Global VSAN

Global VSANs

Cisco UCS Central enables you to define global VSAN in the SAN cloud or the Storage cloud. The global VSANs created in Cisco UCS Central are specific to the fabric interconnect where you create them. You can assign a VSAN to either Fabric A or Fabric B, or to both Fabric A and B. Global VSANs are not common VSANs in Cisco UCS Central.

Resolution of global VSANs takes place in Cisco UCS Central prior to deployment of global service profiles that reference them to Cisco UCS Manager. If a global service profile references a global VSAN, and that VSAN does not exist, deployment of the global service profile to Cisco UCS Manager will fail due to insufficient resources. All global VSANs created in Cisco UCS Central must be resolved before deploying that global service profile.

Global VSANs are available and can be used in Cisco UCS Manager, even if no global service profile with reference to a global VSAN is deployed in that UCS domain. A global VSAN is not deleted when a global service profile that references it is deleted.

Global VSANs that are referenced by a global service profile available to a Cisco UCS Manager instance remain available unless they are specifically deleted for use from the domain group. Global VSANs can be localized in Cisco UCS Manager, in which case they act as local VSANs. Unless a global VSAN is localized, it cannot be deleted from Cisco UCS Manager.

Creating or Editing a VSAN

You can create a VSAN with IDs from 1 to 4093, except for those in the following reserved ranges:

  • If you plan to use FC switch mode in a Cisco UCS domain, do not configure VSANs with an ID in the range from 3040 to 4078.

  • If you plan to use FC end-host mode in a Cisco UCS domain, do not configure VSANs with an ID in the range from 3840 to 4079.


Important

FCoE VLANs in the SAN cloud and vLANs in the LAN cloud must have different IDs. Using the same ID for an FCoE vLAN in a VSAN and for a vLAN results in a critical fault and traffic disruption for all vNICs and uplink ports using that VLAN. Ethernet traffic is dropped on any VLAN which has an ID that overlaps with an FCoE vLAN ID.

You can create a VSAN at the domain group root or in a specific domain. You can also assign the VSAN to either fabric A or fabric B, or to both fabric A and B. When you assign the VSAN to both fabrics, both of them must have different VSAN ID and FCoE VLAN ID.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Actions bar, type Create VSAN and press Enter.

Step 2

In the VSAN dialog box, choose the type of VSAN that you want to create.

This can be one of the following:

  • SAN—Connects your fabric interconnect to external switches.

  • Storage—Directly connects your storage to the fabric interconnect.

Step 3

Click Domain Group Location and select the location in which you want to create this VSAN.

Step 4

Enter a Name.

The VSAN name is case sensitive.

Important

 

Do not use the name default when you create a VSAN in Cisco UCS Central. If you want to create a global default VSAN, you may use globalDefault for the name.

Step 5

Choose whether to enable Fibre Channel zoning.

FC zoning can be one of the following:

  • Enabled—Cisco UCS Manager will configure and control Fibre Channel zoning when the VSAN is deployed.
  • Disabled—The upstream switch configures and controls the Fibre Channel zoning, or Fibre Channel zoning is not implemented on this VSAN.

Note

 

Fibre Channel zoning is disabled by default.

Step 6

Select the Fabric where you want to assign this VSAN.

If you assign the VSAN to both fabrics, enter the VSAN ID and FCoE VLAN ID for both fabrics. If not, assign the IDs for the selected VSAN.

Step 7

Click Create.