Virtualization for Cisco HCS for Contact Center

Contents Cisco Collaboration Virtualization Support Version 11.6(1) Version 11.5(1) HCS for Contact Center Network Configuration in a Virtualized Environment Notes on UCS Tested Reference Configuration and Specs-based Support Oversubscription Support Installing VMware Tools Timekeeping Best Practices for Windows System Performance Monitoring Using Windows Perfmon Counters

Cisco Collaboration Virtualization Support

The table below is for convenience and is a snapshot summary only. When in doubt or if there is a conflict, check the product details page by clicking on the product name.

For a given application, this table only summarizes the indicated version (which is usually the latest version in a Unified Communications System Release Set ). 
For older versions or unlisted versions, check the product details page by clicking on the product name.

Version 11.6(1) (top)

IMPORTANT: The Nexus 1000v and other Cisco distributed virtual switches based on the Nexus 1000v are not compatible with ESXi 6.5.

Co-residency support = Limited(see notes) Supported Versions of VMware vSphere ESXi = 5.5, 6.0, 6.5 Supported VMware Virtual Machine Hardware Version = 9 Supported VMware VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) = 5 only. (IMPORTANT: HCS for Contact Center 11.6 does not support the ESXi 6.5's default of VMFS v6.)
Component and Capacity Point VM Configuration Requirements (see OVA details of each component page for details) Download OVA				Supported Hardware (Latest)
				UCS Tested Reference Configurations					UCS or 3rd-party Specs-based on Intel Xeon
VCPU	vRAM	vDisk	vNIC	BE6000S XS TRC	BE6000M S TRCs	BE6000H S+TRCs	BE7000M M TRCs	BE7000H L TRCs	Full UC Perf. CPUs	Restricted UC Perf. CPUs
Cisco Unified Communications Manager				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Unified Intelligence Center				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Virtualized Voice Browser				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco MediaSense				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco SocialMiner				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Finesse				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Enterprise Chat and Email				No	Np	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Remote Silent Monitoring				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Avaya PG				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Contact Center Domain Manager				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No

Version 11.5(1) (top)

Co-residency support = Limited(see notes) Supported Versions of VMware vSphere ESXi = 5.5, 6.0 Supported VMware Virtual Machine Hardware Version = 9 Supported VMware VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) = 5 only. (IMPORTANT: Unified CCE 11.6 does not support the ESXi 6.5's default of VMFS v6.)
Component and Capacity Point VM Configuration Requirements (see OVA details of each component page for details) Download OVA				Supported Hardware (Latest)
				UCS Tested Reference Configurations					UCS or 3rd-party Specs-based on Intel Xeon
VCPU	vRAM	vDisk	vNIC	BE6000S XS TRC	BE6000M S TRCs	BE6000H S+TRCs	BE7000M M TRCs	BE7000H L TRCs	Full UC Perf. CPUs	Restricted UC Perf. CPUs
Cisco Unified Communications Manager				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Unified Intelligence Center				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Virtualized Voice Browser				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco MediaSense				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco SocialMiner				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Finesse				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Enterprise Chat and Email				No	Np	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Remote Silent Monitoring				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Avaya PG				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No
Cisco Contact Center Domain Manager				No	No	No	No	Yes (see details)	Yes (see details)	No

 

HCS for Contact Center Network Configuration in a Virtualized Environment (top)

HCS for Contact Center solution supports the following softswitches:

Softswitch	Support
VMware vNetwork Standard Switch (vSS or vSwitch)	Y(C)
VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS)	Y(C)
Cisco Nexus 1000V	Y(C)
Cisco Application Virtual Switch (AVS)	N

Y(C) means that the softswitch is supported with caveats. HCS for Contact Center has High Availability requirements for network communications that must be met by the chosen softswitch, as folllows: 

• For details on using the vNetwork Standard Switch, see Unified CCE Network Configuration in a Virtualized Environment.
• For details on using the vNetwork Distributed Switch, see the vSS designs in the previous bullet. You can adapt the vSS designs for vDS.
• For details on using the Nexus 1000v with Unified CCE, see Nexus 1000v Support in Unified CCE.
• For general details on support policies for softswitches, see Virtualization Software Requirements.

Follow these guidelines for enabling Quality of Service (QoS) in Unified CCE:

• Enable QoS for all Unified CCE Private network traffic.
• For Visible (Public) network traffic, you can use QoS in the 2000 Agent and 4000 Agent Reference Designs.
• For Visible (Public) network traffic in a 12,000 Agent Reference Design, QoS can delay the detection of server failures.
• For details, refer to the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) section in the Solution Design Guide for Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution for Contact Center.

Notes on UCS Tested Reference Configuration and Specs-based Support (top)

The EOS notice for the Cisco Business Edition 7000M server does not apply to the C220M3SFF TRC (SKU: UCUCS-EZ-C220M3S) or C240M3S TRC #1 (SKU: UCUCS-EZ-C240M3S. The C220M3SFF TRC and C240M3S TRC #1 will continue to be sold until these M3 TRC servers are EOS.

When the hardware support is specified as "Yes (See details)", the following exceptions exist, as applicable to the TRC or Specs-based policy referenced:

• The UCS M4 generation of C series servers is supported for use with any version of the Unified CCE application where the UCS M3 TRCs are supported as long as firmware 2.0(9c) or later is applied on the UCS C M4 series. 
  

HCS for CC supports Cisco UCS servers only under the specs-based support policy. 3rd party servers are not supported

Oversubscription Support (top)

In 11.x releases, Cisco HCS for Contact Center reference designs supports virtual machine vCPU oversubscription (virtual CPU to physical Core). For complete details and limitations, see the Solution Design Guide for Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution for Contact Center 

Installing VMware Tools (top)

You must install the VMware Tools on each of the VMs, and you must use all of the VMware Tools default settings. Please refer to VMware documentation for instructions on installing or upgrading VMware Tools on the VM with the Windows operating system.

Timekeeping Best Practices for Windows (top)

Follow the instructions provided in the VMware Knowledge Base article VMware KB: Timekeeping best practices for Windows.

• ESXi hosts and domain controllers must synchronize the time from the same NTP source.
• When Unified CCE virtual machines join the domain, they synchronize the time with the domain controller automatically using w32time.
• Be sure that Time synchronization between the virtual machine and the host operating system in the VMware Tools tool box GUI of the Windows Server guest operating system remains unchecked; this check box is checked by default.

For more details about time synchronization, see the relevant section in the Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Design Guide.

System Performance Monitoring Using Windows Perfmon Counters (top)

You must comply with the requirements described in the System Performance Monitoring section of the Unified Contact Center Enterprise Design Guide and in the Performance Counters section in the Serviceability Best Practices Guide for Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise.