CUCM 6 to CUCM 8 upgrade scenario questions - Retire MCS migrate to ESXi

[itsadmins]

Hello All.  I hope to get some guidance on the following upgrade scenario as the community has provided great insight and assistance in the past.

Upgrade scenario - Physical MCS7800 series SW version CUCM 6.1.3.1000-16 with Pub/Sub to Virtual CUCM 8.0 Pub/Sub/Sub(Server running ESXi 4.0/4.1 with Intel Processors)

Current Environment - Pub/Sub CUCM 6.1.3.1000-16 on Cisco MCS7800s, Cisco 2851 GW(ios 12.4(17a)), 800 Cisco7941 IP phones, 10 VG224, ALL configured MGCP.

Side note:  We also run Unity 5.1 and Cisco Emergency Responder 2.X and plan to upgrade those to latest as well as well as virtualize from physical.

Questions - 1. What is the best scenario to perform this upgrade and ultimately retire the physical servers and use the Virtual Servers for production?
                   2. Are there any major caveats or gotchas that anyone knows of when upgrading from 6.X to 8.X?
                   3. Is CUCM 8.x supported on any hardware platform as long as I am running ESXi 4.0 with Intel processors?

                   4. Additional Advice or comments appreciated as well!

Thanks in advance for all input!

Tim

[Brandon Buffin]

Tim,

     Be aware the while CUCM 8.0(2) supports virtualization, it is only officially supported on Cisco UCS servers. No other hardware is currently supported.

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

Hope this helps.

Brandon

[Jaime Valencia]

There are several servers you can use for the bridge upgrade, look here.

Supported Servers for Releases of Cisco Unified  Communications Manager, Cisco Intercompany Media Engine and Session  Manager Edition

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6790/ps5748/ps378/prod_brochure0900aecd8062a4f9.html

It also mentions on which HW we support this.

Once you have 8.X in a physical server it's just a matter of taking a backup and restoring it in the ESXi servers.

HTH

java

If this helps, please rate

www.cisco.com/go/pdihelpdesk