Upgrade CUCM 8.6 to 11.5 using PCD

[Clueless_Tech]

I am upgrading (migrating) our CUCM 8.6 cluster to 11.5 and placing on VM.  Recently discovered that PCD can handle this task and save my team a lot of time.  I have already run through all the steps in PCD in discovering the clusters, ID'ing the source & destination, etc.  However, the migration task wants the [bootable] .iso/ova of CUCM 11.5 (destination cluster).  But is this needed if I have already built the VMs for 11.5? These clusters are already up and running--just need to migrate the databases over.

[Jaime Valencia · Accepted solution]

In PCD the terms for upgrade and migration are completely different things and they're not interchangeable terms, you're performing a migration, which means that PCD will take care of installing fresh servers, to then proceed with moving the data.

There is no way you can use servers you have already installed for a PCD migration, you need the bootable ISO files in order to perform the migration with PCD.

If you want to move the data to an already installed CUCM, PCD is not the tool, you'd need to use BAT and massage the data as necessary so it's in the correct format for the target cluster.

[Clueless_Tech]

Jaime,

I figured as much.  We have been BATing the data over. We stumbled upon PCD late in the game (it was never mentioned as an option for us).  As you've stated, we have had to do a lot of "massaging" of the data while BATing it over. Was hoping PCD could take care of some of the heavy lifting.  Oh well, at least I know about its existence for the next time there is a project like this.

Thanks!