A Blade with an M81KR (VIC) * I don’t have a Broadcom Adapter to document

Chassis and Slot ID for that Blade

Service Profile Name

UUID (or Pool to use)

Adapter Policy (Linux, ESX, Solaris)

A MAC address “preference” (you can use a pool if you prefer)

Storage Target IP (a NetApp or EMC device configured for iSCSI access)

iSCSI IQN (iSCSI Qualified Name) of that Storage Device

The Primary Initiator’s IQN (iSCSI Qualified Name)

The Secondary Initiator’s IQN (iSCSI Qualified Name)

The Primary NIC’s Initiator IP Address

The Secondary NIC’s Initiator IP Address

IP Gateway Address for the subnet being used

DNS Server IP address for that Subnet

Subnet Mask

Subnet VLAN configured elsewhere in UCS Manager and given a “Name”

Here is a table of the decisions or data from my Lab Environment:

My first pass at documenting will just be the screen shots of the UCS Manager after I implemented the “answers” to the “Expert Service Profile” wizards. I will use this post to re-create the Service Profile and snapshot the actual screens in a subsequent post.

I created a Service Profile called “ISCSI24” (with 24 implying Chassis = 2, Blade Slot 4.

I also input the “24” scheme into the UUID field manually entered.

This is the bare essential NIC configuration: 2 vNIC’s to be mapped for iSCSI use and 2 vNIC’s that should be used for public networking on the to be installed OS. It makes sense to implement the higher numbers for iSCSI so the public Networks end up later being eth0, eth1..

I alternate the NIC across Fabrics A and B and hand-coded the MAC addresses slipping “24” into the fields and numbering them sequentially to match the vNIC number (00, 01, 02, 03).

New to the iSCSI feature of UCS Manager 2.0 is the ability to configure iSCSI vNIC’s.

They must be associated with one of the configured vNIC’s above. I chose vNIC’s 2 and 3.

If your target OS is VMware you’ll want a lot of vNIC’s and use the last 2 for iSCSI overlays.

The “default” iSCSI adapter policy is recommended for the VIC. The other options are to implement iSCSI “offload” features of the Broadcom adapter.

When you create the “Boot Order” configuration there’s a new iSCSI vNIC section. Add the CD ROM for OS installs and then insert the 2 iSCSI vNICs.

That little “set Boot Parameters” widget on the bottom left in the above image is key: it pops up a selection widget for iSCSI0 and iSCSI1 and any others you might implement. Each gets configured in turn and this is where the key iSCSI configuration data is entered.

The “Boot Parameters” have all the key fields: Initiator and Target IQN’s, IP addresses and Network/Subnet specifics. This service profile can be duplicated to boot multiple LUN’s from the same iSCSI target and differ only by the Storage LUN requested.

The data for ISCSI1 (the alternate boot path) to the array:

On the NetApp Array you must configure the UCS Blades Initiator IQN’s into an ISCSI  Initiator Group

There’s an ISCSI Report that shows the Array’s IQN (and Alias) and specific NIC’s enabled for ISCSI access with their IP addresses.

NOTE: I haven’t tested using the Alias or changing the default names provided on the NetApp (yet).

You must create a LUN of adequate size and then MAP that LUN to the ISCSI Group you created (ISCSI24 for me) and configure the LUN ID that will be configured on the UCS side.

I created LUN 0 for a Red Hat 6 install. and LUN 1 for ESX 4.1.0 Update 1 (the only supported OS’es for iSCSI Boot) that I care about… yes Windows version are supported. Not my thing.

That should do it… assign the *new* Service Profile to a Blade and bring up the Blade’s KVM Console. When you see the big Cisco logo after mutilple passes through the PNUOS Utility OS to install all your configuration options you need to Hit “Escape” to see the VIC ISCSI configuration “test”. If everything is not aligned correctly you’ll see this “Error” that flashes up for 2 seconds:

If everything is correct you’ll see information about the LUN discovered on the Array.

I hope this helps someone save the hours of “Trial and Error” I spent understanding what was required in each of the configuration fields… I was close… but I saw the image above over and over until everything was just right.

I found the essential missing clue by Googling the error message and finding a “Zip file” of screen shots similar to what I have posted here. I’m sure a lot of folks can’t just download Zip files at work.

Google search for “Cisco VIC iSCSI, Boot Driver Version 2” + “Initialize error 1” and you’ll see the Cisco community forum reply with the alternative Zip file of images from Simon Geary… Thank you Simon for the pictures worth a thousand “key strokes”.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/

http://news.ycombinator.com/

http://scripting.com/

http://slashdot.org/

http://planet.intertwingly.net/

http://siliconangle.com/

http://www.memeorandum.com/

RESEARCH STARTS… Update to follow

Arg. There’s an app with the feature but you must send the outbound email through it.

A comment I posted at:

http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/11669/mathematical-difference-between-white-and-black-notes-in-a-piano/11873#11873

The math of frequency relationships here is sound (pun intended) but they don’t help explain the white vs black key piano layout.

Here’s the historical imperitive that led to this layout for “Western Music”.

First consider the major triad:

root + third + fifth notes of the “diatonic scale”.

They follow the harmonic series:

1. root
2. octave (doubling of root frequency)
3. fifth (triple of the root – 3:2 relationship to the octave)
4. double octave (4x)
5. 10th (double octave of a third)
6. octave fifth

The Bugle notes: These are notes a static length of tubing can produce by blowing into it and producing standing resonant waves of 1x, 2x, 3x, etc.

Combinations of these notes create frequencies that make choirs sound heaven-ly. The frequencies align and blend into pure complex vibraations that are the sum and the differencies (harmonic overtones) of these relationships.

Choirs can tune themselves dynamically to create these frequency alignments that are percieved as being perfectly consonant. Upbeat western music focus on the 3 major chords found in the diatonic scale:

• 1+3+5 root major chord – white keys C – E – G 4+6+1
• 4th chord – white keys F – A – C 5+7+2
• 5th chord – whote keys G – B – D

The basics of western folk music are the 1 – 4 – 5 sequences of chords. Learn C, F and G on a guitar and you can play the bulk of the classic Country song book.

Put the notes of these chords into a scale and you get that row of 7 white keys: C – D – E – F – G – A – B (repeat until you can’t hear it).

So, they western scale is based upon frequency relationships that make combinations of notes “ring” in consonance in it’s purest form… like the Gregorian Chants of the Roman Church.

So, a basic “western keyboard” could be made from just these 7 notes repeated across the frequency spectrum. Look at the layout of a Greek Lyre (a harp) and that’s what you will find. A sequence following the diatonic scale which sounds pleasant if you just strum across the strings due to the tuning of even multiples (adjusted by octaves).

OK… now adding the black keys is a compromise of tuning specific notes so that you can build these 1+3+5 chords from any starting point and thus play a song adjusted up or down to any starting point. The piano will never achieve that sonic mathematical glimpse into the “music of the spheres” that the self-adjusting choir can to make a chord mathematically perfect in alignment but it’s the “keyboard” for the modern composer… the effective “musical qwerty” that a composer or a pianist begins to visualize chord “shapes” as hand positions.

With a lot of practice a pianist can pre-visualize sound in terms of finger and hand movements much like a solid touch typist starts to set words and sentences as a sequence of movements.

The addition of the black keys was called a “Well Tempered” tuning and Bach was one of the first composers to create whole bodies of compositions that worked through the Major and Minor keys of the 12 scales that you noticed intially when inspecting the keyboard.

If you look into other musical cultures you will find a different approaches to standardizing sound relationships that do not focus on the 1 – 4 – 5 chords. This music to a culturally trained western ear is less predicatable in nature and that lack of predictablility can make the music frustrating or exciting… music “speaks” to us in terms of pure sensory inputs that can move, excite, bore or confuse us.

So, the piano keyboard is designed to be the perfect delivery system for an individual to produce the range of complexity that western music has achieved.

The modern keyboard synthesizers are now able to produce the full range of the western orchestra in terms of “instruments” and I’m hoping someone create one that micro-adjusts notes based upon the surrounding context… shifting a note up or down slightly from the “well tempered” compromise to the pitch that makes a chord “ring” and produce the upper harmonic overtones that make a great orchestra truly “heavenly”.

Maybe it’s already been done.

via jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com

IP patents are useful defensively and offensive when used to inhibit competition. Or “license” the efforts of a competitor. I will hold off on any Apple purchases until further notice.

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via searchengineland.com

Go and read it all. Then this picture makes sense to you.

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