FlexPod Definition
Technical specifications and references
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Technical specifications provide details about the hardware components in a FlexPod solution, such as chassis, FEXs, servers, switches, and storage controllers.
Cisco UCS B-Series blade server chassis
The technical specifications for Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Server chassis, as shown in the table below, include the following components:
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Number of rack units
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Maximum number of blades
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Unified Fabric capability
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Midplane I/O bandwidth per server
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Number of I/O bays for FEXs
| Component | Cisco UCS 5100 Series blade server chassis |
|---|---|
Rack units |
6 |
Maximum full-width blades |
4 |
Maximum half-width blades |
8 |
Capable of Unified Fabric |
Yes |
Midplane I/O |
Up to 80Gbps of I/O bandwidth per server |
I/O bays for FEXs |
Two bays for Cisco UCS 2104XP, 2204/8XP, 2408XP, and 2304 FEXs |
For more information, see the Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis Datasheet.
Cisco UCS B-Series blade servers
The technical specifications for Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers, as shown in the table below, include the following components:
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Number of processor sockets
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Processor support
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Memory capacity
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Size and speed
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SAN boot support
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Number of mezzanine adapter slots
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I/O maximum throughput
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Form factor
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Maximum number of servers per chassis
| Component | Cisco UCS datasheet |
|---|---|
Cisco UCS B200 M6 |
Cisco UCS C-Series rack servers
The technical specifications for the Cisco UCS C-Series rack servers include processor support, maximum memory capacity, the number of PCIe slots, and the size of the form factor. For additional details on compatible UCS server models, see the Cisco Hardware Compatibility list. The following tables illustrate the C-Series Rack Server datasheets and Cisco UCS C-Series chassis option, respectively.
| Component | Cisco UCS datasheet |
|---|---|
Cisco UCS C220 M6 |
|
Cisco UCS C225 M6 |
|
Cisco UCS C240 M6 |
|
Cisco UCS C245 M6 |
Cisco UCS X-Series chassis
The technical specifications for Cisco UCS X-Series chassis, as shown in the table below, include the following components:
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Number of rack units
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Maximum number of nodes
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Unified Fabric capability
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Number of I/O bays for IFMs
| Component | Cisco UCS 9508 X-Series compute node chassis |
|---|---|
Rack units |
7 |
Maximum number of nodes |
8 |
Capable of Unified Fabric |
Yes |
I/O bays for IFMs |
Two bays for Cisco UCS 9108 Intelligent Fabric Modules (IFMs) |
For more information, see the Cisco UCS X9508 X-Series Chassis Datasheet.
Cisco UCS X-Series compute node
The technical specifications for Cisco UCS X-Series compute node, as shown in the following table below, include the following components:
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Number of processor sockets
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Processor support
-
Memory capacity
-
Size and speed
-
SAN boot support
-
Number of mezzanine adapter slots
-
I/O maximum throughput
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Form factor
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Maximum number of compute nodes per chassis
Component |
Cisco UCS datasheet |
Cisco UCS X210c M6 |
GPU recommendation for FlexPod AI, ML, and DL
The Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers listed in the table below can be used in a FlexPod architecture for hosting AI, ML, and DL workloads. The Cisco UCS C480 ML M5 Servers are purpose built for AI, ML, and DL workloads and use NVIDIA’s SXM2- based GPUs while the other servers use PCIe- based GPUs.
The table below also lists the recommended GPUs that can be used with these servers.
| Server | GPUs |
|---|---|
Cisco UCS C220 M6 |
NVIDIA T4 |
Cisco UCS C225 M6 |
NVIDIA T4 |
Cisco UCS C240 M6 |
NVIDIA TESLA A10, A100 |
Cisco UCS C245 M6 |
NVIDIA TESLA A10, A100 |
Cisco UCS VIC adapters for Cisco UCS B-Series blade servers
The technical specifications for Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card (VIC) adapters for Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers include the following components:
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Number of uplink ports
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Performance per port (IOPS)
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Power
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Number of blade ports
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Hardware offload
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Single root input/output virtualization (SR-IOV) support
All currently validated FlexPod architectures use a Cisco UCS VIC. Other adapters are supported if they are listed on the NetApp IMT and are compatible with your deployment of FlexPod, but they might not deliver all the features that are outlined in corresponding reference architectures. The following table illustrates the Cisco UCS VIC adapter datasheets.
| Component | Cisco UCS datasheet |
|---|---|
Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Adapters |
Cisco UCS fabric interconnects
The technical specifications for Cisco UCS fabric interconnects include form factor size, the total number of ports and expansion slots, and throughput capacity. The following table illustrates the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect datasheets.
| Component | Cisco UCS datasheet |
|---|---|
Cisco UCS 6248UP |
|
Cisco UCS 6296UP |
|
Cisco UCS 6324 |
|
Cisco UCS 6300 |
|
Cisco UCS 6454 |
Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches
The technical specifications for Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches, including the form factor size, the total number of ports, and layer- 3 module and daughter card support, are contained in the datasheet for each model family. These datasheets can be found in the following table.
| Component | Cisco Nexus datasheet |
|---|---|
Cisco Nexus 5548UP |
|
Cisco Nexus 5596UP (2U) |
|
Cisco Nexus 56128P |
|
Cisco Nexus 5672UP |
Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switches
The technical specifications for Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches, including the form factor size and the maximum number of ports, are contained in the datasheet for each model family. These datasheets can be found in the following table.
| Component | Cisco Nexus datasheet |
|---|---|
Cisco Nexus 7004 |
|
Cisco Nexus 7009 |
|
Cisco Nexus 7010 |
|
Cisco Nexus 7018 |
|
Cisco Nexus 7702 |
|
Cisco Nexus 7706 |
|
Cisco Nexus 7710 |
|
Cisco Nexus 7718 |
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches
The technical specifications for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches are contained in the datasheet for each model. Specifications include the form factor size; the number of supervisors, fabric module, and line card slots; and the maximum number of ports. These datasheets can be found in the following table.
| Component | Cisco Nexus datasheet |
|---|---|
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series |
|
Cisco Nexus 9500 Series |
|
Cisco Nexus 9300 Series |
|
Cisco Nexus 9336PQ ACI Spine Switch |
|
Cisco Nexus 9200 Series |
Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure controller
When you deploy Cisco ACI, in addition to the items in the section Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches, you must configure three Cisco APICs. The following table lists the Cisco APIC datasheet.
| Component | Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure datasheet |
|---|---|
Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller |
Cisco Nexus fabric extender details
The technical specifications for the Cisco Nexus FEX include speed, the number of fixed ports and links, and form factor size.
The following table lists the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series FEX datasheet.
| Component | Cisco Nexus fabric extender datasheet |
|---|---|
Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders |
SFP modules
For information about the SFP modules, review the following resources:
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For information about the Cisco 10Gb SFP, see Cisco 10 Gigabit Modules.
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For information about the Cisco 25Gb SFP, see Cisco 25 Gigabit Modules.
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For information about the Cisco QSFP module, see the Cisco 40GBASE QSFP Modules datasheet.
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For information about the Cisco 100Gb SFP, see Cisco 100 Gigabit Modules.
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For information about the Cisco FC SFP module, see the Cisco MDS 9000 Family Pluggable Transceivers datasheet.
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For information about all supported Cisco SFP and transceiver modules, see Cisco SFP and SFP+ Transceiver Module Installation Notes and Cisco Transceiver Modules.
NetApp storage controllers
The technical specifications for NetApp storage controllers include the following components:
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Chassis configuration
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Number of rack units
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Amount of memory
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NetApp FlashCache caching
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Aggregate size
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Volume size
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Number of LUNs
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Supported network storage
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Maximum number of NetApp FlexVol volumes
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Maximum number of supported SAN hosts
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Maximum number of Snapshot copies
FAS Series
All available models of FAS storage controllers are supported for use in a FlexPod Datacenter. Detailed specifications for all FAS series storage controllers are available in the NetApp Hardware Universe. See the platform-specific documentation listed in the following table for detailed information about a specific FAS model.
| Component | FAS Series controller platform documentation |
|---|---|
FAS9000 Series |
|
FAS8700 Series |
|
FAS8300 Series |
|
FAS500f Series |
|
FAS2700 Series |
AFF A-Series
All current models of NetApp AFF A-Series storage controllers are supported for use in FlexPod. Additional information can be found in the AFF Technical Specifications datasheet and in the NetApp Hardware Universe. See the platform- specific documentation listed in the following table for detailed information about a specific AFF Model.
| Component | AFF A-Series controller platform documentation |
|---|---|
NetApp AFF A800 |
|
NetApp AFF A700 |
|
NetApp AFF A700s |
|
NetApp AFF A400 |
|
NetApp AFF A250 |
AFF ASA A-Series
All current models of NetApp AFF ASA A-Series storage controllers are supported for use in FlexPod. Additional information can be found in the All SAN Array documentation resources, ONTAP AFF All SAN Array System technical report, and in the NetApp Hardware Universe. See the platform-specific documentation listed in the following table for detailed information about a specific AFF Model.
| Component | AFF A-Series controller platform documentation |
|---|---|
NetApp AFF ASA A800 |
|
NetApp AFF ASA A700 |
|
NetApp AFF ASA A400 |
|
NetApp AFF ASA A250 |
|
NetApp AFF ASA A220 |
NetApp disk shelves
The technical specifications for NetApp disk shelves include the form factor size, the number of drives per enclosure, and the shelf I/O modules; this documentation can be found in the following table. For more information, see the NetApp Disk Shelves and Storage Media Technical Specifications and the NetApp Hardware Universe.
| Component | NetApp FAS/AFF disk shelf documentation |
|---|---|
NetApp DS212C Disk Shelf |
|
NetApp DS224C Disk Shelf |
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NetApp DS460C Disk Shelf |
|
NetApp NS224 NVMe-SSD Disk Shelf |
NetApp drives
The technical specifications for NetApp drives include the form factor size, disk capacity, disk RPM, supporting controllers, and ONTAP version requirements. These specifications can be found in the Drives section of the NetApp Hardware Universe.