CUCM version 9.1.2 to 11.X upgrade; Also CUC, IMP and UCCX

[mohsin majeed]

Hi Experts,

We have cisco IPT infrastructure in place as below and need to upgrade to 11.X 

CM : Active Version: 9.1.2.13900-10 Unrestricted

CUC : Version 9.1.2.10000-10

IMP : 9.1.1.31900-1

UCCX : System version: 9.0.2.10000-71

ELM : 

PCD : 9.5

I need to clear some points which are confusing to me prior to go for upgrade. We have seven UCS server with VM installed as attached.

1- We are using UCS C220 M3 servers. PCD is installed on One of the UCS where UCCX secondary and CUCM TFTP2 servers are installed. Do i need to upgrade PCD itself to proceed for this upgrade.

2- What about the ESXi? We need to upgrade ESXi also because they are running version 5.0 and 5.5. We will not use separate hardware. Does PCD support the upgrade of ESXi and VMs at the same time on the same hardware server if enough resources are available ?  

3- How i can get the ISO images for all above apps and ESXi.

4- Do we need to get upgrade files to be installed in to new CM cluster prior to upgrade.

5- We will keep the IP same for all the servers. would be there any downtime ?

6- How to move licenses to the upgraded cluster.

Appreciate your help!!!

Regards,

[Deepak Rawat]

1- We are using UCS C220 M3 servers. PCD is installed on One of the UCS where UCCX secondary and CUCM TFTP2 servers are installed. Do i need to upgrade PCD itself to proceed for this upgrade.

Answer : There is no PCD version 9.5, it should be 10 or above. You will need PCD v11 to upgrade UC components on 11 so yes PCD upgrade will be required

2- What about the ESXi? We need to upgrade ESXi also because they are running version 5.0 and 5.5. We will not use separate hardware. Does PCD support the upgrade of ESXi and VMs at the same time on the same hardware server if enough resources are available ?  

Answer:PCD 11 can/should run on ESXi 5.5 and the UC applications that you need to upgrade should also run on 5.5, refer below:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/pcdadmin/11_0_1/CUCM_BK_PB6D9005_00_pcd-administration-guide-110/CUCM_BK_PB6D9005_00_pcd-administration-guide-110_chapter_011.html

3- How i can get the ISO images for all above apps and ESXi.

Answer: Bootable images are not available on CCO, contact your Cisco Accounts Manager or TAC for that. ESxi should be available on Vmware site. However, you are performing an upgrade you really do not require the bootable image unless you have plans to create new VMs as a part of migration

4- Do we need to get upgrade files to be installed in to new CM cluster prior to upgrade.

Answer: Upgrade images along with the required COP files should be available in the SFTP store of PCD prior to perform the upgrade task else it will fail. Refer to above link for more information:

5- We will keep the IP same for all the servers. would be there any downtime ?

Answer: Downtime will be there during the process when the old server will get shutdown and the new one will come up. However, assuming you have a cluster with more than one servers other should be working at that point

6- How to move licenses to the upgraded cluster.

Answer: You will need to engage Cisco Licensing Team for that. Refer to below post, should be same for version 11: Since UCCX is not managed by PLM capture the License MAC pre and post upgrade and provide the same to Licensing team to rehost the license files

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/cloud-systems-management/prime-license-manager-105/118836-configure-cucm-00.html

Regards

Deepak

[mohsin majeed]

Thanks Deepak for your detailed answer, very clear to me.

Again regarding question 2; What, if we also want to upgrade ESXi to version 6 on the same Hardware where we already have the virtual machines installed. My point, is it possible to upgrade ESXi as well as the virtual machines of CM, CUC, IMP etc on the Same hardware using PCD.

Regards,

[Deepak Rawat]

You can upgrade ESXi to 6 but that will be a different procedure altogether since PCD cannot be used for ESXi upgrade. However as I mentioned earlier as well, if you upgrade the ESXi to 6 then you will not be able to upgrade the VMs i.e., CUCM, CUC etc using PCD as it does not have the compatible VMware APIs to communicate with the VMs running on ESXi 6

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/pcdadmin/11_0_1/CUCM_BK_PB6D9005_00_pcd-administration-guide-110/CUCM_BK_PB6D9005_00_pcd-administration-guide-110_chapter_011.html

Regards

Deepak

[Vinh Nguyen]

Hi Deepak

I have CUCM / IMP 9.1 Cluster distributed across multiple sites on multiple ESXi hosts.  Can the prime tools connect to all the different hosts and upgrade them?  Are there any limitations like WAN bandwidth.  During the Prime upgrade can we choose not to upgrade a particular CUCM subscriber.  I want to rebuilt the subscriber after most servers have been upgraded and just joined it back to the cluster.  The reason being subscriber is at a remote location on a BE6K and I believe PCD does not work with BE6K due the licensing of ESXi.  Can Unity Connection be upgraded using PCD?

Thanks

[Terry Cheema · Accepted solution]

1) Can the prime tools connect to all the different hosts and upgrade them?

Yes you define the ESXi hosts in the PCD and provide the credentials and it will use its APIs to connect to the host

2) Are there any limitations like WAN bandwidth. 

If you are doing migration\upgrade over the WAN - 100Mbps bandwidth is recommended between PCD and the apps

Ref: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/pcdadmin/11_0_1/CUCM_BK_P00E3B55_00_pcd-admin-guide-115.pdf

But for upgrade you can use the remote SFTP and dont need to to do this over WAN. PCD will use the local SFTP or file (which you will define in PCD) for the upgrade.

3) The reason being subscriber is at a remote location on a BE6K and I believe PCD does not work with BE6K due the licensing of ESXi

You can switch to trial version of ESXi during the upgrade and turn back to the licensed version once the upgrade is complete.

4) Can Unity Connection be upgraded using PCD?

You can not do a migration or Refresh upgrade for Unity connection (i.e in your case going from 9.1 to assuming 11.X, since you haven't mentioned the target version).

This will be a manual upgrade - unless you are not doing a RU

Ref: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/pcdadmin/11_0_1/CUCM_BK_P00E3B55_00_pcd-admin-guide-115/CUCM_BK_P00E3B55_00_pcd-admin-guide-115_chapter_011.html

-Terry

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[Vinh Nguyen]

Hi Terry

Thanks for a great respond.  Another question once all the servers have been upgraded to minimise the outage windows I want to put all the new servers onto a non production VLAN and power them on.  Then I change the NIC in Vcenter once the entire cluster is powered on and services started.  That way I reduce the outage windows to a minimum and provide a rollback as well.  Is this OK or can you see any issues?  I assume the phone will register OK and that I don't need to remove the ITL files prior to pointing to new version 11.0 cluster.  The ITL files should not change from the upgrade?

Thanks