Cisco C200 server for UC Collaboration Home Lab use

[umms_383133]

Greetings,

I am planning to purchase a C200 M2 server for use in a virtual UC collaboration home lab. I'm trying to determine the capabilities of the device which has the following specs:

Motherboard: Cisco UCS C200 M2
CPU Processor: 2x Intel Xeon L5630 Quad Core 
RAM Memory: 24GB (6x 4GB) 6 RAM slots open for expansion
Hard Drives/Caddies: 8x 300GB SAS 15K Hard Drive ST3300657SS
RAID Controller: Onboard LSI SAS 1068e controller
NIC Ports: Onboaerd Dual Gigabit Ethernet NIC

I consulted the Virtualization for Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) guide:

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Virtualization_for_Cisco_Unified_Communications_Manager_(CUCM)#Version_10.x

After reviewing the document I'm not sure if this server will support the basic UC applications and if so, which versions. Could someone offer guidance?

Many thanks!

[Deepak Rawat]

Cisco uses three different support models:

1) UC on UCS Tested Reference Configuration (TRC), some of which are available as packaged collaboration solutions like Cisco Business Edition 6000 or Cisco Business Edition 7000.

2) UC on UCS Specs-based

3) Third-party Server Specs-based

The server that you have purchased will fall under the category of UC on UCS Specs-based and can be used to install any UC application as per the below Matrix:

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Unified_Communications_in_a_Virtualized_Environment

Please note the above link provides information on the latest version available for an UC product that means anything less than that should by default be ok to be installed

Refer to below document for more information that will clear all your doubts.

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/UC_Virtualization_Supported_Hardware#.22Can_I_use_this_server.3F.22


Regards

Deepak

[umms_383133]

As I didn't want to end up with a HUGE paperweight, I will proceed to finalize the purchase. I appreciate everyone who took time to offer their comments!

[j.huizinga]

Hi,

I am using a Dell with ESXi for my home lab. And since it is for use in my home lab with only 8 phones I don't really care about what Cisco says regarding what is supported or not. In my LAB I run around 15 virtual machines, including 2xCUCM, 2xIMP, 2xCUC, 2xUCCX, 4x windows 7, 2 windows 2008R2. And sometimes also CWMS with reverse proxy.

And yes I have to bring CPU reservations back to 0 to have all of this running. But for home it works perfectly

THIS WON'T WORK IN REAL WORLD!!! :)

JH

[umms_383133]

As I didn't want to end up with a HUGE paperweight, I will proceed to finalize the purchase. I appreciate everyone who took time to offer their valued comments!

[devils_advocate]

If its just for a Lab then you don't need to buy a fill blown UCS server, plenty of other servers which run ESXi will be fine.

They won't be Cisco supported but are you going to buy smartnet on a lab?

[umms_383133]

I don't plan to buy Smartnet for this lab. As I didn't want to end up with a HUGE paperweight, I will proceed to finalize the purchase. I appreciate everyone who took time to offer their comments!

[Jaime Valencia]

Well, for full/official support, you would need to have one of these CPUs

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/UC_Virtualization_Supported_Hardware#Processors_.2F_CPUs

As it's not listed, there's no guarantee, it *should* work, and as you're below 2.5 GHz, you should only deploy OVAs (for any product you want to deploy) that are listed under restricted performance.

If you want to deploy a product that requires more speed than what your CPU has, it might either fail to install, or not work properly.

For lab scenarios, you usually adjust reservations and go above what you would have in a fully supported environment, that's OK. I also do that in my lab. In my experience, you usually want to invest in memory, a lot of apps will get errors if they don't get enough memory.

To find out which version, see what ESXi your server supports, then take it from there.

[umms_383133]

As I didn't want to end up with a HUGE paperweight, I will proceed to finalize the purchase. I appreciate everyone who took time to offer their comments!