Unity Connection Cluster Upgrade Failure

[James Hawkins]

Hi,

I have a customer with a Unity Connection 8.6.22900-9 cluster running on UCS hardware under VMware ESXi 5.0.
The cluster is deployed in the UK and so has the en-GB locale installed.

Over the weekend I attempted to upgrade the cluster to version 10.5.2.12900-14 but was unsuccessful.

I started by running the cli command run cuc preupgrade test which advised that I needed to make the Publisher server the Primary and remove the en-GB locale before starting the upgrade.

I duly did this and ran the check again which reported everything was ok. I then started the upgrade on the Publisher. This completed but when I tried to switch versions I got a message unity connection sync after switch version failed

I was unable to get the upgrade to complete on the Subscriber at all.

The lines below are an extract of the cuc-version-switch.log file

2015-07-03 20:04:02 ++ sudo -u informix cdr list server
2015-07-03 20:04:12 connect to ciscounity failed 
2015-07-03 20:04:12 Attempt to connect to database server (ciscounity) failed.
2015-07-03 20:04:12  (-908)
2015-07-03 20:04:12 command failed -- unable to connect to server specified  (5)

I am not sure whether this indicates a cluster issue or a problem connecting to the local database?

I have a few queries about the upgrade which do not seem to be covered in the official guide.

Is it really necessary to uninstall locales before the upgrade?

If it is then do I need to modify the objects that use the locales? - i.e. set the users and user templates to use US English?

At what stage do I need to modify the virtual machine settings to match the requirements for 10.5? - compared to the OVA template settings I think that I need to change the guest OS to Red Hat Linux 6 - 64 bit and change the Ethernet NIC from Flexible to VMXNET3

Thanks for reading - any help welcome.

[Manish Gogna · Accepted solution]

Hi James,
As per the following bug, removing the locales is necessary

https://tools.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCtw48823/?reffering_site=dumpcr

Unity Connection - document upgrade procedure for multilingual installs.
CSCtw48823
Description
Symptom:
When upgrading a Connection server, all locales must be removed prior to the upgrade. However, when a locale is removed, all Subscriber links to that locale are also removed. This is to document the procedure needed in order to restore those links after the upgrade.

Conditions:
Upgrading a multilingual Connection install (where any locales other than ENU are installed).

Workaround:
Contact TAC.

>>>> Backup User Greetings

    Before removing the locales and upgrading the system, Run an Export via Bulk Admin of "users with mailboxes"
    Remove locales, Upgrade system, Re-install locales.
    Run an Update via Bulk Admin using the csv file obtained in step 1.

>>>> Remove Locales

    Stop Connection Conversation Manager
    Stop Connection Mixer.
    Stop Clean Directory Stream Files task.
    Run the CLI command show cuc locales to display a list of installed language files.
    In the command results, find the language that you want to remove, and note the value of the Locale column for the language.
    Run the CLI command delete cuc locale <code> to remove the language, where <code> is the value of the Locale column that you found in Step 2.
    When the command completes, the following information appears: <code> uninstalled

Changing the VM config is a part of the pre-upgrade tasks.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/upgrade/10_0_1/CUCM_BK_U4214F9D_00_upgrade-guide-cucm-100/CUCM_BK_U4214F9D_00_upgrade-guide-cucm-100_chapter_011.html#CUCM_TK_C9AFC8CC_00

HTH
Manish

[James Hawkins]

Manish,

Thank you so much for this.

I will be able to try the upgrade again next weekend and hope to be able to succeed by following the guidance you have provided.

Once again thanks - your response was exactly what I hoped for.

James

[James Hawkins]

Hello,

Just wanted to note that I completed the upgrade successfully by following the advice Manish posted above.

Thanks again Manish - you saved me raising a TAC case.

James 

[Manish Gogna]

Good to know that, thanks for updating the post.

Manish
 

[emorgan]

Hi,

So, when exactly did you change the guest OS and VMXNET3 settings for Unity?

I am just about to start a CUC upgrade from 8.6.1 to 10.5.2.

The documentation for CUCM talks about it, but there is no mention in the CUC upgrade guide.

Thanks,

Eric

[James Hawkins]

Hi Eric,

I changed the VMware settings before the upgrade as detailed in the CUCM upgrade guide below:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/upgrade/10_0_1/CUCM_BK_U4214F9D_00_upgrade-guide-cucm-100/CUCM_BK_U4214F9D_00_upgrade-guide-cucm-100_chapter_011.html#CUCM_TK_C9AFC8CC_00

The Unity Connection upgrade guide does not seem to specify when to do this but, given CUCM and Unity Connection share the same code base this seemed to be a reasonable choice and it worked ok.

In my home lab I have done things the other way round - upgrade first then VMware changes - and that worked ok. UCCX actually specifies to do it that way.

I think it does not matter too much which way you do it and the guides just show what procedure the people who wrote them used.

HTH

James