Cisco UCS C240 M6 Server

High performance for data-intensive applications

The Cisco UCS C240 M6 Rack Server is well-suited for a wide range of storage and I/O-intensive applications such as big data analytics, databases, collaboration, virtualization, consolidation, and high-performance computing in its two-socket, 2RU form factor.

The Cisco UCS C240 M6 Server extends the capabilities of the Cisco UCS rack server portfolio with 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors supporting more than 43 percent more cores per socket and 33 percent more memory when compared with the previous generation. This provides up to 40 percent more performance than the M5 generation for your most demanding applications.

You can deploy the Cisco UCS C-Series rack servers as standalone servers or as part of the Cisco Unified Computing System managed by Cisco Intersight, Cisco UCS Manager, or Intersight Managed Mode to take advantage of Cisco^® standards-based unified computing innovations that can help reduce your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and increase your business agility.

These improvements deliver significant performance and efficiency gains that will improve your application performance. The Cisco UCS C240 M6 Rack Server delivers outstanding levels of expandability and performance.

Benefits

● Do more with less by taking advantage of faster CPU cores in the 3rd Gen Intel^® Xeon^® Scalable Processors and faster memory performance

● Decrease server Operating Expenses (OpEx) for power and cooling, management, and maintenance by consolidating older servers onto this latest generation of Cisco UCS^® rack servers

● Simplify administration of your server infrastructure with Cisco Unified Computing System^™ (Cisco UCS) management, freeing your IT staff to focus on mission-critical and value-added projects

● Automate rapid deployment with Cisco UCS Manager or Cisco Intersight^™ Managed Mode for faster time to value

What it provides

● Up to two 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (with up to 40 cores per socket)

● Memory:

◦ 32 DIMM slots (16 DIMMs per CPU socket)

◦ 3200 MHz DDR4 memory plus other speeds depending on the CPU installed

◦ 32 x DDR4 DIMMs for up to 8 TB of capacity using 256 GB DIMMs or

◦ 16x DDR4 DIMMs + 16x Intel Optane^™ persistent memory modules for up to 12 TB of memory

● Up to eight PCIe 4.0 slots plus modular LAN on Motherboard (mLOM) slot

● Support for Cisco UCS VIC 1400 Series adapters as well as third-party options

● Up to 28 SAS/SATA/NVMe disk drives

◦ RAID controller options available

● M.2 boot options:

◦ Up to 960 GB with optional hardware RAID

● Support for up to five GPUs

This server supports the RAID and HBA controller options and cable requirements shown in the following table.


Storage Adapter (PID)	Product Name	Supported Server	Maximum Number of Drives Supported	Supported RAID Type	Cache Size (GB)
UCSC-RAID-M6T	Cisco 12G SAS RAID Controller with 4GB FBWC (16 Drives)	UCSC-C220-M6S	10 10 2.5-inch SFF front-loading drives Slots 1-10	RAID	4
UCSC-RAID-M6T	Cisco 12G SAS RAID Controller with 4GB FBWC (16 Drives)	UCSC-C240-M6S	14 12 2.5-inch SFF front loading plus two 2.5-inch rear-loading drives. Slot numbers 1 – 12 plus 103 and 104	RAID	4
UCSC-RAID-M6HD	Cisco 12G SAS RAID Controller with 4GB FBWC	UCSC-C240-M6L	20 12 3.5-inch LFF front-loading + four 3.5-inch LFF mid-plane mounted + 4 2.5-inch SFF rear-loading drives Slots 1 – 16 and 101 – 104	RAID	4
UCSC-RAID-M6SD	Cisco 12G SAS RAID Controller with 4GB FBWC (28 Drives)	UCSC-C240-M6SX	28 24 2.5-inch SFF front-loading + 4 2.5-inch rear-loading drives Slots 1-24 plus 101 – 104	RAID	4
UCSC-SAS-M6T	Cisco 12G SAS HBA (16 Drives)	UCSC-C220-M6S	10 10 2.5-inch SFF front-loading drives Slots 1-10	SAS HBA	NA
UCSC-SAS-M6T	Cisco 12G SAS HBA (16 Drives)	UCSC-C240-M6S	14 12 2.5-inch SFF front-loading and 2 2.5-inch SFF rear-loading drives Slots 1-12 plus 103 and 104.	SAS HBA	NA
UCSC-SAS-M6T	Cisco 12G SAS HBA (16 Drives)	UCSC-C240-M6SX	28 2 controllers, each manages 14 drives. Controller 1: Slots 1-12 plus 103 and 104 Controller 2: Slots 13-24 plus 101 and 102	SAS HBA	NA
UCSC-SAS-M6HD	Cisco 12G SAS HBA	UCSC-C240-M6L	20 12 3.5-inch LFF front-loading, four 3.5-inch LFF mid-plane mounted, and 4 2.5-inch SFF rear-loading drives	SAS HBA	NA
UCSC-9500-8E	Cisco 9500-8e 12G SAS HBA for external JBOD attach	All models of UCS C220 M6 and UCS Cs240 M6 server	NA	SAS HBA	NA

Storage Controller Card Firmware Compatibility

Firmware on the storage controller (RAID or HBA) must be verified for compatibility with the current Cisco IMC and BIOS versions that are installed on the server. If not compatible, upgrade or downgrade the storage controller firmware using the Host Upgrade Utility (HUU) for your firmware release to bring it to a compatible level.

Note

For servers running in standalone mode only: After you replace controller hardware (UCSC-RAID-M6T, UCSC-RAID-M6HD, UCSC-RAID-M6SD, UCSC-SAS-M6T, or UCSC-SAS-M6HD), you must run the Cisco UCS Host Upgrade Utility (HUU) to update the controller firmware, even if the firmware Current Version is the same as the Update Version. Running HUU is necessary to program any controller specific values to the storage controller for the specific server. If you do not run HUU, the storage controller may not be discovered..

See the HUU guide for your Cisco IMC release for instructions on downloading and using the utility to bring server components to compatible levels: HUU Guides.

RAID Backup (Supercap)

This server supports installation of one Supercap unit. The unit mounts to a bracket in-line with the fan modules.

The optional SCPM provides approximately three years of backup for the disk write-back cache DRAM in the case of a sudden power loss by offloading the cache to the NAND flash.

For Supercap unit replacement instructions, see Replacing the Supercap (RAID Backup).

Mixing Drive Types in RAID Groups

For the best performance follow these guidelines:

Use either all SAS or all SATA drives in a RAID group.
Use the same capacity for each drive in the RAID group.
Never mix HDDs and SSDs in the same RAID group.

Storage Controller Cable Connectors and Backplanes

This section describes cabling for the storage controllers and backplanes. The SAS/SATA cables are factory-installed and are used for all supported internal controllers.

This section also contains diagrams that show the cable-to-drive mapping.

Cisco M6 12G Modular SAS RAID Controller or HBA For Up To 16 Drives (UCSC-RAID-M6T)

The drive support differs by server version, as described in the following sections. These controllers are supported only in these server versions:

SFF 12-Drives, SAS/SATA
SFF 12-Drives NVMe

SFF 12-Drives SAS/SATA

This HW RAID or HBA option can control up to 12 front-loading SAS/SATA drives in this server version, plus two rear-loading SAS/SATA drives.

Connect a SAS/SATA cable from the small Slimline connector on the RAID card.
Connect a SAS/SATA cable to the Riser 3B connector on the PCE Riser 3 cage.

Figure 1. SFF, 12-Drive UCSC-C240-M6S Cabling With UCSC-RAID-M6T

Cisco 12G Modular SAS RAID Controller or HBA For Up To 28 Drives (UCSC-RAID-M6SD)

This controller is supported only in this server version:

SFF 24-Drives SAS/SATA
SFF 24 Drives NVMe

This HW RAID or HBA option can control up to 24 front-loading SAS/SATA drives in this server version, plus 2 rear-loading SAS/SATA drives.

Connect a SAS/SATA cable from the small Slimline connector on the RAID card.
Connect a SAS/SATA cable to the Riser 3B connector on the PCE Riser 3 cage.
Connect a SAS/SATA cable from the second small Slimline connector on the RAID card.
Connect a SAS/SATA cable to the Riser 1B connector on the PCE Riser 1 cage.

Figure 2. SFF, 24-Drive UCSC-C240-M6SX Cabling With UCSC-RAID-M6SD

Cisco 12G Modular SAS RAID Controller or HBA For Up To 32 Drives (UCSC-RAID-M6HD)

LFF 12-Drives

This HW RAID or HBA option can control up to 12 front-loading SAS/SATA drives in this server version, plus 2 rear-loading SAS/SATA drives, and up to 4 optional mid mount drives. This option is only supported for the LFF drive version of the server.

To connect the RAID card to the front-loading drives, connect the split cable (Y cable) as follows:

Connect the single end (1) of the SAS/SATA cable to the RAID card.
Connect each of the dual-end connectors (2 and 3) to the two front backplane connectors.

To connect the RAID card to the front drives and the mid-mount drives:

Connect one end of the SAS/SATA cable from the RAID card to the midplane connector.

To connect the rear drives:

Connect the SAS/SATA cable from the RAID card (6) to the Riser 1 connector (5).
Connect the SAS/SATA cable from the RAID card (7) to the Riser 3 connector (8) and the midplane connector (10).

For More RAID Utility Information

Cisco RAID Information

For embedded SATA support of drives connected to pSATA through the SATA Interposer card, the drives are managed directly as AHCI drives.
The Cisco UCS C Series M6 storage adapter supports only SAS/SATA drives. Tri-mode support is not supported.
For basic information about RAID and for using the utilities for the RAID controller cards that are supported in Cisco servers, see the Cisco UCS Servers RAID Guide.

Broadcom RAID Information

For hardware SAS MegaRAID configuration—Broadcom 12Gb/s MegaRAID® Tri-Mode Software User Guide.
The Broadcom utilities have help documentation for more information about using the utilities. Go to Broadcom StorCLI 12Gb/s MegaRAID® Tri-Mode User Guide.

Cisco CISCO M6 12G SAS RAID CONTROLLER WITH 4GB FBWC (16 UCSC-RAID-M6T=