Customer Reviews

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) (Data Center): A Complete Reference Guide to the Cisco Data Center Virtualization Server Architecture (Networking Technology)

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I just finished with the first Cisco Press book that covers the new UCS architecture. I found it to be a great source for information not only on the UCS but also how we got to this point. Its detailed review of previous data center and server architectures served as a good refresher to my old repressed knowledge. Where this book really shines is in the way it explains technologies that to me seems like buzz/market speak, and providing a clear view of their value. One example of this for me is the VNLink section. I had seen it in numerous PDFs and presentations, but this book finally made me understand the value of it. If you are a consultant like me, you will find this books review of all the elements that make up a UCS solution invaluable as a desk reference. It reviews almost every part number and details out reason to use each one. The book concludes with an excellent review of UCS Manager and the 3^rd party products that it ties into or integrates with and how to plan your first UCS project. The only part I wished was covered in more detail in the book is how UCS and VMWare should be architected together. You will not be disappointed with your purchase of this book.

As a guy who architected UCS's management stack (the UCSM), I can say that there are some small inaccuracies in the way management engine and its functions are described, esp when it comes to org, policy management and AAA. Otherwise, an excellent and exceptionally valuable read.

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), a complete guide to Cisco Data Center Virtualization Server Architecture is a mid to high-level deep dive into Cisco's newest product line and business goals. The best way to describe this book is by reading the second and third paragraphs from the Introduction section of the book where the authors describe that in researching for this book, they were unable to find a wealth of reference knowledge with which to finish the book. As a result, the book is about 50% applicable to any server architecture and 50% specific to UCS. The finished product is a book that covers many areas of server architecture and is a great companion to any server administrator.

Cisco has made it apparent that they wish to enter the data center in a big way, and the UCS platform appears to be that product. The book does a great job talking about the technical aspects of the UCS platform while also delving into the theoretical around why components and processes were integrated in the way they were. They deep dive into the memory expanders and the innovations Cisco has made with more memory per server. They also talk at great lengths about the merging of LAN and SAN. They explain how the converging of LAN and SAN into CNA's or converged network adapters work, and allow for more control over the datacenter and consolidation of a section of data centers that were and still are rapidly growing out of control (wiring/communication infrastructure).

One of the key selling points to UCS is the management suite that governs the whole environment. I was happy to see that the book talked about the management suite and how profiles work. They also discussed how third party software suites could and do integrate with the UCS management system to allow for seamless control of UCS devices and other devices.

Overall I found the book to be a semi-dry read focusing often on technical specifications however, this isn't a bad thing. The technical aspects of server architecture and UCS are critical to seeing their benefits and understanding how to design for and use them. This book is a great read for server administrators and anyone wanting to seriously look at Cisco as a server platform for their virtual infrastructure.

This book accomplishes its goal quite well and is laid out in such a way that it is easy to understand and find the information you need. There are two distinct sections: 1) Infrastructure/Architecture - From the Data Center level down to the hardware. 2) Cisco UCS.

This book is a good read even for those who are not otherwise going to deploy UCS. Why? Well, while the infrastructure/Architecture bits are covered elsewhere in books and on the web, the explanation here puts it together quite well and easy to understand fashion.

Overall I give this book a 5 out of 5 as it does three things quite well:
1) Covers the material it sets out to cover - Cisco UCS & Data Center Architecture.
2) Makes you think - At least, I was thinking from the infrastructure chapters till the end.
3) Makes you look for more - Between Google, [...], blogs and Wikipedia, there is so much supplemental material out there, the book does a good job as being a point at which you can dive into additional material.

All and all a worthwhile read for anyone in server architecture or looking at Cisco UCS.

I have only had this book a few weeks, got it because we are doing a redesign on some infrastructure here and were planning on going the Cisco UCS route. This guide was an excellent reference tool when creating designs to bring to management. It delved into some of the technology in a way that allowed me to explain to the decision makers what it is, how it works, and why we need it. I would highly recommend having this around for anyone who crosses the boundaries between network and servers. But remember, this is only a reference guide, there are some assumptions made about previous experience and knowledge.

From this 2010 book, you can see detailed descriptions of how data centers have evolved in the last 10 years and, more importantly to some readers, upcoming hardware abilities for the next 2 or so years. The latter projections may be the best aspect of the book, as it lets you intelligently plan what should go into your data center. The hardware specs come from key players like Intel, Broadcom, Emulex and Cisco.

Chapter 2 on server architecture is a good quick summary of common hardware in this field. For example, it furnishes ready explanations of memory boards like DDR, DDR2 and DDR3, along with UDIMM and RDIMM.. While the equivalent of UDIMM existed some 15 years ago, the other types have come into being in the interim and reflect the continual [and hopefully continuing] massive increases in chip capacity engendered by Moore's Law.

The book lays out the Intel Westmere hardware. Most impressive in many ways. Including the ability to do in hardware the Advanced Encryption Standard [AES], which far outstrips a software implementation. Plus the hardware AES is presumably safer than an incorrect or subverted software AES.

Also, Westmere has the Trusted Execution Technology, which can prevent insertion of a feral rootkit hypervisor in place of the legitimate hardware Virtual Memory Monitor. Important because the book emphasises in many places the need and use of virtualisation in a data center to improve hardware usage. But the still increasing use of virtualisation can also be expected to lead to attacks against it. Hence Intel's preemptive moves in Westmere are welcome news.

The book cleaves into 2 de facto parts. The first deals with topics like those mentioned above, where Intel is the most significant vendor. While the second part concerns more directly Cisco's UCS. The latter is an integration of the items in the first part with Cisco's custom hardware.

One quibble I do have is the cluttering of the narrative with copyright symbols. Do we really need to see a copyright next to every instance of "Intel"? An improvement would have been to do what is commonly done in other books of this ilk, where the copyrights are factored out into the copyright page and possibly an introductory section.

I had the chance to work in a new data center environment. We bought some UCS so I had to read that book and if I had to say a word about it, it would be : G R E A T !

As I said in the title, many of us are old enough to see how the DC evolved since 2000. There are so many technology and products that are now used. Cisco tried to get into the server market with the UCS and all I can say is that I m glad they did :)

The first chapter gives a "brief" explanation about Data center and their challenge.

Chapter 2 is more based on the UCS architecture:
This will be easier to understand for System admin than pure network engineer :) I loved that part very much because lots of diagram and picture are explaining how the hardware works.

Then after this "light" part, the authors are diving into the technology.

All the technologies that are part of the UCS are very well detailed :
10gig, FCOE, PFC, Virtualization etc etc.

This book also introduce some 10gig controllers made by Intel.

The way the book is written helps you to master the topics. Even for non native english speakers, it is very easy to understand ...

If you are interested in UCS or going to implement into your network, this is definitely the book you need to read from cover to cover !

I read this book as we were testing and evaluating Cisco's UCS Platform for our Data Center needs. This book was a great companion to the process. The first two chapters serve as an in-depth history of computing. This portion of the book is very useful to storage and network engineers who will be working with the UCS platform but do not have an extensive background in servers.

The book goes on to cover the enabling technologies leading up to the development of the UCS platform. Here again we found this information especially informative and helpful during our evaluation process. It aided in the understanding of the underlying UCS technologies and helped us more quickly come up to speed with Cisco's rather dramatic departure from traditional design. To really understand what Cisco has done with UCS one needs to understand each of the technologies that UCS incorporates and brings together.

The book goes on to explain the management interface and the value added with features like role-based administration. It lives up to its title as a complete reference guide by providing detailed information about the specifications of the rack mount and blade servers available in the UCS line.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Cisco's UCS platform or planning on implementing it. The book really does a nice job giving all the background details leading up to the development of UCS as well as a deep technical dive into the new concepts involved with the platform and how they depart from traditional paradigms.