There are a lot of terms to come to grip with when learning and talking about UCS. So many new TLAs. Here is a Dictionary to fast track your learning and give you something to quickly lookup.

• AG – Application Gateway
• BMC – Baseboard Management controller (on blade)
• Chassis - The enclosure (5108) that contains the one or two IOMs and the blades.
• CMC – Chassis Management Controller (in the IOM)
• CMS - Chassis Management Switch (in the IOM)
• CNA - Converged Network Adapter
• CLP - Command Line Protocol
• CMP – Connectivity Management Processor
• DCOS - Data Center Operating Center
• DCOS System Manager - starts and manages the processes in the UCSM Controller on both primary and secondary.
• DME – Database Management Engine (Primary Active)
• Expansion Module - Provides connectivity into the Northbound Ethernet LAN and FC SAN networks. There is a FC only, Ethernet only or a combo module available.
• FEX - Fabric Extender (now referred to as the IO Module or IOM)
• Fabric A/B -
• Fabric Interconnect - The head unit or switch which the Chassis all connect into. The UCSM runs within the Fabric Interconnect.
• FSM - Finite State Machine, logical abstractions in the information model for hardware, software and workflows
• GEM - General Expansion Module
• Group - A set of two Fabric Interconnects. Individually called a node and each is identified by a unique ID.
• I2C - Inter-Integrated Circuit (BMC)
• IOM - I/O Module (FEX)
• IO Mux - A part of the IOM which multiplexes the IO ports and BMC from the blades (8) along with the the CMS and CMC from the IOM into the North bound ports (1,2 or 4) going to the Fabric Interconnect.
• LACP - Link Aggregation Protocol
• Menlo - Code name for one of the Mezz adapters. A CNA with 2 10GE and 2 FC ports.
• Mezz - Mezzanine card within a blade that provides the IO interface to the IOM
• Mid-Plane - The element within the Chassis that the blades connect into to obtain power and IO connectivity as well as access to the SEEPROM
• MO - Managed Object
• Node - A node is one of your two Fabric Interconnects. The set of two are called a group. Each node is identified by a unique ID.
• NXOS - Nexus Operating System
• Oplin - Code name for one of the Mezz adapters. 2 10GE ports, no failover functionality
• Palo - Code name for one of the Mezz adapters. Not released yet. Provides up to 128 Ethernet vNICs or FC vHBAs (limits apply)
• Pin Group - If you are doing manual pinning of Northbound traffic (rather than round robin) through uplinks you can create Pin Groups which you can apply to multiple service profiles. So you are chosing which uplink or port channel will be used for the selected interface (vNIC or pNIC).
• PNuOS – Processor Node Utility Operating System, serves as a "pre-OS configuration agent" for the blade, now named UCSuOS.
• SEEPROM - Serial EEPROM, contain in the mid-plane, half of which is maintained by each IOM in the Chassis.
• SEL - System Event Log (BMC)
• Service Profile - represents a logical server and will be associated with one blade at a time. Contains Identity/Personality, LAN/SAN config and various policies
• SoL - Serial Over LAN
• Stateless Computing -
• UCSM - UCS Manager, the management service for all of the UCS components which runs on the Fabric Interconnects.
• UCSM Controller - a distributed application running on both th primary and subordinate UCSM and decides which is primary and which is subordinate.
• UCSuOS - UCS Utility Operating System, serves as a "pre-OS configuration agent" for the blade, previously named PNuOS.
• UUID - A 128-bit number to uniquely identify a component worldwide.
• vNIC - a software configured NIC which is presented to the OS as a pNIC on the blade.
• VNTag - A virtual network tag.
• vHBA - a software configured HBA which is presented to the OS as a pHBA on the blade.