Cisco Unified Computing System overview
The Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) is a next-generation data center platform that unites computing, networking, storage access, and virtualization resources in a cohesive system designed to reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and increase business agility. The system integrates a low-latency, lossless 10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet network fabric with enterprise-class blade and rack x86-architecture servers. The system is an integrated, scalable, multichassis platform in which all resources participate in a unified management domain.
The Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card (VIC) 1400/14000 Series (Figure 1) extends the network fabric directly to both servers and virtual machines so that a single connectivity mechanism can be used to connect both physical and virtual servers with the same level of visibility and control. Cisco VICs provide complete programmability of the Cisco UCS I/O infrastructure, with the number and type of I/O interfaces configurable on demand with a zero-touch model.
Cisco UCS VIC 1400/14000 Series
Cisco VICs support Cisco SingleConnect technology, which provides an easy, intelligent, and efficient way to connect and manage computing in your data center. Cisco SingleConnect unifies LAN, SAN, and systems management into one simplified link for rack servers, blade servers, and virtual machines. This technology reduces the number of network adapters, cables, and switches needed and radically simplifies the network, reducing complexity. Cisco VICs can support 256 Express (PCIe) virtual devices, either virtual Network Interface Cards (vNICs) or virtual Host Bus Adapters (vHBAs), with a high rate of I/O Operations Per Second (IOPS), support for lossless Ethernet, and 10/25/40/100-Gbps connection to servers. The PCIe Generation 3 x16 interface helps ensure optimal bandwidth to the host for network-intensive applications, with a redundant path to the fabric interconnect. Cisco VICs support NIC teaming with fabric failover for increased reliability and availability. In addition, it provides a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure for your data center.
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The VIC 1400/14000 series is designed for UCS X-Series M6 Blade Servers, B-Series M5 and M6 Blade Servers, C-Series M5 and M6 Rack Servers, and S-Series M5 Storage Servers. The adapters are capable of supporting 10/25/40/100-Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). It incorporates Cisco’s next-generation Converged Network Adapter (CNA) technology and offers a comprehensive feature set, providing investment protection for future feature software releases. In addition, the VIC supports Cisco’s Data Center Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology. This technology extends the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect ports to virtual machines, simplifying server virtualization deployment.
Cisco VIC 14825
The Cisco UCS VIC 14825 (Figure 11) is a 4×25-Gbps Ethernet/FCoE capable mezzanine card (mezz) designed exclusively for Cisco UCS X210c M6 Compute Node. Cisco UCS X The card enables a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present PCIe standards-compliant interfaces to the host that can be dynamically configured as either NICs or HBAs. The UCS VIC 14000 bridge connector (Figure 10) is required with the mezz card to connect the UCS X-Series Blade Server to Intelligent Fabric Module UCSX-I-9108-25G.
Cisco UCS VIC 14825
