cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
5842
Views
12
Helpful
16
Replies

MSE 8510 Media 2 Blade Cluster and MSE 8000 Chassis Question?

Haydn von Imhof
Level 4
Level 4

Does anyone know what the backplane capacity of the MSE 8000 is?

I am running a MSE8510 cluster with 1 Master Blade and 7 Slave Blades and in another MSE8000 chassis a MSE 8510 Cluster with 1 Master and 4 Slaves.

I am concerned about the backplane capacity of the MSE 8000 Chassis.

16 Replies 16

Martin Koch
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

Hello Haydn.

What you try to do is not supported.

Please take a look at the online documentation:

http(s):///help_clustering.html

Quote:

About clustering

Clusters are configured and managed using the Supervisor. A  cluster is a group of blades on the same MSE chassis linked together to  behave as a single unit that provides the combined port count of all the  blades in the cluster. A  larger port count provides flexibility:  either conferences with  more participants or several smaller  conferences. You can configure two types of cluster:

  • MCU MSE  8510 cluster: MCU MSE 8510 blades  running software version 4.1 or later support clustering.       Currently up to three blades can be clustered, with one blade acting as  a "master" and the other blades being "slaves" to this master. 
    Clustering provides you with the combined port count of the blades in  the cluster. For example, on an MCU MSE 8510 cluster of three blades  each with 20 port licenses, the cluster can have either 30 HD ports or  15 HD+ ports and the master can allocate them to participants in  conferences as necessary. This could be one large conference, or several  smaller conferences. Note that in a cluster of MCU MSE 8510 blades, SD  ports are not available.

    The maximum port counts for clusters comprising three MCU MSE 8510  blades are as follows:

    To configure media ports, on the MCU go to Settings > Media ports.

    • For HD+ mode, the maximum number of port  licenses that a  three-blade cluster can utilize is 240. This will provide you  with a  total of 60 HD+ ports.
    • For HD mode, the maximum number of port licenses  that a  three-blade cluster can utilize is 120. This will provide you with a   total of 60 HD ports.
  • Telepresence Server 8710 cluster: Telepresence Server blades  running software version 2 or later support clustering.   
    Clustering provides you with the combined video port count of the blades  in the cluster. For example, on an MSE 8710 cluster of three blades  each with 16 screen licenses, the cluster has 48 video ports and the  master can allocate them to participants in conferences as necessary.  This could be one large conference, or several smaller conferences.

Some other things:

For now, up to 3 MSE8510 blades or 4 8710 blades can be clustered.

Only the same card type can be combined in the same cluster

You can have multiple clusters / cluster types in the same chassis.

Slot 10 can not be used for clustering

Please rate the answer using the stars below this message.

Please remember to rate helpful responses and identify

I know what the Cisco documents say but they dont help.

Cisco aslo told me I cant run a VCS Control with daul network interface but I have one setup and working.

The clusters have already been setup and have been running fine for a few weeks.

I am using 4.3(1.68) Software release.

I am just concerned that as traffic picks up on the 8 Blade cluster the backplane won’t be able to support the load.

For me the I initial question is answered. A cluster of max 3 8510 blades incl. the master are officially supported.

If you do not like the answer does not change the facts

I strongly can't recommend running the products besides the documented values.

It might look like its is working but you might get strange side effects, new software versions might break it or in case of trouble TAC might not help you.

Please set the thread to answered and rate the messages.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

Please remember to rate helpful responses and identify

luchand
Level 1
Level 1

Haydn von Imhof wrote:

I am running a MSE8510 cluster with 1 Master Blade and 7 Slave Blades and in another MSE8000 chassis a MSE 8510 Cluster with 1 Master and 4 Slaves.

How did you manage to configure it like this? The Supervisor blade should only allow you to configure two slave blades, so I'd be interested to hear how you ended up with seven. The product is not currently designed to work like this; the limits are there for a reason.

Using 4.3(1.68) it seems to work it allows you to configure more than 2 salve blades to a master.

I did not get any errors.

Below is the 4 Blade Custer.

The limits are then not working in 4.3.

In 4.1 and 4.2 on the cluster configuration page of the supervisor you would get an error when trying to add a third slave blade to a master but in 4.3 it allows it.

Maybe a software issue?

Haydn von Imhof wrote:

The limits are then not working in 4.3.

In 4.1 and 4.2 on the cluster configuration page of the supervisor you would get an error when trying to add a third slave blade to a master but in 4.3 it allows it.

Maybe a software issue?

That is correct - there is a bug in 4.3 which allows you to add a third slave, however this is not supported. It may work to some degree, but we would reccomend against using it. The bug ID for this issue is

CSCtz09450, although at the time of writing this isn't yet available in bug toolkit - it should be there in the near future though.

This explains how you get to three slaves, but it still won't allow you to have seven?

So when this bug is fixed will the Cluster limitation be back to 3 or will Cisco support more blades?

Anyway back to my original question...

Does anyone know the backplane capacity of the MSE8000?

The limitation will be back to three blades in an MCU cluster. As for the backplane capacity, currently the maximum supported is to have 8 blades, (slots 2-9) full in any combination up to the maximum cluster size - so 2x 3-blade MCU cluster and 1x2-blade cluster for example.

That’s not nice…why does Cisco not want to support larger clusters?

Another question…

On a cluster, does all the network traffic route through the master blades NIC or is it balance over all the blades NIC’s?

Hi Haydn,

Basically all the licenses are in the Master blade. The licenses once entered into the Master Blade are then distributed to the other blades.

Regards,

Mubashshir Akhtar

Thanks Mubashshir Akhtar

Hi Haydn, yes, the network traffic routes through the master blades NIC.  When troubleshooting, one only needs to grab the pcaps from the master blade.

Darren McKinnon

Cisco TAC

Haydn von Imhof
Level 4
Level 4

Well I did some load testing this morning on the 4 blade cluster and it run great.

Could Cisco not look at supporting 2 x 4 Blade clusters on an MSE 8000?

njovanovic
Level 1
Level 1

Hi All,

I have a similar question regarding the MSE 8000. We have now one Master and one Slave Blade and running 40 720p Port. We would like to upgrade our MCU up to 40 Full HD Ports. On the 8510 Datasheet it is not clear descripted regarding the Full HD Ports per Blade?

Did I understood it correct, that when i need 40 Full HD Ports, i need 3 Blades because one blade supports only 15 Full HD Ports?

I know this Discussion is now 4 years old. Are there any changes regarding the capaticity of slave blades to one Master?

Thanks a lot

Nikola

Getting Started

Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community: