cucm migration

[vatter]

I have CUCM 8.51 on HP hardware.  I can't use the same hardware to upgrade the server to version 9 because the hardware is too old.

Due to this hardware issue, I have to move the server to UCS/VMware environment before I can upgrade the server.

I am planning to do this on the maintenance window and with my experience, CUCM installation usually takes about 2-3 hours.

Instead of wasting 3 hours of a maintenance window, I want to install CUCM prior to the maintenance window.

What is the best way to do this?  I am thinking about setting up the server with temporary IP and when installation is done, change the IP.

Do you see any issues with this method?

[albertochavez]

Hello vatter,

From our experience, if you're migrating a large deployment (for our market, large is 1k+) our recommendations is to separate in phases: segment users from a floor or department point of view. This implies that both new and old CUCM would be active at the same time until all users are now registered and operative on the new CUCM.

But since you have pointed out that maybe a 2-3 hour maintenance window would be too much, then yes, you could pre-install your new CUCM and after the installation and configuration (pre-register endpoints and users, dial-plan is applied, etc) phase has ended, then you could migrate your users. I think that an IP switch over after installation and configuration is done, is not that recommended, perhaps a best solution should be a change on the DHCP server, switching the TFTP option to the new CUCM IP address; that way should be more transparent for the end user the upgrade of their communications infrastructure.

Hope it helps.

Alberto