Upgrade Overview
Use the procedures in this chapter to complete one of the following upgrade types using either the Cisco Unified OS Admin GUI or the CLI. For procedures, refer to the task flow that covers your upgrade type.
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Clusterwide Upgrades (Direct Standard)—Pre-upgrade version must be 12.5(1) minimum. Otherwise, you must use the Direct Migration method.
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Upgrade Cluster Nodes (Direct Standard)
Note
Direct upgrades from pre-12.5 source to Release 15 is not supported.
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If your Unified Communications Manager publisher node is on Release 15 and the subscribers nodes are in Release 12.5.x or 14 and SUs, the nodes in the cluster will not be authenticated. Only when the subscribers nodes are upgraded to Release 15, all the nodes will be in the authenticated state. |
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Cluster Switch Versioning fails if the inactive version is Pre-15SU2 and the active version is configured with the minimum TLS version as 1.3. Change the TLS version to 1.3 with the active version on Release 15SU2 if no reversion is required to the Pre-15SU2 clusters. |
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If your source cluster is enabled with Enhanced Security Mode and you are using any pre-12.5 UC clusters to migrate your source cluster to Release 12.5.1 or later, you must log in to the publisher node and change the application password after a successful migration. Enter a new password with 14 characters for the updates to take effect on all nodes in the cluster. Also, ensure that you reboot the IM and Presence Service publisher node for the services to start on all IM and Presence Service nodes. |
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After successful upgrades (Direct Refresh Upgrade, Fresh Install with Data Import, Direct Standard Upgrade, or Cisco Prime Collaboration Deployment (PCD)) in Enhanced Security Mode, you must log in to the Cisco Unified CM Administration GUI and change the password for IPMA and Webdialer Sys Users. Ensure that you edit the credential configuration for both these application users to uncheck the User Must Change at Next Login option for the password effect to take place (Navigate to Cisco Unified CM Administration GUI > User Management > Application User). |
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For upgrades and migrations that use Cisco Prime Collaboration Deployment, see the Cisco Prime Collaboration Deployment Administration Guide to set up an upgrade task or migration task. |
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This guide provides the general upgrade procedures for Unified Communications Manager. If your deployment integrates Unified CM with other Cisco solutions, such as Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE), review the installation and upgrade documentation for each product. This ensures that you meet all integration requirements across platforms. For example, if you are integrating Unified CM with Cisco Contact Center, also refer to the Contact Center Enterprise Installation and Upgrade Guide. |
Before You Begin
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Stop all configuration tasks. Don't make any configuration changes during the upgrade. For example, don't change passwords, perform LDAP synchronizations, or run any automated jobs. Don't remove, readd, or reinstall any nodes in the cluster during the upgrade process. You can make configuration changes only when you have completed the upgrade on all nodes and completed postupgrade tasks. The upgrade overwrites configuration changes that you make during the upgrade, and some configuration changes can cause the upgrade to fail. We recommend that you suspend user synchronization with LDAP. Don't resume synchronization until you have completed the upgrade on all Unified Communications Manager and IM and Presence Service cluster nodes. |
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Don't rename or compress the upgrade file. Otherwise, the system rejects the file as a valid upgrade file.
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For IM and Presence Service upgrades, check that the contact list size for users is below the maximum. Use the System Troubleshooter in Cisco Unified CM IM and Presence Administration to verify that no users have exceeded the limit.
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Modify the network adapter to VMXNET3 before the upgrade process. For details, see your OVA readme file.
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If you're upgrading a node in FIPS mode, make sure that your security password has a minimum of 14 characters. To change passwords, see the 'Reset the Administrator or Security Password' section in the "Getting Started" chapter of the Administration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
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From Release 12.5(1) SU2 onwards, it's recommended to perform both the upgrade stages [Install and Switch Version] during the same Maintenance Window to avoid an impact on the other AXL-dependent integrations. |
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During the switch version, only User Facing Features (UFF) in dynamic tables (numplandynamic, devicedynamic, and more) gets updated. Other tables are migrated during the upgrade. Any configuration changes after the upgrade or before the switch versions are lost. |
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In the upgrade logs, it's observed that there is time discrepancy or time jumps during certain intervals. This time jump is an expected behavior since the hardware clock is disabled until the system synchronizes with the NTP server. |
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If you have different security passwords in the active and inactive versions, and when you switch back to a lower version, ensure that you change the security password in the lower version to be same as the higher version. Follow these steps to change the security password:
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Use this procedure to verify the NTP configurations before you upgrade to Release 15:
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Download Upgrade Files
Before you upgrade, download the files that you need:.
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To optimize the upgrade, make sure to save the downloaded files in the same directory. |
Files to Download |
Download Site |
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Unified CM Upgrade ISO |
Go to Unified Communications Manager Downloads—Select your version and then look under Unified Communications Manager Updates for upgrade ISOs. For example, |
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IM and Presence Service Upgrade ISO |
Go to IM and Presence Service Downloads—Select your version and look under Unified Presence Server (CUP) updates for upgrade ISOs. For example, |
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Upgrade Readiness COP Files (pre-upgrade and post-upgrade) |
You can download the pre-upgrade COP file and post-upgrade COP file from either of the above download sites:
For example,
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