intro vblock system compute

Introduction to Vblock Systems Compute © 2014 VCE Company LLC, All rights reserved.

Vblock System Foundations

Introduction to Vblock Systems Compute

Introduction

Introduction to Vblock System Compute

Welcome to the Introduction to Vblock System Compute section of the Vblock Foundations course.


Vblock System Components

Recall that Vblock Systems contain Compute, Network, Storage, Virtualization, and Management technologies. In this section you’ll learn about the basics of the Vblock System Compute technology.

Learning Objectives

The objectives for this section are listed on this page. Upon completion of this training you will be able to explain the function of the Compute technology within the Vblock System. List and explain the purpose of each of the components of the Vblock System Compute. And describe how the components of the Vblock System Compute are connected.


Function of the Vblock System Computing

Function of the Vblock System Computing

In this section you will learn about the functions performed by the Vblock System Compute technology. But let’s begin with some interesting computer facts!

Trivia Question: Computers

Computers continue to evolve and they are very different today then they were even 5 years ago. These changes are having a dramatic affect on companies and how they manage they’re IT capabilities. Take a moment and see if you can answer this trivia question correctly.

This is an important trend in the computer industry. The increase in mobile computing challenges data centers by demanding greater technology flexibility, ability to react to faster to changing trends, and requiring secure data management. As you will learn in this training, Vblock Systems address all these current data center demands!


Computers Run Software Applications

The primary function of a computer is to run applications that perform specific tasks and activities that are valuable to an individual user or to an organization. Without application software, computers don’t offer much benefit. Software helps people perform lots of tasks and activities including communicating and collaborating, managing customer relationships, transacting or processing business activities, managing data and information, performing accounting and finance, managing projects, managing human resources, automating tasks and activities, and managing manufacturing operations.

Computers You May Use

You’ve probably used at least one of these types of computers…more likely, you probably rely on more than one of these in your work and personal life every day. You may not realize it, but you have probably used server computers as well. Unlike the other types of computers, typical users don’t sit at or hold a server to interact with it like a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone. Servers are accessed through a network usually from another computer or device. They are made for high capacity computing, performance and speed, and for reliability. A server can be as small as a laptop computer or as large as building. The Vblock

Systems Compute technology uses server computers exclusively.


Computers - Hardware and Software

Computers consist of hardware and software. The hardware components include a central processing unit (CPU), memory, storage, and various input/output devices used to communicate with the computer. Software includes the computer operating system and application software.

If you’re unsure what any of these hardware or software components are, click on the links in blue underlined type for more information.

Vblock System Compute

The purpose of the Vblock System Compute is to run the applications that a customer needs. Think of the applications that your organization depends on. Things like email, file sharing, operations management, accounting and finance systems, enterprise management applications, and others. These applications and more are representative of the types of applications that run on Vblock Systems.

Vblock Systems contain multiple servers, and some contain many-many servers. Each server consists of hardware and software mentioned on the previous slide. However, a distinction between a regular desktop

or laptop computer, and servers in a Vblock Systems is that the servers are network based. All user interaction with the Vblock System servers occurs over a network. You don’t sit at and interact directly with the Vblock System like you do with a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone. Users access the Vblock Systems through another computer (i.e. desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.) that is connected to the same network.


Components of the Vblock System Compute

Components of the Vblock System Compute

Having discussed the basics about the Vblock System Compute function, let’s go deeper and discuss Compute components and the roles that each plays.

Trivia Question

Let’s start with another trivia question. You have already learned what a server Computer is, and that a Vblock System can contain multiple servers. How many servers do you think a single Vblock System can contain?


Compute Components

Now let’s talk about the components of the Vblock System Compute. Vblock Systems utilize the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) in the Compute technology. Its components provide all that is necessary to load and run applications, and connect to the other parts of the Vblock System. Vblock System that utilize blade technology compute components include compute servers, server chasses, and Fabric interconnects (or FIs). Rack mount servers are singular units and do not use a chasses, fabric extenders, of fabric interconnects.

Click on and review the content of each box to the left to learn more about each of the components of the Cisco UCS.

There are two categories of Cisco UCS servers used in the Vblock System models. They include blade servers and rack mount servers. Cisco UCS Blade Servers are use in Vblock System 320 (and soon to be released Vblock System 340) and Vblock System 720 which are the two more powerful higher capacity Vblock Systems. A blade server connects to a power supply and network when it is inserted into a blade server chassis. Power cords and network cables are attached to the blade chassis, not the individual blade servers. Connections are made to a blade server when it is appropriately inserted into the chassis slot. Blade

servers in the Vblock Systems are stateless servers, which will be define in a moment.


Cisco UCS rack mounted servers are used in Vblock System 100 and Vblock System 200 which are the two lower capacity lower budget Vblock System alternatives. Rack mounted servers are secured with screws in a computer system rack and require a power cord and network cables, and therefore are more labor intensive to install and maintain than blade servers. And while the blade servers are stateless servers, the rack mounted servers are statefull servers. Let’s discuss what these are and why they are significant.

Each of the Cisco UCS blades used in a Vblock System has a Virtual Interface Card or VIC. Some people refer to these as a mezzanine card. The VIC is a network interface device which is used to connect the server to a LAN or SAN. The VIC provides the connectivity so that the blade can communicate with other components of the Vblock System as well as with networks outside of the Vblock System. Later, you’ll learn more about the features of the VIC that are specifically designed for virtualization. Generally speaking, stateless blade servers are easier to configure and maintain, while statefull rack mounted servers are less expense. Stateless

blade servers do not have a Media Access Control (MAC) addresses or World Wide Names (WWN) assigned to their VICs or network interface devices. MAC addresses and WWNs are used to identify network interface devices on LANs (Ethernet networks) and SANs respectively. Typically, MAC addresses and WWNs have to be manually assigned during the process of configuring a device. But with blades servers, the MAC addresses and WWNs are assigned to the blade automatically when it is inserted into a blade chassis. Another factor that makes these servers easier to manage is that all of the blades that reside in a blade chassis are managed by the same instance of the UCS manager. Also, replacing a blade is as easy as sliding out the old blade and inserting the replacement into the blade chassis. No power cord or network cables are required.


Statefull rack mounted servers have the MAC addresses and WWNs burned onto the VIC network interface cards on each server. Because of this, network configuration is required when the server is added. While these servers are less expensive, they are more labor intensive to configure and maintain. Each statefull server is managed by it’s own instance of the UCS Manager which means they are managed one at a time. Finally, installation and maintenance requires unscrewing the server from the computer rack and un-cabling the server, which is time consuming.

Vblock System servers contain both CPUs and memory just like the servers you learned about earlier. Depending on the requirements of the applications it will run, a server in a Vblock System can be customized. The number of CPUs, the CPU speed, and the amount of memory can all be customized within parameters established for Vblock Systems. Vblock System servers DO NOT contain storage drives. You’ll learn later that the storage drives in Vblock Systems are contained in the storage component of the system. Because these servers contain no storage, their operating systems reside in the Vblock System’s storage. When

servers are turned on (or when they boot), they do so using the operating system loaded in Vblock System storage. As you will learn later, this process is called booting from SAN because the operating system is accessed over a Storage Area Network or SAN. The blade servers come in two different widths, half width and full width. Half Width blades consume half a chassis row, while full width blades consume a full row. You’ll learn more about blade server chasses in a moment. Rack mount servers come in one standard width that fits in a standard sized compute rack. The height of a computer rack varies and each level in a rack is called a rack unit, or RU. The height of a computer rack is measured in RUs. For example a computer rack with 42 levels is said to have a height of 42 RUs.


The Vblock System solutions utilizes the Cisco UCS blade server chassis. The chassis itself has eight blade slots that can contain eight half with blades, four full width blades, or a combination of both half width and full width blades. Each chassis includes two fabric extenders, or FEXs. The fabric extenders provide network connectivity between the VIC on the blade server and the UCS fabric interconnect which you will learn more about next. The chassis contains multiple power supplies which power the blade servers, as well as cooling components to keep them from

overheating. The chassis is designed with a number of intentional redundancies, meaning there are several power supplies, cooling fans and data paths, so if one of these breaks down others provide uninterrupted functionality. Because of this, the Vblock UCS compute is described as having “no single point of failure”. The Vblock Systems 320 and 720 can be configured with a variety of chassis configurations with some models having 2. The number of chassis a Vblock System can support depends on the configuration of Fabric Interconnects it contains. You will learn about Fabric Interconnects next.

Two Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects are included as part of the Vblock System compute. These provide connectivity from the compute to other parts of the Vblock System and to the customers’ networks. They are configured in pairs for performance and load balancing as well as to provide high availability. There are two models used in Vblock Systems. They differ by the number of ports they contain and by the expansion modules available. Ports are outlets where you plug in cabling from other devices like the Blade Server Chassis Fabric Extenders. Expansion modules are separate

devices that can attached to a Fabric Interconnect to provide additional ports. Note that UCS fabric interconnects are only used in the Vblock System with blade servers. Vblock Systems that use rack mount servers have no fabric interconnects.


Vblock System Compute Connectivity

Vblock System Compute Layer Connectivity

You should now have a pretty good concept now about the Vblock System components and what they do. So let’s go deeper and learn about how these component connect to each other to form the Vblock System Compute.

Blade Server Connectivity

We’ll start by looking at a Cisco UCS blade server chassis with four full width blade servers. As you learned earlier, these can also configured with eight half width blade servers, or if a customer prefers, they can mix and match narrow blade and wide blade servers. Each Cisco UCS blade chassis includes two FEX cards or fabric extenders. The fabric extenders provide an internal connection directly and to the virtual interface cards on each one of the blade servers. Extending out from the fabric extenders we connect directly to the fabric interconnects. Notice in this diagram that each connects to both fabric extenders, and each fabric extender connects directly to one

fabric interconnect. Therefore, each blade is connected to both fabric interconnects for redundancy. From the fabric interconnects we connect directly to the Vblock System network technology which provides the ability to communicate with the customer’s network as well as to the Vblock System storage components.


Rack Mount Server Connectivity

Rack mount servers are used in smaller Vblock Systems. As you’ll learn later, these systems are designed and engineered for data centers with smaller budgets that do not require the highest levels of compute, network, and storage capacity. These systems do not have fabric interconnects, fabric extenders, blade servers, or blade server chassis. Instead, these systems contain rack mount servers which are connected directly to network switches in the Vblock System network.

For now, that’s all you need to know about connectivity. Later when we talk about the network and storage

technologies you will learn more about how all the Vblock System components are connected.

Summary

Congratulations! You’ve finished this section of the training. In this section you learned about the purpose and function of the Compute technology in a Vblock System. You also learned about the components that constitute the Compute components as well as the purpose and function of each. And finally you learned about the Compute connectivity.

In the next section you’ll be introduced to the Vblock System network technology.

intro vblock system compute

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vblock foundations course

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