Upgrading 9.1.2 to 10.5 2

[leftyx]

I am going to be upgrading my CUCM. I have not done it before and am just a network guy We currently have 1 PUB, 2 SUB's and a TFTP server.

I think I have all the documentation needed but am a little fuzzy on a couple things....

I know to upgrade the PUB first. But after that should I do the TFTP or one/both of the subs? Also would the TFTP and SUBS require me to upload the file again or do they get it from the PUB? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[gnrslash4life]

TFTP is essentially a SUB. Upgrade the PUB first, then the SUBS. You need to upload the file to all the servers.

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[leftyx]

Thanks for the help!

 

[HmmG3]

Do you know how the subs are configured for phone registration? Are all phones registered to one sub with the other as failover? Or are both handling active phones with the pub/TFTP as the failover? The reason I ask is I like to have the failover upgraded before the primary sub. This way when you upgrade the primary sub and the phones failover, they failover to an already upgraded server. That way once the primary sub is done, they can do a graceful fallback (no calls are dropped). If you don't and then force the failover to upgrade, it could force phones to fallback and drop calls all over again.

One other thing, I assume you have the licenses upgraded to 10.x? If your ELM/PLM doesn't have 10.x licenses on it, the CUCM will go back into demo mode. You'll then have a count down clock to add the licenses before the CUCM will lockdown you from adding new phones. That's why it's best to make sure the new licenses are ready to go before the upgrade.

 

[leftyx]

We have phones registered to both Sub's at the moment. We plan on doing the PUB first, then the 1 sub and TFTP server. Hopefully everything falls over to the 2nd SUB. Then once they are all set we will upgrade the 2nd Sub.

About the licensee. We have not upgraded them yet...we planned on doing the upgrade on march 5th weekend. And then calling Cisco after to migrate the licenses...should we do it before? Does it HAVE to be done before hand?

 

[gnrslash4life]

You can do it after. Cisco gives you a 60 day grace period. But I recommend doing it before since it does not affect your current cluster.

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[leftyx]

Thanks for all the help!

Last question. I have read I need to add some COP files before upgrading. Can I do that a week before the upgrade or should I do it right before?

 

[HmmG3]

Depends on the COP file. There is an RSA update if you are running a version under 9.1.2.11018-1. Just install on all servers. The readme doesn't mention a reboot being required, but it might be good to just assume so and schedule accordingly. There's also the free space COP that you can run if the common drive is more then about 80% full before the upgrade. That can be run after hours well beforehand and no reboot is required. Otherwise I'm not familiar off the top of my head on any other specific COP that needs to be installed ahead of the upgrade when upgrading from 9.1 to 10.5.

 

[leftyx]

Those are the two I had read I needed to do. We are version 9.1.2.11900-12 currently. Ok I am planning on doing that this Sunday then.

 

[HmmG3]

According to the readme, you should be able to skip the RSA update as your current version supports the K3 file names. As for running the free space, there's no harm in doing that at some point before the upgrade. You just lose the ability to fall back to whatever version you were running before 9.1.2.11900-12 (you lose this after doing an upgrade anyway). I usually run it on mine before upgrading when they are on the smaller 80 Gig VM templates. Just takes about 10 minutes to run in total and doesn't affect call processing during low call volume times.

 

[leftyx]

Thanks again for all the help. The more I read the more I think I may not be ready lol.


If I am upgrading my existing cluster as described...will I have issue with my ITL files? Or does that stay the same? I don't want to go around to 1500 phones and have to manually delete the file.

And would 1500 phones trying to register and download new firmware all at the same time be too much? They are all in the same building and same LAN. So I would think that the SUBs/TFTP can handle that.

Again thanks so much for all the replies.

 

[gnrslash4life]

If you are not changing IP's or you are using DNS, you are fine.

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[HmmG3]

Sorry for the delay in getting back. As already mentioned, ITLs stay the same assuming just a standard upgrade with no name/IP changes. Phone firmware is different. 1,500 phones at the same time may be too much for the TFTP server (but then I have my TFTP service on the pub, not a dedicated TFTP like you, so I'm not sure the max amount a dedicated can handle). What I do is upgrade the phones in advance. That way I can reboot them in blocks of about 250 every 5 minutes and prevent overloading the TFTP. It's also one less thing to have to worry about during the actual CUCM upgrade.

The tricky part is upgrading to the right version. The latest on the Cisco web site may not be the same version that comes with CUCM 10.5.x. There's a Cisco doc somewhere that specifically mentions what firmware comes with each particular CUCM version. You then just upgrade to that in advance. You can go with the latest before the upgrade. You just have to remember to update the default firmware version after upgrading the PUB so phones won't downgrade after they reboot.

If you decide to not upgrade them in advance, that's fine. It's certainly makes things less complex. It's just that some phones simply timeout and register again without upgrading. Just go back at some point after the upgrade and reboot all phones in blocks. Those that didn't upgrade will then upgrade at that time.

 

[leftyx]

I am going to not upgrade them ahead of time. But Once the PUB comes up on 10.5 I plan on changing the default settings for firmware on the phones. That way I can have them register and not need to download firmware right away and I can do that at a later date. Thanks again for all the help.