CUCM 8.6 upgrade to 9.1(2)

[jonwoloshyn]

Hello all,

I've done some 8.5 upgrades to 9.1 so I'm quite familiar with the refresh upgrade process and the additional server downtime vs. say and 8 to 8.5.

On reading the upgrade guide for CUCM 9.1(1), I stumbled across this line on page 5 -

"You cannot install upgrade software on your node while the system continues to operate."

In the past when doing an Linux to Linux upgrade without a refresh required this certainly wasn't the case. You can't make changes and EM should be turned off but the upgrade was always going on in the background and a switch version was run when complete.

Has this changed?

Can someone chime in who has done a 8.6 to 9.1(x) upgrade on this?

I've got a really tight outage/downtime window to get a cluster upgraded and with 2 servers still on MCS, I don't think I can do it if I can't get a change freeze in place and get the Pub upgraded without taking it down. Having to start and finish the Pub, subs and the physicals in the window might not be possible even with a parallel upgrade.

Thanks

Jon

[Aman Soi · Accepted solution]

Hi Jon,

While doing the refresh upgrade, your system won't be available during the upgrades since it is rebooted multiple times.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/upgrade/9_1_1/CUCM_BK_UAEC4331_00_upgrade-guide-cucm-91.pdf

if u are upgrading from CUCM 8.5 or earlier release to CUCM 8.6 or higher, then, refresh cop file needs to be uploaded.

regds,

aman

[JAMES THOMAS]

Just completed and 8.0->9.1 upgrade we did have some device resets but the system was up and functioning.  We could not make any changes  during this time but dialtone was still there and the only time there was an outage was when the devices bounced from one ccm to another 

lBe sure that  you have all the devices registered to 1 subscriber including gateways before you start. this will minimize the bouncing of devices during the upgrade.  We saw some flakeness when the gateway was registered to 9.1 and the phones were not.

All in all we had about 5 complaints/ during the upgrade and they were all expected. 

[Rob Huffman · Accepted solution]

Hi Jon,

+5 to my friend Aman for his good notes here :)

This has NOT changed....here is the note from the upgrade guide;

Linux to Linux (L2) upgrade

There is very little server downtime during an L2 upgrade.

An L2 upgrade is accomplished by installing the new software release in the inactive

partition while the node continues to run and operate on the existing software

in the active partition.

The software releases are switched on reboot. The reboot can be either automatic,

after the new software release is installed, or initiated manually at a later time through

an administrator command. Some examples of an L2 upgrade are upgrades from

Release 6.1(3) to 7.1(5), from 7.1(2) to 8.0(3), or from 8.6(1) to 9.1(1).

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/elmuserguide/9_1_1/license_migration/CUCM_BK_CBF8B56A_00_cucm-license-upgrade-guide.pdf

Cheers!

Rob