Upgrading CUCM 7.1.x ... What version to go to?

[HAL WILKERSON]

Looking for pro's and con's of upgrading CUCM 7.1(5) to eith 8.5(x) or 8.6(x) in a few weeks -- we have concerns about going to a new version that is a "dot-1"  release, or without SR's. Do you have any thoughts on the subject?

[ndravid]

Hi Hal,

If you are already on CUCM 7.1(5) I would suggest that you stay there unless you need to upgrade for a bug fix or if you want to use any of the additional features available on CUCM 8.x.

From my working experience I can tell you that 7.1(5) is one of the most stable versions will minimum number of defects and the dev teams also come up with Engineering Specials regularly for specific issues.

Most of the issues are fixed in 7.1(5) SU4 so if you need to upgrade your CUCM I suggest you upgrade to 7.1(5)SU4.

More over 8.x is a new thing in itself and as more and more people start using it only then we would be able to get a clearer picture of the stability of the 8.5 and the 8.6 series. 8.0 is also known to have a lot of issues.

My personal recommendation would be to stay on 7.1(5) unless you have no other option but to upgrade to 8.x

Hope this information is useful to you......

Cheers

Nachi

[ryabenne]

Hal,

If you need assistance with upgrading you can chart a solid upgrade path with the following link:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/compat/ccmcompmatr.html

Table 4     Export Restricted Supported Cisco Unified Communications Manager Upgrades for Release 8.x ...just find your version and chart it up from there.

I always tell my customers to go to the highest ES/SR available to get around all the known issues within that particular version. Its up to you on which version you would like to go to, and that would also be based on the features that you would like to implement.

Ryan

[Davin Dameron]

We just upgraded to 8.5 because we wanted to virualize with VMWare.  We were on 7.1 before and it was very stable.  Been running 8.5 for about a month and haven't had any (non setup related) issues.

[kbeelwar]

Hello Davin,

I want to upgrade from 7.1.5b SU4 to 8.5 due to vmware as well. Can you please tell me the procedure.

I think rough procedure is as follows:

1. upgrade active partition to 8.0 and take backup

2. on vmware esxi, make a vm using 8.5 owa

3. install 8.0 and restore

4. then upgrade to 8.5

is this correct? Can you pls give me tips?

[Davin Dameron]

Hi,

I’ll do my best to help. We did not upgrade our 7.1. We installed 8.5 fresh and then imported all our phones, users, etc. Sorry if this does not help you.

Davin K. Dameron

Chief Technology Officer

OpenTech Alliance, Inc.

www.opentechalliance.com <>

602.324.8643

[Gajanan Pande]

Kadambari,

The procedure looks okay to me. Also keep in mind the license rehosting as one of the step.

GP.

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