CUCM 9.1.2 MCS convert to VMWare

[robert.brewer1]

I have 3 decentralized CUCM/CUC clusters running on MCS 7825I5 platform ver.9.1.2 machines and planning on moving to a centralized VMWare system. What processes or steps are needed to convert these 3 decentralized MCS servers over to a centralized VMWare solution?

[jarias]

Are you upgrading to v10x/11.0 or staying on v9.1.2, just virtualizing?

If you are upgrading software you can use Prime Collaboration Deployment to move each cluster on MCS to a new cluster on VMs.  If not upgrading software, then this looks like a server migration, i.e. backup from MCS, reinstall on VM, restore to VM.

Separate from this is if you want to consolidate 3 different UCM clusters (3 Pubs) into one UCM cluster (1 Pub).

That requires an interaction with licensing team, and should be done before or after the migration.  Not recommended to do that as part of the migration as it complicates reversion in case you need to back out.

[robert.brewer1]

Hi Jarias,

Thanks for the reply. We are planning on moving from 9.1.2 to 10.5. Isn't Prime Collaboration Deployment only available with version 10.X? And yes, we are planning on consolidating these 3 de-centralized cluster into one centralized system. We are discussing with Cisco License team on consolidation from these 3 different UCM clusters to a centralized cluster.

[jarias · Accepted solution]

PCD is only distributed with UCM 10.0.1+, but it can migrate older releases to 10.x or 11.0.

PCD Migration Task is what you could use to get from 9.1.2-on-MCS to 10.5.2-on-VM (assuming your ESXi hosts have appropriate VMware license feature level).

Alternative is the “old way” … backup 9.1.2 mcs, reinstall 9.1.2 on VM, restore to VM, then upgrade VM to 10.5.2, but this is usually not preferred due to longer elapsed time and more complex procedure. Unless you had only 2 nodes.

PCD does not merge clusters so that would have to be done separately. If you don’t plan to eliminate UCM nodes, then maybe migrate as-is, then do the consolidate and re-license. If the cluster consolidation will eliminate nodes might be better to do that first on 9.x side then do the migration.

-james

[robert.brewer1]

Hi Jarias, this information was very helpful thanks for the info.

Regards,

Robert Brewer