Cisco’s Unified Computing Systems (UCS) has acquired the reputation of leading the next-generation of data center platforms by merging together the IT needs of computing, networking, storage access and virtualization into one unified system.

Cisco has recently released the NEW M3 Smart Play bundles that everyone has been anxiously awaiting! Before I jump right into all of the details about the new M3 Servers, I want to highlight that all of the previous M2 Smart Play bundles have been extended until 7/28/2012.  I have two previous blogs that can give you a refresher on what is included in the M2 Smart Play Bundles. “The New and Enhanced Q3 Cisco Smart Play Bundles are now available” (Click Here) and “Cisco has Exciting Additions to Their Smart Play Program (Click Here).

UCS Smart Play Bundle Summary

New M3-Based Smart Play Promotions

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My VMware = Simplified Management of Product Licenses and Support

VMware has developed a NEW way to simplify management of your product licenses and support by creating a single portal to manage everything.  Have you ever got frustrated trying to access multiple sites using multiple logins?  Have problems accessing and managing your VMware license?   Well, the New My VMware Portal will radically improve the way you manage your VMware product licenses and support.   Using this new, integrated, account-based site, you can view and manage your product licenses and support through step-by-step screens for faster access to critical functions. My VMware provides easy, logical navigation to the information you need, and the tasks you need to perform.

  Simplified – My VMware presents your products, license keys and Support Requests at the account level instead of by individual email address. If you have multiple accounts, you can easily toggle between them using a dropdown account menu, without ever having to leave the site.

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Join us for a complimentary webcast series with live Q&A. Click on a title for more details and to register!

April 17: Introduction to Virtualization

Have you been thinking about what it would take to start using virtualization? Or do you know the basics and want to find out more? This webcast is designed for anyone with little to no knowledge of virtualization technology.

April 19: Address Key Desktop Virtualization Use Cases with VMware

As desktop virtualization garners more momentum, IT organizations are looking for a solution that is cost-effective and easy to deploy, manage, and scale. VMware View meets these requirements with a proven desktop virtualization solution designed to optimize both end user freedom and IT management and control. With View, organizations can provide their end-users with a modern desktop while allowing IT to manage desktops easily and securely from a centralized location at a reduced cost.

April 24: Technical Deep Dive: Managing Infrastructure Health and Performance with VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite 5.0

VMware has introduced new super metrics and self-learning analytics in the VMware vCenter™ Operations Management™ Suite to allow administrators to better assess infrastructure health, identify performance bottlenecks and intercept incidents before they create havoc on the end-user experience. Learn from technical experts what these metrics are and how you can use them to ensure best performance and SLAs of your infrastructure.

A health insurance provider in Tennessee was recently fined $1.5 million by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services for a violation that occurred in October of 2009.  The violation, a loss of protected health information, occurred when 57 computer hard drives were taken from a training facility while employees were preparing to relocate.  The PHI data on the hard drives was also unencrypted.  The company also provided free credit reporting to nearly all of its 3.1 million customers since it could not determine the actual number of affected customers.

We all know the complexities and costs of managing large geographically separated fleets of desktops.  Just maintaining hardware, OS patches and AV software updates tend to consume all of the small amount of resources that most small to mid-size companies have in their IT budget.  And that doesn’t even start to add the complexities of encrypting data at rest on those fleets of pc’s.

An often talked about benefit of Virtual Desktops is data security.  However, I’m not sure that discussion sinks in deeply since we’re all worried about how much RAM we might need and how many IOPS we have to plan for in order to avoid the dreaded boot storm.  But, this benefit is real and in this case all the thieves would have walked away with COULD have been some dumb thin clients.  In the VDI world the PHI that was stored on these disks would have never left the data center and had any of the trainees or trainers stored PHI data on their desktops, the data would still have remained in the data center.

I realize there are long lists of pro’s and con’s along with ROI and TCO models that companies must go through prior to choosing or not choosing VDI but, these 1.5 million reasons go a long way to proving that VDI can provide many more benefits to businesses than just easier patch or software deployment tasks.

Here are instructions on how to configure a Nexus 5K with a FEX line card. This is for connecting one FEX to one Nexus5K using two connections that we will put into a port-channel.

On the Nexus 5K:

NEXUS5K#configure terminal
NEXUS5K(config)#interface ethernet1/1
NEXUS5K(config-if)#description UPLINK TO FEX101
NEXUS5K(config-if)#switchport mode fex-fabric
NEXUS5K(config-if)#fex associate 101
NEXUS5K(config-if)#exit

NEXUS5K(config)#interface ethernet1/2
NEXUS5K(config-if)#description UPLINK TO FEX101
NEXUS5K(config-if)#switchport mode fex-fabric
NEXUS5K(config-if)#fex associate 101
NEXUS5K(config-if)#exit

At this point the Nexus 5K should see the FEX and start the image download. Once this is completed you can configure the interfaces into a port-channel.

NEXUS5K(config)#interface port-channel 101
NEXUS5K(config-if)#switchport mode fex-fabric
NEXUS5K(config-if)#fex associate 101
NEXUS5K(config-if)#exit

NEXUS5K(config)#interface ethernet 1/1
NEXUS5K(config-if)#channel-group 101
NEXUS5K(config-if)#exit

NEXUS5K(config)#interface ethernet1/2
NEXUS5K(config-if)#channel-group 101
NEXUS5K(config-if)#end
NEXUS5K#copy run start

At this point you should have your FEX connected to your Nexus 5K and be able to configure the ports of the FEX.

*For some reason my screenshots will not upload today. I will get them uploaded as soon as the issue is resolved. Thanks,

Recently Cisco has just released its 5500-X series Firewalls. These are context aware firewalls, that deliver everything we loved about the previous generation ASA’s, but include multigigabit performance, flexable interface options, and optionally provide broad and deep network security without the need for additional hardware modules. I am really looking forward to working with these.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/vpndevc/ps6032/ps6094/ps6120/qa_c67-700608.pdf

Here is a great article on how to safeguard your data if you are a small business. The importance of making sure your data is safe cannot be understated. In today’s business world Data is most often the company. Lose your data lose your company.

http://www.crn.com/blogs-op-ed/channel-voices/232700473/how-to-safeguard-small-business-data-in-10-steps.htm