UCM version upgrade and failover

[yantiscompany]

I'm new to the company, and I currently have a Cisco MCS 7828-H3 running UCM 6.1.1 with Unity connection 2.1.1.  We had a psu go faulty on the MCS which killed the phone systems for a day, and had everyone going crazy.  I figure best bet is just to buy a backup MCS off of ebay, and run it in some kind of failover config.  I was also looking to upgrade to some of the newer versions.  Looking at the version compatibility chart, 6.1.1 isn't even shown as compatible with my server, so I'm not sure how that worked out. The newest 8.6 is indeed compatible, but I was wondering how licensing works on this device?  Does smartnet cover the upgrade for going from 6.1 to 8.6?  Also, I see two machines on ebay (one of which looks beefier), but the compatibility chart doesn't show them as being compatible.  Will I still be able to upgrade them to the same versions?  How does failover work with this system.  I really don't want to have to bother with getting any new licensing for the backup server since it will just be there in the case of an emergency (1 day every couple of years).

[Jaime Valencia]

If a model does not show up try looking here:

Cisco 7800 Series Media Convergence Servers

Solution Overviews

If it's not the same HW most likely you won't be able to install it and won't be supported if you manage to install it but the specs do not match what is on the link.

As far a failover it's either you buy another node license and create a subscriber (which will be seamless failover for users) or you backup your config daily and when your PUB crashes you take that config and load it into the other server which will be running the exact same version as the production PUB and you also need to reach licensing in order for them to rehost the licenses from one server to the other. Obviusly the 2nd option means you'll be without phone services until you restore your config on the other server and get the licenses.

HTH

java

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www.cisco.com/go/pdihelpdesk

HTH

java

If this helps, please rate

www.cisco.com/go/pdihelpdesk

[yantiscompany]

Well obviously the second option would be a pain.  First option might be good, but I hesitate to ask what the node license would cost.

As for versions, does anyone know anything about the licensing on those?  If I can upgrade the software on my current

Cisco MCS 7828-H3 for free, I'd like to take advantage of some of the new features.  Otherwise I'll probably just go with the newest revision of 6.1.  For the servers on ebay, will they still work with the new versions?  If it's just a matter of it being "unsupported" from Cisco, then it wouldn't really be a big deal since its just a backup that I don't intend to purchase support or smartnet for anyway.

[mmoulson1]

Hi Justin,

The problem you have is all your phone licences they will be tied to the MAC address of the existing physical server. If you buy a ‘spare’ box off ebay then you can load the CUCM software on but the licence files won’t work so you won’t be able to register any phones (other than the demo included licences).

There will be a path to upgrade from 6.1.1 but you will probably have to do it in stages 6.x to 7.x to 8.x etc. It’s a pain and probably more trouble than it’s worth. You will also need to buy the upgrade it is not part of smartnet.

Java is correct the best thing you can do is setup a subscriber server on separate hardware, this will need to be the same version as your existing and you will need to buy a node licence which is not cheap!

Sorry for the bad news!

Hope that helps!
Matty