CUCM 8.6.2.20000-2 Unrestricted Upgrade

[Morcos Magdy]

Hello Everybody,

Have a good day

I have a CUCMs 8.6.2.20000-2 Unrestricted with 4000 Unit License running on VMs on Cisco UCS C 210 M2 and want to upgrade to CUCM 11.x or 12.x version and here are some questions

1- is that possible and how ?

2- shall i pay for new licenses or can upgrade my current license (4000 unit) ?

3- if i can upgrade the current licenses (4000 unit) then how much am i going to pay for the upgrade to have licenses equal to the 4000 unit i have ?

4- the current HW is Cisco UCS C 210 M2 and the current VMware version i have is 4.1.0 shall i need a new hardware and new version of VMware ?

Thanks

Morcos Magdy

[Tyson Joachims]

1. Yes it is possible. If you have enough space on the server, my recommendation would be to spin up a new VM and install CUCM 8.6 with the same IP addresses as your current CUCM. Do a backup of your original CUCM and then a restore on the new CUCM. Now both VMs should be the same. You'll need to install some cop files listed in the respective upgrade guide according to the version of CUCM you choose to go to (Here is the v11.0 guide: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/upgrade/11_0_1/CUCM_BK_U97537E5_00_upgrade-guide-cucm_1101/Upgrade_planning.html). Then go through the upgrade process which may require stepping through a few versions before getting to 11.x or 12.x. Keep in mind that several phones have been depreciated in those versions so I'd take an inventory of your current phone models and determine how many phones you may need to replace.

2. I'm not sure on licensing. You'd have to consult a Cisco AM/SE to know for sure.

3. Same answer as #2

4. I can say for sure that the Cisco UCS C210M2 went end of hardware support Nov 30, 2017. With that in mind, I have to ask "how critical is your phone system to your business?" If the answer is "not very critical" then you could play around on that C210 until it dies. Otherwise, I would absolutely get newer hardware. As for the ESXi version, according to https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-cisco-unified-communications-manager.html, you most definitely will need to upgrade your ESXi to a minimum of 5.0U1 to run CUCM 11.x

[Jaime Valencia]

11.5 will go EOS once 14 is out this year, the earliest version you want to upgrade to right now is 12.5, everything you need to know about requirements is in the UC virtualization site, and the mandatory reading regardless of what upgrade path you choose, all for target version 
 
A) Upgrade and migration guide
B) Release Notes 
C) Compatibility matrix (depending on product might be a standalone doc, or within any of the other docs I mention) 
D) README from ova
E) HW/ESXi compatibility 
 
After reading all of the above, you'll have all the information to plan the upgrade. 

Whether you have to pay or not will all depend on your support contract status, this is something you need to discuss with your SE or with a Cisco Partner WITH voice specializations and they will provide the options based on that. They will also discuss with you the fact that DLUs do not exist past 8.x and 9.x+ uses user licensing.

As mentioned, that HW is EOS, so, even if you might be able to get it running on it, you'll have no support in case of HW failure.

I'd get new HW, and use PCD to migrate to 12.5

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

1- is that possible and how ?

you need a new hardware, new licenses.12.5 will be the best option and migration can be done using PCD(possible if you are migrating to unrestricted version). 

2- shall i pay for new licenses or can upgrade my current license (4000 unit) ?

8.6 reached EOL 2017 and your ECMU also. With perpetual licensing model we can use upgrade part number. But with the new flex I am not sure.

We run License Count Utility to covert the DLU to new licensing  model(CUWL & UCL). But if there is 78XX series we need to do some manual calculation as the LCU won't detect the new phone models. 

3- if i can upgrade the current licenses (4000 unit) then how much am i going to pay for the upgrade to have licenses equal to the 4000 unit i have ?

You need to contact Cisco SE or a Cisco Partner for pricing .  

4- the current HW is Cisco UCS C 210 M2 and the current VMware version i have is 4.1.0 shall i need a new hardware and new version of VMware ?

AFAIK CUCM 12.5 need VMware 6.5.As per the Vmware Compatibility guide UCS 210  M2 cannot go more than 6.0.U3.

The latest hardware is UCS 220 M5.