11-21-2014 01:11 PM
I have been working with the Prime Collaboration Deployment tool in the lab trying various things with it. I like the concept of what it is supposed to do, but in practice it fails far more than it succeeds. Of note:
1. If a presence server is hooked to CUCM, PCD insists on attempting to discover it. Doesn't give you the option not to, even if you NEED it not to.
2. No option at all to address the possibility that the platform OS username and password for the presence server might be different than the CUCM platform OS username and password. This is a huge miss by Cisco.
3. If you run a discovery, I find that it often "fails" with no explanation at all. Why did it fail? How do I figure out what to fix? The admin guide references a set of logs to pull, but after reviewing those, they are no help at all.
4. Troubleshooting is maddening. Nothing in the tool, in the documentation, or on line to help with most of the issues I'm seeing. The issues that are documented, I'm really not seeing occur.
5. No dedicated forum for addressing issues with a new tool with very skimpy documentation.
I would welcome a pointer at additional resources on this tool. It could be such a huge help. As is, it's almost too hard to use due to lack of resources to back it up. We cannot put this into production deployments if we cannot depend on it to behave correctly.
TIA
Cliff
05-01-2017 01:09 PM
6 months after last posting about UCCX upgrades with PCD, it is still broken and not usable.
A PCD upgrade of UCCX NEVER FINISHES because the OS never reports that the installation has finished.
Certainly an issue for the CCBU that needs to be addressed. Seems like a simple thing to fix....
09-05-2018 09:43 AM
Hi Cliff, Thank you for posting all the most valuable info about the previous versions of PCD tools and their draw backs. We are planning to upgrade our CUCM 9.1.2 to 11.5. CUXN 9.1.2 to 11.5 and UCCX 9.0.2 to 11.5 soon. I plan to use PCD 11.5.3 for my upgrade tasks. Do you think PCD 11.5.3 resolved all your previous issues that you have gone thru in this discussion and would you recommend this tool for smooth upgrade?
-Charles A
10-25-2016 10:27 AM
@cmcglamry ... questions on your 1-6.
-james
10-25-2016 10:48 AM
Jarias,
1. I was looking for exactly that. But while it's nice to know where it is, that placement makes little sense. All other Prime products have their own area. And this product is used with more than just CUCM. Just noting here.
2. I used the "set network ip eth0". In CUCM there was a requirement to update the server IP address first on the server table. There is no place to do that on PCD, and the documentation doesn't address any special limitation or process for an IP address change that I can find.
3. Chrome and Firefox (latest)
4. In my case, I added "BOOTABLE_" in front of bootable iso's not otherwise marked as such when I got them.
5. Take your pick. I can't locate specific PCD direction in any location.
6. Correct, and upgrade task hangs. It's very reproducable in my lab.
10-10-2017 03:34 PM
05-14-2019 06:54 AM
It baffles me that Cisco isn't doing a better job vetting this tool.
Currently trying to use PCD 12.5. Customer has a CUCM v9 cluster we need to migrate to new hostnames/ips on version 11.5(1) latest SU.
After getting everything set up and starting to program the migration task, we hit a deal killer.
You CANNOT deselect the optional step of shutting down the existing CUCM publisher. The option to select the node and move it to the deselected side is greyed out and disabled. Also cannot delete this optional step.
11-10-2015 01:26 PM
Cliff...
Engineering is ready to have a demo of the PCD/UCM serviceability and status improvements they've been making in 11.5. We'll record it, but if you'd like to attend live we'd love to have you on the call to get some feedback.
-james
05-16-2024 05:55 AM
2024 and PCD still has issues with having an error then not telling anyone what it is. "Look at the logs" I found the logs they say the task failed....awesome. Why not just tell me the problem? There is plenty of room on the display to tell me what the problem is.
05-16-2024 07:02 AM
@robert , I share your frustration. Some things I have learned here that might be helpful to you.
1. PCD indicates a failure but PCD in and of itself usually doesn't know why it failed. It detects the failure based on a timeout and/or lack of response.
2. You will need to get into the install logs to figure out what happened. Those logs will be on the VM that failed to install or upgrade. If you were attempting to upgrade, those logs can be grabbed using either the CLI or the RTMT tool. If it's a new install, you'll need some additional help. I have a PDF in my notes file on how to pull logs using the Recovery DIsk (which you can download from CCO). The process to do this can be found here: https://defaultgateway.org/2022/07/18/how-to-pull-the-install-logs-using-the-recovery-disk/
Once you have the logs, you can either go through them yourself, or you can open a case with Cisco TAC. Which you start with will depend on your level of experience at decyphering Cisco's not always obvious log file messages. Once you find the point of failure in the logs, you may be able to fix it yourself....but if you're hitting a bug, sometimes the entries in the log file are a bit more opaque, and you may need TAC's help to decypher (or you might reach out to someone more experienced here).
Hope this is helpful. You're not alone in the frustration with the "Installation failed" unhelpful message.
09-10-2015 10:12 AM
Thanks Cliff. You saved my day, +5 for that.
Hope, Cisco comes back with decoder guide soon.
Regards,
Sami
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