CUCM in VMWare

tokhss

I sorta asked this question in the Virtu Forum.. not sure how many hits i may get there but

is anyone running all of their cisco servers in one box?

I plan on running it all in ONE box

CCM pri/secondary, Unity, pub/sub... its LAB right? so why not..

if so.. can you provide a bit of detail on what kind of setup you have.. which servers and what kind of hardware is setup?

I plan on building a intel quad q9950 / 8 gigs or more/ ssd + normal platter based drives.

Thanks!

chmorin

tokhss wrote: »

I sorta asked this question in the Virtu Forum.. not sure how many hits i may get there but

is anyone running all of their cisco servers in one box?

I plan on running it all in ONE box

CCM pri/secondary, Unity, pub/sub... its LAB right? so why not..

if so.. can you provide a bit of detail on what kind of setup you have.. which servers and what kind of hardware is setup?

I plan on building a intel quad q9950 / 8 gigs or more/ ssd + normal platter based drives.

Thanks!

I wish I could give you more information, but all I can really say is that it is possible. Making 4 or 5 VM's on 8 gigs of ram and a decent processor in a lab environment will work fine. I have installed CUCM 7.x in a VM. The only thing I would suggest looking into is licensing. Cisco allows you certain lab VM licensing when you install it in VMWare (it has to be VMWare). I'm not certain how that transitions into use with multiple pieces of hardware or otherwise. I don't know, because I have not installed more than one server on a VM yet.

Your hardware is probably fine for your uses though.

azaghul

I'm currently running my lab in VMware Workstation (on Win 2008 server) on an Intel i5-750 with 8GB RAM.

I don't have all appliances configured due to Cisco licensing, depending on the CUCM version you are running will limit the number of "nodes" (think CUCM instances) you can run.

CUCM 8.0.2 allows 3 nodes (8.0.0 allowed 1 , but I could run it in physical hardware), so you could run CUCM pub+sub, and Unity/Unity Connection.

However, once you have run a pub+sub a few times, you can revert to just a pub. A **** I've found is to run CUCM-BE, which gives you CUCM+Unity Connection (but only taking 1 node license for 2 apps) and still have room for extra nodes later.

Bear in mind that running multiple CUCM apps can get very resource intensive, so things can run "slow" at times. Add to that a domain controller for AD integration, and possibly Exchange for full UC integration...

tokhss

seriously excited to get this all going..

Azaghul.. by slow.. can you further elaborate on whats your bottleneck ?

are you running out memory? is your cpu utlz @ 100% ?

if your having slow downs with an i5 then i might as well go with an PhenomII setup with 6 cores.

thoughts?

azaghul

I'm fairly sure my bottleneck is RAM. Even with 8GB I think the problem comes down to RAM<->pagefile transactions. CPU is fine. So I've had to limit the number of VM sessions running.

The host: Server 2008 uses approx 1.25GB
The guests: CUCM-BE needs 6GB (CUCM pub+sub+unity connection is also 6GB), Server 2008 domain controller 1.25GB, Exchange 2007 2GB?

By "slow" I mean slow CUCM web access, waiting 30secs for a page to load/refresh can be painful. Though I have found that letting CUCM-BE power up then "settle" for 5-10mins before use improves performance greatly. I'm also planning on offloading AD and Exchange to some "old" P4 3.0's with 2GB RAM.

Using VMware iESX instead of VMware Workstation may improve performance, but I don't have an iESX compatible NIC to test with.

tokhss

I just changed my mind..

gonna build from scratch.. cant really afford the top end intel setup.. so im gonna go with the phenom II 110T black + 12 or 16 gigs of ram + SSD + regular drives.

if memory was your problem then im gonna make sure to get gobs of it.

thanks again!

geezer301

When you have your phenom II PC, please let us know if it can run ESXi 4.0. Thanks.

tokhss

Geezer.. you sound like someone who thinks this may not work LOL.. do tell brotha!

pitviper

I ran a CUCM7-Pub, CUCM7-Sub, CUC7, Server 2003 AD / Exchange 2003, and a couple of workstations on a single box with no problems. You certainly can kill it if you try to do too much at once but for the most part you’re only working on one thing at a time. A single box setup is certainly doable in the lab but it needs to be a beefy beastie!

My main VM Server is a Dell PowerEdge SC1430 – Dual Quad Core Xeons (cores Oc’d to 2Ghz/each), 8GB RAM, Server 2003R2 Enterprise x64, VMWare Workstation, 5x NICs, and a couple of stripped SATA drives. I got the server for less than $500 shipped (on the bay) and added the NICs, RAM, and Drives later.

geezer301

Well, I do have concern about running VMWare ESXi 4.0. It is quite picky on hardware.

tokhss

Well, I havent purchased anything yet.. but i was set on the AMD.. i guess i will do more research now. lol.. it never ends! further more.. the new sandybridge is rolling out.. gahh.

azaghul

I'm not sure if its one of the Urban Myths, but I think CUCM has/had issues running on AMD procs...:

pitviper

7.0 did for sure - the streaming media app service wouldn't start when using vmware and an AMD CPU. I think there was a workaround posted here a while back.

geezer301

My understanding is CUCM 8.5 only runs on VMWare ESXi 4.0.

This link talks about hardware required to have ESXi installed successfully :
Ever wanted your own VMWARE ESXi Server? Here's what I built - hardware that worked, and tips for good results. (Andrew's Blog 08/27/2009)

tokhss

Interesting find Geezer.. Any ideas about VMWare Workstation? In the virtu forum it appears Workstation is not strict. Are there limitations with running CCM on workstation?

do i need ESXi to grab the full potential of CCM, Unity, etc. B/C if thats the case.. I might as well save up for a couple months and go all out Intel all the way.

Hey Pit, are you running Workstation or ESXi ?

geezer301

Tokhss, you are asking the same question which I am trying to find out.
Would like to have someone who is already using CUCM 8.5 to enlighten me.

tokhss

gotcha.. well, i just got workstation.. gonna try out what i got right now .. i think i have a copy of 8.5 that works lol

gonna try workstation on my current setup right now..

pitviper

I've used Workstation for every version through 8 - don't see why it wouldn't work w/8.5. I wonder if it's "officially" supported in ESXi now? The previous versions all worked in a virtual environment but Cisco made it pretty clear that it was for non-production use only (No TAC help).

tokhss

Pit.. i just installed 8 on workstation.. damn its a long install process.. anyhow..

is demo license ok to work with for cipt1 track or do i need to get me a full blown license? Im personally waiting on the NFR kit to become avail in May for $275

pitviper

tokhss wrote: »

Pit.. i just installed 8 on workstation.. damn its a long install process.. anyhow..

is demo license ok to work with for cipt1 track or do i need to get me a full blown license? Im personally waiting on the NFR kit to become avail in May for $275

Demo license is plenty for the CCVP (and beyond). I believe that the demo licenses are the same in 8.x as 7 (it’s what I’m currently running though I do have an 8 VM built) = 3 node licenses, and 150 device licenses. Pretty generous for the lab if you ask me!

To check for sure, log into the CM Administration page, and go to System -> Licensing -> License Unit Report.

tokhss

i just saw that.. units 150 and for somethng else 3 avail.. so that means 150 phones and 3 servers???

if so.. WOW! hahaha.. i am installing 7 right now as we speak.. i believe the cipt1 642-446 follows ccm6/7 ??

pitviper

The 150 Device Licenses (or DLUs) are used for endpoints as well as features – For instance, a single Cisco phone will use up 3-5 DLUs depending on the model. Things like Mobil Connect (think Single Number Reach) can use additional DLUs per user but yeah, more than enough for lab use. The 3 node licenses are for servers.

I believe that the CIPT1/2 tests are based on 6.x but prior to 7, the base (demo) license was too restrictive. I used 7 (and some 4.3 for TUC though not entirely necessary) for the entire CCVP path.

tokhss

good to know.. thanks!