Cisco UCS Platform Emulator (2.2(4bPE1))

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Cisco UCS Platform Emulator (2.2(4b))

New Hardware Features

Cisco UCS Platform Emulator Release 2.2(4bPE1), adds support for the following new hardware:

     • Added support for the following network adapters:

          – UCSC-MLOM-C10T-02

          – UCSB-MEZ-BRC-02

          – UCSC-PCIE-C10T-02

     • New Fabric Extender N2K-C2232TM-E-10GE added

     • Added the following new templates containing UCSC-MLOM-C10T-02 and UCSC-PCIE-C10T-02

        adapters:

          – C220M4LMedium

          – C240M4LMedium

     • Changes to the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator VM Console:

          – Modifications to the VM Console login

          – Modifications to the VM Console Options Menu

          – Modifications to the Network Settings

          – Modifications to the System Settings

          – More details added to the Status Summary display

New Software Features

Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(4bPE1) includes the following new features:

     • Added support for the following storage profile operations:

          – Creation of a Logical Unit Number (LUN)

          – Deletion of a LUN

          – Modification to a LUN

          – Hot Spare addition

          – Removal of Hot Spares

Known Limitations

Cisco UCS Platform Emulator, Release 2.2(4bPE1) has the following limitations:

     • Import from XML—Adapters and storage controllers are inserted into the PCI slots of rack

        servers.  When an XML before 2.2(4bPE1) version is imported to the 2.2(4bPE1) setup, storage

        controllers might not be added to rack servers if the storage controller slot is same as the

        adapter slot. In such cases, storage controllers must be added manually.

     • Download of stripped-down version of UCS Firmware- From UCS PE 2.2(1bPE1) onwards, only

        the stripped-down version of size less than 50 KB is available for download. The download of

        regular (non-stripped version) version is not supported anymore.

     • Import from a running Cisco UCS system and import from XML—If you import a setup with rack

        servers, we recommend that the setup is either a true high-availability (HA) or a true stand-alone

        setup. If there is a mixed configuration then the import may not work.

     • Recommission and decommission—Chassis and blade server recommission and decommission

        are not supported. Only rack servers can be recommissioned or decommissioned.

     • Domain Name Server (DNS) resolution— DNS resolution is not available for Cisco UCS  Platform

        Emulator. All domain names must be resolved manually using a static IP address.

     • Blade server discovery—When a blade server discovery is complete, performing a power

        ON/OFF to boot the server is not supported.

     • Blade server configuration error—A configuration error message is displayed when the

        configuration includes a Cisco UCS B200 M3 Blade Server and only the Cisco UCS 1240 Virtual

        Interface Card. The error message displays “Identify Unestablishable”. The blade server

        configuration will not fail if you include the Cisco UCS 1240 Virtual Interface Card and the

        Cisco UCS 1280 Virtual Interface Card in the configuration.

     • Syslog—Cisco UCS Platform Emulator and Cisco UCS Manager integrated with Cisco UCS

        Platform Emulator does not produce a syslog.

     • Data path—Cisco UCS Platform Emulator does not emulate network data flow. The software

        emulates the functions that are necessary for the management plane.

     • XML Export in Google Chrome—The Startup Hardware Configuration user interface allows you to

        save the XML-formatted hardware configuration to a local computer. This is the client computer

        that is running the browser. To save the file, click Export Configuration to XML File > Save as…

        and then save the XML text to a local file. However, If you are using Google Chrome, you must

        save the file as a .txt file. If you save the file in another format  such as .xml, Google Chrome adds

        unnecessary HTML tags in the saved file produces an incorrect XML format.

     • Microsoft Internet Explorer—Microsoft Internet Explorer does not support the Cisco UCS

        Platform Emulator Model Object Browser and Start-up Inventory features. To use these features,

        you must use a Mozilla-compatible browsers such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. Internet

        Explorer Version 8.0 and later supports other Cisco UCS Platform Emulator features.

     • Cut-through interfaces—Cut-through interfaces to equipment such as IPMI and SNMP, are not

        supported. Servers in a Cisco UCS domain contain integrated management controllers (CIMCs),

        each of which supports an IPMI interface. The fabric interconnect components of Cisco UCS

        support an SNMP interface. However, because both fabric interconnects and CIMC are

        considered to be endpoints of the Cisco UCS management system, these interfaces are cut-

        through interfaces that bypass Cisco UCS Manager, the central management system.

     • Serial over LAN, FTP, TFTP, Telnet— Similarly to SNMP and IPMI interfaces, serial over LAN, TFTP,

        FTP, and Telnet access (through user-facing or management-plane-facing Ethernet interfaces) is

        not available because they bypass the management software and are considered cut-through

        access. SSH is supported only to the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator management IP through the

        config user for Cisco UCS Manager CLI access.

     • Keyboard/Video/Mouse (KVM)— KVM is a cut-through interface. Cisco UCS Platform Emulator

        does not support KVM because there are no physical servers attached to the emulation system

        to which KVM could connect. Launching the KVM console does not display an error message.

     • Emulation of high-availability failover— No failover scenario is supported. If one management

        process dies, the other does not take over.

     • Configuration of UCSC-PCIE-CSC-02 adaptor

     • AAA-based authentication (LDAP, RADIUS, TACACs)— In emulation mode, Cisco UCS Manager

        accepts security configuration changes, but does not enforce local or remote password

        authentication. Any username and password combination can successfully log into the Cisco UCS

        Manager GUI with administrator privileges. If a local user is created with a role and locale, Cisco

        UCS Platform Emulator enforces role, privilege, and locale definitions for the user logging in,

        allowing an end user to test how roles, privileges, and locales function in Cisco UCS Manager.

     • Remote monitoring (SNMP, Syslog, Call Home, Smart Call Home)—Cisco UCS Platform Emulator

        does not support remote monitoring of Cisco UCS Manager on any interface except the Cisco

        UCS Manager XML API. You can configure SNMP (traps or gets), local or remote syslog, Call

        Home, and Smart Call Home remote monitoring in Cisco UCS Platform Emulator but you cannot

        send or query data through those interfaces.

     • Cisco UCS Manager database backup and restore—Cisco UCS Platform Emulator does not

        support full- state back up or restore configurations from within Cisco UCS Manager. If a user

        imports a system backup which consists of switch configurations such as VLAN, CallHome, and

        soon, the import operation fails.

     • Capability catalog—Cisco UCS Platform Emulator does not support updating the capability

        catalog in Cisco UCS Manager. Cisco UCS Platform Emulator supports only the original capability

        catalog.

     • Configuration of UCSC-PCIE-CSC-02adaptor The Direct Connect Rack set up allows you to

        configure the UCSC-PCIE-CSC-02 adaptor only in the SWM slot. A configuration error message is

        displayed if the adaptor is connected to any other slot of the server.

     • Hardware changes—The following list describes the hardware changes:

          – Cisco UCS Platform Emulator does not support adding or removing hardware, such as servers,

             chassis, I/O modules, and power supplies, dynamically in the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator

             control panel. Adding, modifying, or removing hardware in the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator

             startup hardware configuration requires you to restart the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator

             application software.

     • Import from Direct Connectivity set up - The following list describes the limitations:

          – While importing from Direct Connect Rack set up, the Live Import feature imports only a pure

              set up (Rack servers are directly connected to the switch with no Fabric Extenders (FEX) or

              can have a dangling Fabric Extender (FEX) connected only to the switch). If there is a mixed

              configuration then, the import may fail to work.

          – While importing from Direct Connect Rack set up, the Live Import feature imports only the

              UCSC-PCIE-CSC-02 adaptor connected to the SWM slot of the server. The adaptors configured

              in other slots may not get imported.

NOTE: From UCS PE 2.2(1bPE1) onwards, UCS PE supports uploading the B-Series and C-Series server

firmware bundles.  Because of the large file sizes of the firmware bundles, UCS PE only supports

uploading of only the stripped-down versions (attached to this document), which includes only the

firmware metadata but not the actual firmware itself in the binaries.  The stripped-down version of

the firmware bundles which contain metadata only of the B-series and C-series server firmware is

reduced to approximately 50 kB in size.

• Download UCSPE Firmware Bundles:  UCS Platform Emulator Firmware Bundles (includes firmware meta-data only)