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Upgrading Unity everything

jmayes
Level 1
Level 1

This upgrade is from 4.0.4 in an isolated domain with on-box install of Exchange 2000.

end state wants to be Unity 5.0 on new hardware pointed to a currently-existing Exchange (2003) on an already-populated AD forest (Windows 2003) with all current Unity settings/etc. transferred.

I have some upgrade guides from Cisco, but nothing goes in to all steps required for an upgrade of all aspects (hardware, Unity version, Exchange version and to a NEW Exchange org/AD Forest) all in the same migration.

Who wants to help with sequencing this?

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Actually did one like that last week. Worked good. I call it the "swing" model. The swing server in VM works great for upgrades, etc.

But I used Cobras. I setup the new server as 5.01 and had it all tested and running perfect. Then I just used Cobras from the VM 4.05 to 5.01, re-ran permissions and mailbox and worked out good.

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13 Replies 13

Tommer Catlin
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

You can do this (2) ways.

Install your new server with Unity 4.04 and all patches.

DIRT export your old server, DIRT import to your new server, then run Unity 5.x in place upgrade.

The other method, you will have to upgrade 4.04 to 4.05. (in place)

Install your new server as Unity 5.x

Use COBRAS tool to export the Unity info from 4.05 and Use COBRAS to import the data.

If your ALIAS are different, you will have match old to new when using DIRT. The DIRT help file goes over this. With Cobras, it has a GUI interface to match old to new.

hope this helps

appreciate the information. But does it cover everything? If I DIRT back to the mirror 4.0.4, do I have to be in the old isolated domain?

And, beyond the 5.x upgrade, then how do I migrate to the new AD and the external (new AD) Windows 2003 Exchange 2003?

Is there any documentation for this?

are you going from VM only to UM?

Unity really does not care about the domain that much when you move from VM to VM to VM to UM.

If you are going VM to VM, you can add the new Unity server into the existing VM only domain, or create a new one. It really does not matter.

We're going from VM only to UM, and we'll have to junk the current user accounts and reconnect all VM boxes to the new AD accounts in the new AD forest (the names are different).

The user accounts to not get migrated.

Basically, DIRT will backup the SQL database.

When you restore to a new domain, DIRT can map the old alias to the new alias it will reference a CSV file you have to build.

In the current Unity server, it has John Doe as jdoe alias. The alias is basically the "unique" record for John Doe. It has all his recorded names, greetings, settings, etc.

When you import the DIRT to a new AD/Exchange envirioment and John Doe is already created with john.doe, Unity by default in DIRT create a new AD/Exchange account. That's bad. We do not want that. In DIRT, you can check mark the box to reference the CSV file that says John Doe was jdoe is now john.doe. DIRT will do the rest of the work on "linking" everything back up.

Make sense?

I think. I'd want to creata a clone VM of my running 4.0.4 server and run in VMware.

I upgrade that VM Unity from 4.0.4 to 4.0.5 and get a good DiRT at 4.0.5.

Then I install 4.0.5 on the new physical machine. I restore DiRT to the 4.0.5 phycical machine (pointing to the new users and new Exchange server) and perform an in-place upgrade to 5.0.1.

Pass Go. Collect $200.

Actually did one like that last week. Worked good. I call it the "swing" model. The swing server in VM works great for upgrades, etc.

But I used Cobras. I setup the new server as 5.01 and had it all tested and running perfect. Then I just used Cobras from the VM 4.05 to 5.01, re-ran permissions and mailbox and worked out good.

Hello all,

I have a real similar Unity 7 upgrade coming up and I was planning on using VMware to perform the upgrade and then restore it the new hardware. Although I have two questions, How did you build the VM, meaning were you able to use a Unity Platform install disc or what did you use. Secondly how does licensing play into this, when you do a restore does the license transfer over?

Thanks

I built a Windows 2003 server on the VM images. The Platform discs are not really needed for Unity any version. Its just a version of 2003 windows.

The license aspect i did not need because I did not use the Ports to CUCM, nor did I need to add anymore users. I was only using it as a "swing" server for doing an inplace upgrade.

Hope this makes sense

Yeah that makes sense and that is how I always done it in the past. But I never used it as a swing server for an production environment. Thanks for the help

Well, technically, its not production. I only used the swing server for upgrading the database.

Old server stays the same and runs.

Swing server gets loaded in VM with 2003 and the same Unity version as the old server.

DIRT is restored to the swing server

Unity is then upgraded inplace from 4 to 5 or whatever.

DIRT is ran to export the new database

on the new server, we can install as new, DIRT import the swing server version and test.

This is how I use the swing server method. It works great for those pesky 4.0x that can not be upgraded using COBRAS from older versions of Unity. COBRAS requires a min version in order for it to work or be compapable with doing imports/exports. I mention DIRT before, I meant say COBRAS.

Just follow up the question on CSV file. Where do you build this file and what's the format. Is it built from unity 4.0 or any docu avaiable?

Thanks!

Steve

Refresh my memory about the CSV file you are referring to.

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