CUCM Upgrade from 11.5 to 12.5

[LibinBenedict]

Hi All,

I am planning to upgrade CUCM 11.5.1 SU2 to 12.5.1 SU4 along with IM&P and Unity connection (after upgrading ESXi from 6.0 to 6.5U2). Can you please clarify the below queries:

1. Do we need to upgrade the VM version from 8 to 13 or higher or does it upgrade automatically or will stay on 8 itself?

2. For the various cop files that need to be applied before and after upgrade (free disk space, readiness check, etc), I see the cop files signed with sha512 checksum in software downloads. Do I need to use those specific cop files or I can use the ones that do not use sha512 (For eg. ciscocm.free_common_space_v1.6.cop.sha512 vs ciscocm.free_common_space_v1.6.cop.sgn)

Thanks and regards,

Libin Benedict

[Jaime Valencia]

No VM changes (add/modify HW) nor changing the VM version are done by the upgrade process of CUCM, all those are handled offline directly on ESXi by the individual performing the upgrade.

We recommend using the latest versions, if the latest ones are sha512 you can install the COP file that enables you to use sha512 files in your system, most likely you will need it anyway if any new files come with sha512. 

If they are the same version as the ones you mention, it makes no difference which one you use.

[LibinBenedict]

Hi java,

Thank you for the response.

1) The vm version will get updated when we upgrade the VMware tools? Should we use open vmtools instead of native vmtools? I found in one of the discussions that open vmtools is recommended for UC 12.x (https://community.cisco.com/t5/unified-communications/cucm-11-5-to-12-5-upgrade/td-p/4315575), however, could not find any documentation which says so.

2) Both sha512 and normal cop are version 1.6. So, it is okay to use any of those, right?

Regards,

Libin Benedict

[Jaime Valencia]

No, the VM tools and the VM HW are different things, suggest you reach out to whoever handles your virtualization environment for assistance with the required changes.

[LibinBenedict]

Hi java,

Is the vm version upgrade to 13 is mandatory (the 12.5 ova for CUCM fresh install is v13, but ours is an upgrade)?

Regards,

Libin Benedict

[Jaime Valencia]

Changes to match the VM specs of the target version are mandatory.

[LibinBenedict]

Hi java,

Thank you for the response.

So, the upgrade of the virtual hardware version to 13 can be done prior to the upgrade of the applications as long as we are on ESXi 6.5 or above, correct?

Regards,

Libin Benedict

[Roger Kallberg]

I would recommend you to use the open version.

[LibinBenedict]

Hi Roger,

Is there any documentation from Cisco that says open tools are recommended? Native tools can cause issues?

At what stage do we need to update or change the vmtools to open? After the upgrade of the cluster including the switch version is completed or prior to the switch version? Also when is the vm version update to be done if at all needed?

Regards,

Libin Benedict

[Roger Kallberg]

AFAICR it’s mentioned in some of the recommended reading material for upgrade from 11.x to 12.x or possibly 12.5 that the recommendation is to switch to use the open variant of vmtools. The benefit of this it that you would never need to think of updates again for this as it’s automatically updated together with the upgrade of CM/CUC/CUPS/CCX. You’ll do the switch to open once you have completed the entire upgrade process to the version that has support for the open variant of the vmtools, that would include switch version.

[TomMar1]

Check this doc https://www.cisco.com/web/software/282204704/18582/ciscocm.enable-sha512sum-2021-signing-key-v1.0.cop.sgn-COP-Readme.pdf.  From what I can tell the version of UCM you are running is sha512 compatible. 

[LibinBenedict]

Hi tmariutto,

Thank you for this document. But I found that 11.5 SU2 is not compatible with sha512, the min 11.x version is 11.5.1.17111-2.

Regards,

Libin Benedict