Move VMs to new ESXi

[tdudas]

Hi Experts,

My customer wants to move VMs (CUCM, CUC, IM&P, UCCX) from the existing host Cisco UCSC240-M3S (which is EoL) to a new ESXi host.

Is there any cisco page available (could not find so far...), where steps are listed and explained what and how to do; what is/are the supported ways (manual copy/vMotion/etc...) of moving VMs to the new host?

And on top if it, customer wants to upgade the VMs from current version (10.5) to 11.x or 12.x.
Considering this, I guess upgrade can be done before moving VMs (current host would support the upper version of VMs) to new host or move them first and upgrade them on the new host.

They want also UCCX to handle 400 agents (300 is licensed currently), so it needs vCPU and vRAM amendment, which I think can be done by just shutting UCCX VM down changing settings

accordingly.
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-software-requirements.html#resize_vm
 >> Adding vCPU is supported for all apps except Unity Connection, but requires VM to be shutdown first.
 >> Adding vRAM is supported but requires VM to be shutdown first.

In case any rollback would be needed to the previous UCCX version, I do not think VM settings could be changed back, but need license for the previous version with 400 agents instead of

300 or 300 would also work on the amended VM?

Many thanks,
Tibor

[Mike_Brezicky · Accepted solution]

For the migration you have multiple options.
In my order of preference:
1 VMWare Vmotion - if lucky enough to be setup on VCenter, you can potentially just migrate the Guests this way.
2 PCD - https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/unified-communications/unified-communications-manager-version-105/200134-Cluster-migration-using-Cisco-Prime-Coll.html
3 - DRS - Not a high risk, and safe enough but this is a long and tedious method, especially if you have multiple servers in the cluster.

For UCCX, unfortunately, the OVA locks you in, so if you want to go to the 400 user ova, the only real option would be a DRS backup and restore onto a new VM deployed as the 400 agent template. Even if you increase the CPU/Memory, both the agent and port count will not be allowed to increase. This is why I have always set my UCCX clusters up as the 400 agent setting, even if there is <100 agents.

[tdudas]

Hi Mike,

did some research and found this below:

Resize Virtual Machine

VMware Feature Support for Contact Center

Do you think in my case, since only vCPU and vRAM should be changed (300 >> 400 agents), still need new VM template to create and by DRS way move application into the new VM?

Many thanks,

Tibor

[Jaime Valencia]

That same page you're pointing to, explains what VMWare features are compatible with products.

If you want to move and upgrade at the same time, PCD would do that for you.

[tdudas]

Hi Jamie,

Can PCD do/handle the UCCX upgrade and also the VM tamplate change (300 >> 400) as well, or this this should be done separately in manual way meaning: DRS >> new template to install >> install UCCX on the new VM >> and finally get config from the back up?

Many thanks,

Tibor

[Jaime Valencia]

No, PCD documentation has a table that thoroughly explains what PCD features are compatible per product and version.

PCD can only migrate CUCM and IM&P.