VCS ExpressWay and Control on Different Versions

[Mark H]

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

[Bob Fitzgerald]

Hi everyone,

How about the other way around?  A single VCS-C upgraded to X8.1 and a single VCS-E at X7.2.2?  Seems to me if you change the following settings on the VCS-E to the values shown below the ports should line up, yes?

Media demultiplexing RTP port -- 50000

Media demultiplexing RTCP port -- 50001

Thanks!

[Chris Swinney]

Hi Bob/All (assuming anyone can read this due the forum mess-up)

We have just tested a VCS Control running x8.1 peered with a VCS Expressway on x.7.2.2. As with the previous test we conducted above, we experienced NO issues in either placing or receiving a call (this is again based on our scenarios so in the main we are dealing with H,323 call, although we did also use Jabber (registered to an VCS pair on x7.2.2) to place a call. The interworking between SIP and H.323 takes place on the Jabber registered VCS device, so calls placed over the VCS on different version will be seen as H.323.

The initial tests were conducted using the ports as would be seen after a basic upgrade (i.e. in general the ranges remain the same and the demultiplexing ports are as Bob shows above (50000 and 50001). I WILL be updating all the port ranges on our upgrades to marry with what you would see on anew install of x8.1 (as per https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12135251/vcs-upgrade-x81-recommended-practice-updating-port-ranges), but I don't expect to see any issues.

The test were carried out in this case through a firewall that allows all ports to be open between the VCS-E IP address on the public network and the IP address of the VCS-C on the LAN, as this is NOT a statefull firewall. However, it does prove that the VCS-E and VCS-C on different versions (and with either VCS on a differeing version) CAN and WILL talk to each other.

I hope this will allay some fears for you guys, but I would also urge you to do your own tests.

Chris

[Wayne DeNardi]

Thanks for taking some more time to test this Chris.

Our major concern is around the media demux ports - when you did your testing, was it only with a single call, or with many simltaneous traversal calls - I can envisage that is when there may be issues.

We do have firewalls between our VCS-Cs and VCS-Es, and between our VCS-Es and other agencies VCS-Es with traversal zones between them, so it's a bit more complex than your open environment.

I'm still waiting back on further information from my local Cisco rep (currently in the US on an internal 6 monthly engineering meetings trip).

Wayne
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[Wayne DeNardi]

Thanks for echoing the concerns Chris,

Yes, that's the main issue - the documentation, and all the offical communications I've had from Cisco - all say that both need to be upgraded to X8.1 at the same time, otherwise you may get media demux issues.

The firewall rules are yet another issue - and not always as easy to fix - ie, if a customer doesn't have a stateful firewall, and instead uses ACLs on their router... then ports need to be specifially opened in both directions.

Wayne
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