Configuring Cisco UCS emulator_Implementing Cisco UCS Solutions-QQ阅读女频短篇网

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Configuring Cisco UCS emulator

Cisco UCSPE is available in an OVA or a ZIP file. It is packaged on CentOS Linux (a Red Hat Enterprise Linux clone operating system). This virtual machine (VM) can run Cisco UCSPE on a standard laptop or desktop computer meeting the minimum system requirements. A UCS emulator application OVA or ZIP file is approximately 500 MB.

System requirements

The minimum system requirements for the installation of UCS emulator are as follows:

1.8 GHz CPU
2 GB free RAM
8 GB free disk space
Mozilla compatible browser (Firefox or Chrome)
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.6

Hypervisor prerequisites

UCSPE can be installed on the following type 1 and type 2 hypervisor platforms:

VMware Player 4.0 and above (Windows and Linux version)
VMware Fusion 4.0 and above for Apple Mac OS
VMware Workstation 7.0 and above (Windows and Linux version)
VMware ESXi 4.0 and above
Microsoft Hyper-V

VMware Player for Microsoft Windows is a free download from VMware. For a basic home-based lab environment, VMware Player is an excellent choice. Users interested in advanced virtualization benefits such as snapshots may download VMware Workstation. Registration on the VMware website is required for the download of VMware Workstation and it is not available for free. Users may also opt to run UCS emulator on VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V environments if they do not want to install VMware Player, VMware Workstation, or VMware Fusion on their laptop or desktop.

In this chapter, we will be installing the UCS platform emulator on VMware Player 5.0.1 installed on Microsoft Windows 7.

Make sure that the system where VMware Player is installed has enough resources for running the guest UCS platform emulator VM. VMware Player can be installed on a desktop or laptop even with lower specifications, as mentioned in the minimum system requirements for UCS platform emulator. New laptops and desktops generally have more CPU speed than the minimum system requirements. Hard disk storage is very cheap and usually all new systems have it available abundantly. System memory is usually a major consideration. As the UCSPE VM memory requirement is 2 GB, it is recommended that one installs VMware Player on a system with 4 GB of RAM.

VMware Player installation is a typical Microsoft Windows manual-click-next type of installation. It is recommended that you close all the running programs and save your data before installing VMware Player, as the system may require a reboot.

Note

VMware Player can be downloaded at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/5_0.

For downloading UCSPE, log on to the Cisco developer website and download the file in OVA or ZIP format. A simple Google search for UCS emulator download will take you right to the correct section of the Cisco developer network website, where you will be required to enter your Cisco credentials to download the UCSPE.

Tip

VMware Player 5 and VMware Workstation 9 can be installed on Microsoft Windows 8.

Installing UCSPE on VMware Player using a ZIP file

Download and install VMware player from the VMware website by carrying out the following steps:

Download the emulator .zip file.
Extract the downloaded file to an appropriate folder on the local system.
In the VMware Player, click on Open a Virtual Machine that has been highlighted in the following screenshot:
Go to the folder where the extracted files have been stored, select the VMX (VMware virtual machine configuration) file, and click on Open as highlighted in the following screenshot:
Once the VM is shown in the VMware Player inventory, click on Play virtual machine as highlighted in the following screenshot:

Installing UCSPE on VMware Player using an OVA file

Download the .ova file.
In the VMware Player, click on Open a Virtual Machine and select the .ova file as shown in the following screenshot:
The VMware player will detect it as an OVA file, and will query where the UCSPE VM should be extracted. Select an appropriate folder on the local system, and click on Import as shown in the following screenshot:
VMware Player will show the OVA import progress, which may take a few minutes as shown in the following screenshot:
Once the import is complete, VM could be played from the VMware Player by clicking on the Play virtual machine button.

Tip

For an older VMware Player or Workstation application, you are required to convert the OVA format UCSPE VM using the VMware OVA conversion tool.

Installing UCSPE on VMware Workstation

The procedure for installing UCSPE on VMware Workstation is identical to the VMware Player installation procedure for both .ova and .zip files. VMware Workstation provides some extra features such as snapshots that are not available in VMware Player. The latest version of VMware Workstation can also be installed on Microsoft Windows 8.

Installing UCSPE on VMware vSphere ESXi

UCSPE VM comes in VMware Workstation VM file format. In order to run the UCSPE VM in vSphere, the VM format should be converted using VMware standalone convertor. VMware standalone convertor is available for free download from VMware for P2V and V2V conversions. Using this convertor, VM could be transferred to a standalone ESXi server directly, or to a vSphere cluster using vCenter.

Tip

In order to run UCSPE using Microsoft Hyper-V, the VMDK file should be converted to VHD format using tools such as System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), or any other supported third-party tools.