Cisco CallManager 5.0 in a VMWare enviroment.

[Darryl Tyson]

Cisco,

We have a testing environment with VMware servers running. I would very much like to run CallManager 5.0 (CM 5.0) in a virtual machine and have heard that Cisco do this internally. My question is: ?Is it possible to get a VMWare compatible Test/Demo only License for CallManager 5.0?.

Has anyone heard anything relevant to this scenario, you comments are appreciated.

Kind Regards

Darryl Tyson

[thisisshanky]

They seem to have a 7 day license for testing/demo. Check with your local Cisco team.

Easy thing to do is buy a two or three device unit license for CM 5.0 and register it with the vmware mac. How about that ?

[jneiberger]

My only suggestion would be to ask you local Cisco account team about it.

[Darryl Tyson]

I will as my Cisco Account Manager on Monday. I will post back to let you know what they say. Thanks for the comments guys.

[mknepper]

Couple of issues related to this:

We followed the path of buying an NFR copy of CM 5. However when ordering my ordering person asked me for a MCS type and I just said use 7835. When I now go to register and obtain a license file using the supplied PAK it requires a MAC address from a 7835. Now you can set the MAC address statically in VMWare, but not to just any address. Apparently the static address you can set a VMWare server are not valid MACs for the Cisco's PAK website.

Second, we have been telling clients that their current IP Phone licenses will upgarde to CM 5 -- but how do you do that? I currently have a dozen phones and licenses that I would like to use on CM 5, but how do I "convert" my IP Phone licenses to CM5 device licenses (DL).

Also, if I buy some DLs are they tied to a MAC can I use the DLs on the CM 5 on VMWare (assuming I can get this to work)?

In answer to the orginal question, Cisco does use VMWare internally and specifically for their Demo In A Box program -- which gives you a little lab/demo on wheels.

http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/pr11/pr66/demobox.html

Thanks,

Mark

[Darryl Tyson]

This is no help, I am just following up.

My Cisco Account Manager was no help in regards to VMWare, he also talked about NFR's but I already new about the VMWare Issue so did not go there.

When you run the DMAUpgrade tool on the CallManager 4 it creates an upgrade file, the licences are then stored in this file. (Or more accuratally some kind of value is stored in this file, which is then activated after the CallManager 5 Installation.)

Third, the demo in a box, is based on Callmanager Express and run's on a Cisco Router(no vmware issues here). This Demo in a box is aimed at the SMB Market. I am assuming the US is the same as the UK here.

Hope this helps

Regards

Darryl.

[mknepper]

Thanks for the information. I will check on the DMA files to see if there is the license info I need in there.

On the Demo In a Box program, there are two versions. One is the router based express version and the other is a full CallManager and Unity Connection running on two MCS servers. I talked with the guy at Cisco - Dave Farnan, that developed the demo in a box program and he indicated that they do use VMWare for the full version.

Thanks,

Mark

[Tim Smith]

Hi Darryl,

What if you do a fresh install of CM 5 instead of an upgrade? My SE told us that we needed to get the Cisco P.O / S.O numbers for all IP phone / license purchases.

Then you can email Cisco licensing team and they will generate the license keys / PAK etc?

So if you upgrade - you dont need to go through that admin hassle?

Cheers,

Tim

[eric.yu]

I spoke to our channel SE regarding CCM 5.0 license for Vmware and he replied that CCM 5.0 license support for VM is available to Cisco internal only.

Although this issue has been escalated through their chain of command, the conclusion from our SE is that Cisco wants to lock down any or all access to the CCM 5.0 system kernel.