CUCM In Place upgrade from 8.5 to 10.5 - error unsupported unaligned partition error

[Yort Mantup]

Wanted to share my experience and get some input

Current:  CM 5.5.1.12900-7

Upgrading to:  10.5.1.10000-7

Virtualized Env.  (2) UCS 210M2

1 Pub  1 Sub

Attempted the upgrade this past weekend and ran into the unsupported error partitions unaligned issue. Worked with TAC and because I do not have the resources on the server to bring up a new VM to install a fresh copy of 10.5,  I had to wipe away the PUB and install fresh copy of 8.5 (same version as before) and then do the same for the SUB and restored from backup.  Basically tested our DR recovery procedure.

TAC told me the issue was because I did not install the ciscocm.version3-keys.cop.sgn file on the SUB before upgrading the PUB.  I was not planning on installing it until I was ready to upgrade SUB.  I do have the cop files installed on both nodes now.  This didn't sit well and the more I thought about it afterwards the more I questioned TAC's response. 

Here were my exact steps:

1. Verify good DRS back-up.

2. Remove any snapshots

3. Use RTMT to clear out old logfiles.Go to Trace and Log Central in RTMT, select Collect Files, choose a time period (previous 6 month), do not zip the files and check the box to Delete the files from the server.Do this to avoid Common Partition being full possibility.  (Did this prior to step 1)

4. Install ciscocm.version3-keys.cop.sgn

5. Install refresh.cop file

6. Shut down Pub VM

7. Change the guest OS version to RHEL 6 (64 bit)

8. Increase the VDisk Space on hard disk 2 from 80GB to 110GB.Leave hard disk 1 at 80GB.

9. Take Snapshot of VM in case issue with step 8.

10. Modify the network adapter to use the VMXNET 3 adapter type.Will follow option 1 from the 10.5OVA Read Me.Requires modifying existing .vmx file

11. Remove Snapshot

12. Mount 10.5.1 ISO and run upgrade.Switch new version after upgrade option..

When the PUB came up and I had the error.  I was unable to take a backup of the 10.5 upgrade - seems to be an issue with the DRS backup - did not try restarting the DRF Master and DRF Local services on the CUCM Cluster.. just proceeded with the rebuild to original 8.5

I felt that because I was doing an in place upgrade on existing hardware and the partitions are currently aligned, I should be ok.  

I am planning on another go this weekend and will have a contingency plan in place to get to 10.5 if I encounter the error again.  Looking for any input as to what I could have done differently, if there is anything to avoid the issue.

[chrisnoon11]

Hello Troy,

Did you encounter any issues with your 8.5 Unity Connection after the CUCM 10.5 upgrade?

[Yort Mantup]

I have not.  We are still running UCXN  8.5 and am scheduled to upgrade it during next months maintenance weekend.  I did mis-type the info above..I upgraded from CUCM 8.5 to 10.5.1.10000-7... I would advise against this version of 10.5  Very Buggy!  I have since upgrade to 10.5.1(SU1).  Only issue I have encountered with SU1 is the PLM License service shows not started related to BUG CSCur32516.  It's actually a cosmetic issue since production is not actually affected... but I had to disable the critical alert notification in RTMT so as not to get blasted with those emails.  10.5.1 (SU1a) fixes this.  I would go directly to this one or 10.5.2. 

[chrisnoon11]

Thanks for the info.  I am planning to go to 10.5.2 anyway.  Glad to hear that UCXN 8.5 plays nice, so I don't have to rush to do that during the same window.

What made you attempt the direct upgrade from 8.5 to 10.5?  All the release notes I've read indicate that 8.6 is the oldest version that supports direct upgrade to 10.5.  I would love to do a direct, and I will try it in a lab first, but I did not think it was an option.

[Yort Mantup]

I showed it was supported and checked with TAC... the main thing was that you want to be sure that your current system was configured with the correct OVF template to begin with else you risk the chance of getting the unaligned partition error as I did.. however our OVF was correct to begin with but as mentioned earlier in the post, a few things different on my end may or may not have caused the error. I never really received confirmation from TAC on that.  Just make sure you have your .cop files installed on all nodes prior to upgrading the PUB. 

Good Luck! Let me know how it goes. 

[jacky.reinbold]

Hi guys,

I'm playing also with upgrades coming from CUCM with the following path Customer Hw. 7.1.3 > 7.1.5 > Backup > 7.1.5 VM on ESXi 5.5 Lab > Restore DB > 8.5.1 SU7 > 10.5.2 SR1 (supported path like described in matrix an Cisco Live presentations)

The 7.1.5 VM in the lab has been build on a 8.5 ova, as it does not work with greater versions.

At the end, on V10.5.2 SR1, I was running into the partition allignment error.

After reading your post, I've seen that the 8.5 ova does NOT contain two disks as explained by many guys.

I will create a second 110 Gb Disk and will try it again.  I suppose that in may case anyway, if I make a backup in my lab, even with the allignment error, it will go away when I restore the DB on a 10.5 ova on customer hosts.

[tonyperla]

Hello,

The 8.5 OVA that you are referencing, what is it's user size?  I know that the 8.5 OVA template for a 7500 user CUCM  node does in fact utilize two 80 GB drives.  You cannot simply just create another drive in the hope to mimic the correct OVA, it will cause you to still receive the unaligned partitions message.

Hope this helps

Tony

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[Anil Sharma]

hi Gents,

I see this thread is quite old however appreciate if anyone could help me with below questions:

1) My customer have CUCM version 8.5.1.12900-7 & we are planning to upgrade it to 10.5, what are the active contracts my customer should have for this upgrade (i.e. how can we get the ISO files) & how to get Licenses for newer version

2) Customer also have CUP server 8.6.4.10000-28 which is to be upgraded to 10.5 as well, based on experiences any best practices or suggestions.

Appreciate your response.

Regards,

Anil Sharma.

[Aman Soi]

Hi Anil,

Your customer needs to have UCSS and ESW contract [Now , SWSS] so that they can place the order  through PUT[Product Upgrade Tool]

ISO files[major upgrade s/w] u can download from cisco site as well but to have permanent licenses , u need to place order through PUT.

For licenses, download LCU from cisco site and run on PC , from where Call Manager Publisher is reachable.to get the licenses count as per UCL/CUWL.

regds,

aman

[Anil Sharma]

hi Aman,

Thanks for your response.

When checking on Cisco.com to download non-bootable 10.5 iso image. it says file is:  

"For upgrades from 10x only. Upgrades from 9.x or earlier versions must be requested via PUT (www.cisco.com/upgrade) or purchased to obtain the necessary licenses"

So, it means even ISO files are available from PUT. Is this correct ?

Regards,

Anil Sharma.

[Aman Soi]

Hi,

I checked on earlier orders but I did not get option to download patches [iso].

You get the option of desired version [to be upgraded, for Bootable] on e-delivery when ordered through PUT.

So, u need to download from Cisco site.

regds,

aman

[chrisnoon11]

Troy,

I completed my upgrades this weekend successfully.  Your notes and advice were very helpful.  It was a very long weekend, but we accomplished:

CUCM 8.5.1SU3 --> 10.5.2

CUC  8.5.1SU3 --> 10.5.2

UCCX  8.5.1SU4 -->  10.5.1SU1

CER 9.0.2 --> 10.5.1a

All upgrades were direct refresh upgrades, and all went smoothing without incident, with the exception of CUC.  Our plan was to not automatically switch-version after the install, but the GUI did not offer the option.  This did not bother me at the time, because it was similar to UCCX which did not offer the option but defaulted to "Do not automatically switch."  However, CUC finished the upgrade and booted straight into 10.5, prompting me to need to rush to get the subscriber upgraded.  In the end it worked out, but TAC could not explain the missing option, saying only that the CLI does ask for your preference.

I did also encounter the CRS script problem you had with XML docs and have removed the objects from my scripts for the moment.  How did you change your scripts to resolve this problem?
 

[tonyperla]

Hi Chris,

How old is the script that references the XML?  I have plenty of scripts in my UCCX environment that reference XML files that worked fine after upgrading but I went from UCCX 9.0.2 to 10.6 to take advantage of the mixed mode setup between CAD and Finesse.

Hope this helps

Tony

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[chrisnoon11]

They were written for ver 8.5.1 about a year ago,  but it is possible that I referenced documentation from an older version when I wrote them.

[tonyperla]

You could always remove the current XML files from UCCX if there is a compatibility issue with them and then recreate and upload back to UCCX to see if that resolves the issue.  That's at least where I would start.

Hope this helps

Tony

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[nickkassel]

My investigations were that I could not find anywhere that specifically stated direct upgrade from 8.5 to 10.x was supported for CUCM, and the PDI helpdesk advised to go to 8.6 first. I did find a Unity Connection document that said it was a supported upgrade path so as I thought that was less risky, I attempted the upgrade for Unity Connection direct 8.5.1 to 10.5.2 SU1 and that worked fine, no issues since. I didnt have the guts to do the direct CUCM upgrade so went 8.5 to 8.6 then upgraded to 10.5.2 SU1 after. All fine no issues apart from the time it took 7 hours for 3 server cluster to 8.6 then another 7 hours up  to 10.5, then I had to upgrade the CUPS after that, a very long weekend!!!