"Boot from SAN" step by step with Windows 2012 R2 and Cisco UCS using Brocade and EMC VNX.

“Boot from SAN” step by step with Windows 2012 R2 and Cisco UCS using Brocade and EMC VNX.
UCS:
  • Create service profile for windows server.
  • Create “Boot from san” boot policy
    • Setup SAN primary and secondary target.
    • The WWN required are that of your VNX array ports.

Brocade:
  • Login to create an initial zone for one of the ports.
  • Create new Alias
    • Type in the Alias name and select the WWN from blade
  • Create zone
    • Select the blade Alias and VNX Storage processor
  • Add to Zone configurations
  • Activate

VNX:
  • Start EMC Unisphere
  • Create Initiator
    • WWN/IQN can be obtained from UCS director
      • Open properties window for service profile of server
      • Select storage tab
      • At top copy the World Wide Node Name  (this is the first part of WWN/IQN)
      • Under vHBAs copy the WWPN
    • Now combine the WWNN and WWPN and with “:” as separator paste into WWN/IQN
  • Select “New Host” radio button
    • Type in the server name and IP address
  • Create LUNs
  • Create Storage Group per server
    • Associate the hosts
    • Associate the LUNs
Server:
  • Start the server and boot from Windows disk
  • Load the UCS disk drivers when asked for during installation and selection of the installation disk.
  • Verify disks show up and select where it will be installed.
  • After installation is completed and Windows is up and running, go ahead and install EMC Powerpath!

Cisco UCS – step by step configuration

As mentioned I don’t go into too much details on my post since i think there are a lot of other great blogs and vendor documentation out there.  Here is my short bullet point task list.   If I am missing anything please let me know.
Set equipment policies:
  • Equipment tab -> equipment – > policies tab
    • Chassis/fex discovery policy
      • Action = 4 ports
      • Link grouping preference = port channel
    • Power policy = grid
Configure server/uplink port:
  • Equipment tab -> select FI-A/B -> expand -> fixed modules
    • Configure the appropriate unconfigured ports as “Server” (connections between IOM and Fabric Interconnect) and “Uplink” (connection to network)
Configure FC storage ports
  • Equipment tab
  • All the way bottom, select FI A
    • Right hand side select Configure unified ports
    • Run slider to end of fiber storage ports you need
    • This will reboot FIA, after reboot re-login.
  • Select FI B
    • Perform same steps
Create Port Channels:
  • Setup ports as uplink ports
  • LAN TAB
    • Fabric – Port Channels
    • Setup port channel ..set same PORT ID on both Fis
  • SAN TAB ( will not be creating port channel due to connection to Brocade)
    • San Cloud -> Fabric A -> Under general tab select “create Port Channel”
Create VSANs: (brocade):
  • SAN > SAN Cloud > Fabric A > VSANs (both Fabric A & B)
    • Create VSAN
    • Select the specific Fabric A or B (not common)!
  • Assign VSAN to FC uplinks
    • Equipment tab -> Fabric interconnect A & B -> Fixed modules -> FC ports
      • Select FC port
      • Under general tab click drop down for VSAN.
        • Select VSAN which is associated to FI.
Upgrade firmware
  • . An “*.A.bin” file and a “*.B.bin” file. The “*.B.bin” file contains all of the firmware for the B-Series blades. The “*.A.bin” file contains all the firmware for the Fabric Interconnects, I/O Modules and UCS Manage
  • Equipment tab -> Eqiupment -> Firmware management
  • Download firmware
  • Update firmware (view progress under Firmware auto install -> general tab, or press Apply to view status in same window))
    • Adapters
    • CIMC
    • IOMs
  • Activate firmware in the following order:  Choose “Ignore Compatibility Check” anywhere applicable.
    • Adapters
    • UCS manager
    • I/O Modules
    •  Choose “skip validation” anywhere applicable. Make sure to uncheck “Set startup version only”, since this is an initial setup and we aren’t concerned with rebooting running hosts
  • Activate subordinate FI and then primary FI
Create sub-organization
This is optional to create specific organizational servers/pools/policies for instance ESXi, SQL, Windows etc
  • Right click and root directory, select Create organization
  • Specify name
Create KVM IP pool:
  • Lab tab -> pools -> root -> IP Pools -> IP Pool ext-mgmt
  • Create block of IPv4 Addresses
    • Specify IP range
Create Server pool
  • Servers tab -> Pools -> Sub-Organization -> -> Server pools
  • Create server pool
Create UUID suffix pool
  • Servers tab -> Pools -> Sub-Organization -> -> UUID Suffix Pool
  • Create UUID suffix pool
  • Create Suffixes
Create MAC pool
  • For each suborganization create 2 groups of MAC pools. 1 for FI-A and 1 for FI-B
  • LAN TAB: -> Pools -> Root -> MAC Pools
    • Create new pool for A
    • Create block
    • Create new pool for B
Create HBA pools:
  • SAN TAB:
    • Pools -> root -> sub-organization -> WWNN Pools
      • Create WWNN pool
        • Add double the amount since each server will have two HBA’s
    • For WWPN we will again create separate pools for FI-A and FI-B:
      • Pools -> root -> sub-organization -> WWPN Pools
        • Create WWNN pool for FI-A
        • Create WWNN pool for FI-B

Create VLANS:
  • LAN TAB -> Lan -> Lan Cloud -> VLANs
    • Create new VLANs
    • Provide name and ID
Create vNICs templates:
  • LAB TAB -> LAN -> Policies -> root -> Sub-organization -> vNIC templates
    • Create vNIC template (this is again done for each FI-A and FI-B
Create VHBAs templates:

  • SAN TAB -> Policies -> root -> sub-organizations -> vHBA templates
    • Create vHBA Templates for both FI-A & FI-B

Create a Service Profile Templates:
Servers tab -> Servers -> Service Profiles -> root -> Sub-organizations
  • Create service profile template
Under networking select expert.
Click Add
Select Use vNIC template
Storage, select Local storage SD card policy
Select WWNN assignment policy
Select Expert connectivity
Create vHBA
Next zoning, leave defaults since we using Brocades
Set PCI ORDER
Select vMedia to use, default
Server boot order, select boot policy create for SDCard

Select Maintenance policy create earlier
Select server assignment
Operational Policies
Set Bios policy
Deploy service profile from template
Servers tab -> Service profile template -> root -> sub-organizations
Right click server profile template and select “create service profiles from template”
Select naming prefix
Configure call home:
Admin tab -> Communication Management -> call home
Turn on and fill in the requirements
In profiles tab add “callhome@cisco.com” to Profile CiscoTAC-1
Under call home policies add the following to provide a good baseline
Configure NTP:
Admin tab -> Time zone management
Add NPT servers
Backup configuration:
Admin tab -> ALL -> Backup configuration on right hand side pane
Select “create backup operations
Admin state = enables

Select location = local file system



For setting policies i created another blog:

Cisco UCS – configure policies

Set Policies:
Network control policies (enable CDP)
  • LAB tab -> Policies -> root -> sub-organizations -> network control policies
    • Create network control policy
    • Enable CDP
Bios Policy:
  • Servers tab -> Policies -> root -> sub-organizations -> Bios Policies
  • Create bios policies
    • Mostly setting cpu settings
Host Firmware:
  • Servers tab -> Policies -> root -> sub-organizations -> Host Firmware Packages
  • Create host firmware package
    • Set simple and only blade package version.
Local disk configuration:
  • Servers tab -> Policies -> root -> sub-organizations -> Local disk config policies
    • Create local disk configuration policy
      • This is to setup SD card
        • Disable protect configuration
        • Enable flexflash state
        • Enable flexflash RAID reporting state
      • For SAN boot
        • Set mode to No local storage
Maintenance policy:
  • Servers tab -> Policies -> root -> sub-organizations -> maintenance policies
    • Create Maintenance Policy
Boot policy:

  • Servers tab -> Policies -> root -> sub-organizations -> boot policies
    • Create boot policy
      • Expand local devices and add to boot order
        • Start with Local CD, then remote virtual drive then SD card

Cisco UCS error: will_boot_fault sensor failure asserted

After replacing a faulty UCS blade the following error presented itself after inserting the new blade into chassis:  will_boot_fault sensor failure asserted
Troubleshooting:
Ran the following –
Tried to run the board controller activation
# scope server
# scope boardcontroller
# show version
Showed version 13 (2.2.3d)
# show image
Did not display version 13 but latest was version 8 (2.2.1d)
# activate firmware .0 force
# commit-buffer
Received an error message that commit cannot proceed.
Solution:
The problem turned out to be the new blade had a newer version of firmware installed that what I had loaded in UCS manager. 
To fix this upload the latest firmware version ( in our case 2.2.3d).
Verify the new version is available by running show image under scope for chassis/server/boardcontroller.

  • Run the same process as listed above