Item: Cisco UCS Manager
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco UCS Manager is the core utility used to control our data center. UCS manager has just about every knob and button you could imagine a host server might need. You can control all of the hardware and integration points from UCS manager. We use it at all of our sites that have local UCS servers on them. Gaining access through Cisco UCS manager is critical to ensure our large and small data centers stay running. We use these servers for production environment for our admin networks, as well as in a manufacturing automation environments. UCS manager is a powerful tool that we rely on.

Pros and Cons

Server Management
Hardware control
Controlling Fabric Interconnects
Connecting storage

Older interface design
Sometimes finding detailed settings can difficult
Slower at times

Return on Investment

Ease of configuration
Detailed health information to ensure business continuity
Ease of expansion

Alternatives Considered

I think UCS Manager would be able very comparable to other vendors offerings when it comes to server configuration. I think Cisco did a good job in giving you full access to many options that you might not see with Dell or HPE. Every manufacturer would need a similar tool to control their server environment, but I think what Cisco has built into their Manager is a little better than others I've used. You can just see and change so many settings. I would say that is also a bit of a negative by a little bit because sometimes it is hard to dig in and find what you need to change and often might need to reach out to TAC or take a training course to understand all of the interface.

Key Insights

Do you think Cisco UCS Manager delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco UCS Manager's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco UCS Manager live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco UCS Manager go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco UCS Manager again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Cisco Intersight, FortiClient, HPE Nimble Storage

Likelihood to Recommend

If you have a data center and use the Cisco UCS Blade platform with SAN storage, then UCS manager is the right tool for you. Managing one or a few host servers with UCS manager is pretty easy. You can see pretty quick what is going on with your servers. If you need to configure the fabric interconnects, you pretty much need to use UCS manager to do it. I find that it meets the needs for almost everything we do with the UCS C and B servers. If you have hyper flex servers from Cisco, then you would not want to use UCS manger. If you are not using Cisco servers you may not be able to use UCS manager.

Cisco UCS Manager is the one stop software for managing your Cisco UCS B or C series servers

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco UCS Manager