Cisco Jabber EOL

[cdevkota-sc]

We are working  deployment of jabber application to all of our users. I see one of the notice about EOL

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/unified-communications/jabber-windows/eos-eol-notice-listing.html

End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco Jabber Guest for FLEX subscriptions

We are using Jabber Version 14.2.0.58008 Build 308008  with IMP System version: 12.5.1.16900-3

Do you think we are impacted on this notice?

Thanks!

[Steven L · Accepted solution]

you are not affected by this. the notice is specifically related to jabber guests.

that said there have been rumors and speculation regarding EOL for Cisco jabber in general.

I have not seen any official notice in this regard and have been repeatedly told there are no current plans to EOL Jabber.

[cdevkota-sc]

Thanks for the confirmation!

[Roger Kallberg]

The announcement you reference is for Jabber Guest. That’s not the same as regular Jabber. So it doesn’t apply to the use case you outline.

This said I would personally not recommend anyone to deploy Jabber at this time as you can get the same, or even better functionality with Webex. Plus that it requires less on-premises resources and operates much more stable than what Jabber does, or at least did when we were using Jabber.

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

minor clarification: the Webex app is a viable replacement for Jabber with CUCM/CUC/Expeessway (not IM&P). You’re certainly welcome to consider Webex Calling as a replacement for CUCM - and many customers are doing exactly that - but it’s not a requirement.

I agree with the general sentiment that new deployments should be using the Webex app instead of Jabber at this point.

[Roger Kallberg]

As the current licensing model is Flex-3 and it includes Meeting and Calling from what I know it would also include messaging and presence. With that IM&P would in my view be applicable with the Webex application. Or am I reading the ordering guide for Flex-3 wrong?

[Jonathan Schulenberg · Accepted solution]

I meant that the Webex app does not support the XMPP-based messaging and presence architecture of the IM&P server. It uses Cisco’s newer cloud infrastructure for that functionality instead - even when leveraging CUCM/CUC/Expressway for calling capabilities. This is a good thing because Cisco specifically designed Webex messaging to address the shortcomings of IM&P. I see them as different generations: IM&P XMPP is from the AOL/YIM/Lync era while Webex messaging is of the iMessage/Slack/MS Teams era; completely different philosophies.

As for Flex 3, only some of the offers under that umbrella include calling and meetings - and only the latest Webex Suite offer is price neutral whether the calling stack is on-prem or cloud. There are calling-only and meeting-only options but all of the variations include the Webex app and messaging, unless the customer admin disables it.

[Vict]

Can you help me integration document between webexapp and expressway C&E with onprem CUCM.

what license is required on Expressway side in order to get this webexapp working on mobiles

[Roger Kallberg]

There are no licenses needed for Expressway when running the MRA service. Only if your for some reason using very old version of the OS in Expressway you'll need option keys, but you would be recommended to use the current version and then no keys are needed.

[collinks2]

are you saying that MRA deployment with the current version of expressway does not require license or option keys? if yes, what is the version of this expressway. I currently ,i have cucm 12.5,imp12.5, exp 12.5.7

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

To leverage on-prem CUCM calling using the MRA feature with the Webex app, you don’t need any specific licenses. The old Expressway used to have option keys, if i recall  they were $0 parts, but the new versions have completely removed the concept of adding option keys to activate the feature.

On CUCM, you need to configure devices the same way you do for Jabber. For Webex app login, you need to configure the user on the Control Hub.

Here is the link to MRA configurations guide.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/expressway/config_guide/X14-0/mra/exwy_b_mra-deployment-guide-14/exwy_m_basic-configuration.html

[collinks2]

"On CUCM, you need to configure devices the same way you do for Jabber. For
Webex app login, you need to configure the user on the Control Hub."
I have MRA already set up and working. What is Webexapp? What devices do I
need to configure in cucm for Webexapp? I would like to test it.

[Roger Kallberg]

It would be CSF devices for computer clients, TCT for iPhone devices, BOT for Android devices and TAB for iPad devices.

[collinks2]

Ok.Thanks a lot. I understand now. It is the same for jabber. I have just enabled a user to register WebEx to on premise cucm. On the webex app, I can't find phone services where I can enter the FQDN of expressway e and the cucm domain. Can you put me in the right direction?

[Roger Kallberg]

The Webex app uses the same service discovery process as Jabber. You should not need to configure anything manually in the application.