CWMS 1.5 MR4 to 2.5 upgrade

[Richard Simmons]

Hi All,

I'm planning an upgrade of CWMS 1.5MR4 to 2.5 and have the read instructions here on how to do this;  

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/collaboration/CWMS/2_5/Administration_Guide/Administration_Guide/Administration_Guide_chapter_01010.html

I assume that all existing scheduled meetings will be maintained, it doesn't say either way in the document, can someone please confirm if this is the case?

Many thanks,

Richard

[dpetrovi · Accepted solution]

Hi Richard,

All the data is being preserved.

If you are upgrading Automatically, the data will be pulled from existing 1.5 system to 2.5 solution automatically during the process of deploying 2.5 VMs.

If you are upgrading Manually, once you deploy 2.5 VMs, you will be instructed to manually move VMDK file (Hard Disk 4) from 1.5 Admin VM to 2.5 Admin VM before you boot 2.5 Admin VM for the first time. With this Hard Disk 4 transfer, you transfer all the data and configuration from 1.5 to 2.5.

-Dejan

[Richard Simmons]

Hi Dejan,

Thanks for confirming - i will be completing the automatic upgrade.

Regards,

Richard

[dpetrovi]

Just to ensure, Richard, you are aware of all the prerequisites for the Automatic Upgrade, I am including them below:

With Automatic Upgrade, you need to ensure many different things:

1. Free Disk Space on your ESXi hosts (for 50 users 1.117TB of free disk sipace, for larger 990GB of free disk space on the host where Admin VM resides) - this is if you use the same hardware. If upgrading to new hardware, you will need to ensure 1.5TB of disk space.

2. Dedicate a temporary IP address and host name for 2.5 Upgrade Admin VM. 

3. You cannot have Distributed vSwitch configured on your ESXi host as automatic upgrade cannot perform a successful deployment of the VMs in that case (you have to use Standard vSwitch)

4. You have to ensure that NTP client is started on each ESXi host, that it is configured to Start and Stop with host, and that time is in sync. If the time is not in sync, you will have to put the system into Maintenance Mode, gracefully shut down the VMs (right-click the VM in vCenter > Power > Shut Down Guest) and then correct the time, ensure NTP is configured properly, and then power on the VMs)

5. You have to ensure that your vCenter is accessible using vCenter server hostname and not just IP address as the upgrade wizard has to connect to vCenter using FQDN and not the IP address of vCenter

6. Your DMZ Firewall must have all the same rules configured for the temp IP address and hostname as it does for the original Admin VM hostname and IP. That way, the wizard will have all the needed access rights to the ESXi host in the DMZ to create 2.5 IRP VM

Good luck with your upgrade. 

-Dejan

[dpetrovi]

And one more thing, keep in mind that CWMS 2.5 introduces some changes in License Management that can also impact the way your end user community is using the system.

In 2.5 host licenses are permanently assigned to the host after first hosted meeting on 2.5 version level. This license will stay attached to the host, until the host is deactivated (in 1.5, if the host doesn't host any meetings for more than 30 days, the license is automatically released for someone else to use it; that is not the case in 2.5).

Also, in 2.0 and earlier, a single user can host as many meetings at the same time as he/she wants (and if there are enough licenses). For each additional meeting, they user will consume an additional host license. 

This is not possible in 2.5. In 2.5 a single user can host up to 2 concurrent meetings and can consume only 1 permanent licenses. This is an important limitation as we've seen situations where customers had one person scheduling meetings for many others without using delegate feature. All that works fine on 2.0 and earlier, but in 2.5 no more that two concurrent meetings can start, so that caused major issues for the end users.

I just wanted to ensure you are aware of these changes, and that your end user community is using the system in a way that is compatible with 2.5.

-Dejan

[Richard Simmons]

Thanks for taking the time to provide this additional information!

[Richard Simmons]

Hi Dejan,

How do you deploy the new server? i have downloaded the .iso file but can't find a ovf template to know what size to configure the server? I can't see an .ova file to download either.

Thanks in advance,

Richard

[dpetrovi]

Hi Richard,

OVA file can be obtained via Product Upgrade Tool and is not available on Cisco.com. You can check this post on how to access PUT and order CWMX 2.x media:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12110101/ordering-cwms-2x-migration-file-through-product-upgrade-tool

I hope this will be of help.

-Dejan

[Richard Simmons]

Hi Dejan,

I've just been through the upgrade process for the last 6 hours, i have tried both the manual and the automatic upgrade and am unable to get either to work.

The manual process seems to fall down at step 14.

Step 13	Enter the deployment URL into a web browser.
Step 14	Select Continue to launch the system setup. The progress of the upgrade is displayed on the deployment URL of the upgraded system and on the VMware console connected to the primary system Admin virtual machine

When i power on the new virtual machines and browse to the URL it takes me through the inital setup, there is no Continue button or information about an upgrade, just looks like a clean install - what am i doing wrong?

Thanks,

Richard

[dpetrovi]

Hi Richard,

Before you power on upgrade VMs, you need to copyHard Disk 4 VMDK file from original Admin VM to the upgrade Admin VM. Very often I've seen customers copying VMDK 4 file thinking it is Hard Disk 4, but that is not the case. Hard Disk 4 is normally VMDK 3 file. You can go to your original Admin VM > Edit Settings > and check the Hard Disk 4 VMDK file name. 

Based on this limited amount of information, that is the only thing that comes to mind to be wrong.

Let me know how it goes.

-Dejan

[Richard Simmons]

Hi Dejan,

Thanks for getting back to me, i did indeed copy over hard disk 4, which had the file name of servername_3 - i'm really not sure where i went wrong.

Upgrading WebEx has so far been a complete disaster, i currently have a case open with TAC but it's not progressing very well.

Can you confirm, when doing a manual upgrade you just build the servers as the standard i.e '250 users admin' and not the auto-upgrade as detailed in the automatic upgrade section?

Thanks,

Richard

[dpetrovi]

Hi Richard,

That is correct. You deploy all the VMs like a new install (for 250 system, you deploy Admin, Media and IRP (if you have them) and HA VMs if the original system has HA) but you keep them all powered OFF after deployment. You then need to copy the Hard Disk 4 from the original Admin VM to the new Admin VM, and once that is successfully completed, then you power on the VMs. 

That is pretty much all that needs to be done during the upgrade (a new deployment with a transfer of Hard Disk 4).

-Dejan

[Richard Simmons]

Thanks Dejan - thats exactly what i did, however when i booted the server after transfering over HD4 and assigning it it booted and looked like it was a fresh install, it didnt read any of the data from HD4

I'll have to wait for the next change window and have the TAC engineer run through it with me to see where it fails.

Thanks for all you help!

Regards,

Richard

[dpetrovi]

I think that would be the best next step at this point.

Kind regards,

-Dejan

[Richard Simmons]

Just an FYI - I went though the upgrade again over the weekend, followed the same process and it worked this time, i did note there was an additional file that copied over with the .vmdk

Just have a couple of issues with the productivity tools and recording play back now!

Thanks to everyone for you assistance and advice, especially Dejan!

Richard