[cisco-voip] upgrade path question

[Beck, Andre]

Hi Ki Wi,

I'm currently trying to do something similar, coming from 6.1(2).

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 01:36:25AM +0800, Ki Wi wrote:
> It is working. Just make sure you don't start the CM services till you are at the final version with actual license file.

I've tried that:

* Establish VM with same MAC as the original Publisher
* Install 6.1(2) and restore Pub from DRF backup
--> Here I have a fully working (and licensed) copy of the Pub running
* Upgrade to 6.1.4.2190-3 as 6.1(2) is mostly a dead end for upgrades
--> Still a licensed and working Pub
* Now disable all services that can be disabled, install
  ciscocm.refresh_upgrade_v1.1.cop, then upgrade to 7.1.5.33900-10.

After that step, all services are still deactivated. But the next step
of upgrading to 8.6(2a) is made impossible by the silly

 Upgrades are prohibited during Licensing Grace Period.

problem. I hoped you found a way around that (in not starting services),
but either I pulled it off wrongly, or it doesn't always work. Must I
make sure they never run once after DRF import? Or maybe things are
different when coming from DMA then they are when coming from DRF...

> I have done upgrade from 3.x to 8.0 or 8.5 in VMware environment. A couple of upgrade before I can do DMA. A couple of upgrade before I can hit 8.x since DMA don't go 8.x directly.

That sounds extremly interesting. I'd like to know which versions you used
exactly, as this seems to make a difference more often than not. For
instance, I'm trying to hop via 7.1.5 mainly because going from 6.1.x
to 8.x doesn't seem to work in a VM, it's always ending with a hardware
platform unsupported bailout (seemingly due to wrong detection of disk
size).
 
> Unsupported method but definitely it's working. 

Sometimes you have no other way to upgrade. Cisco seems to think that you
should have a complete lab copy of your production hardware or even do
your upgrades in the production environment. Even the swing server method
is unnecessarily complicated by the prevention of upgrades in license
grace period. I'm getting the feeling that they don't think a lot about
the people who actually have to maintain those installations. Reading
http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Licensing_Model_for_Virtualized_UC_Applications
almost made me cry. Now you have to relicense when your SMTP server changes
name? My Goodness...

TIA,
Andre.
-- 
                    Cool .signatures are so 90s...

-> Andre Beck    +++ ABP-RIPE +++      IBH IT-Service GmbH, Dresden <-