Configuring Cisco UCS Central Accounts

This chapter contains the following sections:

Multi-Domain Managers

A multi-domain manager is an application that can manage more than one domain. For example, Cisco UCS Central is a multi-domain manager that manages one or more registered Cisco UCS domains.

Cisco UCS Central Accounts

Each Cisco UCS Central account represents a single Cisco UCS Central, plus all the Cisco UCS domains registered with that Cisco UCS Central.

When you create a Cisco UCS Central account all Cisco UCS domains that are registered with that Cisco UCS Central, and their related Cisco UCS Manager accounts, are imported into Cisco UCS Director. You can assign one or more of those Cisco UCS Manager accounts from the Cisco UCS Central account to a pod if needed. You can also register a Cisco UCS Manager account with a Cisco UCS Central account.


Note
Cisco UCS Central is a multi-domain manager; you do not create the Cisco UCS Central account in a pod.

Adding a Cisco UCS Central Account

    Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Administration > Physical Accounts.
    Step 2   On the Multi-Domain Managers tab, click Add.
    Step 3   In the Multi-Domain Manager Account dialog box, complete the following fields:
    Name Description

    Account Name field

    A unique name that you assign to this account.

    Description field

    (Optional) A description of this account.

    Account Type drop-down list

    Choose the account type. You must choose UCS Central.

    Server Address field

    The IP address of Cisco UCS Central.

    User ID field

    The username that this account will use to access Cisco UCS Central. This username must be a valid account in Cisco UCS Central.

    Note   

    When creating a UCS Central account integrated with LDAP, the username must be in the following format:

    ucs-<Domain Name>\username

    For example: ucs-vxendomain.com\jdoe123

    Password field

    The password associated with the username.

    Transport Type drop-down list

    Choose the transport type that you want to use for this account. This can be one of the following:

    • http

    • https

    Port field

    The port used to access Cisco UCS Central.

    Contact Email field

    The email address that you can use to contact the administrator or other person responsible for this account.

    Location field

    The location of this account.

    Step 4   Click Add.

    Cisco UCS Director tests the connection to Cisco UCS Central. If that test is successful, it adds the Cisco UCS Central account and discovers all infrastructure elements and registered Cisco UCS domains in that account, including chassis, servers, fabric interconnects, service profiles, and pools. This discovery process and inventory collection cycle takes approximately five minutes to complete.

    The polling interval configured on the Infrastructure System Parameters tab specifies the frequency of inventory collection.

    Testing the Connection to a Physical Account

    You can test the connection at any time after you add an account to a pod.

      Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Administration > Physical Accounts.
      Step 2   Click the tab for the type of account that you want to test.

      For example, click the Physical Accounts tab or the Multi-Domain Managers tab.

      Step 3   In the table, click the row of the account for which you want to test the connection.
      Step 4   Click Test Connection.
      Step 5   When the connection test has completed, click Close.
      What to Do Next

      If the connection fails, verify the configuration of the account, including the username and password. If the username and password are correct, determine whether there is a network connectivity problem.

      Verifying the Discovery of a Cisco UCS Central Account

        Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Physical > Compute.
        Step 2   In the left pane, expand Multi-Domain Managers.
        Step 3   In the left pane, click UCS Central Accounts.
        Step 4   In the right pane, click the row in the table for the account that you want to verify.
        Step 5   Click View Details.

        Cisco UCS Director displays a set of tabs that contain information about the components of that account that it has discovered.

        Assigning a Cisco UCS Domain to a Pod

        After you assign a Cisco UCS domain to a pod, Cisco UCS Director displays it as a Cisco UCS Manager account, and you can configure, monitor, and obtain reports on that account.

          Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Physical > Compute.
          Step 2   In the left pane, expand Multi-Domain Managers.
          Step 3   In the left pane, expand UCS Central Accounts and then click the Cisco UCS Central account.
          Step 4   In the right pane, click the All UCS Domains tab. Then click the row in the table for the domain that you want to assign to a pod.
          Step 5   Click Assign to Pod.
          Step 6   In the Assign to Pod dialog box, complete the following fields:
          Name Description

          Pod drop-down list

          Choose the pod to which this account belongs.

          Authentication Type drop-down list

          Choose the type of authentication to be used for this account. This can be one of the following:

          • Locally Authenticated—A locally authenticated user account is authenticated directly through the fabric interconnect. It is enabled or disabled anyone with administrator or AAA privileges.
          • Remotely Authenticated—A remotely authenticated user account is any user account that is authenticated through LDAP, RADIUS, or TACACS+.

          Server Management drop-down list

          Choose how you want to have the servers in this account managed. This can be one of the following:

          • All Servers—All servers are managed by Cisco UCS Director. This option is the default. If you choose this option, all servers are added in the Managed state.

          • Selected Servers—Only selected servers are managed by Cisco UCS Director. You can add and remove servers from the managed server list as needed. If you choose this option, all servers are added in the Unmanaged state.

          For more information, see the Cisco UCS Director Management Guide for Cisco UCS Manager for the appropriate release.

          Account Name field

          A unique name that you assign to this account.

          Description field

          (Optional) A description of this account.

          User ID field

          The username that this account uses to access Cisco UCS Manager. This username must be a valid account in Cisco UCS Manager.

          Password field

          The password associated with the username.

          Transport Type drop-down list

          Choose the transport type that you want to use for this account. This can be one of the following:

          • HTTP

          • Https

          Port field

          The port used to access Cisco UCS Manager.

          Contact Email field

          The email address that you can use to contact the administrator or other person responsible for this account.

          Location field

          The location of this account.

          Service Provider field

          (Optional) The name of the service provider associated with this account, if any.

          Step 7   Click Submit.

          Unassigning a Cisco UCS Domain from a Pod

          When you unassign a Cisco UCS domain from a pod, Cisco UCS Director does not delete the related Cisco UCS Manager account. If you want to delete the account, use Administration > Physical Accounts.

            Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Physical > Compute.
            Step 2   In the left pane, expand Multi-Domain Managers.
            Step 3   In the left pane, expand UCS Central Accounts and then click the Cisco UCS Central account.
            Step 4   In the right pane, click the All UCS Domains tab. Then click the row in the table for the domain that you want to unassign from a pod.
            Step 5   Click Unassign from Pod.
            Step 6   In the UCSM Account dialog box, click Submit.

            Organizations

            Organizations in a Multitenancy Environment

            Multi-tenancy allows you to divide the large physical infrastructure of an Cisco UCS domain into logical entities known as organizations. As a result, you can achieve a logical isolation between organizations without providing a dedicated physical infrastructure for each organization.

            You can assign unique resources to each tenant through the related organization in the multi-tenant environment. These resources can include different policies, pools, and quality of service definitions. You can also implement locales to assign or restrict user privileges and roles by organization, if you do not want all users to have access to all organizations.

            If you set up a multi-tenant environment, all organizations are hierarchical. The top-level organization is always root. The policies and pools that you create in root are system-wide and are available to all organizations in the system. However, any policies and pools created in other organizations are only available to organizations that are above it in the same hierarchy. For example, if a system has organizations named Finance and HR that are not in the same hierarchy, Finance cannot use any policies in the HR organization, and HR cannot access any policies in the Finance organization. However, both Finance and HR can use policies and pools in the root organization.

            If you create organizations in a mult-itenant environment, you can also set up one or more of the following for each organization or for a sub-organization in the same hierarchy:

            • Resource pools

            • Policies

            • Service profiles

            • Service profile templates

            The root organization is always the top level organization.

            Creating an Organization

              Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Physical > Compute.
              Step 2   In the left pane, expand Multi-Domain Managers.
              Step 3   In the left pane, expand UCS Central Accounts and then click the Cisco UCS Central account.
              Step 4   In the right pane, click the Organizations tab.
              Step 5   Click Add.
              Step 6   In the Add Organization dialog box, complete the following fields:
              1. In the Name field, enter a name for the organization.
              2. In the Description field, enter a description for the organization.
              3. From the Parent Organization drop-down list, choose the organization under which this organization resides.

              Time Zones

              Cisco UCS requires a domain-specific time zone setting and an NTP server to ensure the correct time displays in . If you do not configure time zones, the time might not display correctly.

              In addition, if your environment includes Cisco UCS Central, you must configure an NTP server and the correct time zone in Cisco UCS Manager and Cisco UCS Central to ensure that they are in sync. If the time and date in the Cisco UCS domain and Cisco UCS Central are out of sync, the registration might fail.

              Adding a Time Zone

                Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Physical > Compute.
                Step 2   In the left pane, expand Multi-Domain Managers.
                Step 3   In the left pane, expand UCS Central Accounts and then click the Cisco UCS Central account.
                Step 4   In the right pane, click the Time Zones tab.
                Step 5   Click Add.
                Step 6   In the Add Time Zone dialog box, do the following:
                1. In the NTP Server Name dialog box, enter the IP address or hostname of the NTP server for this time zone.
                2. Click Submit.