Installation Prerequisites

This chapter includes the following sections:

Supported Platforms

The following table describes the supported platforms for installing Cisco UCS Central.

Hypervisors Supported Versions

Microsoft Hyper-V

Windows 2008 R2 with SP1

Windows 2012

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2

VMware ESX

  • ESX 5.0 U3

  • ESX 5.1

  • ESX 5.5

  • ESX 6.0

KVM Hypervisor

KVM Hypervisor on RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.5

Supported Web Browsers

The web browser support for the Cisco UCS Central GUI depends on the operating system of the computer on which you plan to run Cisco UCS Central GUI.

Operating System Supported Web Browsers

Microsoft Windows

  • Internet Explorer 9 and above

  • Firefox 29 and above

  • Chrome 34 and above

  • Adobe Flash Player 11.7 and above

Mac OS

  • Firefox 29 and above

  • Chrome 34 and above

  • Safari 6 and above

  • Adobe Flash Player 11.7 and above

    For the Chrome browser, remove the bundled flash player and install the flash player from Adobe.

Linux RHEL

  • Firefox 29 and above

  • Chrome 34 and above

  • Adobe Flash Player 11.7 and above

Required Ports

Communication between Cisco UCS Central and Cisco UCS Domain

The following ports must be open between Cisco UCS Central and a registered Cisco UCS domain to enable management communication between Cisco UCS Central and Cisco UCS domain:

Port Number

Daemon

Protocol

Usage

32803

LOCKD

TCP/UDP

Firmware management and back up.

892

MOUNTD

TCP/UDP

Firmware management and back up.

875

RQUOTAD

TCP/UDP

Firmware management and back up.

32805

STATD

TCP/UDP

Firmware management and back up.

2049

NFS

Note   

Required for Cisco UCS Manager release versions 2.1(x) and 2.2(x). Not required for Cisco UCS Manager 3.0.

TCP/UDP

Firmware management and back up.

111

SUNRPC

TCP/UDP

Firmware management and back up.

443

-

TCP/UDP

Enable communication through firewall between Cisco UCS Central and Cisco UCS Manager.

Communication between Cisco UCS Central and Client browser

The following ports must be open to enable communication between Cisco UCS Central and the client browser:

Port Number

Daemon

Protocol

Usage

80

-

TCP

Communication between client browser and Cisco UCS Central.

843

-

TCP

Communication between client browser and Cisco UCS Central.

443

-

TCP

Enable communication through firewall between client browser and Cisco UCS Central.

System Requirements

Standalone Installation

If you are installing Cisco UCS Central in a standalone mode, make sure you have the following system requirements.

Server Type

We recommend that you deploy Cisco UCS Central on a VMware or Hyper-V hypervisor running on standalone rack server(s) that is not managed by Cisco UCS Manager or integrated into a Cisco UCS domain. The server must have a high-speed data store, preferably one provisioned from a high-speed storage array.

Server Requirements

The following table describes the minimum requirements for installing Cisco UCS Central in the following platforms:

  • ESX

  • Hyper-V

  • KVM Hypervisor

.
Item Minimum Requirements for EXS, Hyper-V and KVM Hypervisor

Disk 1

40 GB

Disk 2

40 GB

RAM

12 GB

vCPU cores

4 cores

Disk read speed

> 75 MBps

>125 MBps is the recommended speed.


Note

  • If you want to manage more servers, for example 200 domains/6000 servers, make sure to increase RAM to 16 GB.

  • Performance of Cisco UCS Central is not guaranteed if you deploy it on a server that does not meet the minimum requirements for vCPU, RAM or Disk Speed.

  • Make sure to power off before making any changes to the VM settings.

  • If you are using NFS for cluster setup, make sure the network latency is less than .5ms to ensure good system performance.

If the disk read speed on the server is lower than the required minimum during the deployment of Cisco UCS Central, the installer displays a warning message but you can complete the deployment. However, if the disk read speed is lower than the required minimum during operation, Cisco UCS Central raises a fault, as shown in the following table, depending upon how low the disk read speed is:

Disk Read Speed on Server Fault Level

<75 MBps

Critical fault

75 to 100 MBps

Major fault

100 to 125 MBps

Minor fault

>125 MBps

N/A

Supported Database Servers

The following are the supported database servers for statistics collection:

  • Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64-bit Production or higher

  • PostgreSQL Server 9.1.8 64-bit or higher

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (SP1) - 11.0.3000.0 (X64) or higher

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 10.50.1600.1 (X64) SP1 or higher

When the statistics data is stored in external database server, Consider the following as a reference data for disk space requirements on the database server:

  • If you register 20 Cisco UCS domains , the minimum storage space required to store statistics data for 1 year would be 400 GB.

  • If you register 100 Cisco UCS domains , the minimum storage space required to store statistics data for 1 year would be 2 TB.

Client System

The minimum memory required for client system is 4 GB. However if you have 40 or more registered Cisco UCS Domains, it is recommended to have at least 8 GB memory on the client system.

Cluster Installation

If you want to enable high availability and install Cisco UCS Central in cluster mode, you must have all the requirements specified for standalone installation, and have the following Shared Storage:

  • ESX Minimum Requirement : 40 GB

  • Hyper-V Minimum Requirement: 40 GB

Managing Cisco UCS Domains in Remote Locations

To manage Cisco UCS domains in remote locations such as remote branch offices, the following are the minimum requirements for network connectivity between Cisco UCS domain and Cisco UCS Central:

  • Bandwidth - 1.5 Mbps or higher

  • Latency - 500 ms (round trip) or lower

Important Prerequisites for Installing Cisco UCS Central

You must have the following information before beginning to install Cisco UCS Central:

  • Static IPv4 address for Cisco UCS Central

  • IPv4 netmask

  • Default gateway

  • Password to be assigned to the Cisco UCS Central admin account. You will create this new password.

  • Hostname for the virtual machine (VM)

  • IPv4 address for the DNS server, if you plan to use one

  • Name of the DNS domain in which you want to include Cisco UCS Central, if you plan to use one

  • Shared secret. This is the required password when you register Cisco UCS domains with Cisco UCS Central

  • Shared storage. This is optional for standalone installation and is required for cluster installation.