Solved: Re: VCS ExpressWay and Control on Different Versions

Mark H · ‎01-28-2013

Hi everyone,

Can the VCS ExpressWay run on a newer version then the VCS Control?

Currently we have a VCS ExpressWay and a VCS Control appliance running X6.1. I am planning to upgrade them to X7.2.1 and will temporarily have the ExpressWay running the new version with the control running the old version.

I can't see any documentation that says this can't be completed. Especially since X7.2.1 has had interop testing completed with X6.x.

Mark

sekuzmin · ‎01-28-2013

Hi Mark,

Please check following document, page 8, section "Prerequisites"

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/vcs/config_guide/Cisco_VCS_Basic_Configuration_Control_with_Expressway_Deployment_Guide_X7-2.pdf

Prerequisites

Before starting the system configuration, make sure you have access to:

- the VCS Administrator Guide and VCS Getting Started Guide (for reference purposes)

- a VCS Control running version X5 or later

- a PC connected via Ethernet to a LAN which can route HTTP(S) traffic to the VCS

- a web browser running on the PC

- a serial interface on the PC and cable (if the initial configuration is to be performed over the serial interface)

Answering your question, there is no problem if VCSE and VCSC running on different software versions.

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Wayne DeNardi · ‎02-06-2014

Wayne: I guess what was referred there is that your DNS and Neighbor zones will work fine to "other (external) organizations"

Yes, for a completely seperate external agency, that's correct. My point was probably phrased badly - I was referring to another agency that was connected to via a traversal zone from my VCS-E.

I've raised this issue with my local Cisco office and Account Representative, as they're actively trying to get my upstream company's VCSes upgrade to X8.1 for the added features - but if that will break my group of devices, and others that also traverse to them, they'll need to reconsider doing that until an adequate workaround to this issue can be found.

I'd really hoped that the upgrade would be similar to all the previous versions, where an upgraded box would continue to work on the older port ranges until specifically changed by the administrator, but any new box would have the new range by default (but could be changed to match any other connected devices). And the release notes do say that the traversal media ports do work this way.

So, the big issue then must be with the demuxing ports on the Expressway which are now "using the first set of ports from the general range of traversal media ports" (50000 and 500001 on an upgraded VCS) rather than 2776 and 2777. Couldn't we have an "Enable legacy demux mode" setting added in to the software to enable us to keep backwards compatibility with the older versions and still use the original 2776 and 2777 ports in this mode, or default the "Upgraded" versions to this? Or give us the ability to manually change the demux ports/port range?

Wayne
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Edit: Points added to everyone who agrees this is a major issue!

Wayne

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AFRLHQVTC AFRLHQVTC · ‎02-07-2014

We are very concerned with the negative impacts of this as well. We already run a tighter range of ports then the default 50000-54999 and have multiple VCS pairs across the country and are neighbored with other VCS that we do not own and cannot force to upgrade. All of our scattered VCS installations utilitze different approving authorities and management to implement firewall rules as well so a change in that port range is not very easy or quick to get passed.

There is also a new vulnerability that was announced and the only solution is to upgrade to x8.1.

For those of you that havent read it yet:

http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20140122-vcs

So I think everyone would benefit if Cisco would release a maintenance version x8.1.xxx and include some type of backwards compatibility.

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sekuzmin · ‎01-28-2013

Hi Mark,

Please check following document, page 8, section "Prerequisites"

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/vcs/config_guide/Cisco_VCS_Basic_Configuration_Control_with_Expressway_Deployment_Guide_X7-2.pdf

Prerequisites

Before starting the system configuration, make sure you have access to:

- the VCS Administrator Guide and VCS Getting Started Guide (for reference purposes)

- a VCS Control running version X5 or later

- a PC connected via Ethernet to a LAN which can route HTTP(S) traffic to the VCS

- a web browser running on the PC

- a serial interface on the PC and cable (if the initial configuration is to be performed over the serial interface)

Answering your question, there is no problem if VCSE and VCSC running on different software versions.

Mark H · ‎01-29-2013

Thank you Sergey.

Ingo Tank · ‎01-09-2014

Hi Sergey,

is this also valid for X8.1?

We want to update our VCS-E to 8.1 and keep VCS-C at 7.2.2.

Deployment-Guide says

Before starting the system configuration, make sure you have access to:

the VCS Administrator Guide and VCS Getting Started Guide (for reference purposes)
a VCS Control running version X8.1 or later
a PC connected via Ethernet to a LAN which can route HTTP(S) traffic to the VCS
a web browser running on the PC
a serial interface on the PC and cable (if the initial configuration is to be performed over the serial interface)

But is VCS-C X8.1 really mandatory?

Thanks

Regards

Ingo

Wayne DeNardi · ‎01-09-2014

Hi Ingo,

The Deployment guide is a little misleading in that respect as it it talking about setting up both VCS-Control and VCS-Expressways on X8.1 - therefore saying you need access to an X8.1 VCS-C.

You can run your VCS-Cs and VCS-Es at different versions (as long as they're not drastically different) - I believe the minimum required version is X5.1.1, so having some at X7.2.2 and others at X8.1 will work.

It has to work this way, otherwise it's be a horrible upgrade process if all devices were requried to be at the same X8.1 in large deployments.

Wayne

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Wayne

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Ingo Tank · ‎01-09-2014

Hi Wayne,

thanks for your answer.

My thoughts were the same, but just wanted to make sure, that it's not that wrong.

Ingo

Christos Georgiadis · ‎01-22-2014

Hi,

Just to reply to everybody since we discussed this with Ingo over a service request. Starting from 8.1 we need to have both expressway and control on the same version.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/vcs/config_guide/X8-1/Cisco-VCS-Basic-Configuration-Control-with-Expressway-Deployment-Guide-X8-1.pdf

Before starting the system configuration, make sure you have access to:

1. the VCS Administrator Guide and VCS Getting Started Guide (for reference purposes)

2. a VCS Control running version X8.1 or later

3. a PC connected via Ethernet to a LAN which can route HTTP(S) traffic to the VCS

4. a web browser running on the PC

5. a serial interface on the PC and cable (if the initial configuration is to be performed over the serial interface

Regards,

Christos

Chris Swinney · ‎01-22-2014

Hi Christos,

SO are you saying that in a production scenario with both VCS-E and VCS-C running on x7.x, that both VCS devices need to be updated at the same time or they won't peer, or that the VCS Control has to be updated first?

This is going to cause a lot of headaches as we have many VCS-Cs peer with single VCS-Es, and some of those VCS-C are not easy to connect to (i.e. only contact able via VPN or completely independently.

I will be trying this out on our test zone before running the production servers, but I'm starting to get a little ancy now!

Chris

Wayne DeNardi · ‎01-22-2014

I'd also like that clarification too - that everything must be X8.1 at the same time... in a large organisation, with dozens of VCSes scattered across a large geographical area, upgrading them all at the same time will be nearly impossible. And when peering with other organisations, what happens if they're not on the same version?

If it's more of a case of "to have new feature xxxxxx, all VCSes must be X8.1", but existing functionality will still work, then I can cope with that.

Wayne
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Wayne

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Nick Halbert-Lillyman · ‎01-22-2014

Just add that I would like this clarified too. We manage multiple VCS-E's which we could upgrade, but they connect to VCS-C's on X6/X7 that are owned by other organisations and they probably won't be so keen to upgrade yet.

Patrick Sparkman · ‎01-28-2014

2.  a  VCS  Control  running   version  X8.1  or  later

My two cents, I agree with Wayne, the deployment guide is very misleading in the above statement. It's supposed to be a deployment guide for a VCS Control and Expressway, however it only mentions of the Control software version and nothing of the Expressway software version requirement.

Chris Swinney · ‎01-29-2014

Indeed. My issue is with Christos's comments and that Christos is a Cisco employee with a number of years and posts under his belt. I would like further confirmation from Cisco as to the exact potential of upgrades.

Alok Jaiswal · ‎01-29-2014

Hi Swinster,

x8.1 has incorporated many changes some of them are like delegate control functionality, traversal client and server workign on x8.1 and upcoming collab edge feature on x8.1.1.

because of this changes its necessary to upgrade the VCS-C and VCS-E on the x8.1 at same time. if your organization contains multiple deployments with VCS-C and VCS-E better to target one by one and then move on to next one only when one of pair you upgraded to x8.1, otherwise you will run into issue.

I think it clears the doubt

regards

Alok

Wayne DeNardi · ‎01-29-2014

Hi Alok,

That's still not entirely clear - are you still saying that everything needs to be upgraded to X8.1 around the same time? And if everything is not running X8.1 then issues will be encountered?

How do we go about upgrading our environment to X8.1 when other organisations that we currently have traversal zones to are running X6 or X7 on their devices? Are we still able to upgrade ours and have the external functionality, or are they going to break (which is what is implied by both Christo's and your posts)?

And conversely, if one of my other conected agencies decides to upgrade theirs, without letting me know - is that going to break communication if I stay on X7.2.2 and they're on X8.1.x?

Wayne
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Chris Swinney · ‎01-30-2014

Yes, this is going to be a pain.

We run multiple VCS-Es (14) that are efectively on the public network. Each of these VCS-E act as a traversal server to multiple VCS-Cs - maybe up to 7 VCS-C will peer to a single VCS-E. The VCS-Cs are located in multiple different organisations, some of which are not directly manageable by us or only via a lot of workarounds. So upgrading a "group" of VCS-E/C is not straightforward.

Chris