Hardware Monitoring

Monitoring a Fabric Interconnect

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Fabric Interconnects.

Step 3

Click the node for the fabric interconnect that you want to monitor.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click one of the following tabs to view the status of the fabric interconnect:

Option Description

General tab

Provides an overview of the status of the fabric interconnect, including a summary of any faults, a summary of the fabric interconnect properties, and a physical display of the fabric interconnect and its components.

Physical Ports tab

Displays the status of all ports on the fabric interconnect. This tab includes the following subtabs:

  • Uplink Ports tab

  • Server Ports tab

  • Fibre Channel Ports tab

  • Unconfigured Ports tab

Fans tab

Displays the status of all fan modules in the fabric interconnect.

PSUs tab

Displays the status of all power supply units in the fabric interconnect.

Physical Display tab

Provides a graphical view of the fabric interconnect and all ports and other components. If a component has a fault, the fault icon is displayed next to that component.

FSM tab

Provides details about the current FSM task running on the server, including the status of that task. You can use this information to diagnose errors with those tasks.

Faults tab

Provides details of faults generated by the fabric interconnect.

Events tab

Provides details of events generated by the fabric interconnect.

Neighbors tab

Provides details about the LAN, SAN, and LLDP neighbors of the fabric interconnect.

Note

 

Enable Info Policy to view Neighbors details.

Statistics tab

Provides statistics about the fabric interconnect and its components. You can view these statistics in tabular or chart format.

Monitoring a Blade Server

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers.

Step 3

Click the server that you want to monitor.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click one of the following tabs to view the status of the server:

Option Description

General tab

Provides an overview of the status of the server, including a summary of any faults, a summary of the server properties, and a physical display of the server and its components.

Inventory tab

Provides details about the properties and status of the components of the server on the following subtabs:

  • Motherboard—Information about the motherboard and information about the server BIOS settings. You can also recover corrupt BIOS firmware from this subtab.

  • CIMC—Information about the CIMC and its firmware, and provides access to the SEL for the server. You can also assign a static or pooled management IP address, and update and activate the CIMC firmware from this subtab.

  • CPUs—Information about each CPU in the server.

  • Memory—Information about each memory slot in the server and the DIMM in that slot.

  • Adapters—Information about each adapter installed in the server.

  • HBAs—Properties of each HBA and the configuration of that HBA in the service profile associated with the server.

  • NICs—Properties of each NIC and the configuration of that NIC in the service profile associated with the server. You can expand each row to view information about the associated VIFs and vNICs.

  • iSCSI vNICs—Properties of each iSCSI vNIC and the configuration of that vNIC in the service profile associated with the server.

  • Storage—Properties of the storage controller, the local disk configuration policy in the service profile associated with the server, and for each hard disk in the server.

Tip

 

If the server contains one or more SATA devices, such as a hard disk drive or solid state drive, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the vendor name for the SATA device in the Vendor field.

However, Cisco UCS Manager CLI displays ATA in the Vendor field and includes the vendor information, such as the vendor name, in a Vendor Description field. This second field does not exist in Cisco UCS Manager GUI.

Virtual Machines tab

Displays details about any virtual machines hosted on the server.

Installed Firmware tab

Displays the firmware versions on the CIMC, adapters, and other server components. You can also use this tab to update and activate the firmware on those components.

CIMC Sessions tab

Provides data about the CIMC sessions on the server.

SEL Logs tab

Displays the system event log for the server.

VIF Paths tab

Displays the VIF paths for the adapters on the server.

Faults tab

Displays an overview of the faults generated by the server. You can click any fault to view additional information.

Events tab

Displays an overview of the events generated by the server. You can click any event to view additional information.

FSM tab

Provides details about the current FSM task running on the server, including the status of that task. You can use this information to diagnose errors with those tasks.

Health tab

Displays details about the health status of the server and its components.

Statistics tab

Displays statistics about the server and its components. You can view these statistics in tabular or chart format.

Temperatures tab

Displays temperature statistics for the components of the server. You can view these statistics in tabular or chart format.

Power tab

Displays power statistics for the components of the server. You can view these statistics in tabular or chart format.

Step 5

In the Navigation pane, expand Server_ID > Adapters > Adapter_ID .

Step 6

In the Navigation pane, click on one or more of the following components of the adapter to open the navigator and view the status of the component:

  • DCE interfaces

  • HBAs

  • NICs

  • iSCSI vNICs

Tip

 

Expand the nodes in the table to view the child nodes. For example, if you expand a NIC node, you can view each VIF created on that NIC.

Monitoring a Rack-Mount Server

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Rack Mounts > Servers.

Note

 

For Cisco UCS C125 M5 Servers, expand Equipment > Rack Mounts > Enclosures > Rack Enclosure rack_enclosure_number > Servers.

Step 3

Click the server that you want to monitor.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click one of the following tabs to view the status of the server:

Option Description

General tab

Provides an overview of the status of the server, including a summary of any faults, a summary of the server properties, and a physical display of the server and its components.

Inventory tab

Provides details about the properties and status of the components of the server on the following subtabs:

  • Motherboard—Information about the motherboard and information about the server BIOS settings. You can also recover corrupt BIOS firmware from this subtab.

  • CIMC—Information about the CIMC and its firmware, and provides access to the SEL for the server. You can also assign a static or pooled management IP address, and update and activate the CIMC firmware from this subtab.

  • CPU—Information about each CPU in the server.

  • Memory—Information about each memory slot in the server and the DIMM in that slot.

  • Adapters—Information about each adapter installed in the server.

  • HBAs—Properties of each HBA and the configuration of that HBA in the service profile associated with the server.

  • NICs—Properties of each NIC and the configuration of that NIC in the service profile associated with the server. You can expand each row to view detailed information about the associated VIFs and vNICs.

  • iSCSI vNICs—Properties of each iSCSI vNIC and the configuration of that vNIC in the service profile associated with the server.

  • Storage—Properties of the storage controller, the local disk configuration policy in the service profile associated with the server, and for each hard disk in the server.

    Note

     

    If the firmware of C-Series/S-Series servers is upgraded from Cisco UCSM release 2.2(6) to 3.1(2) or later release, the Platform Controller Hub (PCH) storage controller (along with the SSD boot drives) does not appear in UCSM GUI.

Tip

 

If the server contains one or more SATA devices, such as a hard disk drive or solid state drive, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the vendor name for the SATA device in the Vendor field.

However, Cisco UCS Manager CLI displays ATA in the Vendor field and includes the vendor information, such as the vendor name, in a Vendor Description field. This second field does not exist in Cisco UCS Manager GUI.

Virtual Machines tab

Displays details about any virtual machines hosted on the server.

Installed Firmware tab

Displays the firmware versions on the CIMC, adapters, and other server components. You can also use this tab to update and activate the firmware on those components.

SEL Logs tab

Displays the system event log for the server.

VIF Paths tab

Displays the VIF paths for the adapters on the server.

Faults tab

Displays an overview of the faults generated by the server. You can click any fault to view additional information.

Events tab

Displays an overview of the events generated by the server. You can click any event to view additional information.

FSM tab

Provides details about the current FSM task running on the server, including the status of that task. You can use this information to diagnose errors with those tasks.

Statistics tab

Displays statistics about the server and its components. You can view these statistics in tabular or chart format.

Temperatures tab

Displays temperature statistics for the components of the server. You can view these statistics in tabular or chart format.

Power tab

Displays power statistics for the components of the server. You can view these statistics in tabular or chart format.

Step 5

In the Navigation pane, expand Server_ID > Adapters > Adapter_ID .

Step 6

In the Work pane, right-click one or more of the following components of the adapter to open the navigator and view the status of the component:

  • Adapters

  • DCE interfaces

  • HBAs

  • NICs

Tip

 

Expand the nodes in the table to view the child nodes. For example, if you expand a NIC node, you can view each VIF created on that NIC.

Monitoring an IO Module

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > IO Modules.

Step 3

Click the module that you want to monitor.

Step 4

Click one of the following tabs to view the status of the module:

Option Description

General tab

Provides an overview of the status of the IO module, including a summary of any faults, a summary of the module properties, and a physical display of the module and its components.

Fabric Ports tab

Displays the status and selected properties of all fabric ports in the I/O module.

Backplane Ports tab

Displays the status and selected properties of all backplane ports in the module.

Faults tab

Provides details of faults generated by the module.

Events tab

Provides details of events generated by the module.

FSM tab

Provides details about and the status of FSM tasks related to the module. You can use this information to diagnose errors with those tasks.

Health tab

Provides details about the health status of the module.

Statistics tab

Provides statistics about the module and its components. You can view these statistics in tabular or chart format.

Monitoring PCIe Node

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > PICe Nodes

Step 3

Select the node that you want to monitor.

Step 4

You can view the following details:

Name Description

Name column

A navigation tree that allows you to view a particular component and its subcomponents. You can right-click a component to view any actions available for that component.

Slot ID column

Slot ID for the PCIe node in the server.

Model column

Cisco part number of the PCIe node.

Serial Number column

Specifies the serial number of the PCIe node.

Vendor column

The vendor ID of the PCIe node.

Presence column

The presence of the PCIe node, and whether it can be detected in the chassis. This can be one of the following:

  • Missing—No PCIe node can be detected in the chassis.

  • Equipped—A PCIe node can be detected in the chassis.

Monitoring Crypto Cards

Cisco Crypto Card Management for Blade Servers

The main function of Cisco Crypto Card is to provide hardware based encryption capability to UCS blade server for certain applications.

Cisco UCS Manager discovers the Crypto Card present in a blade server and displays the model, revision, vendor, serial number on the Equipment > Chassis > Server_Number > Inventory > Security subtab. Discovery of the Crypto Card fails if you add the Crypto Card to an unsupported blade server.

Cisco UCS Manager does not support firmware management for the Crypto Card.

Insertion and removal of a Crypto Card triggers deep discovery. Replacing the Crypto Card with another Crypto Card, Adaptor or Fusion I/O, or pass through card triggers deep discovery for commissioned servers. The following are the various Crypto Card replacement scenarios:

  • Replacing a Crypto Card with another Crypto Card

  • Replacing a Crypto Card with an adaptor

  • Replacing a Crypto Card with a Fusion I/O

  • Replacing a Crypto Card with a GPU card

  • Replacing Crypto Card with a pass through card

  • Replacing an adaptor with a Crypto Card

  • Replacing a storage Mezzanine with a Crypto Card

  • Replacing a GPU card with a Crypto Card

No cleanup is necessary for the downgrade of Cisco UCS Manager to an earlier version. If you upgrade UCS Manager after a downgrade, rediscovery of the card is necessary to inventory the card. For servers that do not support crypto cards, discovery proceeds uninterrupted.

Cisco UCS Manager discovers, associates, disassociates, and decommissions Crypto Cards.

Viewing Crypto Card Properties

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers.

Step 3

On the Work pane, click the Inventory tab, then click the Security subtab.

Name Description

ID field

Slot ID field

Specifies the Slot ID where the Mezzanine card is placed.

Magma Expander Slot Id field

Specifies the ID number of the PCI slot.

Is Supported field

Specifies whether the card is supported.

Vendor field

Specifies the vendor of the card.

Model field

Specifies the model number of the card.

Serial field

Specifies the serial number of the card.

Firmware Version field

Specifies the Crypto card serial number.

Monitoring NVMe PCIe SSD Devices

NVMe PCIe SSD Storage Device Inventory

Cisco UCS Manager GUI discovers, identifies, and displays the inventory of Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) SSD storage devices. You can view the health of the storage devices in the server. NVMe with PCIe SSD storage devices reduce latency, increase Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS), and lower power consumption compared to SAS or SATA SSDs.

The optional Intel VMD-enabled NVMe driver and Intel VMD-enabled LED Command line interface tool provide additional functionality by aggregating the NVMe PCIe SSD devices attached to its root port. This enables Suprise hot-plug and allows optional configuration of LED blinking patterns on PCIe SSD storage attached to Intel VMD enabled domains.

Viewing NVMe PCIe SSD Storage Inventory

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Rack Mounts > Servers > Server Number.

Step 3

Click the Inventory tab.

Step 4

Do one of the following:

  1. Click the Storage tab.

    The list of NVMe PCIe SSD storage devices named Storage Controller NVME ID number is displayed. You can view the name, size, serial number, operating status, state and other details.

  2. Click the NVMe PCIe SSD storage device.

    The following inventory details are displayed:

    Name

    Description

    Actions Area

    ID field

    The NVMe PCIe SSD storage device configured on the server.

    Description field

    Brief description of the NVMe PCIe SSD storage device configured on the server.

    Model field

    The NVMe PCIe SSD storage device model.

    Revision field

    The NVMe PCIe SSD storage device revision.

    Subtype field

    The vendor name of the NVMe PCIe SSD storage device.

    RAID Support field

    Indicated whether the NVMe PCIe SSD storage device is RAID enabled.

    OOB Interface Support field

    Indicates if the NVMe PCIe SSD storage device supports out-of-band management .

    PCIe Address field

    The NVMe PCIe SSD storage device on the virtual interface card (VIC).

    Number of Local Disks field

    The number of disks contained in the NVMe PCIe SSD storage device.

    Rebuild Rate field

    The time it takes the storage device to rebuild RAID when a disk fails.

    SubOemID

    The OME ID for the NVMe PCIe SSD storage device on the virtual interface card (VIC).

    Supported Strip Sizes field

    The strip size supported by the NVMe PCIe SSD storage device.

    Sub Device ID field

    The sub device ID of the controller

    Sub Ventor ID field

    The sub vendor ID of the controller

    Name field

    The name of the controller.

    PID field

    The NVMe PCIe SSD storage device product ID, also known as product name, model name, product number

    Serial field

    The storage device serial number.

    Vendor field

    The vendor that manufactured the NVMe PCIe SSD storage device.

    PCI Slot field

    The PCI slot of the storage device.

    Controller Status field

    The current status of the controller as reported by CIMC. This can be one of the following:

    • Optimal—The controller is functioning properly.

    • Failed—The controller is not functioning.

    • Unresponsive—The CIMC is unable to communicate with the controller.

    Pinned Cache Status field

    The pin cache status of the storage device.

    Default Strip Size field

    The default strip size the storage device can support.

    Device ID field

    The ID of the storage device.

    Vendor ID field

    The ID of the manufacturer.

    Security field

    The device security applied to the storage device.

    Embedded Storage Area

    Presence field

    Whether the storage is embedded or not.

    Operability field

    The operable status of the device.

    Block Size field

    The memory of the device.

    Size (MB) field

    The fractional memory of the device in MB.

    Connection Protocol field

    The connection protocol followed.

    Oper Qualified Reason

    The operability reason of the device

    Number of Blocks field

    The number of memory blocks.

    Firmware Area

    Boot-loader Version field

    Displays the firmware version that is associated with the boot-loader software on the component.

    Running Version field

    The firmware version used by the component.

    Package Version field

    The firmware package version in which the firmware was included.

    Startup Version field

    The version of the firmware that takes effect the next time that the component reboots.

    Activate Status field

    This can be one of the following:

    • Ready—Activation succeeded and the component is running the new version.

    • Activating—The system is activating the new firmware version.

    • Failed—The firmware activation failed. For more information, double-click the failed component to view its status properties.

Health Monitoring

Monitoring CIMC Memory Usage for Blade, and Rack-Mount Servers

The Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) reports the following memory usage events for blade, and rack-mount servers:

  • When memory falls below 1MB, CIMC has fatal memory usage. Reset is imminent.

  • When memory falls below 5 MB, CIMC has extremely high memory usage.

  • When memory falls below 10 MB, CIMC has high memory usage.

To view CIMC memory usage events:

Procedure

Do one of the following:

  • For Blade Servers:

    1. On the Equipment tab, expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers.

    2. Click Server_Number.

    3. In the Work pane, click the Health tab.

  • For Rack-Mount Servers:

    1. On the Equipment tab, expand Equipment > Rack-Mounts > Servers.

    2. Click Server_Number.

    3. In the Work pane, click the Health tab.

If CIMC reports two health events, one with major severity, the other with minor severity, the system raises a major severity fault and displays details under the Health tab Management Services subtab. Every health event does not translate to a fault. The highest severity health event translates to a fault. Faults appear under Server_Number > Faults tab.

Monitoring CMC Memory Usage for Input/Output Module and IFM (IOM for Cisco UCS X-Series Servers)

The Cisco Chassis Management Controller (CMC) reports memory usage events for IOMs and IFM (IOM for Cisco UCS X-Series Servers) and chassis.

The system raises a fault on the aggregation of reported health status.

To view CMC memory usage events:

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > IO Modules.

Step 3

Click IO Module_Number.

The Health tab Management Services subtab appears.

Every event does not translate to a fault. The highest severity events translate to fault. Faults appear under IO Module_Number > Faults tab.

Monitoring FEX Statistics

Cisco UCS Manager reports the following statistics for Cisco Fabric Extenders (FEXs) under the System Stats:

  • Load

  • Available Memory

  • Cached Memory

  • Kernel

  • Total Memory

  • Kernel Memory Free

Cisco 2200 Series and 2300 Series FEX support statistics monitoring.

All FEX stats are added to threshold policy as FexSystemStats where users can define their own thresholds.

Procedure

Step 1

On the Equipment tab, expand Equipment > Rack Mounts > FEX > FEX Number.

The Statistics tab appears. You can view the statistics in tabular or chart format.

Step 2

Expand the sys-stats node to monitor FEX statistics.

Management Interfaces Monitoring Policy

The management interfaces monitoring policy defines how the mgmt0 Ethernet interface on the fabric interconnect is monitored. If Cisco UCS Manager detects a management interface failure, a failure report is generated. If the configured number of failure reports is reached, the system assumes that the management interface is unavailable and generates a fault. By default, the management interfaces monitoring policy is enabled.

When the management interface of a fabric interconnect which is currently the managing instance fails, Cisco UCS Manager first confirms if the status of the subordinate fabric interconnect is up. In addition, if there are no current failure reports logged against the fabric interconnect, Cisco UCS Manager modifies the managing instance for the endpoints.

If the affected fabric interconnect is currently the primary in a high availability setup, a failover of the management plane is triggered. This failover does not affect the data plane. You can set the following properties related to monitoring the management interface:

  • The type of mechanism used to monitor the management interface.

  • The interval at which the status of the management interface is monitored.

  • The maximum number of monitoring attempts that can fail before the system assumes that the management is unavailable and generates a fault message.


Important
When the management interface fails on a fabric interconnect, the managing instance may not change if one of the following occurs:

  • A path to the endpoint through the subordinate fabric interconnect does not exist.

  • The management interface for the subordinate fabric interconnect has failed.

  • The path to the endpoint through the subordinate fabric interconnect has failed.

Configuring the Management Interfaces Monitoring Policy

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Admin.

Step 2

Expand All > Communication Management.

Step 3

Click Management Interfaces.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the Management Interfaces Monitoring Policy tab.

Step 5

Complete the following fields:

Name Description

Admin Status field

Indicates whether the monitoring policy is enabled or disabled for the management interfaces.

Poll Interval field

The number of seconds Cisco UCS should wait between data recordings.

Enter an integer between 90 and 300.

Max Fail Report Count field

The maximum number of monitoring attempts that can fail before Cisco UCS assumes that the management interface is unavailable and generates a fault message.

Enter an integer between 2 and 5.

Monitoring Mechanism field

The type of monitoring you want Cisco UCS to use. This can be one of the following:

  • MII Status—Cisco UCS monitors the availability of the Media Independent Interface (MII). If you select this option, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the Media Independent Interface Monitoring area.

  • Ping Arp Targets—Cisco UCS pings designated targets using the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). If you select this option, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the ARP Target Monitoring area.

  • Ping Gateway—Cisco UCS pings the default gateway address specified for this Cisco UCS domain on the Management Interfaces tab. If you select this option, Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the Gateway Ping Monitoring area.

Step 6

If you chose MII Status for the monitoring mechanism, complete the following fields in the Media Independent Interface Monitoring area:

Name Description

Retry Interval field

The number of seconds Cisco UCS should wait before requesting another response from the MII if a previous attempt fails.

Enter an integer between 3 and 10.

Max Retry Count field

The number of times Cisco UCS polls the MII until the system assumes the interface is unavailable.

Enter an integer between 1 and 3.

Step 7

If you chose Ping Arp Targets for the monitoring mechanism, complete the fields on the appropriate tab in the ARP Target Monitoring area.

If you are using IPv4 addresses, complete the following fields in the IPv4 subtab:

Name Description

Target IP 1 field

The first IPv4 address Cisco UCS pings.

Target IP 2 field

The second IPv4 address Cisco UCS pings.

Target IP 3 field

The third IPv4 address Cisco UCS pings.

Number of ARP Requests field

The number of ARP requests Cisco UCS sends to the target IP addresses.

Enter an integer between 1 and 5.

Max Deadline Timeout field

The number of seconds Cisco UCS waits for responses from the ARP targets until the system assumes they are unavailable.

Enter an integer between 5 and 15.

If you are using IPv6 addresses, complete the following fields in the IPv6 subtab:

Name Description

Target IP 1 field

The first IPv6 address Cisco UCS pings.

Target IP 2 field

The second IPv6 address Cisco UCS pings.

Target IP 3 field

The third IPv6 address Cisco UCS pings.

Number of ARP Requests field

The number of ARP requests Cisco UCS sends to the target IP addresses.

Enter an integer between 1 and 5.

Max Deadline Timeout field

The number of seconds Cisco UCS waits for responses from the ARP targets until the system assumes they are unavailable.

Enter an integer between 5 and 15.

Type 0.0.0.0 for an IPv4 address to remove the ARP target or :: for an IPv6 address to remove the N-disc target.

Step 8

If you chose Ping Gateway for the monitoring mechanism, complete the following fields in the Gateway Ping Monitoring area:

Name Description

Number of Ping Requests field

The number of times Cisco UCS should ping the gateway.

Enter an integer between 1 and 5.

Max Deadline Timeout field

The number of seconds Cisco UCS waits for a response from the gateway until Cisco UCS assumes the address is unavailable.

Enter an integer between 5 and 15.

Step 9

Click Save Changes.

Local Storage Monitoring

Local storage monitoring in Cisco UCS provides status information on local storage that is physically attached to a blade or rack server. This includes RAID controllers, physical drives and drive groups, virtual drives, RAID controller batteries (Battery Backup Unit), Transportable Flash Modules (TFM), supercapacitors, FlexFlash controllers, and SD cards.

Cisco UCS Manager communicates directly with the LSI MegaRAID controllers and FlexFlash controllers using an out-of-band interface, which enables real-time updates. Some of the information that is displayed includes:

  • RAID controller status and rebuild rate.

  • The drive state, power state, link speed, operability, and firmware version of physical drives.

  • The drive state, operability, strip size, access policies, drive cache, and health of virtual drives.

  • The operability of a BBU, whether it is a supercap or battery, and information about the TFM.

    LSI storage controllers use a Transportable Flash Module (TFM) powered by a supercapacitor to provide RAID cache protection.

  • Information on SD cards and FlexFlash controllers, including RAID health and RAID state, card health, and operability.

  • Information on operations that are running on the storage component, such as rebuild, initialization, and relearning.


    Note

    After a CIMC reboot or build upgrades, the status, start time, and end times of operations running on the storage component may not be displayed correctly.

  • Detailed fault information for all local storage components.


    Note

    All faults are displayed on the Faults tab.

Support for Local Storage Monitoring

The type of monitoring supported depends upon the Cisco UCS server.

Supported Cisco UCS Servers for Local Storage Monitoring

Through Cisco UCS Manager, you can monitor local storage components for the following servers:

  • Cisco UCS X410c M7 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS C220 M7 Server

  • Cisco UCS C240 M7 Server

  • Cisco UCS X210c M7 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS X210c M6 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS B200 M6 Server

  • Cisco UCS B200 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS B480 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS C220 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS C240 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS C480 M5 Server


Note

Not all servers support all local storage components. For Cisco UCS rack servers, the onboard SATA RAID 0/1 controller integrated on motherboard is not supported.

Supported Cisco UCS Servers for Legacy Disk Drive Monitoring

Only legacy disk drive monitoring is supported through Cisco UCS Manager for the following servers:

  • Cisco UCS B200 M1/M2 blade server

  • Cisco UCS B250 M1/M2 blade server


Note

In order for Cisco UCS Manager to monitor the disk drives, the 1064E storage controller must have a firmware level contained in a Cisco UCS bundle with a package version of 2.0(1) or higher.

Prerequisites for Local Storage Monitoring

These prerequisites must be met for local storage monitoring or legacy disk drive monitoring to provide useful status information:

  • The drive must be inserted in the server drive bay.

  • The server must be powered on.

  • The server must have completed discovery.

  • The results of the BIOS POST complete must be TRUE.

Legacy Disk Drive Monitoring


Note

The following information is applicable only for B200 M1/M2 and B250 M1/M2 blade servers.

The legacy disk drive monitoring for Cisco UCS provides Cisco UCS Manager with blade-resident disk drive status for supported blade servers in a Cisco UCS domain. Disk drive monitoring provides a unidirectional fault signal from the LSI firmware to Cisco UCS Manager to provide status information.

The following server and firmware components gather, send, and aggregate information about the disk drive status in a server:

  • Physical presence sensor—Determines whether the disk drive is inserted in the server drive bay.

  • Physical fault sensor—Determines the operability status reported by the LSI storage controller firmware for the disk drive.

  • IPMI disk drive fault and presence sensors—Sends the sensor results to Cisco UCS Manager.

  • Disk drive fault LED control and associated IPMI sensors—Controls disk drive fault LED states (on or off) and relays the states to Cisco UCS Manager.

Flash Life Wear Level Monitoring

Flash life wear level monitoring enables you to monitor the life span of solid state drives. You can view both the percentage of the flash life remaining, and the flash life status. Wear level monitoring is supported on the Fusion IO mezzanine card with the following Cisco UCS blade servers:

  • Cisco UCS B200 M6 Server

  • Cisco UCS B200 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS B480 M5 Server


Note

Wear level monitoring requires the following:

  • Cisco UCS Manager must be at release 2.2(2a) or greater.

  • The Fusion IO mezzanine card firmware must be at version 7.1.15 or greater.

Viewing the Status of Local Storage Components

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers.

Step 3

Click the server for which you want to view the status of your local storage components.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the Inventory tab.

Step 5

Click the Storage subtab to view the status of your RAID controllers and any FlexFlash controllers.

Step 6

Click the down arrows to expand the Local Disk Configuration Policy, Actual Disk Configurations, Disks, and Firmware bars and view additional status information.

RAID 0 Check Consistency Limitation

The Check Consistency operation is not supported for RAID 0 volumes. You must change the local disk configuration policy to run Check Consistency. For more information, see the UCS Manager Server Management Guide, Server Related Policies chapter, Changing a Local Disk Policy topic.

Graphics Card Monitoring

Graphics Card Server Support

With Cisco UCS Manager, you can view the properties for certain graphics cards and controllers. Graphics cards are supported on the following servers:

  • Cisco UCS X210c M8 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS X215c M8 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS X410c M7 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS X210c M7 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS X210c M6 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS C240 M8 Server

  • Cisco UCS C220 M8 Server

  • Cisco UCS C245 M8 Server

  • Cisco UCS C225 M8 Server

  • Cisco UCS C240 M7 Server

  • Cisco UCS C220 M7 Server

  • Cisco UCS C240 M6 Server

  • Cisco UCS C220 M6 Server

  • Cisco UCS C245 M6 Server

  • Cisco UCS C225 M6 Server

  • Cisco UCS C240 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS C220 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS B200 M6 Server

  • Cisco UCS B480 M6 Server

  • Cisco UCS B200 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS B480 M5 Server


Note

Certain NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units (GPU) do not support Error Correcting Code (ECC) and vGPU together. Cisco recommends that you refer to the release notes published by NVIDIA for the respective GPU to know whether it supports ECC and vGPU together.

GPU Mezzanine Graphics Module Management for Blade Servers

Cisco UCS Managerdiscovers the presence of the GPU Graphics Card in a blade server as a field replaceable unit and collects device inventory information, such as model, vendor, serial number, PCI slot and address, and firmware. Cisco UCS Manager displays GPU Card inventory on the Equipment > Chassis > Server_Number > Inventory > GPUs subtab.

GPU Card firmware management includes firmware upgrade and downgrade. Upgrade the GPU firmware through existing Cisco UCS Manager service profiles. Do not downgrade GPU firmware with older firmware versions, because cleanup is required.

Place the GPU Card in slot 2 of the blade server. GPU Card discovery fails if you is insert a card in an unsupported blade.

Replacing a GPU card triggers deep discovery for commissioned servers. The following are the various GPU card replacement scenarios that cause deep discovery:

  • Replacing a GPU card with another GPU card

  • Replacing a GPU card with an adaptor

  • Replacing a GPU card with a storage Mezzanine

  • Replacing an adaptor with a GPU card

  • Replacing a storage Mezzanine with GPU card

  • Replacing a GPU card with Crypto card

  • Replacing a Crypto card with a GPU card

Cisco UCS Manager discovers, associates, disassociates, and decommissions GPU Graphics Cards. To view GPU Graphics Cards, see Viewing Graphics Card Properties.


Note

There is a maximum limit on the GPU Graphics Card memory (DIMMS) of 1 TB.

Viewing Graphics Card Properties

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Do one of the following:

  • Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis_Number > Servers > Server_Number.
  • Expand Equipment > Rack-Mounts > Servers > Server_Number.

Step 3

On the Work pane, click the Inventory tab, then click the GPU subtab.

Name Description

ID field

The unique ID for the graphics card.

PCI Slot field

The PCI slot number where the graphics card is installed.

Expander Slot ID field

The expander slot ID.

PID field

Product Identifier of the graphics card.

Is Supported field

Whether the graphics card is supported. This can be one of the following:

  • Yes

  • No

Vendor field

The name of the manufacturer.

Model field

The model number of the graphics card.

Serial field

The serial number of the component.

Running Version field

The firmware version of the graphics card.

Activate Status

Status of graphics card firmware activation:

  • Ready—Activation succeeded and the component is running the new version.

  • Activating—The system is activating the new firmware version.

  • Failed—The firmware activation failed. For more information, double-click the failed component to view its status properties.

Mode field

The mode of the configured graphics card. This can be one of the following:

  • Compute

  • Graphic

  • Any Configuration
Part Details

Vendor ID field

The vendor ID of the graphics card.

Sub Vendor ID field

The sub vendor ID of the graphics card.

Device ID field

The device ID of the graphics card.

Sub Device ID field

The sub device ID of the graphics card.

Managing Transportable Flash Module and Supercapacitor

LSI storage controllers use a Transportable Flash Module (TFM) powered by a supercapacitor to provide RAID cache protection. With Cisco UCS Manager, you can monitor these components to determine the status of the battery backup unit (BBU). The BBU operability status can be one of the following:

  • Operable—The BBU is functioning successfully.

  • Inoperable—The TFM or BBU is missing, or the BBU has failed and needs to be replaced.

  • Degraded—The BBU is predicted to fail.

TFM and supercap functionality is supported beginning with Cisco UCS Manager Release 2.1(2).

TFM and Supercap Guidelines and Limitations

Supported Cisco UCS Servers for TFM and Supercap

The following Cisco UCS servers support TFM and supercap:

  • Cisco UCS X210c M8 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS X215c M8 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS X410c M7 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS X210c M7 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS X210c M6 Compute Node

  • Cisco UCS C240 M8 Server

  • Cisco UCS C220 M8 Server

  • Cisco UCS C245 M8 Server

  • Cisco UCS C225 M8 Server

  • Cisco UCS C240 M7 Server

  • Cisco UCS C220 M7 Server

  • Cisco UCS B200 M6 Server

  • Cisco UCS B200 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS B480 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS C220 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS C240 M5 Server

  • Cisco UCS C480 M5 Server

Viewing the RAID Controller Stats

The following procedure shows how to see RAID controller stats for a server with PCIe\NVMe Flash Storage

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

In the Equipment pane, expand Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers > Server Number.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Inventory tab.

Step 4

Click the Storage > Controller > General subtab to view the controller stats.

Monitoring RAID Battery Status

This procedure applies only to Cisco UCS servers that support RAID configuration and TFM. If the BBU has failed or is predicted to fail, you should replace the unit as soon as possible.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

In the Equipment pane, expand Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers > Server Number.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Inventory tab.

Step 4

Click the Storage subtab to view the RAID Battery (BBU) area.

Viewing a RAID Battery Fault


Note

This applies only to Cisco UCS servers that support RAID configuration and TFM.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

In the Equipment pane, expand Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers > Server Number.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Faults tab.

Step 4

Select the battery to see more information on its condition.

TPM Monitoring

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is included on all Cisco UCS M5 and higher blade and rack-mount servers. Operating systems can use TPM to enable encryption. For example, Microsoft's BitLocker Drive Encryption uses the TPM on Cisco UCS servers to store encryption keys.

Cisco UCS Manager enables monitoring of TPM, including whether TPM is present, enabled, or activated.

Viewing TPM Properties

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click Equipment.

Step 2

Expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis Number > Servers.

Step 3

Choose the server for which you want to view the TPM settings.

Step 4

On the Work pane, click the Inventory tab.

Step 5

Click the Motherboard subtab.