Cisco PCCE UCS firmware upgrade

[RAHUL M]

Hi,

Our environment have  Cisco PCCE 11.5 installed on a UCS - B200M4 servers in 2 different data centers. We are planning to upgrade the UCS firmware versions on one data center(side A blades)  this month  and the other DC blades (Side B) will happen couple of months later. I went through couple of documents and only the ESXI versions are mentioned and dont have anything specific to UCS firmware. Is it supported to have blades with different UCS firmware versions running  UC/CC components in duplex environment?

Thanks,

Rahul

[bill.king1]

This is outside my area of experience, but I would tend to think not, based on Cisco statements like this

"The two Packaged CCE servers must use the same server model." that is the PCCE guide, but then again if you're using a supported version of software in general they might allow it.

[RAHUL M]

Thanks Bill for your response. 

The server model is not going to change and only the firmware is getting upgraded in batches (may be span of 2 months) . PCCE solution check only for the ESXI version and not the UCS firmware version. I wanted to know, if fail over happens there are no issues in the application due to the difference in firmware.

Thanks,

Rahul

[bill.king1]

I think you're now asking two different questions. Originally you asked if it is supported, but now you're asking will there be issues. Like with many things, it may be work but Cisco may not support it.

For instance, they say this in the UCCE 11.5 guide, which while firmware is a little fuzzy, I would interpret as hardware, so they may say that they would not support it if you ran into a problem.

"Upgrade scenarios are considered at a component level; you can perform one type of upgrade on one component, and another type of upgrade on another component. However, the A and B side of any given component must be running on identical hardware."

[RAHUL M · Accepted solution]

Bill,

Sorry if the questions are confusing. I wanted to know if this is supported design with no issues. 

I have raised a case with Cisco and got a response, that there are no documents or tested reference on this type of upgrades. However they confirmed if the ESXI is not changed there shouldn't be any issues. The system doesn't validate any UCS CIMC  or firmware versions. 

Thanks,

Rahul