Category Archives: Cisco

ccnp datacenter large

Exam Experience – Cisco CCNP Datacenter – 642-998 Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCD) – #vDM30in30

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Evening,

Sorry for the long title.

There is two reasons as to why you would be taking this exam. The first is because you want to achieve the CCNP Datacenter title, or the second is because your company requires you to, so they can achieve the Unified Computing Technology Specialization.

My reason was the second, but the Cisco Datacenter track is something I am interested in in the long run.

If your going for the partner route like me, you are not required to have the CCNA DC under your belt. But if you want to achieve the CCNP DC, you need to complete the correct pre-reqs, which can be found here.

The exam is 90 minutes with around 70 questions. The recommendation is to undertake the Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing course from an authorised Cisco Learning Partner. Which is exactly what I did, and then sat the exam straight after.

I will blog about the course separately.

spongebob-exam

Exam Experience

So the exam was the usual Cisco, its made of majority multiple choice questions, and I also had two small testlets.

Continue reading Exam Experience – Cisco CCNP Datacenter – 642-998 Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCD) – #vDM30in30 →

2015 04 20 22 05 11

Deploy a Cisco UCS system – Part 4 – Upgrading the Firmware

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My previous posts in the series covered getting the Cisco UCS up and running and into production, and it seems that adding how to upgrade the Firmware on the UCS at the end of the series is best, as you will find yourself needing to do this once the system is in production as well.

Note: Many thanks to Rene again for this simple post helping me through the steps.

Note2: It’s also worth looking through this short article on the do’s and don’t of UCS Firmware updates, from a session held at Cisco Live 2014.

Covered in this post;

  • Pre-reqs
  • Getting the Firmware
  • Upload firmware into UCS Manager
  • Upgrading UCS Manager
  • Upgrading the Fabric Interconnects
  • Upgrading the Blade Servers
Pre-Reqs

Continue reading Deploy a Cisco UCS system – Part 4 – Upgrading the Firmware →

2015 04 20 22 05 11

Deploy a Cisco UCS system – Part 3 – from scratch for VMware ESXi

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This is the final part of the series, where I cover off installing ESXi 6.0 onto the blade of the UCS system.

  • Setting up the SD Cards (FlexFlash)
  • Installing ESXi via KVM

Note: Please check your firmware is at the correct level needed. You can see this guide for upgrade the firmware.

Setting up the SD Cards (FlexFlash) Continue reading Deploy a Cisco UCS system – Part 3 – from scratch for VMware ESXi →

2015 04 20 22 05 11

Deploy a Cisco UCS system – Part 2 – from scratch for VMware ESXi

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In my first post, we got as far as setting up the management interface of the Cisco UCS Platform. In this second part, I’ll be covering;

  • Setting up the connectivity
  • Configuring the VLAN connectivity
  • Setting up Port Channels
  • Setting up the Appliance connectivity
  • Configuring LAN policies
  • Configuring VNIC Templates
  • Creating Server Policies
  • Building a Service Profile Template
  • Deploying a Service Profile from a Template
Setting up the connectivity

Continue reading Deploy a Cisco UCS system – Part 2 – from scratch for VMware ESXi →

2015 04 20 22 05 11

Deploy a Cisco UCS system – Part 1 – from scratch for VMware ESXi

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First off, huge thanks to the following posts by Rene Van Den Bedem and his Cisco UCS installation guide.

My aim here is not to rip off his posts, but to detail the process myself and use my own screenshots, as along the way, the setup was slightly different to Rene’s, such as the configuration needed for the SD Cards, and the lack of boot from SAN configuration.

Covered in Part 1;

  • The hardware/software
  • Cabling diagram
  • Pre-Reqs
  • Understanding Cisco’s policy based management
  • Summary of Task List
  • Setting up Fabric Interconnects
  • Connecting to Cisco UCS Manager

The Hardware/Software Continue reading Deploy a Cisco UCS system – Part 1 – from scratch for VMware ESXi →