UCCE Home Lab setup- Most cost effective approach

[Ayodeji Okanlawon]

Guys,

I just wanted to pick your brains on the most cost effective way to get a home lab going with UCCE.

Considering the amount of applications that I need to install, I do know that I will need a beefy server, but what would you all recommend.

Second question is what do I do for licenses?

Ideas/suggestions are all appreciated

[Chintan Gajjar]

I would not talk about the server platform, you know the reason :-).

But regarding the licences, you will need following for UCCE.

CVP:
CVP requires port and server licenses. they are bound to system ID and IP addresses based on application you install.
Now for the lab, CVP comes with 30 CVP ports and 30 VXML Server ports as evaluation and is valid for 30 days after installation.

to workaround the requirement for licensing what can be done is:

--> install ops console on separate machine (May be on Active directory)
--> uninstall CVP(CALL+VXML) when license expires(10 min task)
--> restart machine and reinstall CVP(CALL+VXML) (20 min task)
--> go to ops console server and save and deploy all CVP components(ALL CALL + VXML server) (10 min)
--> restart CVP servers (5 min)

so in this way you can play around lab, keeping your configuration intact.

CUCM:
as you know CUCM by default comes with 60 days evaluation license, but when your license is set to expire you can still request demo license from cisco licensing tool.

there are other licensed products like cisco Interaction manager but for that you may need ask licensing team for the demo license.

Regards,
Chintan

[Ramamoorthy Shanmugam]

Additional points – for lab setup no need to reinstall on  CVP call / VXML server just change the System date and time and restart cisco call and VXML services in services.msc .

[karen.johnson5801]

hi Chintan,

will this work with C240M2?

tks,

K

[Chris Deren]

It sure will.

[karen.johnson5801]

great thanks Chris, 

If  I have 3 unit of C240M2  , what is vcpu allocation for each to be able to play with UCCE, ICM, CVP, PG, etc ?

tks,

K

[Chris Deren]

You need to look at the UCCE/CVP/etc supported OVA templates.

UCCE:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-unified-contact-center-enterprise.html

CVP:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-cisco-unified-customer-voice-portal.html

CUCM:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-cisco-unified-communications-manager.html

others can be found here:

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Unified_Communications_Virtualization_Downloads_(including_OVA/OVF_Templates)#Unified_Contact_Center_Enterprise

[karen.johnson5801]

hi Chris,

sorry, will this also work with  C220 M3S  or BE6K medium ?  just for practice.

thanks,

K

[Chris Deren]

"BE6K medium" is just a bundle name for UCS C-series server and the hardware may be different depending on the time it is purchased. So, you need to look at the actual server i.e. C220M3S to determine compatibility, the links I provided show server compatibilities as well.

[karen.johnson5801]

thanks, i see it compatible and going to try it

[tthottin1]

Can you please advise, is it possible to setup PCCE 10.5 or 11.0 system in spec based server.

[Ramamoorthy Shanmugam]

Hi,

Unfortunately C240 M2 can’t support PCCE 10.x. it will support only C240 M3S TRC#1 & C240 M4SX

Because PCCE After you set up RAID configuration and add the datastores, run the RAID Config Validator utility to ensure that your datastore configuration is correct. During this process may be you will fail

Also PCCE /UCCE latest version is 11.6.x and having more additional features and slightly design change.

Lab purpose better go to UCCE 11.6.x with Cisco UCS tested or non-tested spec.

Since you have 3x1 C240 M2 servers. Before check the UCCE virtualization link for ref.

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-unified-contact-center-enterprise.html

Based on your vCPU, vRAM , vHDD you can decide for Virtual machines. If you have performance issue later we can increase CPU, RAM and HDD for UCCE.

VM	Components	lab environments	Lab Not Required
1	CVP	CVP OAMP	CVP Reporting
		CVP CALL/VXML
2	ICM_sprawler	ICM_Router
		ICM_Logger
		ICM_AW-HDS
		ICM _PG -include CTI server , Outbound Dialer
3	Linux	CUCM PUB	Sub not required
		FINESSE	Second note not required
		Co-resident CUIC+Live data ( Ver 11.5.x  onwards)
4	ECE	ECE_App - Email & Chat	Optional
		ECE_Web	Optional
		VVB - VXML voice browser	Optional
		CVP Reporting - CVP reporting	Optional
		CCMP - Reskilling	Optional
		Social miner - Task routing	Optional
		Media cense - Recording	Optional

All the best for your lab setup!

Thanks,

Ram.S

[tthottin1]

Can you please advise, is it possible to setup PCCE 10.5 or 11.0 system in spec based server.

[Chris Deren]

In addition to Chintan's response (+5), for the UCCE components if you don't need to do any failover testing of components it is OK to deploy a Sprawler with side A only which will reduce the required number of ICM servers. You can probably install Finesse on the same box as well if you chose so.

[karen.johnson5801]

Chris,

Sorry, I am newbie to CCE world.

Do you mind break down what component  & how many Window server I need to install for minimum ICM CCE CVP Finesse?

SPRAWRL do you have document on how to ?  and If we use SPRAWL then how many amount Windows server we need?

thanks in adv

K