Course Description

This is a 3-day instructor-led course. In this Cisco Intersight training course, you will become experienced with the administration of Cisco servers including using Cisco Intersight and other tools for management. This course covers architecture, configuration and operation of Cisco Intersight, and is designed to serve the needs of engineers seeking to understand the capabilities of Cisco Intersight for managing data centers from a single management platform.

Duration: 3 Days

Learning Objectives

• Describe Cisco UCS Fundamentals
• Understand Cisco Intersight Characteristics
• Explain Cisco Intersight Domain Profile deployment
• Describe chassis profile deployment
• Describe Cisco Intersight Server Profile Deployment
• Understand Cisco Intersight Server OS Installation
• Describe the Cisco Intersight Private Virtual Appliance
• Describe Cisco Intersight Platform Firmware Operation
• Describe the Cisco Intersight API
• Explain IMM Transition Tool

Prerequisites

• Data Center experience
• Operating systems and virtualization experience
• Understanding of server system design and architecture
• Basic knowledge of servers and storage
• Familiarity with Cisco UCS and Hyperflex
• Familiarity with Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS®), networking and storage concepts

Who Should Attend

• Data Center Architects
• Cloud Infrastructure Architects
• Network Engineers
• System Administrators
• Storage Administrators

Course Content

Section 1: Describing Cisco UCS Management in Cisco Intersight

Topic 1: Describe Cisco UCS Fundamentals

• Describe Cisco UCS Server Hardware
• Describe Cisco UCS Connectivity
• Describe Cisco Intersight
• Configure Cisco UCS Domain and Server Profiles

Topic 2: Describe Cisco Intersight Characteristics

• Describe Cisco Intersight Architecture
• Describe Flexible Deployment Modes
• Describe Cisco Intersight Licensing
• Describe Licensed Features
• Describe Cisco Intersight Security
• Describe Cisco Intersight Authentication Options
• Describe Cisco Intersight Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and organizations / resource groups
• Describe Connected TAC
• Describe Advisories
• Describe Tagging
• Describe Dashboard, Inventory and Faults
• Describe Cisco Intersight Custom Dashboards
• Describe Firmware Management
• Describe Intersight-Managed OS Installation
• Describe Cisco Intersight Managed Mode (IMM)
• Describe Context Launch and KVM, tunneled KVM
• Describe SNMP Support
• Describe Intersight Syslog Policies

Discovery Lab: Configuring Cisco Intersight [Lab Name: Cisco Intersight Technical Overview]

• Navigate the Cisco Intersight User Interface
• Configure Organizations with Role Based Access Control
• Configuring Server Operations

Topic 3: Describe Cisco Intersight Domain Profile Deployment

• Describe Cisco UCS FI Port Policy Configuration
• Describe Domain policies
• Describe VLAN and VSAN policies
• Describe disjoint L2 configuration
• Describe Ethernet Switching Modes
• Describe Fibre Channel Switching Modes
• Describe clone domain profiles

Topic 4: Describe Chassis Profile Deployment

• Describe Chassis power policy
• Describe Access policy
• Describe SNMP policy
• Describe Thermal policy

Discovery Lab: Configure the Cisco UCS X-Server in Cisco Intersight Managed Mode [Lab Name: Cisco UCS X-Series Overview]

• Verify Configuration of The Fabric Interconnect For IMM     
• Configure A Cisco UCS Domain Profile
• Verify Discovered Chassis

Topic 5: Describe Cisco Intersight Server Profile Deployment

• Describe Server Profiles
• Describe Cisco UCS Pools and Policies
• Describe Cisco UCS Server Profile Templates
• Describe Importation of Cisco UCS Server Profile
• Describe Cloning Cisco UCS Server Profiles
• Describe Unassign Cisco UCS Server Profile
• Describe status server profile

Discovery Lab: Configuring Cisco Intersight Cisco UCS Server Profile Lab [Lab Name: Deploying Cisco UCS Servers with Cisco Intersight Server Profiles]

• Create Pools and Policies
• Create Server Profile
• Assign Server Profile to a Server
• Make a change in 1 policy to trigger drift detection

Topic 6: Describe Cisco Intersight Server OS Installation

• Describe Cisco Intersight OS Installation
• Describe Cisco Intersight Initiated Operating System Installation
• Describe OS Install Requirements
• Describe adding an Operating System Image
• Adding a Server Configuration Utility
• Install Using Cisco Source
• Perform a Custom Installation
• Perform an embedded Installation
• Describe Advanced Topics
• Describe Additional Cisco Intersight OS Installation Options
• Describe Password Encryption

Discovery Lab: Configure an Cisco Intersight-Initiated Server OS installation [Lab Name: Automated  Server OS Installation with Cisco Intersight]

• Adding an Operating System Image
• Adding a Server Configuration Utility
• Configuring the Operating System
• Target Selection

Topic 7: Describe the Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance

• Describe the Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance Concept
• Describe System Requirements
• Describe Cisco Intersight Appliance Licensing
• Describe Appliance Setup
• Describe Initial Setup Wizard
• Describe Cisco Intersight Connected Virtual Appliance (CVA)
• Describe Cisco Intersight Private Virtual Appliance (PVA)
• Describe Claim Target – Connected / Private Virtual Appliance
• Describe Backup/Recover
• Describe Cisco Intersight Feature Matrix

Section 2: Describing the Cisco UCS Platform

Topic 1: Describe Cisco UCS X-Series

• Describe Data Center Trends
• Describe UCS X Series Architecture
• Describe UCS X-Series Hardware
• Describe UCS X-Series Deployment
• Describe UCS X-Series X-fabric
• Describe UCS X-Series PCIe node and associated options
• Describe Storage Connectivity

Topic 2: Describe Fabric Interconnect

• Describe 6400 FI
• Describe 6500 FI
• Describe supported servers and connectivity with each FI
• Descrive port capabilities for each FI (BW, breakouts, server/uplinks)
• Describe FI limits
• Describe device console

Topic 3: Describe Cisco UCS C-Series M6/M7 Servers

• Describe Recent Intel Innovations
• Describe Cisco UCS C220, C240, M6/M7
• Describe Recent AMD Innovations
• Describe Cisco UCS C225/C245 M6/M7
• Describe the Power of Intersight
• Describe Cisco Network Adapters and GPU’s for M6/M7 Rack Servers
• Describe Intersight Management for M6/M7 Standalone Rack Servers

Topic 4: Describe Cisco Intersight Platform Firmware Operation

• Describe Cisco Intersight Platform Firmware Operations Overview
• Describe Cisco Intersight Firmware Bundles
• Describe Cisco Stand-Alone Firmware management
• UCS Managed Infrastructure Firmware management
• Describe UCS Intersight Managed Mode Firmware management
• Describe Hardware compatibility list

Discovery Lab: Configure Cisco UCS Firmware Update [Lab Name: Cisco UCS Server Firmware]

• Determine Current Firmware Version
• Initiate Firmware Upgrade Wizard
• Determine Server and Version
• Explore Firmware Upgrade

Topic 5: Describe Cisco UCS Converged Infrastructure

• Describe Converged Infrastructure
• Describe Cisco Validated Designs
• Describe Cisco Intersight Integration
• Describe Cisco Intersight Orchestration
• Describe Cisco UCS X-Series with FlexPod
• Describe Cisco UCS X-Series with FlashStack

Section 3: Describing Cisco Intersight Workloads

Topic 1: Describe Cisco Intersight Virtual Services

• Describe Cisco Intersight Virtualization Service (IVS)
• Describe IVS On-Prem Virtual Environment
• Describe Cisco Intersight Hybrid Cloud VM Workloads
• Describe IWE using IVS in the Cisco Intersight Ecosystem
• Describe VMWare Features
• Describe AWS features
• Describe Claiming
• Describe Uses Cases

Topic 2: Describe IWO - Cisco Intersight Workload Optimizer

• Introduction and Overview
• Describe Getting Started With IWO
• Navigate the IWO User Interface
• Describe Settings and User Access
• Describe Targets and Cisco Integrations
• Describe Day-to-Day Optimization
• Describe Policies and Automation
• Describe IWO Plans: Looking into the Future

Section 4: Describing Automation Options using Cisco Intersight

Topic 1: Describe Cisco Intersight Cloud Orchestration

• Describe Tasks
• Describe Rollback Tasks
• Describe Task Designer
• Describe Data Types
• Describe Custom Data Types (CDTs)
• Describe Workflows
• Describe Workflow Designer
• Describe Validation and Execution of a Workflow
• Describe the Use of Task Outputs as Inputs for other Tasks
• Describe Conditional Tasks
• Describe Workflow Versions
• Describe Transformations

Discovery Lab: ICO Cisco Intersight Cloud Orchestration Lab [Lab Name: Intersight Cloud Orchestrator Lab]

• Configure an ICO Workflow
• Configure an ICO Task
• Execute an ICO Workflow

Topic 2: Describe the Terraform Provider Registry

• Describe Terraform Basics
• Describe Providers
• Describe Terraform Intersight Integration

Discovery Lab: Terraform Provider Registry [Lab Name: Cisco Intersight Terraform Provider Lab]

• Install Terraform
• Configure Authentication
• Configure Policies
• Plan the resource deployment
• Apply the resource deployment
• Execute a Rollback

Topic 3: Describing IST - Cisco Intersight Service for (HashiCorp) Terraform – IST

• Describe Cisco Intersight Integration with HashiCorp Terraform Cloud
• Describe IaC with Terraform
• Describe IST Setup
• Describe Deploy an Intersight Assist
• Describe Adding a Terraform Cloud Target to Cisco Intersight
• Describe Deployment of Terraform Cloud Agents to Cisco Intersight Assist
• Describe Using IST & TFCB

Topic 4: Describe the Cisco Intersight API

• Describe the Cisco Intersight API
• Describe the Cisco Intersight REST API with Postman
• Describe Cisco Intersight Integrations: ServiceNow
• Describe TerraForm integration with Intersight
• Describe Ansible integration with Intersight

Discovery Lab: Configure Cisco Intersight with the Cisco Intersight API [Lab Name: Cisco Intersight API]

• Configure API with REST API
• Configure API with Python
• Configure API with Ansible

Topic 5: Describe IMM Transition Tool

• Describe tool capabilities and limitations
• Describe tool roadmap
• Describe report creation
• Describe transition to Intersight from UCS Central