server. All the elements of a server configuration—
including RAID levels, BIOS settings, firmware revisions
and settings, adapter settings, network and storage
settings, and data center connectivity—are included in
the service profile. When a service profile is associated
with a server, Cisco UCS Manager automatically
configures the server, adapters, fabric extenders, and
fabric interconnects to match the configuration specified
in the service profile. With service profiles, infrastructure
can be provisioned in minutes instead of days. With
service profiles, you can even pre-provision servers and
have their configurations ready before the servers are
even connected to the network. Once the servers come
online and get discovered by UCS Manager, the service
profiles can be automatically deployed to the server.
The UCS Manager programmatic interface is the XML
API. The Cisco UCS Manager XML API accepts XML
documents over HTTP or HTTPS connections. Much as
with Cisco ACI, the configuration and state information
for Cisco UCS is stored in a hierarchical tree structure
known as the management information tree (MIT). The
MIT, which contains all the managed objects in the Cisco
UCS system, is accessible through the XML API. Any
programming language can be used to generate XML
documents that contain the API methods. One or more
managed objects can be changed with one API call.
When multiple objects are being configured, the API
operation stops if any of the MOs cannot be configured,
and a full rollback to the state of the system before the
change was initiated is done. API operations are
transactional and are done on the single data model that
represents the whole system. Cisco UCS is responsible
for all endpoint communications, making UCS Manager
the single source of truth. Users cannot communicate
directly with the endpoints, relieving developers from