Upgrading from Unity Connection 8.5.1 to 8.6.2

[lisacoody]

Hi everyone,

My boss wants me to upgrade our standalone UC server (Platform 7835H2 - version 8.5.1ES65.13900-65) to one that supports Office 365 (8.6.2). This will be my first time to do an upgrade, so I'm being double-dog careful. I opened a support ticket with TAC to make sure I understand the process and some of the things I was told to do contradict what I'm reading in the support forums. I'd really appreciate it if someone who has already done a similar upgrade could give me advice on my two main questions.

1. Backup before upgrade. The TAC engineer said to use COBRAS. It seems to me that COBRAS is designed for migrating users and data from one server to another. Do I use it or DRS? Will I even need to export users and data, then import that information back to the server once the upgrade is done? Is the backup done just in case something goes wrong?

2. When to install the COP file. I was told to do the upgrade first, then install the COP file. Several other threads have said to do it the other way around - COP file first, THEN upgrade file.

Thanks in advance!

Lisa

[Rob Huffman · Accepted solution]

Hi Lisa,

I'm going to have to disagree with TAC on this one

1. I would want a DRS backup although part of COBRAS is backup

steps are here;

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/8x/upgrade/guide/8xcucrug007.html

COBRAS

http://www.ciscounitytools.com/Applications/General/COBRAS/Help/COBRAS.htm

2. the .cop has to be installed as the first step or the "Refresh" upgrade will fail;

If you are going to upgrade to Unity Connection 8.6

Check out this great doc from Saurabh for the refresh upgrade notes to 8.6.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/community/netpro/collaboration-voice-video/unified-comm-application/blog/2011/08/11/checklist-before-upgrading-to-unity-connection-86

Cheers!

Rob

"What you don't have you don't need it now" 

- U2

[lisacoody]

Thanks, Rob. I appreciate you taking the time to reply. I feel much more confident about the whole procedure now.

I've read many of your replies to others on this same issue so I'm pretty certain you know what you're talking about. One of the documents I read that made me doubt what TAC said is the document by Saurabh - I've read it through several times already and found it very helpful. Thanks for linking to it.

There's a scheduled back up of UC performed every night (all options are checked). Should I still do a COBRAS backup too or is that unnecessary?

Once the upgrade file installation is complete, do I need to do anything else? From what I've read, this is similar to running a Windows (or Mac) operating system update/patch - start the upgrade file, wait for it to run and once it's complete, reboot the system and continue as usual (assuming everything went OK). Is that right?

Thanks again!

Lisa

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Lisa,

Good stuff

I don't think COBRAS would be necessary.

The changes you are making are almost like two upgrades;

phase 1 - the refresh upgrade

phase 2 - the actual move from 8.5 to 8.6

You might even want to look at doing these over 2 maintenance

windows due to the time involved.

I hate to ever minimize the complexity of these type of changes. I've been bitten

too many times so I'm pretty paranoid. I would spend some time on the Bug

Toolkit or beta Bug Search Tool doing more research before moving forward.

BTK

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/BugToolKit/action.do?hdnAction=searchBugs

BST

https://www.cisco.com/cisco/psn/bssprt/bss

Make sure you review all the sections of this doc as well, especially

in relation to languages etc.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/8x/upgrade/guide/8xcucrug007.html

Best of luck with this!

Cheers!

Rob

"What you don't have you don't need it now" 

- U2

[lisacoody]

Thanks, Rob. I'll check out the bug links thoroughly before doing the upgrade(s).

I've scheduled a 4 hour outage window for the upgrade. Do you think that's enough time to do both upgrades? If it matters, the nightly back up usually takes around 50 minutes.

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Lisa,

You are most welcome

As I said...I'm pretty paranoid, but I think doing both in a 4 hour window

would be pushing it.The Refresh upgrade has multiple reboots

etc. and reformats Linux......I'd want double that.

Cheers!

Rob

"What you don't have you don't need it now" 

- U2

[lisacoody]

I appreciate your paranoia! Researching any upcoming change is time well-spent.

Thanks again for the advice.

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Lisa,

I was thinking a little further on this and wanted to go back

to the fact that you mentioned that this would be your first

upgrade. If that is the case, then perhaps trying an 8.5(x)

SR upgrade would be a nice start. This would give you an

opportunity to see how the process works before going

"all in"

Something like;

http://www.cisco.com/web/software/282074295/95789/851su5cucrm.pdf

Just a thought.

Cheers!

Rob

"What you don't have you don't need it now" 

- U2

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Lisa,

Woot! Woot! Spring break Oh right, you still have to work

I don't see any issues with staggering these changes. This will give you an

idea of how long things take as well.

Cheers!

Rob

PS: you are most welcome my friend

"What you don't have you don't need it now" 

- U2

[lisacoody]

Hi Rob,

Just to be safe, I took Jeff's advice and made a COBRAS backup.

I tried to run the 8.5(1)SU5 upgrade twice and it failed both times - and it looks like I'm going for a third. It appears that the install fails because of a checksum error. I copied and pasted the log into a text file - see attached.

I downloaded the file from Cisco and ran it against a checksum generator. Both numbers matched so I burned it to a DVD (using my Mac). On the configuration screen shown below there isn't an MD5 hash value - should there be? What am I doing wrong - or am I on the wrong track altogether and there's something else going wrong?

Thanks in advance!

Lisa

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Lisa,

I would try to download & burn using a different PC. Make sure

you follow these rules;

9

Readme for Cisco Unity Connection

Release 8.5(1) Service Update 5

Reverting to the Connection Ve

rsion on the Inactive Partition

Step

6

Select the applicable download, th

en follow the on-screen prompts to

complete the download, making

note of the MD5 value.

Step

7

Use a checksum generator to confirm that the MD5

checksum matches the checksum that is listed on

Cisco.com. If the values do not match, the downloaded files are damaged.

Caution

Do not attempt to use a damaged file to install software, or the results will be unpredictable.

If the MD5 values do not match, download the

file again until the va

lue for the downloaded

file matches the value listed on Cisco.com.

Free checksum tools are available on the Internet,

or example, the Microsoft File Checksum Integrity

Verifier utility. The utility is described in

Microsoft Knowledge Base article 841290,

Availability and

Description of the File Checksum Integrity Verifier Utility

. The KB article also

includes a link for

downloading the utility.

Step

8

If you are installing from a DVD, burn the DVD, noting the following considerations:

•

Choose the option to burn a disc image, not the option to copy files. Burning a disc image will extract

the thousands of files from the .iso file and write th

em to a DVD, which is necessary for the files to

be accessible for the installation.

•

Use the Joliet file system, which accommodates filenames up to 64 characters long.

•

If the disc-burning application that you are using includes an option to verify the contents of the

burned disc, choose that option.

This causes the application to comp

are the contents of the burned

disc with the source files.

Step 9

Confirm that the DVD contains a large number of directories and files.

What do you show for the MD5?

Cheers!

Rob

"Hours are like diamonds, don't let them waste
Time waits for no one, no favors has he" 

- Stones

[jeff.singh_2]

here is a cup upgrade screenshot that I am doing and it shows a MD5 Hash value. So yes, there should be one. If the downloaded file was ok (you said you checked the hash5 value ) then why not upgrade from the network .

[c.argent]

COBRAS is used wholly for data protection. DRS won't work because the versions are different.


Sent from Cisco Technical Support Android App

[lisacoody]

Forgive me, but I'm not sure I understand what you're telling me. Are you saying that I should use COBRAS to make a back up before upgrading my server from 8.5(1) to 8.6(2)? Can you explain further what you mean about DRS not working because the versions are different - I don't understand.

Thanks for taking the time to reply - I appreciate it.

Lisa

[jeff.singh_2]

Hi,

DRS will allow you to have your data back if the upgrade for some reason went wrong and you had to rebuild back at  8.51. Cobras is mainly used for migrating from one version to another if you had two seperate servers - if your doing an on box upgrade then your data will be intact after the upgrade and you have the option of reverting back to the inactive partition.. It does not take long to run the DRS - if i was doing this I would do both backups , DRS and Cobras just to be safe.