Back up for CUCM 6.X, 7.X

Carl.Mayne-Wheeler · ‎06-03-2010

Chaps,

Does anyone know if TAC will support pulling a disk from the RAID on a CUCM server to keep as a total back up should a disaster happen?

Obviously using DRS will get the system back to how it was after rebuilding a new server etc, but having a complete copy would have the system back up and going in a 1/4 of the time.

Thanks.

William Bell · ‎06-03-2010

I am not sure what the latest position on this is. I am sure Java will come in and lay down the law. I know that Tac has changed their mind a few times over the years. The last time I checked was about 3-4 years ago and the answer was that it was not supported. That being said, we did it anyway as part of our standard operating procedure. We were running on 4.1 at the time and upgrades were a major annoyance. The basic rule of thumb is that you don't pull the drive while the system is live (unless the drive is already in a fault condition). You also don't fully insert the new drive until the system boots up.

Now, all that being said -- I have not tested this procedure on the appliance model. I would assume that if you follow IBM/HP best practices then you would be OK but I don't know Tac's official word on this.

HTH.

Regards,

B-ill

HTH -Bill (b) http://ucguerrilla.com (t) @ucguerrilla

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Carl.Mayne-Wheeler · ‎06-03-2010

Thanks Brian,

Yeah have done that on the Windows based servers with no problems at all. Its the new appliance's i.e. CUCM 6.x upwards that I am interested in.

Thanks again.

Jaime Valencia · ‎06-03-2010

Hey Bill, hope you're doing good.

Last time I checked with the BU (about 2 months ago) we were going to stick to this policy:

Removing Hard Drives

Cisco only supports replacing failed hard drives. Cisco does not support drive pulling/swapping as a method of fast upgrade reversion, restore, or server recovery. For information on replacing a failed hard drive, refer to the Troubleshooting Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/rel_notes/7_1_2/cucm-rel_notes-712b.html#wp1450232

It's worth noticing that this applies not only to CUCM, but also to CUPS and CUC since the foundation for them comes from CUCM. So the same rule applies for them even if not noted on the RN of the products.

If at some point in time the BU decides it will be supported there will be a document stating so, otherwise if it's not in a document as supported, it's a not supported config.

HTH

java

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HTH

java

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William Bell · ‎06-03-2010

Hey Java, I am doing pretty good thanks for asking. I knew I could count on you to jump in shed light on this topic. (+5 pts)

Regards,
Bill

HTH -Bill (b) http://ucguerrilla.com (t) @ucguerrilla

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Carl.Mayne-Wheeler · ‎06-03-2010

Hey chaps,

really appreciate your help and time on this.

Regards, Carl