CUCM CLUSTER RU UPGRADE FAILED FROM 11.5.1 TO 12.5.1

[BrkyRivera]

Hi people,

I am having an issue upgrading CUCM cluster for a customer from version 11.5.1.11900-26 to version 12.5.1.10000-22. Also tried 12.5.1SU3 failed that one too. Cluster is made of 1 Publisher and 1 subscriber, following IM/P and UnityC.

Here is the scenario for both hardware and software:

Hardware platform: BE6000 M4 appliance

Host: ESXi 6.5U3

CUCM OVA version 1.0

Steps taken prior to upgrade:

*Preupgrade task ran with no fails, just warning for smart licensing, so everyting passed fine.

*Ran free common space cop file, after resize of vdisk from 80GB to 110GB as per requirement to get enough free space.

Performed RU upgrade through the OS Administration GUI, restarts and does about 1.5-2 hrs of installing components and seems like last reboot when it crashes and will not boot with this error message (see attached): 

error: file `/refresh_upgrade/isolinux/initrd.img` not found.

Press any key to continue...

Remark: I have tested it prior to this upgrade on a single CUCM server, same scenario completely, upgrades easy and fine.

Thanks in advance people. Any help is appreciated.

[Ritesh Desai]

Hey Hi BrkyRivera



The best answer will be given by TAC if your system is under support contract.



Have you tested earlier in lab environment which worked as you mentioned in Remarks.

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

As @Ritesh Desai mentioned open a case with TAC. 

[Roger Kallberg]

Just to be sure, have checked and made all the required changes to VM host hardware and OS version prior to the upgrade? If possible please post screenshots of this for your VM.

[BrkyRivera]

Hi Roger,

I am not sure if there is a requirement for hardware change other then host OS upgrade??? I havent done any firmware upgrades on physical server. It was running vmware esxi 6.0 so I upgraded to 6.5U3 Cisco custom vmware image.

Hardware is Cisco BE6000 - M4

[Roger Kallberg]

It depends on the information in the OVA. If you used an old version of it to create the VMs initially there could be a few things that has changed, like type of network card and so on. Best would be if you check the current version of the OVA and compare it with the settings you have on the VMs. If there are differences, other than for the obvious with the disk layout, I would recommend you to update that before you start the upgrade.

[BrkyRivera]

I had checked that in advance. There is almost no change in the ova files, other than "cosmetic" changes, naming of configuration types etc...

[Roger Kallberg]

In that case TAC would be your best friend.

[mmoulson2]

Did you ever get a solution to this? I have exactly the same issue upgrading 11.5.1.11900-26 to 12.5.1.14900-63.

I checked the differences between the OVA for 12.5 and 11.5 then only difference I could find was the as Roger said the Guest OS moved from Red Hat to CentOS.

The worst part about this is the VM is totally dead and does not boot.I raise a TAC case and was told we needed to rebuild. The previous cases said this error is mostly caused by "loss of connection to the local datastore, an unexpected power loss event, or corrupted installation media"

[Roger Kallberg]

If you can get the VM to boot on the recovery ISO it would be an option for TAC to get access to the installation to if possible fix whatever that is wrong with it.

[BrkyRivera]

Hello,

I had tried many things to get that thing upgraded and heres what worked for me. I just hope you followed guide and made backup of your cucm or cluster whatever. I deleted the VM that crashed during the upgrade process and re-installed new cucm with the ova from cisco site. I used that backup to restore all data to my CUCM. Once completed and syncd databases as mine is in a cluster, i was able to perform an upgrade without a hassle. If you need anything else just let me know.

[mmoulson2]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Yes we had a VM level backup so were able to restore the cluster quickly. We also attempted the upgrade a second time to find the result was the same.

Can I ask was it just the publisher node that you had to rebuild? Or did you have to also rebuild the other nodes within the cluster?

Many thanks

[Sirtalal]

Hi

I am facing the same problem
Could you please tell me how you solved the problem?

[Roger Kallberg]

@Sirtalal Have you read the response from @BrkyRivera made on the 2021-05-14 08:22 AM? IMHO It outlines very clearly what he/she did do to solve the issue.

[Sirtalal]

Hi Roger 

First of all, thanks for your reply.

In @mmoulson2 last post, he made it clear that he tried again and faced the same error.

If you mean reply of @BrkyRivera , I rebuilt the VM and it didn't work