Successfully installed CUCM 8.6 on VMware ESXi 5 in 13hrs
rchase
Member Posts: 126
Its 1am here on the west coast and I have just successfully logged into my CUCM web interface that is installed on my 16gb ram HP Workstation running VMware ESXi 5 VMvisor and vSphere client on my laptop to connect to the server and manage the VMs.
I have a Subscriber and a Unity Connection install still running in their VMs and seem to be moving along smoothly.
I cannot express the joy inside. 13hours of one wall after another. And now I have conquered them all.
I plan to post a followup to this thread with a list of tips for the next guy. After I get some sleep that is and rational thought process returns.
I have a Subscriber and a Unity Connection install still running in their VMs and seem to be moving along smoothly.
I cannot express the joy inside. 13hours of one wall after another. And now I have conquered them all.
I plan to post a followup to this thread with a list of tips for the next guy. After I get some sleep that is and rational thought process returns.
Comments
Don't Forget to Add me on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnrmoore
TIPS:
Here's a list of my trials and errors, this should save the next guy many hours of frustration -
So I finally obtained my UC 8.6 install CD. The first thing I did was boot up my ACER ASPIRE x1200 with 3gb ram, 500gb hd, AMD 64 processor. (I have a 16gb HP Workstation, but it is my main computer with Windows 7 etc so I wanted to first try it out on my lab computer.)
1. Booted the ACER into its OS which is Ubuntu 12.04, then created a VM in Virtualbox and loaded the ISO. No output at all, wouldn't boot up.
2. Proceeded to read many useless forum articles.
3. Read in my CCNP Cisco Press book that VMware Player was an option (supposedly), so I booted up the HP and loaded the ISO into VMware Player. This time it did begin to bootup, but died at "Detecting Server Hardware - this may take several minutes" It would then say something like "Install Halted, hardware not compatible"
4. Back to the Google. Found this article:
Unified Communications VMware Requirements - DocWiki
Didn't bother reading the whole thing.
Skipped to this section:
Supported Virtualization Hypervisor Vendors
At this time, the only vendor supported for UC is VMware.
Other vendors/products - such as Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Xen, Red Hat KVM - are not supported for Cisco UC virtualization.
Supported VMware Products
VMware vSphere ESXi is required for Cisco UC virtualization.
THERE YOU HAVE IT, Cisco says ESXi is supported, and NO OTHER VMWARE SERVER VIRTUALIZATION PRODUCTS ARE SUPPORTED. So others options may work, but they will probably be even more difficult to get working/aren't supported by Cisco.
Well VCP is on my to-do list certs wise, and I happen to have a copy of VMware ESXi 5, although previously had no experience with the product, only VirtualBox and VMware Player.
So, I went back to my ACER and installed VMware ESXi VMvisor using a burned CD. The install wipes the harddrive, so I lost my Ubuntu. It does prompt you with a Yes/No before formatting so keep that in mind.
Once the ACER ESXi boots up, you just configure the network settings. Everything else is done from another computer running vSphere client. Setup vSphere client on my laptop, connected to the ACER, then created the VM for CUCM install. Which I will also mention here the requirements for the VM:
CUCM VM REQUIREMENTS:
2gb RAM
72gb HDD
Also, I used RHEL 4 (32bit) Linux as the operating system type. There might be other options that work as well, but I saw this in a youtube video and it works for me.
CUC VM REQUIREMENTS:
2gb RAM
250gb HDD
Type: RHEL 4 (32bit) Linux OS
5. I connected to my ACER, created the CUCM VM and it booted, but again stuck on "Hardware not compatible".
6. So I pulled the 500gb HDD from the ACER and put it into the HP (to try the different hardware). VMware did allow this swap but had to do some reconfiguring of itself at bootup with a short dialogue. I then connected to the HP ESXi server from my vSphere client on laptop, and booted the CUCM VM. This time the VM gave a different error message something along the lines of "Host is virtual hardware capable, but Intel-VT is disabled"
7. Shut down the HP, booted into BIOS. Finally found the option for VT under a "OS Security" menu. Enabled it. Rebooted. Connected from the laptop. Started the VM, same problem. Amazed, I kept trying but it wouldn't work. FINALLY, I got the idea to DELETE the VM and recreate it. The newly created VM with same setup information worked and the installation continued.
8. Now here is another great tip I learned from a youtuber: take snapshots throughout the install proccess because it is many hours long and if something goes wrong, or you make a mistake on one of the options, you'll have to start all the way over unless you have a snapshot. A good tip, BUT this caused my CUCM SUB and CUC installs to fail. Why? because I took too many snapshots for them which by default the snapshots take up the allotted HDD space of which I gave the minimum required for both.
So what happened to my CUCM SUB and CUC installs? They failed towards the end. "Not enough Disk space left"
As it turns out, there is an option to make the snapshots NOT consume the VM's own diskspace. But the only way to enable this option is to first delete all of the snapshots. So I had to delete all my snap shots, enable the option for Independently stored snapshots, and start the whole install over from the begining.
SO CHECK THAT OPTION BEFORE STARTING THE INSTALL and BEFORE TAKING A SNAPSHOT.
That setting is under: EDIT SETTINGS> HARDWARE> HARDDISK> MODE. Check Independent and Persistent
Well thats all for now. My CUCM is up and running and my SUB and CUC installs are down right now while I delete the snapshots then try again.
http://www.RCHASE.com/
What about licensing for cucm.
Cisco's CUCM demo license (in VMware) is rather generous = 150 DLUs (phones typically consume 3-4/each) and 3 nodes.
One thing I wanted to add is that, in order to install CUC, I put a requirement of 2gb RAM above, however 4gb is required in the initial setup. If you run setup without 4gb RAM, you will have the options for CUCM and CUCMBE, but not CUC. Once the install completes, the RAM can be lowered back to 2gb
http://www.RCHASE.com/
UC Corner: Make a non-bootable ISO image bootable
If you don't have access to a bootable disc here is the file you inject to make the downloadable images bootable.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/7900788/Temp/UCOS-boot.bif
Have all four of my lab server installs running at once.
I'd probably say no, as it would go out and check the NTP server for the current time to compare against the trial...might get lucky rolling back the NTP clock if not attached to the internet...
Yeah, I was reading a bit on this recently – No more non-expiring DLUs (90 day trial mode), and the actual eval license is good for 6 months, but you have to jump through flaming hoops to get it. Not sure why Cisco has decided to continually put the screws to people who want to better understand their products.
I've posted a few updates about my installs here:
http://www.twitter.com/VoIPChase
http://www.RCHASE.com/
9.X isn't much different than 8.6. Ability to register more types of video end points, support for URI dialing, new licensing model are a few of the things that stand out.
CUCM SRND 9x/10, UCCX SRND 10x, QOS SRND, SIP Trunking Guide, anything contact center related
How much can you do practical wise with just VMWare and some VM's?
I remember you could get the Communicator software that allowed you to run a softphone on a PC.. Can you do a full lab with no equipment (physical) at all?
I'd love to do more Voice if I get the R&S out of the way next year.
You can do a lot of the basics if you just want to play around with on-net calling and features – You can even setup branch offices via routers in GNS3. At some point you’ll want an IOS gateway with DSP resources though – that’s one thing that cannot be virtualized and it’s needed for connectivity to the PSTN (even for lab PRI connections), transcoding, conferencing, and so on.
I've rewritten the original post here and took out all the "drama" so that the important parts can be easily referred to. I have since reinstalled my lab several times for different reasons and still refer to this thread.
HOW TO INSTALL CUCM and CUC on VMWARE ESXI
CUCM VM REQUIREMENTS:
2gb RAM
72gb HDD
Also, I used RHEL 4 (32bit) Linux as the operating system type. There might be other options that work as well, but I saw this in a youtube video and it works for me.
CUC VM REQUIREMENTS:
2gb RAM
250gb HDD
Type: RHEL 4 (32bit) Linux OS
If on boot, stuck on "Hardware not compatible", your PC may not support hardware virtualization. (Get hardware that is supported)
If on boot, stuck on "Host is virtual hardware capable, but Intel-VT is disabled":
Shut down your PC, boot into BIOS. Find option for VT (mine was under an "OS Security" menu) Enable it.
Reboot.
When I rebooted and started the VM again, the error message persisted. Had to delete the VM and recreate. The newly created VM with same setup information worked and the installation continued.
TIP: If you have lots of hdd space - take snapshots throughout the install proccess because it is many hours long and if something goes wrong, you'll have to start all the way over unless you have a snapshot to refer to.
If you are going to take snapshots, make sure that you check the option for "independently stored snapshots" If you don't, the snapshots will save inside the space allotted for the VM which will cause the install to eventually fail because it will run out of space which is being taken by the snapshots.
SO CHECK THAT OPTION BEFORE STARTING THE INSTALL and BEFORE TAKING A SNAPSHOT.
That setting is under: EDIT SETTINGS> HARDWARE> HARDDISK> MODE. Check Independent and Persistent
Also, take snapshots once the installs have finished. This way you can work on your lab and then snapback when you want to start with fresh installs.
http://www.RCHASE.com/
1.Download cdrtools - http://smithii.com/files/cdrtools-latest.zip
2.Unzip it to folder like
3. Extract your UCS image UCSInstall_UCOS_8.6.x-xxxxx-x.sgn.iso into folder, like
4. Open cmd. Go to folder, where is extracted image is placed - cd /d
5. Finally, run in cmd this command "
6. Enjoy
I recently installed 8.6.2.1000 and didn't really have any issues, installed just fine on ESXi 4.1.0