Upgrades and Compatibility - Moving from CSR 11.0 to CSR 11.5

[mbrown-revitycu]

We are in the process of upgrading our collaboration systems from CSR 11.0 to CSR 11.5. Our implementation includes several subsystems:

UCM
IM & Presence
Unity Voicemail
MediaSense call recording
CCX/Finesse
Expressway
Webex Room Kits
4321 ISRs

We have been looking at the online compatibility matrix found here:
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/unified/communications/system/Compatibility/CSR-Compatibility-Matrix-InteractiveHTML.html#&ui-state=dialog

Based on the matrix, we will be required to upgrade all of these systems, as the minimum version for each is v11.5 or greater. However, we wanted to get clarification on this.

Example scenario:
* We upgrade our UCM publisher and subscriber nodes to v11.5.
* We leave all other systems on their current versions, mostly v11.0.

Does this scenario still allow for a functioning system? As in, all services (UCM calling, Jabber messaging, Unity voicemail, CCX/Finesse) will still work as needed?

Or would this cause outages on the non-upgraded systems until they are indeed upgraded?

We want to get this clarified, because if we are required to upgrade all of these systems to their "minimum" version in the matrix that would take a very long time, possibly two days or more. We obviously can't have these services offline for that long, and we have a limited extended maintenance window to work with, basically each weekend beginning each Saturday at approximately 1PM through Sunday evening.

Is it possible then to perform these upgrades over a number of maintenance windows over an extended period of weekends, while still retaining full functionality?

Example:
Weekend 1 Maintenance Window: Upgrade UCM pub and sub to 11.5
Weekend 2 Maintenance Window: Upgrade IM&P, Unity primary and backup server
Weekend 3 Maintenance Window: Upgrade MediaSense
Weekend 4 Maintenance Window: Upgrade ISRs

Thank you for any information you can provide.

[b.winter]

There is no ultimate yes or no answer to that question.

If you upgrade CUCM, you also need to upgrade IM&P.
Both need to have the same major + minor release version (11.0.xxx with 11.0.xxx or 11.5.yyy with 11.5.yyy). So, these to system would need to be made in one window.
In the same window, I would make Unity. Because you can do the install in parallel, while you upgrade CUCM+IM&P cluster.
The same probably with Expressways (a upgrade normally doesn't take longer than 10-15 min per Expressway, there is enough time while all the CUCM's upgrade...)

The Room kits will be automatically upgraded, if CUCM is finished (if there is a new firmware version in 11.5)
And the ISR's don't really depend on any specific CUCM version.

About all the other systems: That depends on, wether your current versions are still supported with CUCM 11.5 or not.
If they are, then you can do those upgrades in a different window.
If they are not, then it is on your on risk doing in a different window and running on an unsupported setup in the time between the windows.

[Roger Kallberg]

You need to upgrade UCM and IM&P systems at the same time as in you release train. 11,x, it have to match on five of the left most numbers in the version, ie 11.5.1.1x900. In version 12.5, I believe or it could be from 14.0, and on-wards it changes to be a required match of three left most numbers, ie 12.5.1 or 14.0.1.

For CCX you'll have to check the compatibility list, it might be that you're better off to start with that. It all depends on what the matrix says on the specific versions that you have.

[b.winter]

@mbrown-revitycu any update here? Could we solve your questions? If yes, please rate our posts as an accepted solution.