CMS HA LAN Backups

[Stinney]

We are on R14.1 which according to documentation doesn't support LAN Backups.

However, reading R15 and R16 documentation, it appears it is supported.

Is anyone out there using LAN Backups for their CMS R15 or R16?

Any gotchas I should know about if we upgrade from R14.1 to R16.x, not just for this but anything that you might have experienced?

- Stinney

Quoting only proves you know how to cut and paste.

 

[simreal]

The LAN backup uses a service/application called Tivoli. You can google tons of info on Tivoli.

The only issue that will arise is that avaya won't make any effort to update the Tivoli client thats loaded on CMS and the Tivoli server may not be compatible with the client version thats loaded on CMS.

If you use Tivoli in your enterprise you might get lucky but chances are slim.

 

[gblucas]

Also don't forget that doing the upgrade is going to cost big $$$$. You are required to change hardware platforms again. As I understand it, you have to upgrade from V880 or the Netra 210...

gblucas

 

[Stinney]

So it looks like from Avaya docs that I can only upgrade to R15 and keep my V880's that are only 1 1/2 yrs old.

Thanks gblucas!

- Stinney

Quoting only proves you know how to cut and paste.

 

[gblucas]

Stinney

Sorry to be the one to give you the bad news...but as they say where I come from...Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt...

I am in the same boat...I have a new Netra 210 and you have to upgrade...I wanted to get expanded aux codes and the minimum cost is $35k for me, because they won't let me do it with r14.

The high availability hardware looks very nice on the r16 package. You should at least check it out...

I just wish that Avaya would quit doing this to us...2 or 3 years in hardware is not long enough...We can't possibly come up with an ROI when the equipment is outdated in a year and a half...

Yes, I know I am preaching to the choir...

gblucas

 

[Stinney]

So they won't let you upgrade to R15? Sounds suspicious to me. Their documentation clearly states that R15 will run on Netra 210 and also states that the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 replaces the 210 for new installations, not upgrades.



- Stinney

Quoting only proves you know how to cut and paste.

 

[gblucas]

Yes, I could go to r15 for about a 1/3 of the cost of r16, but what is the point? I work for a software company, and they don't seem to want to spend money on an outdated piece of software, they would rather upgrade all the way or stay where we are. In this case we elected to stay where we are. There was no real incentive to move to r16, other than to get expanded aux codes. We are starting to plan our next migration path, and we have elected to go with SS+U, but to be able to go to CM6, we have to replace our servers. S8800 is the only server going forward...We are expecting at 50K+ cost to go to CM6, but what we really want is CC6 which now includes Advocate at no additional charge...

gblucas
CM5.2.0
CC4.0
CMS r14

 

[Stinney]

I can understand the reasoning for not going to R15 if 16 is available. I just won't be able to justify replacing two V880's that are less than 2 years old. They haven't even depreciated fully on the books. So my only route is to go to R15, which will still be a hard sell if we're only using it for the LAN backup feature.

Off topic, but one thing we just learned about SSU is that you have to upgrade before they will let you renew your SSU agreement.

We have an AES that the SSU just ran out on, the server is at version 4.1 and they won't let us renew our SSU unless we upgrade the AES to the latest version. We're not happy about this. The AES is working fine with the applications that are running on it and we want to say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We use it for Witness so now we have to make sure that there aren't any issues with upgrading and if there are, then we spent all the money for the upgrades for nothing.

Also watch out that the SSU doesn't include any Professional Services costs to install it.






- Stinney

Quoting only proves you know how to cut and paste.

 

[gblucas]

Avaya is making a ton of mistakes on their pricing policies, as well as their "mandatory" upgrade strategies. I know they have the best call center software in the world, but if they keep doing this kind of stuff, they are certain to lose in the end. There will be someone else that will be able to do the same kind of functions at a lower overall price. I love the SS+U concept, since my system seems to add a gateway at least 1 per year. I added a site in January of 2009, put it on a g700 so I wouldn't need to go from CM4 to CM5. I did another one on July, and I was forced to CM5, because the g700 was EOS, and I had to go to a g450. I love the g450, a lot better than the g700. This year it looks like I will have two more gateways, but I won't be forced to upgrade CM. We are just starting to take the stance that Avaya wants to be a software company more than a hardware company and if we don't start to conform to their thinking, it is going to start to cost us a bunch a money in the long run or our systems will be left in the dust. We can't afford to have an outdated system in todays technology climate, so we have adopted the pay now plan, instead of the pay more later plan...

gblucas

 

[Stinney]

We've strongly considering going to SS licensing instead of SSU. We can budget on our own for the upgrades as we need them.

- Stinney

Quoting only proves you know how to cut and paste.

 

[gblucas]

Stinney,

Are they not letting you renew the SSU because of a lapse in coverage or are then "forcing" the upgrade anyway?

AES is the type of beast that in some cases you can't upgrade it until the vendor(s) of the adjuncts can go to a new release of software. The purpose for SSU is so that you don't have to pay for the software upgrade at the time of upgrade. My evaluation of the pricing shows that if you stay fairly current, then it make sense to do SSU, because it is about 1/3 of the price of the upgrade at the time of purchase. If you stay on the same release for 3 years or more, then SS makes more sense.

Anyway, I spoke to my BP about it, because I was concerned about our SSU contract we just signed and sent off and he assures me that Avaya shouldn't "force" any kind of upgrade to stay on SSU until you are on an unsupported version of the software. In my mind, it wouldn't make sense to get that far out of date and try to maintain a SSU contract.


gblucas