Upgrading VCS to latest Version

[Siva chinap]

Dear All,

We are planning to upgrade our VCS–C = X8.1 and  VCS –E = X8.1 to the latest version, VCS is running on physcial appliance, Kindly suggest recommondable upgrade version. I want to ensure upgrade without no cost.

[Aman Soi]

Hi Siva,

You need to order Part codes R-VMVCS-C-M-K9 and R-VMVCS-E-K9 for migrating from VCS to Virtual VCS Control and expressway respectively.

Thereafter, u can get your licenses transferred from appliance to Virtual by involving licensing team . You need to provide new serial numbers which u can get from bottom right after installing the applications.

regds,

aman

[Siva chinap]

Thanks Amon, Any License required for the upgrade. We are not planning to move to VM. It's just an upgrade.

[Aman Soi]

Hi Siva,

upgrading from X8.1 to x8.9 would be a minor upgrade and no license [release keys]  are required.

regds,

aman

[Siva chinap]

Thanks AMAN

[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

Siva, what people were saying is that depending on the appliance you are running, it might not support the latest version.  The older black appliances only support up to VCS 8.7.x, whereas the latest version is 8.9.2.

Not sure if this is a situation where it works but won't be supported by TAC or it just won't work at all.

[Siva chinap]

How can i proceed with my upgrade Nick?

[Siva chinap]

We are not in the plan of Migration.

[Patrick Sparkman]

What generation is your VCS appliances?

If they are the old black TANDBERG appliances, they only officially support up to X8.7.x software, in which case you need to migrate them to virtual as Aman suggests.

If they are Cisco appliances CE500, CE1000, or CE1100, they can be upgraded to the current software release X8.9.x.

To see the supported platforms for each software release (starting with X8.6.1 and onward), refer to the VCS Release Notes.

[Siva chinap]

Thanks Patrick,

It's just a upgrade on the same appliance..

[Patrick Sparkman]

As mentioned in my earlier reply and a correction to what I said, if you're running the old black TANDBERG appliance, X8.6.1 (not X8.7.x as previously stated) is the highest version officially supported by TAC which includes all VCS features up to that software version.  Although you can upgrade to X8.7.x in the case of critical fixes for security vulnerabilities or if new software for the TANDBERG appliance is released in the future, however there is no support for any of the newer features released beyond X8.6.1.

If you're running the Cisco appliances, you can upgrade to the current release which is X8.9.x without issue.

Again, refer to the VCS release notes for most up to date supported platforms for VCS software.

[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

Patrick perhaps you can confirm this, but I thought that there were still Cisco appliances (i.e. the ones that look like the old black TANDBERG ones but are Cisco branded) that still won't support these versions, it's only the newer Cisco appliances (that look like UCS servers) that will support version X8.7+?

[Patrick Sparkman]

I think there is both TANDBERG and Cisco branded versions, since Cisco was still selling them post acquisition of TANDBERG.  Regardless of when they were sold and the name on the front, if the serial number is in the format of 52A#####, what I mention above applies.  I reference all black "pizza box" VCS appliances as TANDBERG, as they were the ones who introduced them etc.  The reason the old TANDBERG appliances are only supported by TAC up to X8.6.1 is because software for them are end of support.

VCS appliances that run on the Cisco UCS (CE500, CE1000, and CE1100) can run the current versions of VCS software, unless noted in the software release notes.

[Siva chinap]

I identified the server model: Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server Generation 1 Appliances.

[Siva chinap]

Will 8.7 support in TANDBERG?