Cisco CUCM upgrade 8.6 to 11

[prasanth.ccvp]

Hi All

I am planning to upgrade our Cisco IPT infrastructure from 8.6 to 11.x . We are currently having UCS B200M2 blade servers and planning to change the servers, since it will be end of support by first quarter of next year. I am planning to replace the UCS B200M2 server with UCS BE7000H (M4) servers and I am planning to upgrade by following method.

1. Install CUCM, CUC, UCCX on the new UCS BE7000H (M4) server with 8.6 version.

2. Take the working CUCM,CUC and UCCX 8.6 backup and upload to the new CUCM,CUC and UCCX installed in UCS BE7000H (M4) and these servers will not be in network.

3. Upgrade the CUCM,CUC and UCCX on UCS BE7000H (M4) to 11.x version.

4. Disconnect the existing Cisco UCS server from network and connect the network to the new UCS BE7000H (M4) with the newly upgrade CUCM.

5. Phones will upgrade to the latest firmware.

I would like to know, if this approach is possible or not. If yes, what will be the challenges? Is UCS BE7000H (M4) is good choice as a replacement for UCS B200M2 ?

Looking for your valuable inputs.

Thanks and Regards

Prasanth

[Adarsh Chauhan · Accepted solution]

Hi Prasanth,

Your approach seems to be correct.

one suggestion:

one new mcs where you wish to install 8.6 first, use ova of 11.X.

Any Customer upgrading to 11.X should be aware of the following two things.

Deprecated Phone in 11.X

Deprecated video conference using PVDM

Having said that you may also explore migrating through PCD which has less steps than your current approach.

Please rate and mark correct if helpful

Regards,

Adarsh Chauhan

[prasanth.ccvp]

Thanks Adarsh and yeah I was planning to do the upgrade through PCD which reduce our effort.

I am also planning to upgrade the phone firmware (batch by batch) prior to the switching to the new CUCM, so we dont need to worry about phones getting upgraded the firmware in one time which may lead other issues. I hope that option will be available.

I am also wondering if we can use a non UCS hardware which meets the requirement for our Cisco IPT. 

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/collaboration-virtualization-hardware.html#processor

Will we get cisco support on such a infrastructure ?

Regards

Prasanth Abraham

[Adarsh Chauhan]

Hi Prasanth,

Only Application level support is provided for third party servers and that too it cu adheres to 

few guidelines by cisco.

You may refer to the following doc.

3rd party support

Please rate and mark correct if helpful

Regards,

Adarsh Chauhan

[prasanth.ccvp]

Thank you very much Adarsh.

Now I will am planning to create a BOM with only Cisco UCS BE7000H (M4). Since we have valid contract, I guess nothing to be added. Our cisco partner will fetch and get the discount rate.

Thanks again Adarsh.

[prasanth.ccvp]

Hello Adarsh

I just read that for Cisco unity connection and Cisco UCCX migration of a cluster from old hardware to new hardware and then upgrade wont be support with PCD. If thats case, PCD will be only useful CUCM migration and upgrade.

Any suggestions from your end ?

Regards

Prasanth

[Adarsh Chauhan]

Hi Prasanth,

You are correct on that. You will have to migrate CUC and UCCX using the traditional way.

I would suggest that you go through the upgrade guide of CUC and UCCX.

What i would suggest is that you keep your existing cluster intact.

upgrade CUCM through PCD (leave your existing cluster untouched).

install CUC on UCCX on new server, restore them and then upgrade.

In this way you will have your existing clutser to fallback to in case of any failure.

Please rate and mark if helpful

Regards,

Adarsh Chauhan