Upgrade CUCM/CUC/UCCX from 9.0 to ?

[tyler.pennewill]

I am looking to upgrade a client's systems from 9.0 to 10.0 or higher.  Is it possible to go all the way to 12.0 or 12.5 in one or two steps?  Or do I need to manually step through each version?  

Upgrade documentation makes it sound like it is maybe possible to go straight from 9.0 to any other version as long as I do the cop file prep/refresh steps as well.

If going from 9.0 to say 12.0 or 12.5 is possible, I may as well do that, but if not I may just go to 10.0 to get the client back onto a supported version.  (I'm aware I will need to be wary of phone model incompatibilities and such from older to newer versions.  This alone may be the reason to not go above 10.0, but it remains to be seen.)

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Jaime Valencia]

Mandatory reading for planning an upgrade is:

A) Upgrade guide

B) Release notes

C) README from OVA

Within those docs you will find the upgrade compatibility for each product, and whether you can, or cannot upgrade directly, along with the pre-reqs, procedure, post-upgrade checks, etc.

Have you gone through those docs for each product?

[tyler.pennewill]

I have read through some of the upgrade guides, but was having trouble determining if it was possible to skip whole versions or not.

[Mike_Brezicky · Accepted solution]

Supported Upgrade and Migration Paths

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/upgrade/12_5_1/cucm_b_upgrade-migration-guide-1251/cucm_b_upgrade-migration-guide-1251_chapter_0100.html

According to the documentation, 9.x to 12.x requires a PCD migration upgrade, so is not a standard direct upgrade.  10.5 is the earlies supported for a direct to 12.x upgrade.

[tyler.pennewill]

Ah I had missed that. Hadn't dug thoroughly enough.
For this client just going to 10 might be the best bet since it is still supported for a few more years and jumping that many version I think will cause too many incompatibility issues.

[Mike_Brezicky · Accepted solution]

I did the same (from 8.6) for one of my clusters simply due to the deprecated handsets.  9.x > 10.5 is a straight forward upgrade, and then at a later time 10.5 > 12.x should be less painful than going from 9.x

[tyler.pennewill]

Yea, that is what I'm thinking since 10/10.5 are still supported and going all the way to 12.5 would be quite the ride.
Thanks for the input.

[tyler.pennewill]

I see that UCCX is actually still supported. Is there any reason to upgrade UCCX or could I leave it at 9.0 and just upgrade CUCM/IMP?

[Mike_Brezicky]

UCCX 9.0 is end of life and no longer TAC supported.  Also as far as I can tell, it is not compatible with UCM 10.5.  I always had best luck when keeping CUCM and UCCX the same version.

This is the compatibility matrix for CCX 9.0(2)

Solution Products and Components

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Business Edition 6000

8.5.x	8.6.x	9.0	9.1
8.5(1) 8.5(1)SU1 8.5(1)SU2 8.5(1)SU3 8.5(1)SU4 8.5(1)SU5 8.5(1)SU6	8.6(1) 8.6(1a) 8.6(2a) 8.6(2a)SU1 8.6(2a)SU2 8.6(2a)SU3	9.0(1)	9.1(1) 9.1(1a) 9.1(2) 9.1(2)SU1 9.1(2)SU2 9.1(2)SU2a 9.1(2)SU3 9.1(2)SU4

[tyler.pennewill]

Thanks for the heads up, I had definitely referenced the wrong page before thinking it was for UCCX 9.0, but was for something else.
Is the upgrade of UCCX as painless as CUCM/CUC/IM&P usually is?

[Flo.Matalis]

I find CUCM/CUC/IM&P more straightforward than UCCX. Restoring and upgrading UCCX needs to have a valid license first before you can proceed, services are IN SERVICE and database replication are good.

[monicageorgescu1]

Hello,

I have this question too. The Supported upgrade path from CUCM 12.0 documentation states:

From To Supported Methods Version Switching (From Source To Destination and vice versa)

8.x	12.x	PCD Migration	Not supported
8.6(x)	12.x	PCD Migration PCD Upgrade (Direct Refresh Upgrade) Cisco Unified OS Admin (Direct Refresh Upgrade)	Not supported
9.0(x)	12.x	PCD Migration PCD Upgrade (Direct Refresh Upgrade) Note  Upgrades using the Cisco Unified OS Admin interface are not supported for this upgrade path.	Not supported
9.1(x)	12.x	PCD Migration PCD Upgrade (Direct Refresh Upgrade) Cisco Unified OS Admin (Direct Refresh Upgrade)	Not supported

I do not understand this table. What does "version switching - not supported" means? Is this upgrade supported or not? 9.1 to 12.0.

Thank you