UCS Emulator 2.1

While I was writing the second half of the last post on UCS, I had an epiphany: the UCS emulator is made primarily for developers to use in the creation of new APIs and plug-ins for UCS. Although it has been used many times by admins and engineers for demonstration purposes, it is first and foremost a tool for developers.

With regard to the clustering post, the emulator specifically does NOT allow the connect local-mgmt command to be issued. (update: ok, so it DOES let you do this. However, trying to run enable cluster a.b.c.d gives an error no matter if the IP you choose for your VIP is in the same VLAN as the FI's management interface or not). This command connects you to the local management port for certain administrative functions, including cluster configuration. I had planned on hopping on the emulator in the morning and connecting, but here's what you get when you log into the UCSPE via the command line:

See the EMULATOR NOTE!

Frustrating, yes. But now that I've accepted that the emulator wasn't intended for true testing of configurations changes, I'm not mad.

Of course, this means it'll take some time to grab screenshots of the cluster conversion. But I'll post the steps at least, so you can see what's involved.

Oh yeah: here's a link to the UCS Emulator. You'll need to use your Cisco.com ID to access the download. If you don't have one, sign up for free. No biggie.