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FlexPod

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:

  • Number of rack units

  • Maximum number of blades

  • Unified Fabric capability

  • Midplane I/O bandwidth per server

  • 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

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:

  • Number of processor sockets

  • Processor support

  • Memory capacity

  • Size and speed

  • SAN boot support

  • Number of mezzanine adapter slots

  • I/O maximum throughput

  • Form factor

  • Maximum number of servers per chassis

Component Cisco UCS datasheet

Cisco UCS B200 M6

Cisco UCS B200 M6 Blade Server

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 C220 M6 Rack Server

Cisco UCS C225 M6

Cisco UCS C225 M6 Rack Server

Cisco UCS C240 M6

Cisco UCS C240 M6 Rack Server

Cisco UCS C245 M6

Cisco UCS C245 M6 Rack Server

Cisco UCS X-Series chassis

The technical specifications for Cisco UCS X-Series chassis, as shown in the table below, include the following components:

  • Number of rack units

  • Maximum number of nodes

  • Unified Fabric capability

  • 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:

  • Number of processor sockets

  • Processor support

  • Memory capacity

  • Size and speed

  • SAN boot support

  • Number of mezzanine adapter slots

  • I/O maximum throughput

  • Form factor

  • Maximum number of compute nodes per chassis

Component

Cisco UCS datasheet

Cisco UCS X210c M6

Cisco UCS X210c M6 Compute Node

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:

  • Number of uplink ports

  • Performance per port (IOPS)

  • Power

  • Number of blade ports

  • Hardware offload

  • 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 VIC Datasheets

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 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects

Cisco UCS 6296UP

Cisco UCS 6324

Cisco UCS 6324 Fabric Interconnect

Cisco UCS 6300

Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects

Cisco UCS 6454

Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects

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 5548UP Switch

Cisco Nexus 5596UP (2U)

Cisco Nexus 5596UP Switch

Cisco Nexus 56128P

Cisco Nexus 56128P Switch

Cisco Nexus 5672UP

Cisco Nexus 5672UP Switch

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 7000 Series Switches

Cisco Nexus 7009

Cisco Nexus 7010

Cisco Nexus 7018

Cisco Nexus 7702

Cisco Nexus 7700 Series Switches

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 9000 Series Switches

Cisco Nexus 9500 Series

Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches

Cisco Nexus 9300 Series

Cisco Nexus 9300 Series Switches

Cisco Nexus 9336PQ ACI Spine Switch

Cisco Nexus 9336PQ ACI Spine Switch

Cisco Nexus 9200 Series

Cisco Nexus 9200 Platform Switches

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 APIC Datasheet

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

Nexus 2000 Series FEX Datasheet

SFP modules

For information about the SFP modules, review the following resources:

NetApp storage controllers

The technical specifications for NetApp storage controllers include the following components:

  • Chassis configuration

  • Number of rack units

  • Amount of memory

  • NetApp FlashCache caching

  • Aggregate size

  • Volume size

  • Number of LUNs

  • Supported network storage

  • Maximum number of NetApp FlexVol volumes

  • Maximum number of supported SAN hosts

  • 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

FAS9000 Series Datasheet

FAS8700 Series

FAS8700 Series Datasheet

FAS8300 Series

FAS8300 Series Datasheet

FAS500f Series

FAS500f Series Datasheet

FAS2700 Series

FAS2700 Series Datasheet

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

AFF A800 Platform Documentation

NetApp AFF A700

AFF A700 Platform Documentation

NetApp AFF A700s

AFF A700s Platform Documentation

NetApp AFF A400

AFF A400 Platform Documentation

NetApp AFF A250

AFF A250 Platform Documentation

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

AFF ASA A800 Platform Documentation

NetApp AFF ASA A700

AFF ASA A700 Platform Documentation

NetApp AFF ASA A400

AFF ASA A400 Platform Documentation

NetApp AFF ASA A250

AFF ASA A250 Platform Documentation

NetApp AFF ASA A220

AFF ASA A220 Platform Documentation

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

DS212C Disk Shelf Documentation

NetApp DS224C Disk Shelf

DS224C Disk Shelf Documentation

NetApp DS460C Disk Shelf

DS460C Disk Shelf Documentation

NetApp NS224 NVMe-SSD Disk Shelf

NS224 Disk Shelf Documentation

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.