As an ongoing effort to improve accessibility improvements, the Cisco Unified CM Administration, Cisco Unified Reporting, Cisco Unified Serviceability, Cisco Unified OS Admin, Disaster Recovery System, Cisco Unified IM and Presence Serviceability, Cisco Unified IM and Presence OS Administration, Cisco Unified IM and Presence Reporting, and IM and Presence Disaster Recovery System user interfaces are enhanced with the following functionality for this release:

• Sitemap—Helps users navigate to important pages within each user interface. The Sitemap provides links to main functionalities for easy navigation.

• User Interface Menu—The menu opens only when you click it with a mouse or use the Enter or Spacebar keys on the keyboard; it does not open on hover.

Starting with Release 15SU4, Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service migrates from Exchange Web Services (EWS) to Microsoft Graph APIs for Office 365 integration. This change ensures continued support for calendaring features, which allow 'In a Meeting' and 'Out of Office' presence statuses.

During the upgrade, the IM and Presence Service automatically updates standard commercial and U.S. Government EWS endpoint URLs to Microsoft Graph URLs.

Note	The migration to Microsoft Graph API applies only to Microsoft Office 365; integration with on-premises Exchange Server continues to use EWS APIs for calendaring.

For more information, see the Microsoft Outlook Calendar Integration for the IM and Presence Service.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Release 15SU4 introduces support for additional virtualization options. In addition to VMware vSphere ESXi, Release 15SU4 supports Cisco NFVIS-for-UC and Cisco Compute Hyperconverged with Nutanix (CCHN) for on-premises calling deployments. These additions allow on-premises customers to choose between traditional VMware support, a Cisco-native virtualization layer for appliances, or a robust hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution.

1. Cisco NFVIS-for-UC (Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure Software for Unified Communications)—Cisco NFVIS is a limited-purpose virtualization product from the Cisco networking portfolio that supports hosting Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) on select Cisco network and server hardware. Cisco NFVIS-for-UC is a specialized edition of NFVIS that supports hosting core calling applications on select Cisco calling appliances.

   Cisco NFVIS-for-UC is a special edition of NFVIS that introduces a new commercial offer with a separate product ID, distinct pricing, new licensing, and a slightly different administrative GUI.

   • Cisco NFVIS-for-UC supports only select on-premises calling applications.

   • Cisco NFVIS-for-UC supports only select Cisco Calling Appliances.

   • Supported Applications: Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Dedicated Instance Enhanced Survivability Node (ESN), Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition, Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service, Cisco Unity Connection, Cisco Emergency Responder, and Cisco Expressway. Other workloads (including the remainder of the Collaboration portfolio, other Cisco products, third-party applications, or homegrown applications) are not supported.

   • Supported Hardware: Cisco Business Edition 6000 (M5, M6, M7), Cisco Business Edition 7000 (M5, M6, M7), and Cisco Expressway CE1400V (M7).

   • Minimum Requirements: Release 15SU4 (or X15.4 for Expressway) running on Cisco NFVIS-for-UC version 4.18.2a.

   • Key Benefits: Provides a Cisco-on-Cisco, appliance-based solution tailored for collaboration-centric customer needs.

2. Cisco Compute Hyperconverged with Nutanix (CCHN)—Cisco Compute Hyperconverged with Nutanix (CCHN) is a joint solution that integrates Nutanix software with Cisco hardware. This software-defined system integrates compute, storage, and networking into a single platform.

   • Supported Applications: Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Dedicated Instance Enhanced Survivability Node (ESN), Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition, Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service, Cisco Unity Connection, Cisco Emergency Responder, and Cisco Expressway. Other workloads (including the remainder of the Collaboration portfolio, other Cisco products, third-party applications, or homegrown applications) are not supported.

   • Supported Hardware: Cisco HCI Nodes and Cisco Compute Nodes (integrated with Cisco HCI nodes) based on HCI, HCIX, and UCS hardware as described in the Cisco Compute Hyperconverged with Nutanix Data Sheets.

   • Minimum Requirements: Release 15SU4 (or X15.4 for Expressway) running on Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) 10.0 and Nutanix Acropolis OS (AOS) 7.0.

   • Key Benefits: Provides a robust hyperconverged infrastructure platform for data center-centric customer needs.

3. VMware vSphere ESXi—VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0 continues to be supported. Note that ESXi 7.0 and earlier releases have reached the end of support from VMware by Broadcom.

For more information, see:

• Virtualization Guide: Cisco Virtualization Guide for Cisco On-premises Calling Applications

• Installation Guides: Refer to the specific 'Installation Guides' for Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Dedicated Instance Enhanced Survivability Node (ESN), Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition, Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service, Cisco Unity Connection, Cisco Emergency Responder, and Cisco Expressway.

  Note	All hypervisor and hardware support information for version 15 is located in the documents listed earlier, rather than at: http://www.cisco.com/go/virtualized-collaboration.

From Release 15SU4 onwards, the system sends fmtp parameters between endpoints during SIP calls with fax or modem negotiation. Earlier, it used to remove these parameters. This change helps the endpoints choose the right codec, making fax or modem pass-through work smoothly. The fix works for both early offer and delayed offer calls. It supports SIP to SIP calls and SCCP to SIP calls. However, it does not support MTP and TRP call flows.

For more information, see the ‘NSE-based Fax or Modem Passthrough for Secure SIP Lines’ section in the “Configure Gateways” chapter of the System Configuration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

Webex Calling introduces support for hybrid deployment models with Customer Assist, giving organizations the flexibility to combine cloud-based agent functionality with their current on-premises (Cisco Unified Communications Manager) telephony infrastructure. This hybrid approach enables a smooth, phased transition to advanced customer experience features, allowing businesses to leverage the benefits of the cloud while protecting their existing investments. With hybrid Customer Assist, you can onboard agents to the cloud at your own pace, streamline operations, and enhance customer interactions—without the need for a full telephony migration.

For more information, see Webex Calling Hybrid.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified Communications Manager) requirements for the Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series include:

• Unified Communications Manager 12.5(1)SU9, 14SU4 and later, or 15SU2 and later (To be FCSed around October 2024).

• Installation of the following Cisco Options Package (COP) files on Unified Communications Manager: Phone firmware—Firmware for the Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series phones is not bundled with Unified Communications Manager. A firmware update may be required to enable the new features. The phone firmware COP files can be downloaded from Cisco.com.

For information on the list of supported features for the Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series, see the Release Notes for Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series.

Location Bandwidth Manager (LBM) running on Unified Communication Manager version 15 cannot communicate with Unified CM versions with a newer version of Release 15 (for example, Release 15 SU1 or later). Hence, we recommend that you do the following if you are using LBM across multiple clusters:

• Ensure that you install the ciscocm.V15FCS_CSCwi82830-lbm_C0211-1.cop.sha512 COP file on Unified Communications Manager Release 15 to interoperate with LBM running on Unified Communication Manager versions 15SU1 or later.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager does not support Cisco TAPI Service Provider (TSP) 32-bit Windows plugin. We encourage you to migrate to the 64-bit plugin version of Cisco TAPI Service Provider (TSP) on supported Windows platforms.

For more information, see the following: Deprecation of 32-Bit Windows Plugin Support for Cisco TAPI Service Provider in Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager does not support the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module (APIC-EM) Integration. We encourage you to use Unified Communication Manager-based Service Parameter–based DSCP QoS management instead of APIC-EM.

• Deprecation of Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module (APIC-EM) Integration with Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Cisco Unified Communications Manager does not support Call Control Discovery via Service Advertisement Framework. Therefore, we recommend that you migrate to Global Dial Plan Replication using the Intercluster Lookup Service (ILS). For more information, see the following:

• Deprecation of Call Control Discovery via Service Advertisement Framework in Cisco Unified Communications Manager

• System Configuration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Cisco Unified Communications Manager does not support Mobile Voice Access via H.323 and SIP VoiceXML (VXML) Gateways. We encourage you to configure Unified Communications Manager with native Mobile Voice Access, which is supported starting from Unified CM version 12.5 and later.

For more information, see: Deprecation of Mobile Voice Access via H.323 and SIP VXML Gateways in Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

Unified Communications Manager Release 15 does not support Remote Call Control with Microsoft Lync Server for IM and Presence Service. If you are using this feature currently in your deployment and you are trying to upgrade to Release 15, you cannot use this feature after the upgrade.

Note	This feature continues to be supported in Releases 12.5.x and 14 and SUs until their EOL/EOS.

For more information, see Deprecation of Remote Call Control with Microsoft Lync Server for IM and Presence Service on Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Release 15.

Starting with Release 15 onwards, phone firmware that is end of support will no longer be included in the Unified Communications Manager ISO. These endpoints will still be allowed to register, unless they have been officially deprecated, but the firmware will not be present in the TFTP directory following a fresh install. For more details, see the ReadMe for Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

Although the Cipher Management configuration page allows you to configure any number of ciphers, if you are using one of the following cipher that relies on RSA for key exchange, ensure that you add at least one more strong cipher to maintain compatibility before upgrading from pre-15SU3 releases:

• AES128-GCM-SHA256

• AES256-SHA256

• AES128-SHA256

• AES256-SHA

• AES128-SHA