CHAPTER 2

Overview of Cisco Unified Computing System
Thischapter includes the followingsections:
AboutCisco Unified ComputingSystem , page 9
UnifiedFabric, page 10
ServerArchitecture and Connectivity, page 12
TrafficManagement, page 33
Opt-InFeatures, page 38
Virtualizationin Cisco UCS , page 40

About Cisco Unified Computing System

CiscoUnified Computing System (Cisco UCS) fuses access layer networking and servers.This
high-performance,next-generation server system provides a data center with a high degree of workload agility
andscalability.
Thehardware andsoftware componentssupport Cisco's unifiedfabric, which runs multiple types of data
centertraffic over a single converged network adapter.
Architectural Simplification
Thesimplified architecture of Cisco UCS reduces the number of required devices and centralizes switching
resources.By eliminating switching inside a chassis, network access-layer fragmentation is significantly
reduced.
CiscoUCS implements Cisco unified fabric within racks and groups of racks, supporting Ethernetand Fibre
Channelprotocols over 10 Gigabit Cisco Data Center Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) links.
Thisradical simplificationreduces the numberof switches,cables, adapters, andmanagement points by up
totwo-thirds. All devices in a Cisco UCS domain remain under a single management domain, which remains
highlyavailable through theuse of redundant components.
Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide, Release 2.0
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