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.

Note

In Fibre Channel switch mode, SAN pin groups are irrelevant. Any existing SAN pin groups will be ignored.

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 SAN.
    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 SAN.
      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 a confirmation dialog box displays, click Yes.