Physical architecture of UCS

Cisco UCS consists of modular components that work together to provide a comprehensive solution that unifies compute, network, and storage technologies. Cisco UCS consists of the following components:

• Fabric Interconnects
• Blade server chassis
• Blade servers
• Rack-mount servers
• IOM modules and Fabric Extenders
• Mezzanine cards for network and storage connectivity
• Unified Computing System Manager

Here is a diagram of the Unified Computing System architecture:

In this chapter, we will go into the details of various UCS components; we'll focus on their physical specifications and installation in the subsequent sections.

The Cisco interactive 3D model for Cisco 5100 series chassis and blades is an excellent resource for exploring Cisco UCS components physically. It is available for iPhone/iPad also (search for UCS tech specs in the market place): http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/ps10265/ps10279/ucs_kaon_model_preso.html.