Online Insertion and Removal

Online Insertion and Removal

Online Insertion and Removal

Online Insertion and Removal (OIR) is a feature in Cisco Intersight that allows you to insert or remove server blades and other components without disrupting other components in the chassis. OIR ensures better service and platform management by allowing transparent component changes.

OIR is supported for these components:

  • blade servers

  • blade and rack server sub-components, such as hard disk drives, NVMe drives, network adapters, storage controllers, CPUs, and DIMMs

  • rack server fans and power supply units

  • chassis fans and power supply units

  • chassis enclosures and Input/Output Modules (IOMs)

  • chassis and IOM cable changes

  • Fabric Interconnects (FI) fans and power supply units, and

  • Fabric Extenders (FEX) fans and power supply units

Move a blade to a new location

This procedure provides the best practices for moving a blade to a different location to ensure hardware and profile consistency.

Follow these steps to move the blade:

  1. Undeploy the server profile.

  2. Decommission the blade.

  3. Move the blade to the new location.

  4. Recommission the blade.

OIR for Blade Server

OIR for Blade Server

The table describes the supported OIR scenarios for blade servers.

Scenario

Explanation

Expected User Action

Insert a new server when no previous server exists

For a new server, the vendor, model, and serial number are not in the Intersight database.

None. Intersight triggers a deep discovery and adds the server to the inventory.

Insert a new server when a previous server exists

The new blade’s lifecycle is set to ReplacementPendingUserAction, and an alarm is raised.

Remove or rediscover the previous server to discover the new server.

For more information on the generated alarms, see Cisco Intersight Alarms Reference Guide.

Remove a server

When an inventoried server is removed, Intersight raises an alarm to alert you to the missing server.

If you are permanently removing a server, decommission the server before you remove it from the chassis. If you do not decommission the server before removal, it appears as "Disconnected" in the inventory.

Follow these steps to remove a server:

  1. Decommission the server.

  2. Remove the blade from the chassis.

  3. Click the Fabric Interconnect name in the list view to open the Fabric Interconnects Details view.

  4. Choose Connections > Decommissioned > Servers

  5. Select the Remove action to remove the server.

Reinsert a server

Reinsertion occurs when you remove a server and reinsert it into the same slot and chassis.

None. Intersight triggers a discovery and updates the inventory.

Wait at least 20 seconds before reinserting a blade server after removal. This prevents incorrect fault alerts caused by residual voltage.

Migration of a server to another location within the same domain.

Migration occurs when you move a server to a different slot or chassis within the same domain.

Note

 

If a blade is migrated from a different domain or account, it is treated as Removed from the old domain/account and Newly Inserted in the new domain/account.

When you migrate a server, Intersight raises an alarm. You must run a Rediscover operation on the blade to update the inventory. Upon initiating the rediscovery, Intersight triggers these workflows:

  1. Undeploy the server profile.

  2. Decommission the server from its original location.

  3. Discover the server in its new location.

Note

 

You must reassign a server profile to the server after these steps because the Managed Object ID (MOID) changes during decommissioning and rediscovery.

The table lists the logical states of the servers and the corresponding allowed and blocked actions:

Lifecycle State

Expected User Action

Blocked Actions

ReplacementPendingUserAction

Rediscover the blade server

All other operations

Removed

Remove the blade server

  • Power operations

  • Firmware upgrade

  • All other system operations

Replaced

Remove the server

  • Power operations

  • Firmware upgrade

  • All other system operations

Moved

Rediscover the server

  • Power operations

  • Firmware upgrade

  • All other system operations

MovedAndReplaced

Rediscover the server

  • Power operations

  • Firmware upgrade

  • All other system operations


Note

Managing sub-targets that are part of multiple targets: When you assign sub-targets to a resource group, a Warning icon may appear next to a server if it was not gracefully removed. This can result in multiple instances of the same server appearing as sub-targets. To resolve this issue, remove the server from the inventory and clear the alarm, as described in the "Remove a server" scenario. For more information, see Understanding Sub-Targets.

OIR for Storage Controller, CPU, and DIMM

The OIR for storage controller, CPU, and DIMM can be done as follows:

  1. - For rack servers, disconnect the server from the power supply.

    - For blade servers, power off the server and remove it from the chassis.

  2. Remove, insert, or replace the components.

  3. - For rack servers, reconnect the server to the power supply.

    - For blade servers, insert the server into the chassis and power it on.

Server discovery is triggered automatically and the inventory is updated.

OIR for Network Adapter

The OIR for network adapter scenarios can be done as follows:

  1. Decommission the server.

  2. - For rack servers, disconnect the server from the power supply.

    - For blade servers, power off the server and remove it from the chassis.

  3. Remove, insert, or replace the adapter.


    Note

    • When you remove an MLOM or a PCIe primary adapter, you need to reset to factory defaults for the server to be discovered.

    • If the GPUs are swapped to a different slot without server decommission, you will receive the NodeUnknownPCIeCardPresentOnRiser alarm. For more information, see Cisco Intersight Alarms Reference Guide.

  4. - For rack servers, reconnect the server to the power supply.

    - For blade servers, insert the server into the chassis and power it on.

  5. Recommission the server.

Server discovery is automatically triggered, and the inventory is updated.

An alternate scenario for network adapter support is:

  1. - For rack servers, disconnect the rack server from the power supply.

    - For blade servers, power off the blade server and remove it from the chassis.

  2. Remove, insert, or replace the components.


    Note

    When you remove an MLOM or PCIe primary adapter, you need to restore to factory defaults for the server to be discovered.

  3. - For rack servers, reconnect the server to the power supply.

    - For blade servers, insert the server into the chassis and power it on.

In the above scenario, a replacement alarm is raised that requires a decommission and recommission of the server, to complete the replacement process.


Note

Extender adapter UCSB-MLOM-PT-01 is not in scope for online insertion and replacement. It is required to decommission and recommission the server after adding or removing UCSB-MLOM-PT-01.

OIR for IOM

The IOM scenarios supported for OIR are captured in the table below.

Scenario

Expected User Action

Reseating the IOM

Automatic

Replacing the IOM with the same model and with the original connectivity

Automatic

Adding additional cable to existing IOM to increase bandwidth

Modify the Port policy to configure new server ports and deploy the domain profile again.

Removing cable(s) from an already discovered IOM

Modify the Port policy to remove server ports and deploy the domain profile again.

Replacing 2204 IOM with 2208 IOM

The inventory is automatically updated.

If more cable connections are added to the Fabric Interconnect, modify the Port policy to configure new server ports, and deploy the domain profile again.

Note

 

Always replace the IOMs one by one, so as not to disrupt the server traffic.

Replacing a 2208 IOM with a 2204 IOM

The inventory is automatically updated.

If some cable connections are removed from the Fabric Interconnect, modify the Port policy to unconfigure the unused server ports, and deploy the domain profile again.

Note

 

Always replace the IOMs one by one, so as not to disrupt the server traffic.

Removing a cable from both the IOMs and connecting to a new directly attached rack

  1. Unconfigure the server ports used by the IOM and deploy the domain profile again.

  2. Remove the cables and connect them physically to the rack.

  3. Configure the server port and redeploy the domain profile.

The rack server is automatically discovered and inventoried. The original chassis or IOM will be in a disconnected state. Decommission the chassis if it is intended for removal.

Removing the cable from the directly attached rack and connect to the IOM

  1. Unconfigure the server ports used by the rack and deploy the domain profile again.

  2. Remove the cables and connect them physically to the IOM.

  3. Configure the server port and redeploy the domain profile.

The chassis or IOM is automatically discovered and inventoried. The original rack server will be in a disconnected state. Decommission the rack server if it is intended for removal.

Moving the cables from IOM to new Fabric Interconnect ports

If you want to use a different Fabric Interconnect port to connect to IOM, modify the Port policy with new server ports, and redeploy the domain profile.

Note

 

Unconfigure the previous port if not intended for use and configure the new port.

Switch cables between Fabric Interconnect and IOM in different chassis

Note

 

Change the server port that is being used.

  1. Unconfigure the port and redeploy the domain profile.

  2. Make the required port changes.

  3. Configure the server port and redeploy the domain profile.

Swapping IOMs in the same chassis

Note

 

There is a connectivity change and the IOM and Fabric Interconnect are switched.

  1. After the swap, rediscover the chassis.

  2. Rediscover the blade.

  3. Redeploy the server profile.

Replacing a chassis (Chassis RMA)

  1. From the Chassis Table View, decommission the old chassis when it is still connected, using the Decommission action.

  2. Modify the Port policy to unconfigure the server ports that were connected to the old chassis, and then deploy the domain profile.

  3. Go to Connections > Decommissioned > Chassis page and remove the old chassis using the Remove action.

  4. Disconnect the cabling to physically remove the old chassis.

  5. Connect the cabling between the new chassis and the Fabric Interconnect.

  6. Modify the Port policy to configure the server ports that are connected to the new chassis, and then deploy the domain profile.

  7. Wait for the completion of the chassis discovery, chassis inventory, and blade discovery workflows to see the updated inventory.

Note