MCS CUCM + CUPS 8.6 to Virtual CUCM + IM & Presence 10.X/11.X

[Carl Ratcliffe]

Hi Support Community

I have read through many documents and support forums for the MCS Appliance to Virtual upgrades from CUCM and CUPS and I am happy with the process and plan to, in summary -  take DRS backups, build virtual machines with OVA and same versions, DRS backup full cluster restore then upgrade.

I have a few questions on best practice for doing this :

1 - The DRS restore needs to have same IP address and hostnames.  I want to build the virtual servers well in advance and the cluster is geographically separated, is the best practice to build on temporary IP addresses then just before the restore shutdown the MCS server cluster, change the IP address and hostnames on the virtual servers then do the restore ?

2 - As we are on CUCM 8.6 we will need to migrate licences and on virtual machines they are partly based on the IP address so I assume I can only get the licences migrated when my servers have their final IP address or can this be done in advance if I can provide the final IP address of the servers to on the day im not reliant on Cisco licencing ?

3 -   In IM & Presence the user configuration is done on CUCM as opposed to CUPS for 8.6. Is the CUPS 8.6 user configuration automatically migrated into the CUCM configuration or is there any manual process involved ?

Thanks, Carl Ratcliffe

Preston-Lancashire-England

[Carl Ratcliffe]

4 - Also forgot to add, when going from physical to virtual infrastructure is best practice to remain on the same version in a virtual environment for a bedding in period before going ahead with the upgrade ?

Thanks, Carl Ratcliffe

Preston-Lancashire-England

[Manish Gogna]

4. That is the correct approach.

Manish
 

[billybjo1]

In your title I see you mentioned 10.x/11.x.

be wary of going to 11.x.

I've done an upgrade to 11.x and now don't seem to be able to obtain V11 licenses from Cisco. I'm being told V11 is not yet available, which is strange as its available for download and release notes are out etc.

[Manish Gogna · Accepted solution]

Hi Carl,

1. Both the options are okay but the one involving changing the IP address and hostnames just before the actual migration is doing the extra bit of work for the same purpose. If the two networks are isolated then you should go for direct installation of UC applications with same ip address and hostnames.

2. You can email licensing@cisco.com to get a clarity on this.

3. The configuration is copied over automatically. "If you upgrade the system from a pre-9.0 Cisco Unified Presence installation, the existing service profiles are migrated from Cisco Unified Presence to Unified CM. You do not lose your service profile settings after you upgrade."

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/9_1_1/ccmcfg/CUCM_BK_A34970C5_00_admin-guide-91/CUCM_BK_A34970C5_00_admin-guide-91_chapter_01100001.html

HTH

Manish

[Carl Ratcliffe]

Hi Manish

Thanks for your response.

In regards to point 1, my initial idea was to build the virtual cluster in an isolated network with the same IP's however as the cluster is geographically separated ie London, New York, Europe, this would then leave me having to copy the virtual servers from the isolated network to the correct geographic location after the build which across the WAN link may take longer than changing the IP addresses ?

Unless its recommended to build in an isolated environment then copy to the correct geographic location and just keep turned off until just before DRS restore ?

Thanks, Carl Ratcliffe

Preston-Lancashire-England

[Manish Gogna]

Hi Carl,

You can do that. The point is to have the servers with same ip, hostname , security password when the backup needs to be restored.

Manish

[Carl Ratcliffe]

Thanks Manish

At least I have 2 workable options, will just have to decide which option is going to minimise the amount of work to be done on migration day.

Im leaning more towards the change IP before DRS restore option because I can then build the servers without having to isolate them and I know the builds are working this way as they will be online.

Isolating them to build is not so much of a pain my only concern is that I then will need to copy across the WAN and leave turned off because the physical cluster will still be using the IP until we turn them off. If I then turn on the virtual server at migration day and it has an issue I then have to do a rebuild which would take more time than changing the IP addresses.

Thanks, Carl Ratcliffe

Preston-Lancashire-England