CUCM Upgrade with Virtualization

[Martin Bauer]

Hello everyone, I would like to share some doubts about CUCM upgrade with virtualization. In our cenario we have CUCM 7.1.3.32900-4 working in a MCS 7825I4 with 2Gb of memory and 2xHD 250Gb.

We need to upgrade to CUCM 9.1 in a virtualization cenario. By cisco upgrade guide it is necessary to upgrade from 7.1 to 9.1 in MCS, perform a backup of the system and restore the backup in CUCM 9.1 virtualized. The big problem is that CUCM 9.1 require 4Gb of memory and we have only 2Gb in MCS.

Some considerations:

CUCM 7.1 cannot be virtualized, so we cannot install in virtualization environment and upgrade to 9.1.

Only CUCM 8.5 and after are possible of being virtualized.

We are thinking in upgrade from 7.1 to 8.5 in MCS and then install CUCM 8.5 virtual, restore the backup from old CUCM and perform upgrade to 9.1.

Have anyone perform same situation?

Any ideas about this situation would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Martin

[Chris Deren · Accepted solution]

Martin,

This is common question posted here with a lot of great responses, have you tried searching?

You have 2 options:

1. Use the supported method, where if your hardware can support upgrading to version 8.X do that, or if not supported you'll need to use bridge MCS server :-(  If your server is supported but more memory is needed you can simply add more RAM.

2. Don't do it the supported way and install CUCM 7.1 on VMware, upgrade to 9.1, take DRS backup, delete it, build new 9.1 system and restore from DRS. I have done this few times and works out well. Again, not supported, so should you run into any issues along the path TAC may not help you.

HTH,

Chris

[Martin Bauer]

Thank you Chris, following your idea we installed CUCM 7 in VMware. Our next step is to backup CUCM in physical machine and restore in VMware 7, then upgrade to 9.1.

We're about to perform this procedure in saturday.

I didn't know it was possible to virtualize 7, so thanks for your help.

Mártin