Call Manager 6.1 upgrade

[dudecrush]

I've got 2 Linux CM's running 6.1.2.1000-13, and an E911 server running 2.0.3.1000-8, plus a Unity server running 5.1. Cisco has advised me to upgrade my CM OS's to 6.1.3.3000-1.

1) Has anyone done this before?
2) What are the steps?
3) Are there any Cisco utilties that can help with the upgrade?
4) What "gotchas" have you encountered?
5) Should I install the SU1 update for this version, or should I leave it at the baseline?
6) Does it just make sense for me to jump to 6.1.4?
7) Do I need to upgrade my CER server, too?
8) Should I upgrade Unity too, or just patch?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Riktov]

Hi,
There a lot of questions there and very good ones, better safe than sorry. On my experience 6.1.2 is as good as 6.1.3, also remember that you can always switch back to the previous version thanks to the CUCM active/unactive partitions.
1. Yes I have done it and there is nothing to be afraid of.
2. Always start with the Publisher, and you can find the exact steps on cisco web page just look for CallManager upgrade guide.
3. You can use the Cisco tool bug kit or the Software advisor, I also recommend you to check the CUCM compatibility matrix at cisco web page and also the upgrade path.
4. There are some bugs that are still affecting 6.1.3, but there are also many bug that are fixed on this version.
5. Unity will work fine with the new version no need to do anything.

Hope that help...


Caos is the natural order of things...

 

[dudecrush]

Riktov - Thanks for the response. You are correct - better safe than sorry. I ended up opening a TAC with Cisco and posed to them about 20 questions to get my answers. I finally managed to upgrade my CM's to 6.1.3(b)SU1, but two Cisco issues cost me 2 hours: Upgrades using a "local source" (DVD) don't work. Moving to a "remote source", I found out that that my original FTP client (PumpKIN) doesn't work with the CM's. I finally had to open a TAC and they suggested I use Freeftpd, which worked beautiful.

I had no idea that the .iso's would take an hour to install. With 2 .iso's and 2 servers, it took 4 hours total - longer than I expected but I feel worth it in the end.

 

[pndscm]

That's interesting that local DVD upgrades don't work. I did just that on my 6.1.2 to 6.1.3 upgrade, patch DVD in the drive. Have done many upgrades using the DVD drive. The upgrade patch is applied to the inactive partition then you reboot and 'switch version's. The 'patch' is actually a new install that gets the user data from the active partition. Possibly there was some other problem.
For question 7, it depends on what version CER you are on now but I doubt a minor upgrade from 6.1.2 to 6.1.3 will make a difference. A compatablity matrix is available on CCO.
Be aware that since you are on UCM 6.1.3 you CANNOT upgrade to UCM 7.0 but must go to UCM 7.1. Kind of like the 'old' days when if you went to CCM 3.3.5 you had to wait for CCM 4.1 because CCM 4.0 was 'below' CCM 3.3.5. Some of the later 'lower' releases are actually above the baseline 'new' release.

 

[dudecrush]

pndscm - With the DVD upgrade, I was getting, "An unknown error ocurred." When I searched the Cisco forums, I found someone else with the same problem, and a response from a Cisco engineer explaining that the DVD's don't always work, and it's better to use the remote source. At least its working for you.

 

[pndscm]

I'm not sure what the difference was but I had a similar 'unknown error occurred' when someone else burned the DVD. But when I burn them they seemed to work. I used Nero and he used Roxio.

 

[dudecrush]

pndscm - I used Nero to burn my iso's, but ran into the same problem. I'm confident the files were good because they passed the MD5 checksum test, and they were the same files I used on my FTP server.