linux-drivers/
drivers/scsi/snic

Cisco UCS VIC sNIC SCSI Controller

A specialized SCSI host adapter built into Cisco's UCS Virtual Interface Card for the UCS M-Series modular servers, used to expose shared local storage as virtual drives to compute blades. The hardware shipped during the mid-2010s and was central to Cisco's short-lived M-Series composable platform.

keep-annotate conf=0.78 last_sold=2016 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=scsi category=storage-scsi-ata
78%

recommendation

Worth keeping but flagging as legacy, because the underlying Cisco UCS M-Series platform was dropped from UCS Manager support starting with release 3.1(2) and is no longer sold, so few production sites still rely on it. However, the code is not abandoned upstream: it was swept up in treewide linux-scsi cleanups and API conversions as recently as late 2024, so there is no active removal effort and no urgency to pull it.

repository signals

34 files
9,694 source lines
31 commits, 5y
+164 / −653 lines added / removed, 5y
18 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 31 total · active in 18/61 months
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sources

  1. lore.kernel.org

    The driver still receives upstream attention in linux-scsi via recent 2024 treewide API-conversion work touching snic.

  2. lore.kernel.org

    snic was included in a December 2024 SCSI-wide cleanup series, showing it is still build-maintained upstream.

  3. cisco.com

    Cisco documents sNIC as the SCSI NIC used for Cisco UCS M-Series shared local storage / virtual drives.

  4. cisco.com

    Cisco states UCS Manager Release 3.1(2) and later do not support UCS M-Series servers, indicating the platform is long out of current-product focus.

  5. cateee.net

    LKDDb maps CONFIG_SCSI_SNIC to Cisco vendor 1137 device 0046, identifying the hardware as the Cisco VIC SCSI Controller.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Kconfig/local-tree inspection via shell showed SNIC is a real PCI SCSI HBA driver for Cisco device 1137:0046. lore_activity on drivers/scsi/snic/snic_main.c returned recent 2024 linux-scsi patches (URLs above); I found no successful lore evidence of an active removal/deprecation series, only ongoing treewide upkeep. Web search on cisco.com identified sNIC as specific to UCS M-Series shared-local-storage virtual drives and separately showed UCS Manager 3.1(2)+ no longer supports M-Series, so new deployments in 2025 are unlikely. Because upstream still touches the code but the hardware appears legacy and niche, this fits keep-annotate rather than remove or immediate deprecate.