BE6000H-M4 : esxi 6.5 or 6.7 ? which one is current suitable version

[jaheshkhan]

we are in deployment stage of BE6000H-M4. Client want to upgrade to latest firmware, vmware esxi and UC application.

my question is that which is stable version for cisco custom image for BE6000H-M4 for firmware and esxi. esxi currently it is 6.0. i found there are couple of esxi cisco custom image of 6.5, 6.5 U1, 6.5 U2 and even 6.7. which one is ideal one? i found from vmware website that 6.5 U2 cannot upgrade to 6.7 as of now.

can we use the same 6.0 vmware license for esxi 6.5 and 6.7?

[Ratheesh Kumar]

Hi there

I dont think you will get an accurate answer for which is the stable version of ESXi. Most of the UC Apps supports versions 5.0 U1, 5.1, 5.5, 6.0, and 6.5. My environment is currently on 5.5 and 6.0. You cant get rid of issues anyhow, you have to be proactive and patch it accordingly.

You should follow this below guide 

At a Glance - Cisco Collaboration Virtualization Support

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/cisco-collaboration-virtualization.html

Hope this helps!

Cheers
Rath!

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[joshua.gertig]

It's strange that the website still says up to 6.5 is supported however we just order a few new BE7Ks, preloaded with CUCM, CXN, etc. It shipped with version 6.7. So far no issues. 

[R0g22]

What is the CSR for the BE6k that you are deploying ?

[Chris Deren]

Assuming you are ploying applications that support it I would go with latest supported which is 6.5, this way you don't fall behind too much and 6.5 has been around for a while with many deployments including Cisco UC.

Supported versions are listed on specific Cisco UC app wiki, here is an example of CUCM:

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

Supported Versions of VMware vSphere ESXi= 6.5 (For application fresh installs on ESXi 6.5 (VMFS5 or 6) and/or vCenter 6.5, use minimum OVA file version cucm_12.5_vmv13_v1.0.ova. Does not apply to ESXi version upgrades.)