CUCM migration from UCS 260 M2 to BE 7000H

[nitinkapoor41]

Hi all,

We have 4 UCS 260 M2 servers which are managed by a Vnceter.

Current ESXI version on 4 UCS servers: 6.0.U3

V-center version: 6.0

storage type: Local

Applications running on the Virtual machines:

1. Cisco unified Call manager

2. Cisco Unity Connection server

As UCS 260 M2 servers are going EOL by April 2020, we are planning to replace the servers with UCS 240 M5(BE 7000H).

Questions:

1. Can we add the new UCS C240 M5 to the existing Vcenter ?

2. if option 1 says yes, then for CUCM and CUC applications, we should be able to do a cold migration which is will be  TAC supported?

[Chris Deren · Accepted solution]

You can add the new server to vCenter as long as you have proper ESXI license.

With that being said vCenter is backwards compatible with ESXI, but not forward compatible, so if your new server is running ESXi 6.5 for example you cannot add it to 6.0 vCenter.  You would need to first upgrade vCenter, which would be backwards compatible with the old 6.0 ESXi server.  

Once you have both servers on the same vCenter you can simply migrate the virtual machines.

[nitinkapoor41]

Thanks for the response.

Not sure why there is less documentation available on Cisco for this kind of migration.

The majority of the documents suggest to go for a DRS, backup and restore for the CUCM/CUC applications.

Since cold migration is not considered as v motion and supported by Cisco, I don't see any reason for going with the DRS/backup option which will be process-wise more complicated.