There are two significant steps to the WCS-to-NCS migration: migrating the data, then migrating the licenses.
Migrating the data is fairly straightforward. Run the export command from your WCS 7.0.220.0 or later server (unfortunately, 2 export bugs weren't fixed until 7.0.220.0, contradicting what the release notes might say) into a wcs-export.zip file. (The name can actually be anything, but for demonstration purposes, wcs-export.zip is used because it's clear.) To access the command, one needs a command prompt to the bin directory underneath WCS, such as x:\Program Files\WCS7.0.240.0\bin. The command itself would be
export.bat all c:\wcs-export.zip
The process will run along for a while and eventually produce the file wcs-export.zip on the root of the C: drive. The file can be exported anywhere (does not have to be the root of C:), but a path does have to be specified. The export process copies all the data out of the database to text files and zips them up, so NCS can load all that text into its Oracle database. That wcs-export.zip file needs to be placed into a repository so that NCS can retrieve it. Of the new concepts that NCS introduces, by far, the most awkward one TAC hears complaints about is that of repository; people seem to have a tough time grasping it. Repository is a pointer to a filestore. The definition of the repository includes a URL that specifies what the method to access those files is (FTP, TFTP, SFTP, NFS, etc.) and login credentials if the method requires it. For example, the repository
repository ncs-ftp-repo
url ftp://192.168.200.2
user ftp-user password plain Cisco123
is labelled "ncs-ftp-repo" but it can actually be any name at all. ncs-ftp-repo is pointing to the FTP server at 192.168.200.2 and it gets accessed by the user whose name is "ftp-user" and the password for that account is "Cisco123". The repository
repository myTFTP
url tftp://192.168.100.2
myTFTP is pointing to the TFTP server at on a computer at 192.168.100.2 and since TFTP does not have a username, credentials don't apply.
So put the wcs-export.zip file into the server's root directory, then kick off the migration process with the command
ncs migrate wcs-data wcs.zip repository <name of repository>
NCS will resolve the transfer method and such from the repository configuration, bring the file over and start the migration.
TAC has found that these migrations go much quicker when the file actually resides onboard the NCS VM, in the default repository. You can use the commands
mkdir disk:/defaultRepo
config t
repository defaultRepo
url disk:/defaultRepo
end
write mem
to create the directory on the local disk, then create the repository. To get the file into the repository, use the command
copy ftp://<ftp-server-name>/wcs.zip disk:/defaultRepo
(Note: there will be no progress bar for the file transfer or other feedback until the transfer is finished)
Once the file is onboard (show repo defaultRepo), the migration is initiated with the command
ncs migrate wcs-data wcs.zip repository defaultRepo
To cleanup when the upgrade does eventually finish, you can use the command
delete disk:/defaultRepo/wcs.zip
Migrating WCS licenses to NCS is, as well, a two step process.
Step 1 is going to the License Center on Cisco.com, choose Get New > Get New Licenses from PAKs, entering the PAK, NCS Product ID (for a virtual appliance that is PRIME-NCS-VAPL, for a physical appliance it's PRIME-NCS-APL) and Serial number ( for a virtual appliance, that's the hostname of the server plus a long string of digits from Help > About or the NCS Licensing Center page, or for a physical appliance, the serial number from the back of the device or in the NCS Licensing Center page), and receiving your 25 bonus device license file.
For step 2, go into WCS > Administration > License Center > Files > WCS Files. Check the box by all your licenses and click the Export button. This is going to download an .xml file to you. Please don't use Internet Explorer to do this as it does not save the .xml file correctly. You'll need to open this with a text editor and be ready to copy/paste the contents out. Go back to the License Center on Cisco.com, choose Get New > Migration License > Select Product Network Mgmt Products, then NCS 1.0. There you're going to be asked again for the Product ID and Serial Number from above, and then to copy/paste in the contents of that .xml file. A few more clicks and another email comes in with the rest of your licenses. People frequently miss step 2.
