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Server Architecture and Connectivity
Overview of Service Profiles
Service profiles are the central concept of Cisco UCS. Each service profile serves a specific purpose: ensuring
that the associated server hardware has the configuration required to support the applications it will host.
The service profile maintains configuration information about the server hardware, interfaces, fabric
connectivity, and server and network identity. This information is stored in a format that you can manage
through Cisco UCS Manager. All service profiles are centrally managed and stored in a database on the fabric
interconnect.
Every server must be associated with a service profile.
At any given time, each server can be associated with only one service profile. Similarly, each service
profile can be associated with only one server at a time.
Important
After you associate a service profile with a server, the server is ready to have an operating system and
applications installed, and you can use the service profile to review the configuration of the server. If the
server associated with a service profile fails, the service profile does not automatically fail over to another
server.
When a service profile is disassociated from a server, the identity and connectivity information for the server
is reset to factory defaults.
Network Connectivity through Service Profiles
Each service profile specifies the LAN and SAN network connections for the server through the Cisco UCS
infrastructure and out to the external network. You do not need to manually configure the network connections
for Cisco UCS servers and other components. All network configuration is performed through the service
profile.
When you associate a service profile with a server, the Cisco UCS internal fabric is configured with the
information in the service profile. If the profile was previously associated with a different server, the network
infrastructure reconfigures to support identical network connectivity to the new server.
Configuration through Service Profiles
A service profile can take advantage of resource pools and policies to handle server and connectivity
configuration.
Hardware Components Configured by Service Profiles
When a service profile is associated with a server, the following components are configured according to the
data in the profile:
• Server, including BIOS and CIMC
• Adapters
• Fabric interconnects
Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide, Release 2.0
12 OL-25712-04
Server Architecture and Connectivity