Cisco UCS (Unified Computing System) Hands-On Labs

This is  a Cisco UCS Lab Manual which will guide you through the steps to accomplish the task.

(Note: Only some labs have brief explainer videos)

Cisco UCS: Implementation & Configuration  Hands-On Labs

Section 1. Cisco UCS: Initial Setup & Configuration

In this section, the labs will guide you through the steps to setup a pair of Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects in a cluster. Then Chassis/Connectivity policies will be configured to discover & take inventory of the blades & rack mount servers.

Section 2. Cisco UCS: Network Configuration

The "Unified" Network feature of Cisco UCS will be utilized to configure network connectivity to upstream switches.

vNICs Initial/Updating templates will be covered followed by tracing the network Virtual interface Paths from a blade right up to an upstream switch.

Cisco Virtual Port Channels will be configured between the Fabric interconnects & Nexus switches and finally Disjoint Layer 2 Network connectivity will be covered.

Section 3. Cisco UCS: Storage Configuration (iSCSI,FCoE,FC)

The "Unified"  Storage feature of Cisco UCS will be utilized to configure iSCSI storage with an upstream Storage Appliance followed by configuring Appliance Ports for Direct Attached iSCSI Storage.

FCoE & FC Direct Attached labs will also be covered. Each of these storage topics will wrap up with labs involving configuration of ESXi 6.x  to Boot from iSCS/FCoE/FC storage.

Section 4. Cisco UCS: Service Profile Configuration

The awesomeness of Cisco UCS will shine. In this section utilizing Service Profiles, blades & rack mount servers will be configured to achieve "Statelessness & Portability" .

Section 5. Cisco UCS: RBAC, AAA, Organization & Locales

Role Based Access Controls & Authentications via MS Active Directory,TACACS+ & RADIUS will be covered in this section. Then we will explore how multi-tenancy in Cisco UCS can be achieved using Organizations & Locales.

Section 6. Cisco UCS: Configure Key Management

In this section we will see how an enterprise Public Key Infrastructure can be utilized by Cisco UCS for creating Key Rings & Trusted points.

Section 7. Cisco UCS: Firmware Management

Cisco periodically release new firmware for the various UCS components. These set of labs will guide you through the steps of upgrading the firmware for UCS Manager, Fabric Interconnects & blades.

Section 8. Cisco UCS: Rack Server Configuration

Finally in this section, the labs will concentrate on standalone C-Series servers management. Network/Storage Connectivity, Firmware management.