We recently purchased a BE6000S (10.6?) to migrate away from our CCME w/ CUE, and I am not sure where to start. The ordered SmartNet contracts have not been delivered, but I need to deploy, and I'm stuck at the very beginning. The Installation Guide at www.cisco.com/go/be6ksig seems to be geared toward the BE6000M and BE6000H, because it immediately delves into the CUCM portion of the installation and doesn't even touch on router configuration (also the pictures for VGA and power-on don't match the BE6000S). Best I can tell, when I turn on the toggle power switch of the BE6000S (I haven't yet), the CUCM won't turn on and I may need to configure the router portion before powering on the CUCM. I've read through the installation guide, and the lack of detail in several of the steps is not helping. I've also looked at the Preconfigured Option Reference Guide, and that only brings out more concerns, making me think I probably do NOT want to use the preconfigured options anyway (I'm fully familiar with the current system and configuration and would like to keep it that way, knowing what I changed and why instead of re-inventing the wheel). That having been said, I need quite a bit of guidance, but not full-on instructions. Any guidance would be appreciated, even if it doesn't directly address my list of questions, but I am going to provide a birds-eye view of our current configuration and a list of questions / concerns that I already know I have without having even turned on the unit.
Our current unit is a 2821 with CCME (7.1), so the configuration is all in the router and/or on the AIM-CUE (7.0.6) module in that device. We use a VLAN for VOIP, and the router doesn't actually do any routing outside of some communication between the VOIP and data VLANs. The router does provide DHCP to the VOIP VLAN and SNTP to the VOIP and data VLANs. I want to keep as much of my configuration as possible (VLANs, IPs, phone and mailbox configs, etc.), and I plan to configure and test the BE6000S in a sandbox environment so that I can actually use the same VLANs and IPs without conflict, then I plan to remove the CCME and install the BE6000S in its place. Questions follow.
1) Is this plan sane? I'm thinking the answer to this is yes, because the Cisco employed technical sales rep that I spoke with told me I could copy and paste the config and there was a utility to migrate VM configuration and recorded names / greetings from the CUE to the CUCM.
2) If this plan is sane, what do I need to configure on the router, and what might need configured on the CUCM that was previously on the router of the CCME (even if the config commands are the same, I need to know where to put them).
3) If the sales rep I spoke with was correct regarding CUE->CUCM migration, can someone point me at this utility?
4) I see that a DNS server is required for the preconfigured templates and listed at the beginning of the installation guide. Obviously DNS will be required for Internet / licensing access, and that is not a problem, but can all components of the CUCM installation be configured based on IP so that DNS is not required if I build from scratch? If not, is there any way to set up DNS on the router or CUCM?
5) Regarding the following required addresses, which are on the VOIP VLAN and which are on the main VLAN?
- VMware Hypervisor
- Each collaboration application to be installed
- CIMC
- Subnet Mask
- Gateway IP (and with a VOIP VLAN, is this to the Internet, or to the main VLAN through the Cisco router the CUCM is installed in)
6) Do I also need to use a management VLAN (I have one, but the CCME system isn't currently involved in it)
7) I just read another thread on this forum that indicates the CUCM needs to communicate through the Cisco router network ports instead of the CUCM network ports, so do I need to skip step 5 on P13 ("Configure fault tolerance by using the NIC teaming feature in VMware" under "Access and Configure Virtualization Hypervisor")? Note that I don't plan to two network ports to a switch, so the only reason this step would be valid is if it is for hard-wired communication between the CUCM and the router.
8) If I am not using the preconfigured virtual machines, do I need to follow additional steps in a separate document, or do I use the "Deploy New Virtual Machines" steps starting on page 16 even though that section references the Preconfigured Option Reference Guide?
9) Step 5 on P19 (Floppy image for platform configuration under "Install Applications on Virtual Machines") states that I need to use http://www.cisco.com/web/cuc_afg/index.html to generate a configuration file to put on a virtual floppy, but neither step 5 nor the aforementioned website clearly indicate what the many fields in the form are for in detail or even which of these fields need to reference already configured accounts and which are creating accounts. Moreover, step 6 says "If you require detailed installation guidance, see the Installation Guide of the applications on the
Cisco Business Edition 6000 Support Documents website, listed in “For More Information”" but I'm not having any luck finding that document (tried http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11369/tsd_products_support_series_home.html and http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11369/prod_installation_guides_list.html). However, the note on page 21 says "If the application is preinstalled and the FLP file is copied in the Answer File Generator directory, as described in previous section, installation will happen automatically without installer intervention" so I'm not even certain this step is necessary. Is it really necessary and/or beneficial? Also, where can I find the (presumably more complete) application guide referenced earlier?
I don't want to turn the unit on until I'm confident I can get through the install, because I'm half tempted to return it and stick with the CCME at this point (between the unhelpful documentation and lack of ability to contact support). In the meantime, I'll say it again, any advice would be appreciated.
