Fabric Interconnect Port Mode

[djohnson]

During our initial setup of our UCS deployment only two of our four uplinks that connect the Fabric to the Chassis were connected. This was done by a contractor. We now have the other two cables and have them connected but the mode on the ports are set to "Trunk" and not "Fabric" like the rest. The Role was set in the UCS interface but the mode was not so easy. How do I go about changing this to Fabric mode?

[rewilkin]

Dennis,

Have you checked your policy to ensure you are confirmed for 4 links and not just 2?

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[mipetrin]

Hi Dennis,

A couple of things. First, the amount of links set in the discovery policy, only stipulate what is the minimum amount of links from a chassis is required for it to be discovered. So if you have this set to 2 and you now have 4 links, this is fine.

Seeing that you started with 2 links and you have now expanded this to 4 (you have also configured these additional links as server ports within UCSM), you need to re-acknowledge the chassis. This will ensure that the new links are made available for use.

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks,

Michael

[mipetrin]

Sorry, one other thing. Please be aware that a re-acknowledge of the chassis is disruptive.

Further details about the amount of links is available via the following page:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/1.3.1/UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_1_3_1_chapter12.html#concept_40AFE09861FA4D02A9879856A1411FAC

Thanks

[djohnson]

So I selected Equipment > Polices (On Right) > Gobal Polices and now I see Chassis Discovery Poicy set to 2Link. Should this be set to four? On that note we only have 1 more cable per card plugged in not two. So we have a total of 3 cables per card, is it bad to only have three per card? Should i make it completely 4 cables before turning up these links?

Thanks

[mipetrin · Accepted solution]

Hi Dennis,

It does NOT need to be set to 4. As mentioned, the Chassis Discovery Policy determines what is the minimum number of links for a chassis to be discovered/usable. Seeing you have it set to 2, this is fine and you can keep it that way.

The fact that you only have 3 cables connected from the IOM to the Fabric Interconnect, this is not a valid configuration, as only 1, 2, or 4 links are supported. You should increase the cable count to 4 and then re-acknowledge the chassis to activate the additional links.

Let me know.

Thanks,

Michael

[djohnson]

It makes sense now. I figured that was what we would need to do. Thanks a lot for helping me understand.

[mipetrin]

No problems Dennis. Glad to help.

Thanks,

Michael

[djohnson]

Im pretty new to this whole UCS world so can you point me to this policy and ill take a look? This is not a production enviroment btw.