Upgrading Meeting Place from 8.0 to 8.5

[saurabh_F1]

Hi,

I have Cisco Meeting Place 8.0 with Audio-only Deployment. It is running on MCS 7835I3- RC1. Now I want to upgrade from 8.0 to 8.5.

I have the following queries:

1) Do I need to buy a new hardware to upgrade to 8.5? If yes, what will be a cost effective solution.

2) My UCSS for Meeting Place 8.0 has expired. Should I buy a new UCSS for 8.0 and then upgrade or buy a new UCSS for 8.5 fresh installation. I have 50 audio ports and 40 video ports in the current deployment.

[dpetrovi]

Hi Saurabh,

MCS7835-I3 is supported by MeetingPlace 8.5 for Audio Only solution. You will need to perform the firmware upgrade before installing 8.5, but all that is documented in the installation documentation.

Keep in mind that from MP8.0 to MP8.5, you are transitioning via migration and not via upgrade. This will require taking migration files from MP8.0 server, performing a firmware update, doing a clean installation of MP8.5 and then restoring from migration files.

In order to obtain MP8.5 installation DVD, you have to purchase the MP8.5 upgrade that is usually included in UCSS/ESW contract. If that expired, you will have to consult with your Cisco Account Team on what is the best way to proceed.

Finally, in MP8.0 licensing is port based, while in MP8.5 licensing is host based. Hence, you will need to do a license conversion after migration is completed. Licensing TAC can help you with that.

Here are some useful documents about this:

INSTALLATION instructions:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/meetingplace/8_5/english/administration/inst_order.html

MIGRATION instructions:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/meetingplace/8_5/english/administration/upgrading_software.html

I hope this will help you.

-Dejan

[saurabh_F1]

Hi Dejan,

Thanks for your reply. I have read the upgradation documents, where they have mentioned that MCS 7835I3 is not recmmended since it can have performance degradation due to its lower specification.

[dpetrovi]

Hi Saurabh,

Since on your MP8.0 server you used only 50 audio and 40 video ports, 7835-I3 should provide sufficient resources on MP8.5 for the same kind of usage. 7835-I3 is alright for Audio only solution (yes, it is the wakest supported server, but it is supported). 7835-I3 is not supported for MP8.5 WebEx integration solution.

See:

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Cisco_Unified_MeetingPlace_Release_8.5_--_Hardware_Requirements#Application_Server_Requirements

-Dejan

[saurabh_F1]

Hi Dejan,

Thanks for your reply. I was wondering if you could help me with the migration process.

[dpetrovi]

Saurabh,

I am not sure I understand your request.

If you need more assistance, please post the questions here, and we will do our best to provide you with answers. If you need a more complex/more involved assistance, please open a ticket with TAC, and we will help you prepare for the migration.

-Dejan

[jdedell12]

The upgrade is not hard and I have done a bunch of them without issue.  One thing to know is that the migration software requires a rsync server to store the data.  Also archives in MP 8.5 no longer supports FTP but use rsync.  Since you will need new licenses make sure you request the upgrade through the put tool.  This will give you the software and the ability to get the new licenses once the upgrade to MP 8,5 is completed. 

I have included a high level document covering the steps.  This is covered in more detail in the Cisco documentation.

Let me know if you have any questions.

John