CUBE on Development environment

[nunopedrosilva]

Hi all,

One quick question here.

I am entitled to perform tests against a CUBE, with the platform our company develops and sells.

Today I have no knowledge on CUBE but with hands-on and some examples I know I will be able to understand how it works, and what we can do with it on our customers environments (Those who actually use a CUBE).

Regarding development environments, that's what we need, since we don't have a "production" environment... Is there any way to have a development environment so that we can perform tests against CUBE?

On what terms? What I mean is, over a virtual machine, like Callmanager has that capability, or some other mean.

If it is not possible, I didn't quite understand yet the role of CUBE... Is it a specific IOS?

Is it part of a router's IOS?

Is it a single equipment?

Can I have a CUBE running in software like GNS (even if without support?)

Thanks,

Nuno Silva

[jballari]

Hi Nuno,

Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) is an integrated Cisco IOS application, which means it does run on IOS and you need a license to activate it. To describe it in two words: think of it as the evolution of an IP-IP gateway: a platform that can route calls from one voip dial-peer to another voip dial-peer.

If you're looking to test it and get familiar with, you can run it on a low-end router with the appropriate IOS version loaded. From that perspective, it can run as a single entity. Check this link for more info:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps5640/

Hope it helps.

Cheers,

Jose

[nunopedrosilva]

Hi Jose,

Thank you very much for your answer.

Yet I still got some questions, more related to my english understanding:

- low-end router... I'm not sure what you mean by that... like... old one? for testing, I only have a 2500 series (!!!) but from the website I assume it has no support whatsoever ... If I try to use GNS, I get a wider range, which makes me think that I could go with that possibility. I get:

-　Cisco's 2650XM, 2651XM, 3745, 7200

I undertood from a document that I grabbed from the website that they could "host" CUBE functionality, right?

　

c3745-adventerprisek9_ivs-mz

c3745-ipvoice_ivs-mz

c7200-adventerprisek9_mz

c7200-adventerprisek9_li-mz

c7200-adventerprisek9_li-mz

c2600-adventerprisek9_ivs-mz

c2600-ipvoice_ivs-mz

　

Which version would that be needed? 12.4(XX), meaning XX the realease I would need someone to tell me...

This might sound lame, and it really is... Sorry

Also, after I manage to have an image installed how will I know that I need to install a license, in order to use the functionality? I'm more used to MS products where I have to insert a product key, in order to use the product...

Also, is there any "development" license? Like... supposed to be cheaper than a production license? You know +/- the price?

Thanks,

Nuno Silva

[jballari]

Hi Nuno,

By "low-end" router I mean the least expensive platform you can find that supports the IOS required. Because it's a testing lab, you don't need a super machine to run this feature since call volume will be low, redundancy not required, etc. The 2650 would suffice certainly if you don't need to test "advanced" features that require an IOS version that in turns requires a lot of memory and CPU.

So about the version, again, depends on what exactly you want to test. If you only need to get familiar with the basic set of features, go for the first IOS that has the CUBE functionality built on. From there, there have been enhancements to CUBE in subsequent releases, but the trade off is that those IOS would require more RAM and CPU.

And last, about the license, I don't think there is anything like "development" licenses so you'd need to buy the regular IOS with the license included. Maybe you don't need the maintenance associated and maybe your company has already a contract in place that allows you to download and run the IOS in a lab...best thing is to check with your Account Manager from Cisco as he/she would be able to tell you if you need to buy anything and how much it would cost

Cheers,

Jose