Which options are valid port types when configuring fixed 10-Gb LAN interfaces on the Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects?

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What You Will Learn

In Cisco Unified Computing System ™ (Cisco UCS ™) environments, two Ethernet switching modes determine the way that the fabric interconnects behave as switching devices between the servers and the network. In end-host mode, the fabric interconnects appear to the upstream devices as end hosts with multiple links. In end-host mode, the switch does not run Spanning Tree Protocol and avoids loops by following a set of rules for traffic forwarding. In switch mode, the switch runs Spanning Tree Protocol to avoid loops, and broadcast and multicast packets are handled in the traditional way. This document describes these two switching modes and discusses how and when to implement each mode.

Cisco UCS Architectural Overview

A fully redundant Cisco Unified Computing System consists of two independent fabric planes: Fabric A and Fabric B. Each plane consists of a central fabric interconnect (Cisco UCS 6100 or 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects) connected to an I/O module (fabric extender) in each blade chassis. The two fabric interconnects are completely independent from the perspective of the data plane; Cisco UCS can function with a single fabric interconnect if the other fabric is offline or not provisioned (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Cisco UCS Components (Logical)

Blade Server

All network endpoints, such as host bus adapters (HBAs), and management entities such as Cisco Integrated Management Controllers (IMCs; formerly referred to as baseboard management controllers, or BMCs), are dual-connected to both fabric planes and thus can work in an active-active configuration.

Virtual port channels (vPCs) are not supported on the fabric interconnects, although the upstream LAN switches to which they connect can be vPC or virtual switching system (VSS) peers.

Cisco UCS 6100 and 6200 Series Fabric Interconnect Switching Modes

As shown in Figure 1, Cisco UCS supports connectivity to Ethernet LANs and Fibre Channel SANs to enable network and storage I/O from servers. The external interface operating modes to the LAN and the SAN balance the goals of administrative simplicity and utility in common deployment scenarios. The two operating modes supported on the fabric interconnect for Ethernet are:

• Ethernet end-host mode, sometimes referred to as Ethernet host virtualizer

• Traditional Ethernet switch mode

Note: This document does not discuss the operating mode available on the Fibre Channel ports.

For Ethernet, end-host mode is the default mode of operation. A change in the operating mode requires a fabric interconnect reboot to effect the change (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Setting the Switching Mode

Ethernet ports on the fabric interconnects are unconfigured by default. The ports can be configured to be:

• Uplink ports

• Server ports

• Appliance ports

• Monitor ports

A port must be explicitly defined as a specific type, and this type defines the port behavior. For example, discovery of components such as fabric extenders or blades is performed only on server ports. Similarly, uplink ports are automatically configured as IEEE 802.1Q trunks for all VLANs defined on the fabric interconnect.

see – http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/unified-computing/whitepaper_c11-701962.html

So for above ABC is right