Category Archives: Cisco

2015 04 20 22 05 11

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

Cisco, VMware, , , , , , , , , ,

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 →

2015 04 09 14 53 48

Cisco UCS – Install ESXi 6.0

Cisco, VMware, , , , ,

So I’ve just deployed a Cisco UCS B Series system, which is on the HCL as supported by VMware for ESXi 6.0

2015-04-20_20-47-00_01

However there is no install media available as for previous ESXi versions.

How to install ESXi 6.0 on Cisco UCS

Quite simple actually, I installed the Customised version of ESXi 5.5 update 2d onto the B series servers, and then deployed vCenter 6.0, after setting up update manager, I imported the standard ESXi 6.0 ISO, and upgraded the hosts using update manager.

After a week, I can report that I’ve found no issues with this at all.

I posted on reddit about the location or availability of the media, and someone suggested this method of install, further more another user stated their Cisco Account Manager said everything should work with the standard ESXi install for the B200 M4 blades and not need additional drivers.

Hope this clears it up for some users who are hunting around for install media or an explanation that doesn’t yet officially exist.
Regards

Dean


cisco ucs platform emulator

Getting to grips with the Cisco UCS Emulator

Cisco, , , , ,

Cisco have been distributing the UCS emulator for a while now, and thanks to some changes, I am now faced with having to deploy some of the systems, so today I deployed the emulator on VMware Fusion on my MBP.

Downloading

You can download the emulator in a zip or OVA, and it can be run on VMware ESXi, Fusion, Workstation or Player.

https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-37827

I decided to go down the OVA route.

Setting it up

On fusion, I imported the OVA and gave it a name, it is also recommended to run the emulator with around 4GB of memory, however 1GB is the minimum amount.

2015-04-07_20-35-36 2015-04-07_20-35-36_01 2015-04-07_20-35-38 2015-04-07_20-35-37 2015-04-07_20-35-38_01

Continue reading Getting to grips with the Cisco UCS Emulator →

prod large photo0900aecd805744d4

Password Reset on Cisco MDS 9100 Series Fibre Channel Switch

Cisco, Networking, , , , , , ,

My most recent customer engagement, was to re-use some older hardware as vSphere disaster recovery. The kit includes a EMC Clariion SAN, and two Cisco MDS 9124 switches.

The customer didn’t setup these FC switches, and required a password reset. Which I was happy to do for him, until I realised the Cisco article online is slightly wrong. So below are the steps I took to get the job done.

Password Reset/Recovery Steps

First off stick your console cable into the switch,

1. Power Cycle the Switch and keep pressing Ctrl + C until you see;

loader>

2. You then need to find the boot filename, using the “dir” command

loader> dir bootflash:
bootflash:

 12288 lost+found/
 18678784 m9100-s2ek9-kickstart-mz.4.1.3a.bin
 51055100 m9100-s2ek9-mz.4.1.3a.bin
 4798 mts.log

Continue reading Password Reset on Cisco MDS 9100 Series Fibre Channel Switch →