Learning CME Suggestions

[RonaldNutter]

I just started at a company that is using CME at all the remote offices.  Although another department handles that, after spending several hours today troubleshooting a CME problem that ended up not being a network issue, I would like to start learning about CME.

In my home lab, I have an assortment of routers (mostly 265xXM class) and one 1760V.  Since I am doing this for learning and wont be running a production phone setup, is it possible to setup a very bare bones CME on what I have or will I need to have something slightly newer ?  If newer, what would be suggested ?  I have a couple of 7940/7960's at home from what I ran a Asterisk system that is no longer running.

Any suggested howto/cookbook docs to help me get up and running ?  I am currently going for my CCNP R/S (already have CCNP Security), so money is  a bit tight so I would like to keep what I may need to ad to a minimum as much as possible.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Ron

[acampbell]

Ron,

Probably a good place for you to start is looking at the Admin Guide

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucme/admin/configuration/guide/cmeadm.html

HTH

Alex

[mcreilly]

The 1760V will run CME for a small number of phones with no trouble (I've done it in a learning environment myself). Maybe not the latest and greatest versions, though - the limitation is likely to be the DRAM and flash available. Check what the latest voice-capable IOS is you can run in whatever memory you have. Also, I'm guessing your 79x0 phones have the SIP firmware if you were using them with Asterisk, might want to move them to SCCP for use with CME.