Hardware Compatibility Report

Hardware Compatibility Report

The Cisco UCS Hardware Compatibility Report allows you to check interoperability information for Cisco UCS components and configurations that have been tested and verified by Cisco, by Cisco partners, or both. You can run reports and check the status against your current software version or a target software version.

The hardware compatibility report checks the compatibility of the operating systems on the servers, and then checks the adapter drivers associated with that operating system.


Note

If you run the hardware compatibility report using the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, the servers can be checked, but not the adapter drivers. Therefore the overall status will always read Can Not Determine or Not Validated.

Running hardware compatibility reports requires the following:

  • All servers that you want to run the hardware compatibility report against must be associated with a service profile.

  • You must have a Cisco.com account with Hardware Compatibility Catalog selected to download or import updated versions of the hardware compatibility list. If you do not already have an account, see the procedure to set up an account in the Cisco UCS Central Administration Guide.


Note

Cisco UCS Central ships with a version of the hardware compatibility list, but we recommend that you update to the latest version before running the report.

You will no longer be able to download the Hardware Compatibility Catalog stored in https:/ / ucshclserver.cloudapps.cisco.com/ fetch/ current.tar.gz from Cisco.com. Cisco recommends that you run the following command to download the catalog and then import it into Cisco UCS Central from the UI.

Before you run the command, ensure that you have internet connectivity.

 
curl -k -f --connect-timeout 30 --dump-header "hcl_download_header" -o current.tar.gz https://ucshclserver.cloudapps.cisco.com/fetch/current.tar.gz -u CCOusername:CCOPassword'

Hardware Compatibility Page

The hardware compatibility page displays the existing hardware compatibility reports and catalog downloads. You can have up to 10 reports active at any one time.

From this page, you can:

  • View reports or delete reports that are no longer in use on the Reports tab.

  • View downloads or imports of hardware compatibility lists on the Downloads tab.

  • Create hardware compatibility reports.

  • Schedule periodic synchronization of hardware compatibility lists.

  • Synchronize the hardware compatibility list.

  • Import a hardware compatibility list.

Create Hardware Compatibility Report

Hardware compatibility reports are stored on the hardware compatibility page.

Procedure

Step 1

Click the System Tools icon and choose Hardware Compatibility.

Step 2

On the Hardware Compatibility page, click the Tools icon and choose Create Hardware Compatibility Report.

Step 3

On the Hardware Compatibility Report dialog box, enter a name.

Step 4

Choose whether to run the report against the current firmware version of your software or a target firmware version.

Step 5

If you chose Target Version, select the firmware version for which you want to run the report.

Step 6

Choose where you want to run the report. This can be one of the following:

  • All—Runs the report on all servers associated with a service profile.

    Note 

    If you have a large number of servers, we recommend that you limit the number of servers by choosing a different option.

  • Domain Group—Runs the report against all servers in a selected domain group.

  • Domains—Runs the report against all servers in one or more selected domains.

  • Servers—Runs the report against one or more selected servers.

Step 7

Click Create.

Note 

You can only create a maximum of 10 hardware compatibility lists. Creating additional reports causes an error when you click Create. You will need to delete one or more existing reports before you can create a new one.

Running the HCL on a Host Firmware Package Policy

You can run the hardware compatibility report in a host firmware package policy that meets the following criteria:

  • The host firmware package policy must be assigned to a service profile or service profile template.

  • The service profile or service profile template must be associated with a server.

Procedure

Step 1

Click the Browse Tables icon and choose Policies.

Step 2

Choose a host firmware package policy.

Step 3

On the host firmware package policy page, click the Edit icon.

Step 4

Click Hardware Compatibility.

Step 5

In the hardware compatibility report, check the status of the operating systems and adapter drivers.

For more information, see Viewing Hardware Compatibility Report Results.

Step 6

Click Save to save any changes that you have made to the hardware firmware package policy, or click Edit to return to edit mode.

Running the HCL on a Service Profile or Service Profile Template

You can run the hardware compatibility report in a global service profile or service profile template that is associated with a server.

Procedure

Step 1

Click the Browse Tables icon and choose Templates or Profiles.

Step 2

Choose a global service profile or service profile template.

Step 3

On the service profile or service profile template page, click the Edit icon.

Step 4

Click the Policies tab.

Step 5

Click the Host Firmware Package policy.

Step 6

Click the Host Firmware Package drop-down arrow and choose a policy.

Step 7

Click Hardware Compatibility.

Step 8

In the hardware compatibility report, check the status of the operating systems and adapter drivers.

For more information, see Viewing Hardware Compatibility Report Results.

Step 9

Viewing Hardware Compatibility Report Results

Procedure

Step 1

Click the System Tools icon and choose Hardware Compatibility.

Step 2

On the Hardware Compatibility page, in Reports, click the View Results icon for the report that you want to view.

Step 3

On the Report page, check the overall status.

  • Can Not Determine—Either the operating system or the adapter drivers have not been tagged.

  • Not Validated—The operating system and adapter drivers have not been tested and verified by Cisco, by Cisco partners, or both.

  • Validated—The operating system and all adapter drivers have been tested and verified.

Step 4

If an operating system is not tagged, click Add Tag and complete the following:

  1. Choose the Vendor and Version of the operating system.

  2. Click Add.

Note 

Click View compatible operating systems to see a list of validated operating systems.

Step 5

If an adapter driver is not tagged, click Add Tag and complete the following:

  1. Choose the Vendor, Device Type, and Version.

  2. Click Add.

Note 

Click View compatible drivers to see a list of validated adapter drivers.

Step 6

If the operating system or adapter drivers have not been validated, check the UCS HCL tool.

Step 7

Click the Refresh Report icon to rerun the report.

The Report page displays.

Hardware Compatibility Report Layout

Field

Description

Report Summary

Lists the number of servers verified by the report.

  • Not Validated—The combination of the server model, firmware versions, OS and adapters is not a tested and validated configuration.

  • Cannot Determine—There is not enough information to determine if it is a validated configuration. This could be due to the OS or adapters not being tagged.

  • Validated—Both the OS and the adapters have been tagged and validated.

Overall Report Status

The overall status of the report.

Report Server Firmware Version

The firmware version of the server on which the report was run.

Hardware Compatibility List Version

The hardware compatibility list version on which the report was run.

Report Run On

The servers on which the report was run.

  • All—All servers associated with a service profile.

  • Domain Group—All servers in a selected domain group.

  • Domains—All servers in one or more selected domains.

  • Servers—One or more selected servers.

Report Date

The date and time on which the report was run.

Server

The server name, slot number, domain group, and model number.

Firmware

The current version of the firmware, and the version on which the report was run.

Configuration

The service profile applied to the server.

Operating System

If tagged, the operating system for the selected server.

Add Tag

Click to tag the operating system.

View compatible operating systems

If the operating system is not supported, displays the list of all validated operating systems.

Adapter

The model of the adapter.

Add Tag

Click to tag the adapter driver information.

Show Notes

Any additional information related to the OS or adapter driver.

View compatible drivers

If the adapter driver is not supported, displays the list of all validated drivers.

View supported adapter firmware

If the adapter firmware is not supported, displays the list of validated firmware.

Hardware Compatibility Lists

Hardware compatibility lists are stored in the hardware compatibility lists page under the Downloads tab. Cisco UCS Central ships with a version of the hardware compatibility list, but we recommend that you update to the latest version before running the report.

You can obtain updated hardware compatibility lists in one of the following ways:

Type

Description

Automatic synchronization from Cisco.com

After you set up a Cisco.com account, you can:

  • Schedule periodic hardware compatibility list synchronization.
  • Synchronize the hardware compatibility list on demand.

Manual download and import

If you don't want to use automatic synchronization to download the hardware compatibility lists inside of Cisco UCS Central, you can manually download the lists to an external machine and then import them.

All choices are available from the Tools icon on the hardware compatibility page.

Scheduling Periodic Hardware Compatibility List Synchronization

Schedule periodic hardware compatibility list syncs to automatically fetch updated hardware compatibility lists according to the frequency that you set.

Before you begin

You must have a Cisco.com account with Hardware Compatibility Catalog selected.

If you do not already have an account, see .

Procedure

Step 1

Click the System Tools icon and choose Hardware Compatibility.

Step 2

On the Hardware Compatibility page, click the Tools icon and choose Schedule Periodic Hardware Compatibility List Syncs.

Step 3

Choose the frequency with which you want to synchronize the hardware compatibility list.

This can be one of the following:

  • On Demand—The hardware compatibility list is synced when you click the Tools icon and choose Synchronize Hardware Compatibility List.

  • Daily—The hardware compatibility list is synced once a day.

  • Weekly—The hardware compatibility list is synced once a week.

  • Bi-Weekly—The hardware compatibility list is synced every two weeks.

Step 4

Click Schedule.

Running On Demand Hardware Compatibility List Synchronization

Use on demand hardware compatibility list syncs to fetch updated hardware compatibility lists when you need them.

Before you begin

You must have a Cisco.com account with Hardware Compatibility Catalog selected.

If you do not already have an account, see .

Procedure

Step 1

Click the System Tools icon and choose Hardware Compatibility.

Step 2

On the Hardware Compatibility page, click the Tools icon and choose Sychronize Hardware Compatibility List.

The updated hardware compatibility list is downloaded.

Manually Downloading and Importing Compatibility Lists

If you do not want to use automatic synchronization you can manually download the hardware compatibility list to a local or remote location.

Before you begin

Download the hardware compatibility list from Cisco.com. The file is stored in the following location: https://ucshclserver.cloudapps.cisco.com/fetch/current.tar.gz.

Procedure

Step 1

Click the System Tools icon and choose Hardware Compatibility.

Step 2

On the Hardware Compatibility page, click the Tools icon and choose Import Hardware Compatibility List.

Step 3

Choose Local to import a local compatibility list and browse to the file location.

Step 4

Choose Remote if you want to import a remote file.

  1. Choose the Transfer Protocol that you want to use.

  2. Enter the Absolute Remote Path and the Remote Server Host Name/IP Address.

  3. If you chose FTP, SFTP or SCP, enter the username and password for the remote server.

Step 5

Click Import.