Cisco Security Manager related queries

[Nitin Agarwal]

In one of our projects, we are running CSM 3.2 on VMWare ESX 3.5.There is a project in place to have the ESX upgraded to 4.1

This looks like a challenge as CSM 3.2 is not supported on ESX 4.1. Cisco TAC has suggested to upgrade CSM to 4.2

Queries:
1.       CSM 3.2 to 4.2, will it involve additional license cost?
2.       If we upgrade CSM 3.2 to 4.2 and  then upgrade ESX from 3.5 to 4.1, will it be back immediately without anything required to be done on CSM end, once VMWare is  upgraded.
3.       Is there any other preferred solution/workaround to manage the situation
4.        If we have to move CSM from one ESX to another, what would be the steps  involved to retain the same configuration and logs.

Regards,
Nitin

[Marvin Rhoads]

To migrate from 3.2 to 4.2, you will need to acquire a 4.2 license. The part number depends on how many devices your 3.2 installation is licensed for. Please refer to Table 2 on this announcement. You Cisco reseller or partner can provide you a quote but if you search the Internet for that part number you can see typical costs.

The procedure for upgrade would be to first move to an interim step of CSM 4.0 and then to 4.2. Please refer to this guide. Also see the section on that guide on moving to a new server for how to handle your ESX upgrade / migration.