Time estimate for PCD upgrade of CUCM

[Robert Rhodes]

Does anyone have a reasonable estimate of how long it takes to perform a PCD upgrade of a CUCM cluster? I know that there are a lot of variables, so the real answer is "it depends", but even a rough swag would help in scheduling resources and setting customer expectations. It's a 3 node cluster with ~900 users/devices, currently running 8.6.2 and upgrading to 10.5.2.

Thanks

[Manish Gogna]

Hi Rob,

You are correct, it depends upon various factors like size of database, throttling parameter, upgrade path etc. However, a rough estimate would be 90 minutes to a couple of hours per node for your cucm cluster.

HTH

Manish

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[carlnewton]

Be aware that you are doing quite a jump there, and i believe it is a refresh upgrade, so each upgrade may take even longer than that.

You can also tell the system not to switch versions after the upgrade, so you can schedule the upgrade at 3 oclock in the afternoon to start running at 9pm that evening.  Then hopefully by the time you come back in the morning, the upgrade will be complete (and successful)

Your servers however will remain on the old version and nothing will change.  The phones WILL reboot while the upgrade is happening, but you do not have to be there.  The process is automatic.  Once servers are successfully upgraded, you can then schedule in a time to switch versions to the new upgraded version.  The servers then only need a reboot to come up on the new version; cutting the time needed for you to be on site by a lot.  You should just need a base support staff for a few hours on the weekend of the switch version to check phones and run a few tests; the actual attended "upgrade" part should take less than an hour, then you just drink coffee and run a few tests.

Please rate if you find useful!

[Robert Rhodes]

The upgrade was completed nearly two months ago and took somewhere north of two hours per node. One complaint about using PCD is the lack of real-time status when performing the upgrade. I ran the ESXi client with the UCM console(s) open during the upgrade so that I could keep an eye on task status.