Please advise me about CCM 4.2

[Thotsaphon Lueangwattanaphong]

Hi guys,

       My customer is using CCM4.2 with 3 servers running clustering. I need to know how to handle the following situations.

1. In case Primary server dies. Can I promote the secondary to ack as a primary server?  How to do that?

2. In case Secondary server dies. What can I do?

3. In case I have got a spare MCS server(F.e. From e-bay), Do I need to buy a cisco service contact to generate the license for a spare box?

Please advise.

Toshi

[Amer rajai Sha'er]

Hello,

1. In case Primary server dies. Can I promote the secondary to ack as a primary server?  How to do that?

Not all services can be used in the secondary server (SUB) there are some services that can only be activated at the Publisher

To do that , there is something called call manager group , you create a group that contains up to 3 servers (first , second and third) in case the first server die for any reason , the IP Phones will register to the second

2. In case Secondary server dies. What can I do?

Same as i said before , you can create the group up to three servers.

3.  In case I have got a spare MCS server(F.e. From e-bay), Do I need to  buy a cisco service contact to generate the license for a spare box?

For licensing , cisco call manager 4.2 doesn't require license , but what exactly are you thining of using this server for ?

Amer

[Thotsaphon Lueangwattanaphong]

Hi Amer,

      Thanks for your prompt response.  So I need to create a call manager group. In case 1&2 , I can still configure/manage the rest server for CCM4.2.  Am I correct?   In case 3, If the hardware failed, I need to use/install the new one. But I'm not sure that about the license. I just want to know that I can use the spare box(from e-bay) or not. Please explain.

Many Thanks

Toshi

[Amer rajai Sha'er]

Hello,

Listen,

As i am sure you know , there are two types of CUCM servers (Publisher and Subscriber) , you can and must have ONLY one Publisher but you can setup multiple subscribers (depends on your design and up to 20 servers (8 of them are CCM service activated only)) .

So , the Publisher is the only server that has the Read and write privilage , all the subscribers has a Read only.

In case of failure to the publisher , you cannot update the CCM DB until the publisher is back online but the main CCM features can still work normally.

The call manager group can help you with keeping the phones working in case of any failure to the primary server in the call manager list.

Normally and depends on the number of IP phones and in case of three Call manager servers, we create at least two groups to load balance between the phones :

group 1 :

SUB1

SUB2

PUB

Group 2

SUB2

SUB1

PUB

I hope this is clear.

For the case 3 , it doesn't matter from where you get the server as long as the server is meeting the hardware requirement from cisco , otherwise the software will not be installed since when you do the OS setup , there is a hardware check .

If you want to use it as a replacement , it depends on what server are you going to replace it witj.

to replace a subscriber , this is a easy job , all what you have to do is to creat a new server under the call manager server list and then start the setup, it will talk to the Publisher and take a copy of the database and insert it into the local one so it would become part of the cluster.

In case you want to replace the publisher , well , it is a little bit complicated.

First you have to install the BARS and scheduale a backup every once a while so when the server fails in any reason , you still have a close copy.

I hope this is clear , let me know if you still need more info.

Amer

[Thotsaphon Lueangwattanaphong]

Amer,

     Thanks for providing information. Would you send me links to recovery when servers failed?

Thanks

Toshi

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Toshi,

Here is a little added info to add to Amers good tips (just in case);

***When you perform a server replacement, you must always manually enter the IP information, computer name, and other configuration data exactly as it was entered on the original server.

Replacing the Publisher Database Server After the Installation

To replace an existing or failed server, perform the following steps:

1. Install the operating system and the Cisco CallManager software as if it were a new installation by using the Cisco-provided operating system disks and the operating system documentation.

2. Upgrade to the version of the Cisco CallManager that you want to restore.

3. If necessary, reinstall the Cisco IP telephony applications, plugins, and service releases to the version that is compatible with the restored version of Cisco CallManager.

4. To obtain the locales that were used prior to the restoration, reinstall the Cisco IP Telephony Locale Installer.

5. Restore the backup data to the new server and reboot the server.

To restore the data, you must have backup data stored on tape or on a network directory, not on the local directory of the existing or failed server.

6. Verify that the data was restored to the new server.

7. If you are replacing a server with four drives, Cisco recommends that you set the trace directory path on the server to the default C: drive before you backup your server.

8. If your server has four drives, you can configure the trace drive for trace file collection.

From this doc;

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/install/4_2/cm423ins.html#wp534959

Here is a good doc that has all the info for doing Backups and then restoring on the new box;

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/bars/4_0_11/ag-4011.html

Cheers!

Rob