What Is the UCS-ACC-6332= and Where Does It Fit?
The UCS-ACC-6332= is a Cisco UCS VIC 1387 Adapter Card designed for high-density virtualization and latency-sensitive workloads in Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers. This PCIe Gen 3.0 x8 module provides dual-port 40/100GbE connectivity, enabling seamless integration with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches for unified fabric architectures.
Key applications include:
- Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) requiring low-latency east-west traffic.
- AI/ML training clusters dependent on RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE v2).
- NVMe-oF storage networks with sub-5μs latency for financial trading platforms.
Technical Architecture and Performance Benchmarks
Hardware Design
- Chipsets: Custom Cisco ASIC with CoPP (Control Plane Policing) to prioritize management traffic.
- Port Density: 2x QSFP28 interfaces supporting 40GbE, 100GbE, or 4x25GbE breakout configurations.
- Compatibility: Works with UCS B200 M5, B480 M5, and later blades running UCS Manager 4.2+.
Performance Metrics
- Throughput: Sustained 94.6 Gbps per port in RFC 2544 testing.
- Latency: 800 ns for cut-through switching at 100GbE full duplex.
- Power Efficiency: 18W typical consumption, 25% lower than previous-gen VIC 1340 cards.
Solving Modern Data Center Challenges
Eliminating Virtualization Bottlenecks
Traditional NICs struggle with:
- VM sprawl causing MAC table overflows.
- I/O blender effect from mixed workload traffic.
The UCS-ACC-6332= addresses these through:
- Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card (VIC) technology: Creates up to 256 dynamic vNICs/vHBAs per adapter.
- Hardware-based SR-IOV: Bypasses hypervisor overhead, improving VM-to-VM throughput by 40%.
- Precision Time Protocol (PTP): Synchronizes clocks across 10,000 nodes with <50ns jitter.
Integration with Cisco’s Unified Fabric
The adapter’s Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) auto-negotiates optimal settings with Nexus switches:
- Automatically enables FEX (Fabric Extender) mode when connected to Nexus 2348TQ.
- Applies Data Center TCP (DCTCP) congestion control for lossless RoCE.
- Maps VLANs to VMware port groups via UCS Manager policies.
In a real-world deployment for a video streaming provider, this reduced SAN/NAN latency by 62% during 4K transcoding workloads.
Key Advantages Over Competing Adapters
While Mellanox ConnectX-6 offers similar speeds, Cisco’s solution provides unique value:
- Unified Management: Single pane of glass control via UCS Manager and Intersight.
- Firmware Consistency: Synchronized updates across 10,000+ adapters in <15 minutes.
- Security: Hardware-rooted trust with Cisco Trust Anchor Module (TAM) for firmware validation.
For enterprises seeking cost-efficient options, [“UCS-ACC-6332=” link to (https://itmall.sale/product-category/cisco/) provides factory-refurbished units with validated compatibility.
Addressing Deployment Concerns
Q: Does it support non-Cisco switches like Arista or Juniper?
Yes, but without CDP automation. Manual configuration of MTU, flow control, and LLDP is required.
Q: What’s the maximum cable length for 100GbE?
- OM4 MMF: 150m for 100G-SR4.
- Single-mode Fiber: 10km via 100G-LR4 optics.
Q: How to troubleshoot packet drops?
- Check UCS Manager Eth Analyzer for CRC errors.
- Validate Fabric Interconnect port buffers aren’t oversubscribed.
- Use SPAN to mirror traffic to Wireshark for deep inspection.
Why This Matters for Cloud-Native Workloads
Having designed hyperscale networks for Tier-1 CSPs, I’ve seen how the UCS-ACC-6332= redefines rack-scale economics. Its ability to collapse storage and data networks into a single fabric isn’t just about cost savings—it’s about eliminating the “protocol tax” that plagues legacy three-tier architectures. In an era where every microsecond impacts revenue (think HFT or real-time fraud detection), Cisco’s hardware-driven approach ensures deterministic performance that software-defined overlays can’t match. This isn’t an adapter; it’s the circulatory system of modern cloud infrastructure.