Configuring Cisco Data Center Virtual Machine Fabric Extender technology

This topic contains information about configuring Cisco Data Center Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology for use with BMC Network Automation and BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management.

For additional information on Cisco VM-FEX technology, see http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1124/index.html.

Configuring the Cisco VM-FEX

The following components need to be integrated to ensure that the Cisco VM-FEX works properly with BMC Network Automation and BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management:

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Manager
Cisco VM-FEX DVS
- This DVS is created by the UCS and can only be managed by the UCS.
- Created during the integration of the UCS chassis and vCenter.
- Shared by the containers of the pod
VMWare

You can refer to the following videos by a third-party expert on Cisco products for more information about configuring Cisco VM-FEX:

Introduction to Cisco VM-FEX

Configuring Cisco VM-FEX emulated mode

Configuring Cisco VM-FEX VMDirectPath mode

For information about integrating the Cisco UCS Manager, Cisco VM-FEX, and VMWare, you can refer to the following Cisco documents:

Adding the devices in BMC Network Automation

You must add devices in BMC Network Automation for the Cisco UCS and the Cisco VM-FEX, using the procedure to add a device in the BMC Network Automation documentation. When you perform the procedure, you must configure the following values in the Device Type field for each device:

Cisco UCS: Select Cisco 6120 and 6140 Fabric Interconnects
Cisco VM-FEX: Select VMWare vSwitch

Configuring Pod and Container Management elements

The following sections provide example configurations for the BMC Network Automation Pod and Container Management (PCM) elements that need to be configured to support the management of the Cisco VM-FEX.

Example pod blueprint for configuring a VM-FEX DVS node

The VM-FEX DVS node is defined in the pod blueprint the same way as any other podHypervisorSwitchBlueprint node.

Example pod blueprint for Cisco VM-FEX DVS node

<nodeBlueprint xsi:type="podHypervisorSwitchBlueprint" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <balancedParamBlueprints/>
   <category>2</category>
   <defaultShareableFlag>false</defaultShareableFlag>
   <name>VMFEX-DVS</name>
   <optionalFlag>false</optionalFlag>
   <paramBlueprints/>
   <physicalAccessFlag>false</physicalAccessFlag>
   <role>VMFEX-DVS</role>
   <defaultMaxPortTypes>256</defaultMaxPortTypes>
   <defaultMaxPorts>2048</defaultMaxPorts>
   <portTypeBlueprints>
       <portTypeBlueprint>
           <legacyFlag>false</legacyFlag>
           <managementFlag>true</managementFlag>
           <name>VMFex-CLMMgmt3</name>
           <networkName>VM Management Network</networkName>
           <vlanName>VM Management VLAN</vlanName>
       </portTypeBlueprint>
   </portTypeBlueprints>
</nodeBlueprint>

Example network container blueprint for configuring a VM-FEX DVS node

The VM-FEX DVS node is defined in the network container blueprint the same way as any other containerHypervisorSwitchBlueprint node. The only real differences are the empty configureActionInfoBlueprints and unconfigureActionInfoBlueprints tags, since BMC Network Automation does not configure this device directly. The VM-FEX DVS is configured through the Cisco UCS.

Example network container blueprint for Cisco VM-FEX DVS node

<nodeBlueprint xsi:type="containerHypervisorSwitchBlueprint" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <addressBlueprints/>
   <category>2</category>
   <configureActionInfoBlueprints/>
   <name>VMFEX-DVS</name>
   <numVrfs>0</numVrfs>
   <physicalAccessFlag>false</physicalAccessFlag>
   <role>VMFEX-DVS</role>
   <unconfigureActionInfoBlueprints/>
   <portTypeBlueprints>
       <portTypeBlueprint>
           <legacyFlag>false</legacyFlag>
           <managementFlag>false</managementFlag>
           <name>CustomerPortType1</name>
           <networkName>Customer Network 1</networkName>
           <vlanName>C_VLAN1</vlanName>
       </portTypeBlueprint>
   </portTypeBlueprints>
</nodeBlueprint>

Example pod blueprint for configuring a UCS node

The UCS is defined in the pod blueprint in the same way as any other vanilla node:

Example pod node blueprint for UCS_DVS

<nodeBlueprint>
   <balancedParamBlueprints/>
   <category>2</category>
   <defaultShareableFlag>true</defaultShareableFlag>
   <name>UCS</name>
   <optionalFlag>false</optionalFlag>
   <paramBlueprints/>
   <physicalAccessFlag>false</physicalAccessFlag>
   <role>UCS</role>
</nodeBlueprint>

Example network container blueprint for configuring a UCS node

The UCS is defined in the network container blueprint in the same way as any other vanilla node:

Example network container node blueprint for UCS_DVS

<nodeBlueprint>
   <addressBlueprints/>
   <category>2</category>
   <configureActionInfoBlueprints>
       <configureActionInfoBlueprint xsi:type="mergeActionInfoBlueprint" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
           <description>Merge Action Info</description>
           <templateGroups>
               <item>VM-FEX-ConfigureUCSM</item>
           </templateGroups>
       </configureActionInfoBlueprint>
   </configureActionInfoBlueprints>
   <name>UCS</name>
   <numVrfs>1</numVrfs>
   <physicalAccessFlag>false</physicalAccessFlag>
   <role>UCS</role>
   <unconfigureActionInfoBlueprints>
       <unconfigureActionInfoBlueprint xsi:type="mergeActionInfoBlueprint" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
           <description>Merge Action Info</description>
           <templateGroups>
               <item>VM-FEX-UnconfigureUCSM</item>
           </templateGroups>
       </unconfigureActionInfoBlueprint>
   </unconfigureActionInfoBlueprints>
</nodeBlueprint>

Example configuration for pod parameters

The following pod parameters needs to be defined properly to support the management of Cisco VM-FEX in BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management and BMC Network Automation:

UCS_DVS: actual name of the VM-FEX DVS in vCenter.
DataCenterFolder: vCenter data center folder where the UCS_DVS is found.
DataCenter: vCenter data center where the DataCenterFolder is found.

The pod parameters are used in the UCS templates to configure container level port-profiles. In the following example, the pod parameters are in bold font:

scope system
scope vm-mgmt
scope vmware
scope profile-set
create port-profile ${container.nodes[DVS].portTypes[CustomerPortType1].name}
create vlan ${container.vlans[C_VLAN1]}
exit
set descr "Container ${container.name} Port Profile"
set host-nwio-perf High-Performance
set max-ports 100
commit-buffer
!
! Create port profile client
!
create client PortTypeClient
set descr "Container ${container.name} Port Profile Client"
set data-center ${pod.params[DataCenter]}
set folder ${pod.params[DataCenterFolder]}
set dvs ${pod.params[UCS_DVS]}
commit-buffer</contents>{code}