Managing Cisco UCS Servers

This chapter contains the following sections:

Server Management

You can manage and monitor all blade and rack-mount servers in a Cisco UCS domain through Cisco UCS Director.

For information about how to select servers for management, see Selective Server Management.

Powering On a Server

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

On Compute page, choose the pod that includes the Cisco UCS Manager account.

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Click the row for the server that you want to power on.

Step 5

From the More Actions drop-down menu, choose Power On.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Powering Off a Server

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

On Compute page, choose the pod that includes the Cisco UCS Manager account.

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Click the row for the server that you want to power on.

Step 5

From the More Actions drop-down menu, choosePower Off.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Launching the KVM Console for a Server


Note

Beginning with Cisco UCS Manager Release 4.1(1), the KVM console is available as an HTML5-based application on Cisco UCS M4 and M5 servers. The console is no longer available as a Java-based application. For more information, see KVM Console for Cisco UCS M4 and M5 Servers.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

On Compute page, choose the pod that includes the Cisco UCS Manager account.

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Click the row for the server for which you want to start the KVM console.

Step 5

From the More Actions drop-down menu, choose Launch KVM Console.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Cisco UCS Director downloads the kvm.jnlp file.

Step 7

Double-click on the kvm.jnlp file in your downloads folder.

The KVM Console opens in a separate window.

If you do not have the required Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed, click More Info in the dialog box and follow the instructions to download and install the JRE.

Accessing a Server Directly using the KVM Console

You can access a UCS server directly using the KVM console.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

On Compute page, choose the pod that includes the Cisco UCS Manager account.

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Click the for the server that you want to access directly using the KVM console.

Step 5

From the More Actions drop-down menu, choose KVM Direct Access.

Step 6

Click Submit.

The KVM Console opens in a separate window.

Step 7

Enter the user name and password, and select a domain.

Step 8

Click Launch KVM.

Requesting Inventory Collection for a Server

Procedure

Step 1

On the menu bar, choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

Expand the pod and click Cisco UCS Manager account

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Click the row in the table for the server for which you want to request inventory collection.

Step 5

Click Request Inventory Collection.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Issuing a Diagnostic Interrupt for a Server

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

On Compute page, choose the pod that includes the Cisco UCS Manager account.

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Click the row or the server for which you want to issue a diagnostic interrupt.

Step 5

From the More Actions drop-down menu, choose Server Maintenance.

Step 6

On the Server Maintenance screen, do the following:

  1. From the Server Maintenance drop-down list, choose Diagnostic Interrupt.

  2. Click Yes.

A Non Makeable Interrupt (NMI) is issued to the BIOS or operating system from the Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC). This action creates a core dump or stack trace, depending on the operating system installed on the server.

Resetting a Server

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

On Compute page, choose the pod that includes the Cisco UCS Manager account.

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Click the row for the server that you want to reset.

Step 5

From the More Actions drop-down menu, choose Reset.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Reacknowledging a Server

Perform the following procedure if you need to have Cisco UCS Manager rediscover the server and all endpoints in the server. For example, you can use this procedure if a server is stuck in an unexpected state, such as the discovery state.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

On Compute page, choose the pod that includes the Cisco UCS Manager account.

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Click the row for the server that you want to re-acknowledge.

Step 5

From the More Actions drop-down menu, choose Server Maintenance.

Step 6

On the Server Maintenance screen, do the following:

  1. From the Server Maintenance drop-down list, choose Re-acknowledge.

  2. Click Yes.

Cisco UCS Director sends a request to have Cisco UCS Manager disconnect the server and then build the connections between the server and the fabric interconnect or fabric interconnects in the system. The acknowledgment may take several minutes to complete.

Decommissioning a Server

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

On Compute page, choose the pod that includes the Cisco UCS Manager account.

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Click the row for the server that you want to decommission.

Step 5

From the More Actions drop-down menu, choose Server Maintenance.

Step 6

On the Server Maintenance screen, do the following:

  1. From the Server Maintenance drop-down list, choose Decommission.

  2. In the Reason field, enter the reason for decommissioning the server.

  3. Click Yes.

Cisco UCS Director shuts down the server, removes it from the Cisco UCS configuration, and adds it to the Decommissioned Servers tab.

Data Sanitization

The Cisco UCS Director allows you to perform data sanitization to securely erase data from the following components of Cisco UCS M5 and later blade and rack servers:

  • Host domain components: Storage Controllers, Drivers, VIC and NVDIMM

  • Board domain components: BIOS and BMC


Important

The Cisco UCS Director supports data sanitization functionality from Cisco UCS Manager, Release 4.3(4a) and above.

Once the data sanitization is performed successfully, the specific server enters the decommissioned state. For more information about the decommissioned server, see About Monitoring and Reporting.

Data Sanitization through GUI Actions

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Physical > Compute.

Step 2

On the Compute page, choose a pod that includes the required Cisco UCS Manager account.

Step 3

Click UCS Servers.

Step 4

Right-click the required server and select Data Sanitization.

The Data Sanitization page opens.

Step 5

From the Data Sanitization drop-down list, choose one of the following:

  • Host—Removes data from storage controllers, drivers, VIC, and NVDIMM.

  • Board—Removes data from BIOS and Baseboard Management Controller (BMC).

  • All—Removes data from storage controllers, drivers, VIC, and NVDIMM, BIOS, and BMC.

The following warning message is displayed:

Data sanitization is a destructive and long-running operation. Data on the selected component will be completely erased. The server will be decommissioned on successful data sanitization, Do you want to continue?

Step 6

Click Submit.

The following message is displayed:

  • Data sanitization for Host/Board/All (Host and Board) request submitted successfully.

Data Sanitization through REST API

Before you begin

The Enable Developer Menu check box under Edit My Profile area must be checked. For more information, see Editing Your Administrative Profile section in the Cisco UCS Director Administration Guide, Release 6.9.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Orchestration.

Step 2

On the Orchestration page, select REST API Browser.

Step 3

Enter Data Sanitization in the Search field, click Search icon, and select UCS_SERVER_DATA_SANITIZATION or select Cisco UCS Tasks > UCS_SERVER_DATA_SANITIZATION.

Step 4

In the Generate Sample XML area, click Select associated with the Server field.

Step 5

Select the required server from the list of UCSM accounts.

Step 6

Click Select.

Step 7

From the Select Data Sanitization Action drop-down list, select one of the following:

  • Host

  • Board

  • All

Step 8

Click Generate XML.

The generated XML is displayed in the Sample XML field.

Step 9

In the Execute API area, select Execute REST API.

The API response is displayed in the Response field.

Step 10

Click Close.