For the installation we are going to need two downloads from Cisco.com. The first is the OVA template and the second is the CUCM 11.5 ISO. The ISO is actually not bootable so you will need to make it bootable. I have a video on how to do that here. When prompted, choose Result. Upgrade type Switching type Usethisoptiononlyif youareperforminga refreshupgradeinstages. Whenyouchoosethis optionthesystemreboots. I've completed the installation of my CUCM 11.5 using a bootable.iso file. Now I'm trying to install CUC for the voicemail and can't get it done because there isn't a bootable.iso only a regular.iso file. This checklist gives you quick overview of all the steps you need to do for CUCM upgrade 11.5.x to 12.5.x. I will list existing resources available on the Internet and add few things from my experience.Before making any changes, please consult with Cisco TAC or do your own research /testing in lab environment. CUCM 6.0 has a built-in trial license that is more than adequate for a home lab, but it will not support clustering. At the time of this writing, I recommend using CUCM version 6.1 for your home lab. If you have the installation discs, you can go through the laborious process of installing CUCM from scratch. Hopefully, your Cisco SE or one of.
Before you continue, be aware that this procedure is NOT approved by Cisco. Neither Cisco nor I will be responsible for any loss caused by this.
Any bootable disc has to follow 'El Torito' specification. No exception for Cisco discs. The only difference between a bootable disc and non-bootable disc is the 'boot sector'. Thus the solution is very simple - extract the boot sector from a bootable disc and inject it into a non-bootable disc.
The boot sector is a very small file (usually less than 10k). And the boot sector is usually content independent (i.e. you may extract the boot sector from CUCM 7.1.3 and inject it into 7.1.5). You may save the boot sector on your USB thumb drive and keep it handy.
To extract/inject the boot sector, you need some disc image tools like UltraISO. (You may also use other ISO tools with similar features)
Step 1: Get the boot file
There are two ways to get a boot file - extract from the DVD's file system (regardless bootable or not) or extract from a bootable DVD's boot sector.
Option 1: Extract from DVD's file system (regardless bootable or not)
This option is preferred as you don't have to find another bootable disc or ISO file.
The boot file should be available on any CUCM DVD, regardless bootable or not. It is located in the 'isolinux' folder. File name is isolinux.bin.
Extract and save the isolinux.bin file to your hard drive. We'll need to use that later.
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Option 2: Extract the boot sector from a bootable DVD
If for some reason, you were not able to find/extract the isolinux.bin file, you may extract the boot file from a bootable disc (or ISO image).
Put a bootable CUCM disc into the DVD drive and launch UltraISO. Go to menu 'Bootable > Extract Boot File from CD/DVD...'
Save the file to your hard drive as a 'boot info file' (bif). In our example, we call it 'boot.bif'
Step 2: Inject the boot file
Open the non-bootable image in UltraISO. Go to menu 'Bootable'. Make sure 'Generate Bootinfotable' was checked (it will NOT work without this option). Then choose 'Load Boot File...'.
Choose the boot file we saved before (isolinux.bin or boot.bif).
Note that the image type changed to 'Bootable'.
Now, you may go to 'File > Save As' to save the bootable image to an ISO file. Then you may burn the ISO to a disc with your favorite disc burner software.
Here is an update regarding the newest CUCM release which is available now. We will use again a single server installation on a local virtual environment. The requirements are almost the same regarding the hardware but some extra RAM will shorten the time for installation. The image that we are going to use is with build number 10.0.1.10000 which is probably the first official CUCM 10 release. So lets see what are the differences.
Prepare the Virtual Machine
We are using again our favourite VMware Playwer where we are importing directly the available 'ova' template. The first major difference which is immediately noticeable is that the CUCM 10 is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 64-bit version. Kind of expected change as the old 32 bit architecture was suffering from some memory management issues.
However, here are the properties of the predefined virtual machine which was created by importing the official 'ova' template:
- Operating system - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (64-bit).
- Processors - dedicated 2 cores. Again, after the installation you can reduce them to 1.
- Memory - dedicated 6 GB. After the installation you can reduce them to 2, but again at least 4 are needed in order to pass the hardware check.
- HDD - one partition of 110 GB.
- Network adapter - bridge it directly to the physical one.
- CD/DVD - we are mapping the ISO that we have.
- Display - Auto.
And here is the final VM profile for the CUCM:
CUCM 10 step-by-step installation
After preparing your virtual machine there is nothing more left but to power it on. If you followed the instructions above, the hardware checks should pass flawlessly:
Shortly after that the pseudo GUI will start, expecting the answers of something like 20 questions, depending on your requirements.
As there are some other products on the installation media the first step is to choose what you are going to install. It is easy in our case as we are going only for the CUCM. Confirm the installation.
This step will trigger the installation Wizard which is going to ask you for some details regarding this particular installation:
The first question in the pseudo GUI is regarding the type of the installation - is it an upgrade or it is a new installation, followed by confirmation that this is a new 'Basic' installation:
After that there is a standard question in the installation process of almost each Linux distro, regarding the timezone:
The following five screens are regarding the Network configuration. In few steps you will be asked to configure your connectivity in the matter of IP address, default gateway, DNS configuration, hostname configuration, MTU size, speed, duplex and so on.
The following two questions are regarding one of the most important security questions. During the following step you will have to configure your administrative login configuration, while in the next one you will have to give the details for the local Ceftifficate Authority:
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The next question is important if you are installing a multiserver configuration:
And the next one is regarding the NTP configuration. Always be using NTPs! If your clocks are not set correctly then you cannot rely on your logs!
After that you will have to give a password which is important (of course) and you will need it in case of intercluster configuration. The same password will be used to encrypt your archives as well.
There are some options for SMTP notifications which we are skipping:
Here Cisco added one additional step for the Smart Call Home feature. It provides proactive diagnostics and real-time alerts on a range of Cisco devices for higher network availability and increased operational efficiency. It accomplishes the same by receiving and analyzing the diagnostic alerts, inventory, and other messages from Smart Call Home enabled CUCM.
And here are the credentials for the Web interface:
By selecting OK on the following screen the installation process will begin and it is unreversable:
During the installation process the system may restart few times and it is usual to see some messages informing you that the installation will continue.
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The whole installation process can take up to one hour or even more if you are installing it on some slow hardware. However, if everything was fine during the installation process in the end you should get the following screen which is confirming the successful installation: