Is SME worth doing for only two clusters?

[charles.reid.10.ctr]

Hello, we are going to downsizing currently 9 CUCM clusters into only two clusters. I had originally intended to deploy SME for on net call routing and centralized Unity Connection with the 9 clusters, but once we decided to collapse clusters I am not really seeing a benefit in deploying SME. We can simply route on net calls between the two clusters with a sip trunk and a few route patterns. Any thought on not pursuing SME?

[Roger Kallberg · Accepted solution]

IMHO There would be little added benefit of having SME with only two leaf clusters. What I would suggest you to have a look at is Global Dial Plan Replication, GDPR in short (not the same as the EU data protection act). With that you don’t need to create any static number routes between the two. It utilises SIP routes pattern to send call between the leaf clusters and each leaf cluster pushes the numbers, individual and/or patterns to the other participating members in the ILS network.

[Ibrahim AlQumairi]

As I know, For two-cluster CUCM deployments, a Session Management Edition (SME) cluster is not required. However, for deployments with three or more CUCM clusters, an SME cluster can simplify call routing management and reduce the number of configuration elements required, such as trunks, router lists, route groups, and route patterns.