VCS Instances

[Gordon Ross]

I'm a little confused about VCS and what I need. VCS, in its various guises, can provide:

 - Mobile & Remote Access

 - Jabber Guest

 - SIP/H323 firewall traversal.

I want all three features. Do I need 3 x VCS-Cs and 3 x VCS-Es to provide this*? Or can I run some of these on the same systems?

Thanks,

GTG

* Yes, I know VCS in traversal mode is called something different to VCS in MRA mode - but it's the same product with just a different license key.

[Manish Gogna]

Hi Gordon,

As per the Cisco Jabber Guest Server 10.0 Installation and Configuration Guide "You cannot use the same Cisco Expressway-C and Cisco Expressway-E pair or cluster for both Cisco Jabber Guest and Expressway for Mobile and Remote Access."

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/jabber/Guest/10_0/icg/JABC_BK_J0FC634A_00_jabberc-installation-and-configuration-guide/JABC_BK_J0FC634A_00_jabberc-installation-and-configuration-guide_chapter_01.html

To get more specific inputs on this query, you should post it under the following section

https://supportforums.cisco.com/community/5886/telepresence

HTH

Manish

[Gordon Ross]

So if I want all three services in HA, I'll need at least 12 VMs: 6 x VCS-C and 6 x VCS-X. That's more VMs than in the rest of my CUCM cluster! I'm going to need to increase the size of my VMWare farm to cope too!

GTG

[George Thomas]

Gordon, what do you mean by SIP/H323 firewall traversal? If these are for endpoints registered to CUCM to call out, then you can have a single pair of ExpC/ExpE for SIP/H323 firewall traversal and MRA. If you need endpoints to register to the VCSC/E, then another set of VCSC/E are required. Unfortunately you will need a different pair for Jabber Guest due to the TURN limitations. 

[Anas Abueideh]

Hi,

for the VCS clustering you can have up to 6 VCS in the cluster.

SIP/H323/Firewall Traversal it is a VCS terminology for interworking between protocols.

you will have traversal calls when you have different protocols like H323 and SIP, when you have ipv4 and ipv6, and when you have firewalls.

for your setup you can take one VCS for jabber guest, and the other one for the other things.

for redundancy you can add more VCS for each service

HTH

Anas

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[Martin Koch]

I would say it depends on how big your deployment is, how much scaling and redundancy is needed.

Some want to combine as much as possible, others want to split it.

If you require a specific uptime you might need to build up a cluster which would

double the amount of -Es and -Cs running. VMware does not fully help you here

as you  can not cover application errors.

As said here before, by today MRA and JG are not working on the same box, that said it does not necessary stays like that, but for now two different sets are required.

There should be nothing feature wise on the Expressway what you should not be able to do with the VCS. Yes, it runs on the same software core, but the licensing is different.

For MRA everything is handled in the CUWL licensing, so no additional call licenses are needed.

For MRA on the VCS you would need regular call licenses, which does not really make sense.

Could you define h323 interworking, locally within your network, to other infrastructure, remote devices, or do you need something locally registered via h323?

Local registrations on h323 only work with the VCS, not with the Expressway.

JG and interworked B2B calls can nicely share one instance of Expressway or VCS.

You anyhow would need RML licenses on the Expressway or Traversal calls no the VCS,

so there it might not matter that much.

Even running on the same code, the scaling of maximum calls might behave a bit different,

as well as the licensing costs, you should put all of that in consideration if to go with the

VCS or Expressway model.

So for now you need at least 2x+2x