CUCM 7.1(5) to 8.6 Upgrade MCS to UCS

shane.orr · ‎11-16-2011

I am attempting to upgrade from CUCM 7.1(5) to 8.6 while also migrating from MCS to UCS Servers.

The prefered order of operation:

1. Setup UCS Virtual Machine with CUCM 7.1(5)

2. Restore from 7.1(5) MCS Backup to the 7.1(5) UCS VM <------------(Recieving error below)

3. Upgrade while Non Production

4. Test all my apps, gateways, etc...

5. Flash Cut

**************

Fails on Component ----

Feature : CCM

Component : CCMDBServer : CISCOUCM1

----> BEGIN Standard Error

Physical restore failed - function write physical restore failed code -1 errno 0

**************

I though perhaps the OVA/OVF template I used did not size the Hard Drives appropriately so I went through again and selected the 75000 CUCM Node which should have been identical to an MCS 7835. It sill produced the same error.

Anyone have any ideas on how to backup and restore MCS 7.1 to UCS 7.1 ?

I understand that the supported answer is probably to perform the following but this makes life infinitely more difficult.

1. Setup UCS Virtual Machine 8.6

2. Upgrade Production MCS CUCM 7.1(5) to 8.6

3. Backup MCS 8.6

4. Restore UCS 8.6

5. Go through Go Live Procedure

6. Test

Thanks in advance,

Shane

Anthony Holloway · ‎11-16-2011

You're right, the correct way is to use the bridged upgrde feature, and upgrade to 8.6 on the MCS, then migrate over to UCS. Also, 7x is not supported on UCS, so I'm not quite sure how you'll get that to work.

I will assume you are trying to keep the 7x MCS cluster up as long as possible. What about buying some used servers that barely meet the specs for 7x, then do a DRS backup/restore to the used servers, bridge upgrade to 8x on those same used servers, then DRS backup/restore to fresh 8x on UCS?

Gajanan Pande · ‎11-17-2011

Correct, following is the only way going ahead as UCS supports only CUCM 8.0.2 & later.

1. Setup UCS Virtual Machine 8.6

2. Upgrade Production MCS CUCM 7.1(5) to 8.6 ---------->> Bridged Upgrade needs to be done.

3. Backup MCS 8.6

4. Restore UCS 8.6

5. Go through Go Live Procedure

6. Test

Regards

GP

shane.orr · ‎11-17-2011

All input is appreciated!

Rob Huffman · ‎11-17-2011

Hi Shane,

Hope all is well!

Just to add one other note to the great info from Anthony & Gajanan (+5 each guys!)

You should talk with your Cisco AM, SE or Cisco partner about the Cisco Demo Loaner

program. They may be able to loan you an appropriate MCS server to complete the initial

phase of the migration to CUCM 8.6 so that you can build and test before going live

Cheers!

Rob

Gajanan Pande · ‎11-17-2011

A very valid point Rob. +5 to you too.

shane.orr · ‎11-17-2011

Thanks Rob, that inquiry has been in progress today. I also am kicking around the idea of taking one of my subscribers offline and using that as the bridged hardware.

Chris Deren · ‎11-17-2011

I agree with everyone here that you need to follow supported path, but unfortunatelly Cisco messed up big time herw with bridged upgraed by not supporing bridged restore of prior versions in VMware . As a side note, I've done few of these this way without any issues, install CUCM 7.1, restore from backup, upgrade to 8.X as most customers do not have bridged MCS servers to do this, and do not want to go with 2 production upgrades.

HTH,

Chris

shane.orr · ‎11-22-2011

BTW - I got the same error on a physical bridged server. The problem was that I had to get a temp license first for the restore to be successful. The Grace Period stuff threw it off and the error was very misleading. So it *probably* would have worked the way I originally had wanted to do it had I done the temp license thing.

mbuttnerMSI · ‎11-29-2011

I just completed a bridge upgrade from 7.1(3) to 8.5(1). MCS to a c210 esxi deployment.

I tried what Shane mentions and can confirm it does not work. The error is still thrown even after getting TAC to generate a non-temp license for a vmware image of 7.1(3) I tried this several times in the hopes of not needing to lug a MCS server around.

A few things from experience I'd like to share.

For the bridge server, I used a 7815-I1 server 2GB, P4 without any hardware issues. These are about the lowest requirements you can get. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6790/ps5748/ps378/prod_brochure0900aecd8062a4f9.html
Just as in any restore the IP/hostname all must remain the same. Otherwise it will throw the same "Physical restore error".
Install licensing after upgrading. If you apply licensing before upgrading to 8.x you will hit bug CSCtb86875. You will know you hit it because the Upgrade menus will show "Upgrades are prohibited during License Grace Period" http://tools.cisco.com/Support/BugToolKit/search/getBugDetails.do?method=fetchBugDetails&bugId=CSCtb86875
Look out for "Status: Local Agent is not responding.This may be due to Master or Local Agent being down."

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps556/products_tech_note09186a0080b1b10f.shtml#topic1

I had to move this server to a new subnet/hostname/domain altogether so I waited till I had upgraded to 8.5(1) to change all these settings.

I won't echo Chris's comments anymore than neccessary but I will say that if you are going to require a customer to use a bridge server, the upgrade mechanisms/requirements should be in place from pre-sales and on.

We were about to throw these old 7815s out too, guess it was my lucky day..

shane.orr · ‎11-29-2011

That info is great! Thanks for sharing your experiences.

I really found it hard to believe how challenging these upgrades are especially when you are moving to UCS and god forbid you want to change hostnames in the process or something *crazy* like that. Don't get me started on how big of a pain licensing has become.

I think I will take your advice on the next go around and dig up a spare MCS to the to lug around in the future as many situations won't be as lucky as to be able to utilize a spare subscriber like I was able to this time. It will make life much easier.

Again appreciate the details of your post.

iwearing · ‎01-11-2012

Guys,

I read this post with interest.

I am migrating a V5.1(3)a cluster onto C210 Servers V8.6.(2)a

I have a spare server which I can use for bridged upgrades.

My process is as below:

DRS Backup of 5.1 Database and restore onto Spare Server installed with 5.1(3)a

Bridge upgrade to 7.1(3), reboot and bridge upgrade to 8.6(2)a

DRS Backup of 8.6(2)a which can be restored onto newly created 8.6 VM

I do not have a great deal of time after starting from DRS backup on existing MCS 5.1 Publisher.

Any comments on my process would be appreciated.

Ian.

mbuttnerMSI · ‎01-11-2012

I don't believe you can upgrade directly to 8.6 on a bridge but could on VM.

After trying this again I was able to do a VMware without the bridge from 7.1 to 8.0.

The only difference was I used 7.1.3 this time.

iwearing · ‎01-11-2012

Thanks for the update.

Any particular reason why I cant perform multipls bridges on the same MCS server and end up at 8.6

mbuttnerMSI · ‎01-11-2012

Sorry I should of been clear.

You can but you have to have the right MCS server and the right upgrade to and from versions.

7.1.5 -> 8.5+ only 7.13 - >8.x+

Refer to the Release notes for specifics on upgrades.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/rel_notes/8_6_2/cucm-rel_notes-862a.html#wp1944944

Refer to the Compability Matrix for MCS and version support.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6790/ps5748/ps378/prod_brochure0900aecd8062a4f9.html

If you can do it in a virtual from 7.x to 8.x you will save yourself time. But it might be a wash if you are using the same bridge server for 5.x to 7.x to go to 7.x to 8.x