Cisco UCS Director for Data Center Orchestration
A cloud provider deploys an infrastructure based on Cisco ACI Fabric, Cisco UCS, and Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform. The storage area network will be based on Cisco MDS 9000 Series Switches with Hyper-V, VMware, and KVM used as the virtualization platform. The requirement is to deploy the overall solution by using a robust automation and orchestration tool. Which tool meets these requirements?
Community Votes
50% of anonymous learners picked answer D. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.
Community Insight
The question tests knowledge of data center orchestration tools, where the common trap is choosing Cisco CloudCenter for general cloud orchestration instead of Cisco UCS Director, which is specifically designed for the Cisco ACI, UCS, HyperFlex, and MDS infrastructure stack.
This analysis determines the appropriate automation and orchestration tool for a data center infrastructure comprising Cisco ACI, UCS, HyperFlex, and MDS switches. It establishes that Cisco UCS Director is the correct choice over Cisco CloudCenter for this specific stack.
Choosing Cisco CloudCenter (D) because it sounds like a cloud orchestration tool, ignoring that it is end-of-life and focused on application modeling across clouds rather than comprehensive data center infrastructure automation.
Community Discussion (3 comments)
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Expert Analysis
Why the Answer Is Correct
Cisco UCS Director is the designated orchestration and automation tool for managing the exact infrastructure stack described: Cisco ACI, UCS, HyperFlex, MDS switches, and multiple hypervisors including VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM. It provides robust, pre-packaged workflow support for these specific Cisco data center components, fulfilling the requirement for a comprehensive automation solution. UCS Director has historically been the go-to solution for this precise combination of Cisco data center technologies before its evolution into Intersight Cloud Orchestrator.Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Cisco Prime Infrastructure (A) is focused on enterprise network management and lacks the compute and storage orchestration capabilities required for UCS and HyperFlex. Cisco Network Assurance (B) is a telemetry and health monitoring tool, not an orchestration platform. Cisco CloudCenter (D) is primarily designed for application lifecycle modeling and deployment across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, rather than the granular data center infrastructure automation required here; furthermore, it has reached end-of-life.Community Comment Notes
Community members correctly point out that CloudCenter is end-of-life and that UCS Director provides the required functionalities, as zeppie noted by stating "Apart from Cloud Center being end-of-life, UCS Director provides the indicated functionalities." Another user highlighted that CloudCenter "is more focused on application orchestration and deployment rather than the comprehensive data center automatio…" Conversely, a user advocating for CloudCenter claimed it provides "automating, deployment orchestrating and management of ACI, UCS, HyperFlex, MDS switches", which misattributes the capabilities of UCS Director to CloudCenter.Official Reference
Exam Strategy
When evaluating data center orchestration tools, match the specific infrastructure stack (ACI, UCS, HyperFlex, MDS) to the tool explicitly built to manage it, rather than defaulting to generic cloud management platforms. Remember that Cisco UCS Director is the dedicated automation solution for this exact Cisco data center portfolio.