Migration of IP phones from MCS 7.1 to BE6M UCS 11.5 running VC

[jacobwminja90]

We want to migrate IP Phones infrastructure from MCS running 7.1 to the UCS BE6M which has Video conferencing solution running 11.5. Is it possible to take backup from MCS to UCS, how about licensing?.

Is it possible to create two different servers one for normal phones and other for VC in the same BE6M.

[Manish Gogna]

Hi,

A few points:

>> Backup and restore on cucm works between EXACTLY same versions only

>> You can migrate your existing 7.1.x version to the 11.5 version on BE6000M or BE6KM by using the Prime Collaboration deployment tool ( you can serach for PCD admin guides and also some good videos on youtube showing how this migration is done via PCD )

>> Licensing will change from device based to user based when you migrate to version 11.x . You need to open a case with TAC licensing team to get the licenses for the same and the process to migrate the existing licenses to 11.x. You can email them at licensing@cisco.com

>> To your last statement "Is it possible to create two different servers one for normal phones and other for VC in the same BE6M" , this is not how CUCM works. CUCM servers that are part of a CUCM cluster will have access to similar features , you may be able to enable or disable a few of them but your question is pretty vague.

>> I would suggest engaging someone from your Cisco Account team or a partner to help you with this migration as this migration will also impact on how CUCM interacts with other UC and third party apps, so a thorough plan needs to be made before you execute it.

Manish

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[jacobwminja90]

Thanks Manish for your response, 

For my scenerio, i have server UCS BE6M running only video conference solution running on version 11.5 and i want to upgrade my IP phones with licenses which current running legacy MCS ver 7.1 to use the existing UCS server running video conference.

How can i achieve this?

[Manish Gogna]

You can add the IP phones that are registered to CUCM 7.1 to your 11.5 version of CUCM running on BE6000 server. Both video and audio-only IP phones can exist and work on same cucm. However, please be aware of the few IP phone models that are not supported on CUCM 11.5 as per the following

https://supportforums.cisco.com/t5/ip-telephony/cucm-11-5-fcs-deprecated-endpoints/td-p/2902710

Manish

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[jacobwminja90]

Hi Manish,

Are you suggesting to add phones manually which means to start new  configurations on UCS, if so it will take time as there are more than 500 IP phones to be aadded. How about backup and restore? will it work or it will delete existing configuration on UCS server running Video conferencing.

[Manish Gogna]

As i mentioned earlier that backup and restore works on exactly similar versions, it will not work even between 7.1.2 and 7.1.3 version, so no chance with 11.5. You can delete the IP phone config from CUCM 7.1 and point their TFTP to the 11.5 cluster ( with auto registration enabled ). Specific settings can then be added manually or via BAT.

Manish

[Jaime Valencia]

You might want to get in touch with a consultant or a Cisco partner with UC specializations for assistance with the creation of a plan to do this the best way.