Cisco Systems OL-25712-04 Server Architecture and Connectivity

Server Architecture and Connectivity

Serviceprofiles are the central concept of Cisco UCS. Each service profile serves a specific purpose: ensuring

thatthe associated server hardware has the configuration required to support the applications it will host.

Theservice profile maintains configuration information about the server hardware, interfaces, fabric

connectivity,and server and network identity. This information is stored in a format that you can manage

throughCisco UCS Manager. All service profiles are centrally managed and stored in a database on the fabric

interconnect.

Everyserver must be associated with a service profile.

Atany given time, each server can be associated with only one service profile. Similarly, each service

profilecan be associated with only one server at a time.

Important

Afteryou associate a service profile with a server, the server is ready to have an operating system and

applicationsinstalled, and you can use the service profile to review the configuration of the server. If the

serverassociated with a serviceprofile fails, the serviceprofile does not automaticallyfail over to another

server.

Whena service profile is disassociated from a server, the identity and connectivity information for the server

isreset to factorydefaults.

Eachservice profile specifies the LAN and SAN network connections for the server through the Cisco UCS

infrastructureand out to the external network. You do not need to manually configure the network connections

forCisco UCSservers andother components.All network configurationis performed throughthe service

profile.

Whenyou associatea service profile with a server, the Cisco UCS internal fabric is configured with the

informationin the service profile. If the profile was previously associated with a different server, the network

infrastructurereconfigures to supportidentical network connectivityto the newserver.

Aservice profile can take advantage of resourcepools and policiesto handle server and connectivity

configuration.

Hardware Components Configured by Service Profiles

Whena service profile is associated with a server, the following components are configured according to the

datain the profile:

• Server,including BIOS and CIMC

• Adapters

• Fabric interconnects

Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide, Release 2.0

12 OL-25712-04

Server Architecture and Connectivity