Cisco Mega Cluster

[tloganathan]

Hi,

Appreciate if anyone can breif what is a mega cluster in CUCM. I recently came to know that mega cluster supports more than 8 call processing servers in a cluster with COW nodes

[Muhammad Raza]

Hi,

CUCM supercluster can support upto 16 call processing servers, 1 publisher, 2 TFTP servers, and up to 9 media resources servers. It enhanced the system capacity than normal deployment (30k phones). The development on CUCM Supercluster should go for Cisco BU approval via the Cisco Account Team (SE or AM).

https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-14174

Regards,

Muhammad Amir Raza

[KENNETH REMS]

What are the versions of UCM software that support megaclusters?  Is there any clustering over the WAN requirements with megaclusters as well?  For example, could I have all 16 subscribers at different sites clustered across the WAN?

Thanks,

Ken

[sakhter]

Cisco Megacluster is currently supported on Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.1 and 7.1. No Megacluster support is planned for 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0.

Current plans are to support megacluster in 8.5 for both MCS Servers and also on the UCS platform.

Clustering over the WAN is supported, but the guidelines found in the CUCM7.1 SRND will strictly be enforced.

[mdyson3378]

I can not get the doc from this link

https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-14174

[diromero]

I would ask Wade Hamblin directly.

[keglass]

Michael,

That document is located in the Cisco Partner Community, which is accessible only to Cisco partners. Have you reviewed this information about CUCM and mega clusters?

Cisco Collaboration System 10.x Solution Reference Network Designs (SRND) - Call Processing [Cisco Unified Communication…

Please post back to this thread if you have additional questions.
Kelli Glass

Moderator for Cisco Customer Communities

[dueddi04]

Dear all,

i was wondering if is possible to have access to the mega cluster document.

According SRND 11.x, CUCM cluster limit is 40 000 configuration and registration endpoints.

The problem is that with MRA introduction for BYOD, every user will have a multiple-devices (phone, CSF, android, ios...), therefore potentially the user-endpoit ratio will grow to 4 x user (or even more).

In conclusion the capacity and sizing of the cluster can scale up above the 40k very fast.
Can megacluster approch be good for this scenario or are there other suggested solutions.

Thanks in advance.

[whamblin]

Here is some details on the internal Cisco Megacluster page.  

Megacluster Overview

Basic Overview

• Provide support for customers that will exceed current advertised capacity of a cluster.
• Provide a Design review to see if cluster design will work with current restraints.
  • Design reviews are mandatory. Neither TAC nor the IPCBU will support exceeding the SRND guidelines without a formal megacluster review.
  • Review typically takes 2-3 weeks.
• Currently conducting megacluster reviews on Cisco Unified Communications Manager 10.5, 11.5, and 12.0.
• UCM 10.5, 11.5, and 12.0 megaclusters can be deployed on:
  • VMs on VMware on UCS C2xx and B2xx tested reference configurations and other appropriately-sized UCS C2xx and B2xx tested reference configurations at http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Tested_Reference_Configurations_%28TRC%29
  • VMs on VMware on appropriately sized specs-based UCS, HP or IBM servers
• The megacluster program allows a single cluster to be expanded to handle additional capacity. A megacluster has the following maximums that can not be exceeded. The numbers in the megacluster you are designing may be much less depending on your configuration:
  • 16 subscribers
  • 21 servers (subscribers+publisher+tftp+MOH+etc.)
  • 80,000 phones
  • 80,000 CTI.
  • 2100 Gateways
  • 2000 Locations
  • Clustering over the WAN is supported, but the guidelines found in the UCM 10.x SRND will strictly be enforced.
  • Assumes a 1x1 redundancy model. 2x1 redundancy models are not supported.

UCCE Support

Megacluster supports integration with UCCE with the following guidelines:

• For CUCM 10.5 and later (7845 H2/I2 and higher, and OVA equivalent):
  • IP-IVR: Up to 500 agents for the entire cluster.
  • CVP: Up to 1,000 agents per CUCM subscriber pair are supported.
  • Megacluster with 8 subscriber pairs, up to 8,000 (1,000*8) agents are supported.
• For 7845 H1/I1
  • IP-IVR: Up to 500 agents for the entire cluster.
  • CVP: Up to 500 agents per CUCM subscriber pair are supported.
  • Megacluster with 8 subscriber pairs, up to 4,000 (500*8) agents are supported.
• For every subscriber pair dedicated to UCCE Agents, the total phone capacity decreases. e.g. If I have a cluster with 4 subscriber pairs dedicated to UCCE Agents, I can have a maximum of 4 subscriber pairs dedicated to remaining phones and hence the maximum number of phones supported decreases from 60,000 (8*7500) to 30,000 (4*7500).

How to apply

1. Submit your design to VSE team - vse-megacluster@cisco.com
2. Fill out the Sizing Tool http://tools.cisco.com/cucst and use the "copy" option to send your sizing solution to Wade Hamblin.
3. Send the pdf output from the Cisco Sizing Tool to the VSE team - vse-megacluster@cisco.com.

• Note: Please ensure that CUCM Trace Level is set to "Detailed" and that the Database is set to "Complex".

1. After filling out the Sizing Tool, work with and have your design verified by the VSE team - vse-megacluster@cisco.com.
2. After review with vse-megacluster Return completed Sizing Tool output to the Megacluster team - megacluster@cisco.com
3. A review of the design will be started within one week of receipt.
4. Review meetings are held as needed on Friday's at 11:00AM CST (US). Megacluster submittals must be submitted by Thurs 5:00PM CST to be considered for the Friday meeting.

• A full review typically takes 2-3 weeks. It can take longer if the request includes items that are outside current design boundaries or items that have not been tested. Please plan accordingly.
• Typically questions will come back to the submitter after the first design.
• If required, the submitted may attend the design review meeting to answer questions and expedite the process.

Upgrading an existing megacluster

Note: Becuase of many successful megacluster deployments and upgrades, the process for approving a megacluster upgrade is being simplified to provide quicker megacluster approval.

1. Fill out the Sizing Tool http://tools.cisco.com/cucst and use the "copy" option to send your sizing solution to Wade Hamblin.
2. Send the pdf output from the Cisco Sizing Tool to the VSE team - vse-megacluster@cisco.com.
   • Please use actual data from the existig cluster
   • Please ensure that CUCM Trace Level is set to "Detailed" and that the Database is set to "Complex".
3. A review of the design will be started within one week of receipt.
4. Review meetings are held as needed on Friday's at 11:00AM CST (US). Megacluster submittals must be submitted by Thurs 5:00PM CST to be considered for the Friday meeting.

This process assumes that the CST output submitted to the megacluster team has no errors and are simple upgrade or small expansions of an existing cluster. If you have concerns or errors when you submit your CST, please let the team know to avoid delay in reveiwing the megacluster.

Design Documentation

• The Cisco Unified Communications Manager SRND is the official documentation for megacluster designs. At this time we do not have any megacluster specific design documentation.

Support

• Once approved, a megacluster is supported by the CIBU.
• As the Cisco Account team has completed the request, design, and review process, TAC will support the megacluster.
• Customer would follow normal troubleshooting methods through TAC.
• [More information on TAC's megacluster support can be found at http://tac-wiki/CM_Supercluster(Megacluster)

[whamblin]

I am sorry this isn't documented well externally to Cisco.  

Megaclusters are fully supported, but require a design review first.   You need to work with your Cisco Account team to submit the megalcuster for a design review.   I lead the team and cordinate the reviews, so you can reach out to me with any questions. 

[jarias]

Here’s where Megacluster is called out in 11x SRND, but I think you may have already found that?

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/srnd/collab11/collab11/callpros.html#pgfId-1320495

[dueddi04]

Thanks a lot.

We will investigate also about the final decision, if every user will have MRA access this is the way to go.

[dueddi04]

Just one main question about the support on Mega Cluster:

- does it have differences or additional maintenance requirements  (ex same migration path as a standard cluster? does it has some configuration or maintenance constraints...)

Another question is on the limit of a standard cluster and manage a possible oversubscription:

- CUCM has a cluster wide limit of 40.000 provisioned devices, but there is also a per server limit on registered devices (up to 20k from CUCM 11.5).

Considering that MRA users "are potential " (it is very unlike that an user will register at the same time all his CSF, BOT, TCT, TAB devices),  is it possible to provision for ex 30000 users over the 2 Edges and maintain the 1:1 failover design (taking into account that the real registered devices will be only 1/3)?

The idea is to guarantee the 1:1 failover (respecting the 40k global limit), but without the need to scaleup the infrastructure for "potential" devices

[whamblin]

The only difference between a megacluster and a standard cluster is the number of subscribers.   There are no additional maintenance requirements.   Configuration is the same.  

In order to leverage more than 10k configured devices per subscriber pair, you need to get Cisco design approval.   Same process as megacluster approval.  

I am not sure I am following your detail in the last question.   Can you please give me some additional detail or specifics?

[dueddi04]

Thanks a lot. You already answered to my question.

Last consideration can be summarised: ideally Cisco should have designed a "dynamic device type" for MRA to avoid the need of overconfigure devices (ex 5 each real user) that will probably never be used (ex. if an user register his IOS phone will not need the Android at the same time).