Building on more than 17 years of Cisco UCS Manager innovation, Cisco Intersight is the strategic platform for the future of Cisco UCS software management.

When Cisco introduced the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) in 2009, it did more than launch a new server platform. It brought compute, networking, storage access, and management together as one integrated system. At the center was Cisco UCS Manager: embedded in the fabric interconnects and designed to manage server and fabric resources through a consistent, policy-based control point.

My team and I are the product managers responsible for UCS Manager. We are proud of what this platform made possible. For more than 17 years, it has helped infrastructure teams provision, operate, replace, and repurpose Cisco UCS servers with repeatable, standardized, automatable, and rapid processes. We are especially grateful to the administrators, partners, and customers whose experience and feedback shaped UCS Manager, Cisco IMC, UCS Central, and Cisco Intersight across multiple generations of Cisco UCS servers.

An innovation that became an operating model

Cisco UCS Manager helped establish a new way to manage server infrastructure. Service profiles separated a server’s identity and configuration from the underlying hardware. Reusable policies, identity pools, and templates made configurations repeatable, while role-based administration and the application programming interface (API) gave teams a foundation for governance, integration, and automation.

Those ideas mattered because they address everyday operational challenges. Administrators could define intent once, apply it consistently, and move a supported server identity when hardware needed to be replaced or repurposed. The result was not simply a management interface; it was a durable policy-based model that changed how many organizations operated Cisco UCS. That model remains part of the foundation for what comes next.

Planning the next chapter

Cisco has announced planned end-of-sale and end-of-life milestones for Cisco UCS Manager. As stated in the applicable End-of-Life announcement, Cisco UCS M8 is the final server generation planned for Cisco UCS Manager support. UCS Manager Last Date of Support is December 31, 2030. Support through that date remains subject to active service contracts and applicable Cisco service terms. Each server model’s eligibility and lifecycle remain governed by its product documentation and applicable End-of-Life notice.

Cisco Intersight has supported UCS operations for close to 9 years. Most Cisco UCS M7- and M8-generation servers connected to fabric interconnects are now managed through Cisco Intersight Managed Mode (IMM). This adoption reflects Cisco Intersight’s role as the strategic platform for the future of Cisco UCS software management.

Cisco UCS Manager End-of-Life milestones

The applicable Cisco End-of-Life announcement is the authoritative source for the affected products, milestone definitions, dates, and support terms.

Why Cisco Intersight is the next step

Cisco Intersight carries forward the profiles, policies, and templates familiar to Cisco UCS administrators while extending management beyond a single domain deployment. It provides centralized visibility and consistent management across supported UCS domains in data centers, colocation, and edge environments. Its API-first architecture supports cross-domain automation and integrations that can help teams operate distributed infrastructure at scale. Cisco Intersight software as a service (SaaS) uses a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) model to introduce new capabilities generally every couple of weeks. This approach gives customers ongoing innovation and automatic platform updates without requiring them to plan and maintain management-platform upgrades.

Customers can evaluate IMM according to the hardware, software, licensing, connectivity, deployment model, and functionality supported for their environment. The goal is a planned transition that builds on the operating practices Cisco UCS Manager helped establish.

With Cisco Intersight, you get:

• Centralized visibility and consistent management: Provision, monitor, and manage supported Cisco UCS infrastructure across multiple domains and locations from a common platform.
• Reusable policy-based operations: Apply supported profiles, policies, and templates across distributed environments to promote consistency and reduce repetitive administration.
• Coordinated lifecycle management: Schedule and perform supported firmware updates and operating system installation workflows from a centralized interface, subject to compatibility and change-control requirements.
• Intelligent insights and proactive support: Use health information, hardware compatibility list findings, contextual security advisories, automated log collection, and Cisco Technical Assistance Center integration to help identify and resolve issues sooner.
• API-first automation: Build repeatable workflows using supported APIs, software development kits, and integrations with tools such as Ansible, Terraform, PowerShell, and Python.
• Ecosystem integration: Connect with supported platforms such as ServiceNow, Splunk, VMware vCenter, and supported storage systems for inventory visibility, monitoring, incident management, and workflow automation. Available functions vary by integration and license.
• Flexible deployment choices: Choose SaaS, Intersight Connected Virtual Appliance (CVA), or Intersight Private Virtual Appliance (PVA) to match your connectivity, data-locality, and security requirements. Capabilities and update processes differ by deployment model.
• Ongoing platform innovation: Adopt newly supported capabilities through the release and update process for the selected Intersight deployment model.

Importantly, adopting Intersight delivers integration with Cisco Cloud Control, the unified platform for AgenticOps. This brings your entire Cisco estate into one operational environment, enabling collaborative incident resolution across compute, networking, security, observability, and collaboration along with natural-language assistance for context-aware operational guidance and tasks to further simplify operations.

Carrying the foundation forward

Cisco UCS Manager’s legacy is not only the infrastructure it managed; it is the operating model it introduced. Profiles, policies, templates, identity abstraction, and automation continue to shape Cisco UCS management in Intersight. We remain committed to providing tools, documentation, and guidance that help customers assess their environment and plan the next step with confidence.

Customers with eligible Cisco UCS M7- and M8-generation servers that remain managed by Cisco UCS Manager should plan to transition their fabric interconnect-attached domains to IMM no later than December 31, 2030. That way, they will maintain a Cisco-supported UCS management plane after the planned Cisco UCS Manager Last Date of Support. Transition eligibility and support remain subject to the applicable hardware End-of-Life announcements, active service contracts, and the hardware, software, licensing, and functionality supported by the relevant Intersight release.

Cisco account teams and Cisco Authorized Channel Partners can help customers learn more about Intersight, assess transition readiness, review deployment and licensing options, and develop a migration plan. Cisco also provides demonstrations, product documentation, migration resources, and trial options. New Intersight accounts include a 90-day Advantage trial; evaluation licensing and activation requirements for virtual-appliance deployments vary, and Cisco representatives or authorized partners can help identify the appropriate option.

The Cisco Intersight Managed Mode Transition Tool helps customers assess the readiness of an existing Cisco UCS Manager domain and convert supported policies, service profiles, templates, and fabric configuration for use in IMM. Current releases guide and automate key portions of an in-place migration, including taking a Cisco UCS Manager configuration backup. Because an in-place transition requires planned domain downtime and administrator-controlled steps, customers should review the current user guide, supported-feature information, and limitations before beginning the transition.

To help you assess your environment and plan your path forward, explore the resources below:

Transition to Intersight with the Cisco IMM Transition Tool

View user guide

• Cisco UCS Manager End-of-Life announcement
• Cisco Intersight solution overview
• Cisco Intersight free trial
• Cisco Intersight getting started
• Cisco Intersight What’s New
• IMM Expert Series on YouTube
• Cisco IMM Transition Tool Download
• Cisco IMM Transition Tool User Guide