twhittle1 networking blog: May 2013

CUCMBE6K UCS Bundle

So, CUCM business edition 6000 is great! It's reasonably simple and easy to quote, so any UC opportunities for sub 1000 should always be BE6K.

There are 2 main elements, the licensing and the hardware, I'll ignore the phone here because you can add them on later depending on the customer environment.

BE6K Licensing Top level Part - R-CBE6K-K9
BE6K UCS Bundle Top level part - BE6K-ST-BDL-K9=

Within the licensing you select the licensing type. UCL or UWL. UWL is usually often preferred due to the included features for the price, see my previous post:
http://twhittle1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/webex-audio-entitlement-with-cuwl-pro.html?view=mosaic

One note on the licensing is that the version of UWL which can be selected is Business edition UWL. Despite having a different name it is functionally the same as Standard UWL, and can be upgraded in the same way as standard to Pro if needed. Professional cannot be purchased from the BE6K top level part.

With the hardware you only need to select the power cable (although consider an extra PSU), the bundle includes all the hardware you need, and specifically it includes all the hardware required to run up to 5 UC applications, CUCM, Unity, CUCM in presence mode (for Jabber), Unified Attendant console (on top of an instance of windows server) and CCX. Attendant console needs to be purchased separately and so does CCX licensing but you get the idea, that's a lot of UC application in one place and one package.

here's a link to a later blog entry which I've written which talks more on it's scalability beyond the 1000 user limit:
http://twhittle1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/cucm-business-edition-more-scalable.html

Remote access to voicemail using Unity Connection

Remote access to voicemail can be provided in Unity Connection by the users dialling into the voicemail system, from anywhere internal or external, then entering the user extension and pin.

The following user guide shows this interaction from the users point of view:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/9x/user/guide/phone/b_9xcucugphone_chapter_010.html#task_4CDEBFCC4EE1426497B58E261FA57F7A

Databases in Cisco UC applications

An obscure question came up in a piece of work I was doing so I'm recording it here for future reference just in case it comes back. I was trying to find out what were the databases used by UC applications and what formats were they.

CUCM and Unity Connection both have relational databases (using the SQL language) however they are accessed via IBM Informix. CWMS uses oracle 11g and Attendant console uses MS SQL Server 2005 or 2008

Cisco Nexus B22 Fabric Extender

If you are searching for the B22 fabric extended but cannot find a price from Cisco, the reason is because you cannot buy this product from Cisco. It is something that HP OEMs so you will have to go to HP instead.

Datasheet:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps10110/ps11975/data_sheet_c78-685265.html

Cisco Wireless N+1 HA

Here is a little scatter shot information about Cisco WLCs in the N+1 HA model:

When using N+1 HA make sure the controllers are running V7.4 or later. Pre 7.4 the N+1 HA model requires a permanent AP count license on the backup controller. With Release 7.4 and later, an HA-SKU secondary controller can be used as the backup controller for multiple primary controllers. The overall goal for the addition of N+1 HA with HA-SKU is to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for geographically separate HA deployments across the WAN link.

Keep in mind that Access Point Stateful Switch Over (AP SSO) functionality is not supported for N+1 HA. The AP Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) state machine is restarted when the primary controller fails. With Release 7.4, the backup controller for N+1 HA can be an HA-SKU secondary controller. AIR-CT5760-HA-K9 is the HA SKU for the new Cisco 5760 WLC, for example.

an HA WLC, with a different user count to the main controllers, can be used as the HA controller. For example 2 x WISM2 each with 750 AP licenses can be backed up by a WLC5670 which could only support 1000 APs.

The new 5760 WLC does support N+1 High Availability. If interworking with AireOS controllers in the same Mobility group, you will need either a WiSM2 or a CT5508 running 7.3.112.0 release and also in "Hierarchal Mobility Mode" to form a Mobility group with IOS-XE based Controllers [3.2.0SE release]. Be aware that in the current release, when AP's fail between dissimilar WLC Operating Systems (AireOS and IOS-XE) the AP's do download a new CAPWAP image and reboot; so this failover is not "sub 45 seconds" but rather 2~3 minutes depending on download speeds and reboot times of Access Points.

References:

Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series Switches – Q&A

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps12686/qa_c67-722110.html

Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch Deployment Guide

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps12686/deployment_guide_c07-727067.html

Cisco Unified Access Technology Overview: Converged Access

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps12686/white_paper_c11-726107.html

Converged Access Mode for the Cisco 5760 WLC and the Catalyst 3850 Switch

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps6302/ps8322/ps12598/qa_c67-726507.html

Cisco Wireless Software Compatibility Matrix - (Converged Access WLC Compatibility Matrix – Table 6)

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/controller/5500/tech_notes/Wireless_Software_Compatibility_Matrix.html#wp92761

Release Notes for Cisco WLC's and Lightweight Access Points