Cisco VICs are PCIe-compliant interfaces that support up to 256 PCIe devices with
dynamically configured type (NIC or HBA), identity (MAC address or worldwide
name [WWN]), fabric failover policy, bandwidth, and QoS policy settings. With
Cisco VICs, server configuration—including I/O configuration—becomes configurable
on demand, making servers stateless resources that can be deployed to meet
any workload need at any time, without any physical reconfiguration or recabling
required. Cisco VICs support up to 80 Gbps of connectivity and are available in
multiple form factors:

• mLOM: These Cisco VICs can be ordered preinstalled in Cisco UCS M3 and
M4 blade servers, occupying a dedicated slot for the device . If more
than 40 Gbps of bandwidth is needed, a port expander card can be installed in
the server’s mezzanine slot to give the card access to an additional 40 Gbps of
bandwidth. When Cisco UCS 2304XP Fabric Extenders are installed in the blade
chassis, the Cisco UCS VIC 1340 detects the availability of 40 Gigabit Ethernet
and disables the port channel for greater efficiency.

• Mezzanine: Standard Cisco VICs can be installed in any blade server’s mezzanine
slot: one for half-width blade servers, and up to two for full-width blade servers.
Each Cisco VIC supports up to 80 Gbps, for a total of up to 320 Gbps of
aggregate bandwidth for double-width, double-height servers such as the Cisco
UCS C460 M4 Rack Server.

• PCIe: PCIe form-factor cards can be installed in Cisco rack servers. Cisco VICs
are required when you integrate these servers into Cisco UCS because they
have the circuitry to pass the unified fabric’s management traffic to the server’s
management network, enabling single-wire, unified management of rack servers.