

Step 3   (Optional) To configure SSH external applications, do the following:
  1. In the right pane, click External Applications.
  2. In the left pane, complete the following fields:
    Name Description

    SSH field

    The application to use for SSH processing.

    SSH Parameters field

    Any parameters to include in all SSH commands.

Step 4   (Optional) To change the session properties, do the following:
  1. In the right pane, click Session.
  2. In the Session page, update one or more of the following fields:
    Name Description

    Automatically Reconnect check box

    If checked, the system tries to reconnect if communication between the GUI and the fabric interconnect is interrupted.

    GUI Inactivity Time Out drop-down list

    The number of minutes the system should wait before ending an inactive session. To specify that the session should not time out regardless of the length of inactivity, choose NEVER.

    Reconnection Interval field

    If the Automatically Reconnect check box is checked, this is the number of seconds the system waits before trying to reconnect.

Step 5   (Optional) To change the look of Cisco UCS Manager GUI, do the following:
  1. In the right pane, click Visual Enhancements.
  2. In the Visual Enhancements page, update one or more of the following fields:
    Name Description

    Max History Size field

    The number of tabs the system should store in memory for use with the Forward and Back toolbar buttons.

    Right Aligned Labels check box

    If checked, all labels are right-aligned with respect to one another. Otherwise all labels are left-aligned.

    Show Image while Dragging check box

    If checked, when you drag an object from one place to another, the GUI displays a transparent version of that object until you drop the object in its new location.

    Wizard Transition Effects check box

    If checked, when you go to a new page in a wizard the first page fades out and the new page fades in. Otherwise the page changes without a visible transition.

Step 6   Click OK.

Copying the XML

To assist you in developing scripts or creating applications with the XML API for Cisco UCS, Cisco UCS Manager GUI includes an option to copy the XML used to create an object in Cisco UCS Manager. This option is available on the right-click menu for most object nodes in the Navigation pane, such as the Port Profiles node or the node for a specific service profile.

Procedure
Step 1   In the Navigation pane, navigate to the object for which you want to copy the XML.
Step 2   Right-click on that object and choose Copy XML.
Step 3   Paste the XML into an XML editor, Notepad, or another application.