UCS Manager is embedded device-management software that manages the entire UCS system as a single logical entity through an intuitive GUI, a command-line interface (CLI), or an XML API. UCS Manager provides centralized management capabilities, creates a unified management domain, and serves as the central nervous system of the Cisco Unified Computing System. UCS Manager resides on a pair of Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects using a clustered, active-standby configuration for high availability. The UCS manager automatically internally communicates with its subsidiary functions found in the fabric extenders, chassis, servers, and adapters. UCS Manager implements policy-based management of the server and network resources in which network, storage, and server administrators all participate in creating policies in their domains.
Tasks performed by UCS manager
Tasks that the UCS manager perform are:
a) Device discovery: The UCS manager automatically discovers all the components available on the system even recognizing any resource as soon as it is plugged into the Unified Computing System, and tracks which components are assigned to specific applications.
b) Configuration and management: The UCS manager provides an intuitive GUI for configuration and management of the entire UCS system including the firmware management. Much of the smaller tasks required to be performed in the UCS system are either automatically configured or pre-defined in the UCS manager.
c) Server provisioning: The UCS manager automates the task of server provisioning. Selecting a server from a pool of available servers; loading the appropriate software (operating system, device drivers, middleware, and applications); appropriately customizing and configuring the system, software to create or change a boot image for this server, and change its parameters (e.g. IP address); all can be done from the UCS manager.
d) Diagnostic and monitoring: The UCS manager monitors for any kind of fault in the UCS system which can be checked by logging via the GUI or CLI.
e) Auditing and statistics collection: The UCS manager keeps logs of operations performed on the device as well as other details of faults arising in the UCS system.
Tasks not performed by UCS manager
Tasks that the UCS manager does not perform are:
a) It does not manage non-UCS hardware: Any kind of hardware that is not a part of UCS system is not configured or managed using the UCS manager. For example it does not create RAID LUN's, it does not create VSANs on switches outside the UCS (like MDS switches) and it does not create VLANs on switches outside UCS (like catalyst switches).
b) It does not manage non-UCS software: Any kind of software that is not a part of UCS system can’t be managed or applied using the UCS manager. For example it does not patches clients OS (like Linux and Windows), it does not patch or restart the applications (like Oracle) running on the OS and it does not do any kind of provisioning for Windows.
c) It does not troubleshoot specific components: The UCS manager does not have component specific troubleshooting capabilities. Therefore the UCS manager does not diagnose errors, does not attempts to fix the problem and does not suggests workarounds.
