[c-nsp] Cisco UCS Rack servers - C2xxx or C4xxx

[Pete Templin]

On 7/21/2011 4:25 PM, Martin T wrote:
> Chris,
> I have no hands-on experience with those servers, but as much as I
> have read, they seem to be solid x86 servers. In addition, this "Cisco
> Unified Computing System Extended Memory Technology" seems to be a
> nice feature.
>
>
> Pete,
> except the "Cisco Unified Computing System Extended Memory
> Technology"(at least I haven't seen such feature on other provider
> servers), do they have any additional unique features or differences
> compared to Dell, IBM or HP servers?
>
The system management is extremely impressive.  Note that the blade 
enclosures MUST be networked through the UCS Fabric Interconnect; the FI 
is much like a Nexus 5010/5020 but with different code and extra ICs 
which provide the UCS management engine.  One FI (or one FI redundant 
pair) can control multiple UCS blade enclosures (which can each have 
multiple servers in them), and it's all centrally managed.  I believe 
there's a noticeable learning curve at first, but our server peeps seem 
to REALLY like it and can turn up new service instances very easily.  I 
also find the network redundancy to be very well developed; I believe 
it's such that the servers don't know there's a redundant network 
connected to them (no added complexity of LAG per server).

pt