Quick note to remind you and highlight the key new features of the awesome 1.4 release. Congrats to Cisco’s engineering team for getting this out!
The features this software release unlocks, and they are all awesome!
Update: the docs are released, the code is on its way… I’ll update this post and my twitter feed when it’s all live! It’s important the docs are released first so get reading and by the time you’re done, the code will be available 
New Software Features in Release 1.4(1)
This release adds support for:
•
Chassis and multi-chassis power capping for UCS B-Series < METER YOUR POWER DISTRIBUTION ACROSS 20 CHASSIS FROM ONE SCREEN!
–Power capping has been extended to cover chassis and groups of chassis and includes a policy based workflow using service profiles for setting it up.
•Software packaging with server bundles < FIRMWARE MANAGEMENT JUST STEPPED UP A GEAR, AWESOME!
–Support for server and adapter hardware can now be delivered independent of support for the infrastructure components. This allows customers to add support for new server types without having to upgrade their Fabric Interconnect or UCS Manager software.
Scalability
–UCS instances now scale to up to 20 UCS 5108 chassis < THAT’S 160 BLADES WITH ONE UNIFIED FABRIC AND CONTROL POINT
Ethernet and Fibre Channel
•FabricSync < HIGH AVAILABILITY BUILT INTO THE UNIFIED FABRIC
–The UCS 6100 synchronizes their mac-addresses between them. It works along with FabricFailover feature to provide faster VNIC fail over for Bare metal and brings HA to Hyper-V virtual switch networks. It is always turned on.
•PVLAN support < SECURITY BUILT INTO THE UNIFIED FABRIC
–Layer 2 traffic segmentation within a subnet can now be achieved using PVLAN Isolated access in the UCSM. This allows customer to achieve vNIC level isolation which translates to VM level isolation using Cisco Virtual interface card in pass though mode.
•SPAN support on UCS 6100 < VISIBILITY IN TO THE UNIFIED FABRIC
–SPAN provides granular visibility in to the Ethernet and FibreChannel flows within UCSM for monitoring and troubleshooting
•Higher VLAN scalability (>1000) < SCALABILITY OF THE UNIFIED FABRIC
–Increased VLAN scalability from 512 in 1.3(1) to 1024 in 1.4(1)
•Direct connect Appliance < SIMPLICITY OF ADDING IP STORAGE
–Specialized IP Appliances such NAS filers and ISCSI storage can be connected directly to the UCS 6100 in End Host mode. This allows reduction in number of hops and latency for communication between server and IP storage.
•FC Trunking and port channel (in NPV mode) < INCREASE UTILIZATION OF FC JUST LIKE YOU CAN ETHERNET
–Allows trunking of multiple VSANs using a single FC link and FibreChannel link consolidation when using VSANs,
•Limited Direct Connect FC Storage < ADD STORAGE SCALABILITY WITHOUT INCREASING SAN COMPLEXITY
–FibreChannel storage can now be directly connected to the UCS 6100 with default zone policy (No zone configuration allowed in the 6100 but can be inherited from an upstream MDS switch).
Security
•KVM security enhancements < SECURITY IN OPERATIONS
–Multi-user KVM access has new controls that allow the first user to allow/deny or control the permissions of subsequent sessions.
•AAA – Active Directory group support < GRANULAR RBAC
–Groups defined in active directory can now be mapped into roles within UCS Manager.
•AAA – Multi-authentication support < FLEXIBLE RBAC
–UCS Manager now supports concurrent authentication using different authentication schemes such as Active Directory, TACACS+ or RADIUS. Concurrent authentication with multiple instances of the same scheme, such as multiple Active Directory domains, is also supported.
Monitoring
•SNMP GET support for all UCS components < EASIER INTEGRATION
–SNMP support has been extended to provide query (GET) support for all UCS components. The new MIB files can be accessed athttp://www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/netmgmt/cmtk/mibs.shtml. Select UCS Manager under ‘Unified Computing’.
•UCS 6100 licensing enforcement/warnings < EASIER COMPLIANCE
–A new GUI based workflow for licensing management is available and licenses are enforced with warning messages.
•Syslog message classification enhancements < EASIER SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
–New UCS labels allow easier filtering of syslog messages.
Stateless Computing
•Scheduling of service profile changes < OPERATIONAL FLEXIBILITY
–Through the use of maintenance policies, service profile deployments can be scheduled for a later time. In addition, the number of concurrent profiles that are being applied and the total number of profiles applied during a particular time window can be controlled.
•Impact analysis of configuration changes < HELPS CHANGE MANAGEMENT
–A simple “pre-flight check” compatibility check allows customers to recognize potential compatibility issues before applying a service profile to a particular server.
•CIMC IP address abstraction < MULTI-TENANCY AND OTHER USES
–In addition to the CIMC IP address for the CIMC on the server an optional management IP is available with the service profile that can move with the service profile when it is moved to a new server.
Usability
•User labels for managed objects < MAP SERVICE PROFILES TO WORKLOADS WITH SIMPLE LABELS
–Service profiles, servers and chassis have custom user labels that can be applied. These user labels can be displayed, sorted and filtered through the UCS Manager GUI.
•Direct upload of firmware image files from UCSM client < THIS IS ALL MY CHRISTMAS’S ROLLED INTO ONE! THANK YOU ENGINEERING!
–The need for setting up SCP/SFTP for image file uploads is now optional since a direct upload from the laptop or other UCS Manager client to UCS Manager is now possible.
New Hardware Features in Release 1.4(1)
This release adds support for:
•UCS B230 server blade
–UCS Manager now supports the newest blade in the UCS B Series, the UCS B230 which is a 2 socket, 32 DIMM slot half width server with two optional SSDs.
•UCS Manager support for UCS C-Series
–The UCS C200, C210 and C250 servers can now be managed directly from UCS Manager. Integration details are available in the C-series server installation guides. Please contact your Cisco representative for additional information on connectivity and compatibility requirements.
•Fabric Extender Transceiver (FET-10G) between the fabric interconnect and fabric extender.
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