Cisco UCS B420 M3 Blade Server

Designed for enterprise performance and scalability, the Cisco UCS B420 M3 Blade Server combines the advantages of 4-socket computing with the cost-effective Intel® Xeon® processor E5-4600 and E5-4600 v2 product family, for demanding virtualization and database workloads. With its industry-leading compute density, I/O bandwidth, and memory footprint, the Cisco UCS B420 M3 is a balanced high-performance platform that complements the Cisco UCS 4-socket blade server portfolio.
The Cisco UCS B420 M3 is a full-width blade (Figure 1). Up to four of these high-density, 4-socket blade servers can reside in the six-rack-unit (6RU) Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis. In addition, the Cisco UCS B420 M3 is part of the Cisco Unified Computing System, which combines blade and rack servers with networking and storage access in a single unified system. Centrally configured through unified, model-based management, Cisco UCS simplifies and accelerates deployment of enterprise-class applications running in bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud-computing environments.

Cisco VIC 1240 and 1280 Technology

The Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card (VIC) 1240 is a 4-port 10-Gbps Ethernet or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)-capable mLOM designed exclusively for the M3 generation of Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers. When used in combination with an optional port expander, the Cisco UCS VIC 1240 can be expanded to up to eight 10-Gbps ports. The Cisco UCS VIC 1280 is an 8-port 10-Gbps Ethernet or FCoE adapter that further expands Cisco UCS B420 M3 Blade Server bandwidth to 160 Gbps. The Cisco UCS VIC 1240 and 1280 enable a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present up to 256 PCI Express (PCIe) standards-compliant interfaces to the host, which can be dynamically configured as either network interface cards (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs). In addition, the Cisco UCS VIC 1240 and 1280 support Cisco® Data Center Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology, which extends the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect ports to virtual machines, simplifying server virtualization deployment.

Applications

The Cisco UCS B420 M3 Blade Server continues Cisco's commitment to delivering uniquely differentiated value, fabric integration, and ease of management that is exceptional in the marketplace for enterprise-class applications:

• Virtual server workloads
• Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
• Database
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM)
• Large memory and consolidation workloads

Cisco UCS Servers Change the Economics of the Data Center

Cisco continues to lead in data center innovation with the introduction of new building blocks such as the Cisco UCS B420 M3 Blade Server for the Cisco UCS, which combines consolidated management, stateless computing, and a unified fabric for both blade and rack servers (Figure 2). The Cisco UCS B420 M3 continues Cisco's commitment to reducing data center costs and improving operation efficiency and agility through a unified programmable system, policy-based automation, and integration with data center orchestration tools. For example, Cisco innovations, such as the form-factor-agnostic Cisco UCS Manager software, allow administrators to create a software model of a desired server (using Cisco service profiles and templates) and then instantiate that server and its I/O connectivity by associating a model with physical resources.

This stateless approach contrasts with the traditional method of configuring each system resource manually, one at a time, through individual element managers. Unlike vendors of traditional systems, Cisco uses a unified management model with service profiles that can be moved easily between any Cisco UCS servers - whether blade server or rack server - in a Cisco UCS Manager domain.
The Cisco UCS B420 M3 is also part of a large family of blade servers: the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers. The Cisco UCS B-Series servers employ many innovative Cisco technologies to help customers handle the most challenging workloads. Cisco UCS B-Series servers operating in a Cisco UCS management framework incorporate:

• A standards-based unified network fabric
• Cisco Data Center VM-FEX virtualization support
• Cisco UCS Manager software
• Cisco fabric extender architecture
• Cisco Extended Memory Technology

Again, Cisco is innovating across all these technologies. These Cisco UCS architectural advantages combine to make Cisco UCS the first truly unified data center platform, transforming IT departments through policy-based automation and deep integration with familiar systems management and orchestration tools.