Unified CCE Reference Designs

Introduction to the Reference Designs


Note

The first four chapters of this book are for anyone who wants to get familiar with the three contact center enterprise solutions:

  • Packaged Contact Center Enterprise

  • Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution for Contact Center

  • Unified Contact Center Enterprise

For information about design considerations and guidelines specific to Unified CCE, see the remaining chapters.

The Contact Center Enterprise Reference Designs are a set of Cisco validated designs of our contact center enterprise solutions. The Reference Designs define the technologies and topologies that fit the needs for most deployments. The Reference Designs focus on simplifying the contact center enterprise solution design. They provide complete contact center functionality based on components that are strategic to Cisco.

We have defined the Reference Designs in the following table to cover most contact center needs:

Table 1. Reference Design Use by Contact Center Enterprise Solution

Reference Design

Packaged CCE

Cisco HCS for Contact Center

Unified CCE

2000 Agents

Yes

Yes

Yes

4000 Agents

Yes

Yes

Yes

12000 Agents

Yes

Yes

Yes

24000 Agents

No

Yes

Yes

Contact Director

No

No

Yes

Non-Reference Designs

Avaya PG and ICM-to-ICM Gateway

Avaya PG only

Yes

If your solution exceeds the configuration limits for a particular Reference Design, use a Reference Design with higher limits. For example, if your 2000-agent deployment requires 350 active reporting users, use the 4000 Agent Reference Design for your solution.

Contact center solutions that include something not covered by the Contact Center Enterprise Reference Designs are called Non-Reference Designs. Cisco HCS for Contact Center supports the Avaya PG as a Non-Reference Design.

You require Unified CCE for any other Non-Reference Design deployments.

Reference Designs and Deployment Types

The Contact Center Enterprise Reference Designs are mapped to specific contact center solutions through deployment types. Deployment types are system codes that impose system limits and apply congestion control.

This table maps the Reference Designs and Non-Reference Designs with the deployment type that you use for each.

Table 2. Deployment Type Usage by Reference Design

Reference Design

Packaged CCE

Cisco HCS for Contact Center

Unified CCE

Label

Label

Label

2000 Agent

Packaged CCE: 2000 Agents

HCS-CC: 2000 Agents

UCCE: 2000 Agents

4000 Agent

Packaged CCE: 4000 Agents

HCS-CC: 4000 Agents

UCCE: 4000 Agents

12000 Agent

Packaged CCE: 12000 Agents

HCS-CC: 12000 Agents

UCCE: 12000 Agents

24000 Agent

NA

HCS-CC: 24000 Agents

UCCE: 24000 Agents Router/Logger

Contact Director

NA

NA

Contact Director

Non-Reference Designs

Avaya PG and ICM-to-ICM Gateway

Packaged CCE: 4000 Agents

Packaged CCE: 12000 Agents

NA

ICM Rogger

ICM Router/Logger

UCCE: 8000 Agents Router/Logger

Lab Only Designs

Packaged CCE: Lab Mode

NA

UCCE: Progger (Lab Only)

Benefits of a Reference Design Solution

Contact centers offer more possibilities with each new generation of software and hardware. New technology can make previously preferred methods obsolete for current contact centers. We created the Contact Center Enterprise Reference Designs to simplify your design choices and speed the development of your contact center. We expect that most new contact centers can use the Reference Designs to meet their needs.

By following the Reference Designs, you can:

  • Guide your customers' expectations by presenting clear options.

  • Streamline your design process with standard models.

  • Avoid using components and features that are near the end of their lifecycle.

  • Find powerful and efficient replacements for obsolete features.

  • Align your designs with Cisco's vision of our future contact center developments.

  • Enjoy quicker and easier approval processes.

Specifications for a Reference Design Solution

The Reference Designs define our vision of the functionality that most contact centers use. The Reference Designs consist of:

  • Core components—Components that make up every contact center:

    • Ingress, Egress, and VXML Gateways

    • Unified Customer Voice Portal (Unified CVP)

    • Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE)

    • Cisco Virtualized Voice Browser (VVB)

    • Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM)

    • Cisco Finesse

    • Cisco Unified Intelligence Center

  • Optional Cisco components—Components that add functionality that not every contact center needs.

    • Customer Collaboration Platform

    • Cisco Unified SIP Proxy

    • Enterprise Chat and Email

    • Cisco IdS

    • Cloud Connect

    • Custom Remote Server

  • Optional third-party components—Third-party components that you can add to provide other features.

    • Load balancers

    • Recording

    • Speech servers - ASR/TTS

    • Wallboards

    • Workforce management

  • Integrated features—These features do not require you to add an optional solution component to enable them. But, these features can require configuration in multiple solution components to activate them. They can affect your solution sizing and might have specific design considerations.

  • Call flows—Standard contact handling and routing methods.

    • Inbound Calls:

      • New calls from a carrier

      • New internal calls

    • Supplementary services

      • Hold and resume

      • Transfers and conferences

      • Refer transfers

      • Network transfers

      • Requery and survivability

  • Topologies—Standard layouts for your contact center components:

    • Centralized

    • Distributed

    • Global

This figure shows the high-level services that are part of the solutions and the components that provide those services. It also highlights some features and components that are outside of the Reference Designs:


Note

This figure highlights only a few Non-Reference Design components and topologies. The Non-Reference Design sections expand on this list.

Figure 1. Contact Center Enterprise Reference and Non-Reference Designs

Note

In general, you cannot use the ICM-to-ICM Gateway in Reference Designs. Only the Contact Director Reference Design allows you to use that gateway.

This figure encapsulates the basic requirements of a Reference Design-compliant deployment:

Figure 2. Contact Center Enterprise Components and Features

Contact Center Enterprise Reference Designs

The following sections describe the Contact Center Enterprise Reference Designs.

The Reference Designs are supported for Cisco UCS C240 M5SX, Cisco UCS C240 M6SX, and Cisco HX220c-M5SX Tested Reference Configuration (TRC) servers as detailed in the Cisco Collaboration Infrastructure Requirements wiki: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/cisco-collaboration-infrastructure.html.


Note

For more details on supported servers for the Reference Designs, see the Cisco Collaboration Virtualization page for your solution at http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/cisco-collaboration-virtualization.html.

The following notes apply to all the Reference Designs:

  • Contact Center Enterprise solutions use vCPU oversubscription. This policy applies for both Reference Design and Non-Reference Design solutions.

  • The standard PG VM includes an Agent (Unified CM) PG, a VRU PG, and an MR PG. Unified CCE and Cisco HCS for Contact Center allow you to add more PGs and their peripherals onto this base layout.

  • Cloud Connect, a component that allows you to use cloud services, is available only with Cisco Webex Experience Management.

  • Cloud Connect can be on-box (as depicted in the following sections) for deployments on the Cisco HX220c-M5SX server, whereas, on the Cisco UCS C240 M5SX or Cisco UCS C240 M6SX servers, Cloud Connect must be off-box.

  • CVP Reporting server and Cloud Connect are optional components.

  • The TRC layouts for Cisco UCS C240 M5SX and Cisco UCS C240 M6SX servers are identical. Note that only a single-socket 28-core CPU is used for the Cisco UCS C240 M6SX servers. If customers wish to use the additional socket on the Cisco UCS C240 M6SX servers with corresponding increase in cores, memory, and disks, the hardware will be supported under spec-based VM provisioning policies.

  • Cisco HX220c-M6S servers are supported in accordance with spec-based policies only.

  • Based on your business and deployment requirements, you may distribute the VVB VMs on external servers, or as depicted in this section, deploy them on additional servers or nodes (in the case of M5-HX clusters).

  • If the layout is on the Cisco HX220c-M5SX or Cisco HX220c-M6S server, you can deploy the additional VVB servers on HX nodes in the same cluster, or on external M5 or M6 servers, respectively.

  • VVB VMs are shown in the reference designs solely for completeness. They may be deployed anywhere that meets customer business needs, provided TRC specifications and specification-based provisioning policies are not violated.

  • VVB with AppD enabled CPU MHz utilization spikes during services start up. VVB OVA profiles has upper threshold set as unlimited so there are no changes in OVA profile. This impact is only during services start up but not under general or load scenarios.

  • An HX cluster can consist of a combination of compute and converged nodes, provided that all resource requirements and resource constraints are satisfied in accordance with the Virtual Machine Resource Provisioning Policy. This is supported only as a spec-based deployment model.

  • For information on the data source allocation of the components in the Reference Design layouts, see the Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Installation and Upgrade Guide at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/unified-contact-center-enterprise/products-installation-guides-list.html

  • The Reference Design layouts in this section do not show off-box components like Customer Collaboration Platform.

  • If you upgrade to Release 12.6(1) on Cisco UCS C240 M4SX server, we recommend that you install an additional 32 GB of memory on all servers to accommodate the increased memory requirements of the Release 12.6(1) VMs.

Virtual Machines Resource Provisioning Policy


Note

The previously used Oversubscription policy is a part of the Virtual Machine (VM) Resource Provisioning Policy.

The Unified CCE Reference Designs support the virtual machine vCPU oversubscription of the physical CPU cores on a server. For the purposes of oversubscription, the hyper-thread cores do not count as physical cores. Whether or not you use oversubscription, use the VM Resource Provisioning policy. This policy limits the total available CPU MHz and the memory of a server that the host-resident VMs can consume.

Apply the VM Resource Provisioning policy when:

  • You change the documented Reference Design VM layout by adding or replacing VMs. This means that you use a custom or non-Reference VM layout in a Reference Design solution.

  • You provision a non-Reference Design server.

  • You provision a Reference Design server for optional and third-party components that are not given a reference VM layout.

  • You use UCS or third-party specifications-based servers.

  • You upgrade an existing solution and do not migrate to a Reference Design VM layout.


Note

Apply the VM Resource Provisioning policy on a per-server basis. This policy does not apply to the Reference Design VM layouts. Your solution can contain servers that use the Reference Design VM layouts and other VM layouts that use the VM Resource Provisioning policy rules.

The application of the VM Resource Provisioning policy requires meeting the following conditions:

  • You can use up to two vCPUs for every physical core on each server.

  • You can use up to 65% of the total available CPU MHz on each server.

  • You can use up to 80% of the total available memory on each server.

For more information on virtualization and specification-based server policies, see the Cisco Collaboration Virtualization at http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/cisco-collaboration-virtualization.html.


Note

The Virtual Machine Placement Tool does not currently allow you to oversubscribe. This limitation is only an issue with the tool. You can oversubscribe within the limits that are provided here.


Note

The custom remote server should have the same provisioning specification as Unified CVP server.

2000 Agent Reference Designs

All contact center enterprise solutions support the 2000 Agent Reference design on the Cisco UCS C240 M5SX or Cisco UCS C240 M6SX and the Cisco HX220c-M5SX Large TRC servers.

  • In this Reference Design, Cisco Unified Intelligence Center, Live Data, Identity Service for Single Sign-On are coresident on a single VM. In the larger Reference Designs, they reside in separate VMs.

  • You can optionally deploy the Unified Communications Manager Publisher and Subscribers on separate servers, instead of deploying them as shown in the 2000 Agent Reference Design layout. You should dedicate two of the subscribers to Unified CCE. All devices on these subscribers must be SIP.

    In 2000 Agent Reference Designs, a coresident Unified CM can support a maximum of 2000 phones. This includes your phones for all types of agents, whether contact center agents or back-office workers. If your solution requires more than 2000 phones, use a Unified CM on a separate server instead.

  • In the global deployment topology, each remote site can have its own Unified CM cluster. A remote site cannot include a Cisco Unified Intelligence Center server.

  • You can deploy optional AW-HDS-DDS per site on external servers for longer data retention.

  • In 2000 Agent Reference Designs, you can deploy ECE Data Server on-box for up to 400 agents. Deploy ECE off-box for up to 1500 agents.

    You can also deploy the ECE Data Server on a separate server.

  • Deploy the ECE Web Server on an external server. You can place that server either in the same data center as the ECE Data Server or in a DMZ if customer chat interactions require that.


Note

Adding more disks is not permitted in the CCE 2000 agent deployment. Any changes to the number of disks will result in a VM validation error.

Support on the Cisco UCS C240 M5SX and Cisco UCS C240 M6SX Large TRC Servers


Important

If you plan to upgrade to 12.x on Cisco UCS C240 M4SX servers, deploy Unified CM and ECE HA VMs on external servers.

The following figure shows the base layout of the components in a 2000 Agent Reference Design on Cisco UCS C240 M5SX and Cisco UCS C240 M6SX Large TRC servers.

Figure 3. 2000 Agent Reference Design Model

This table lists the specifications for VMs.

Table 3. VM Specifications for 2000 Agent Reference Design

VM

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk 1

vDisk 2

vDisk 3

Rogger

4

5000

6

80

150

Unified CM

4

7200

81

110

Unified CVP OAMP

2

400

4

80

Unified CVP Server

4

3000

12

250

Unified CVP Reporting Server

4

1800

6

80

438
ECE Dataserver2

4

4000

20

80

50

300

CUIC-LD-IdS

4

5500

16

200

AW-HDS-DDS

4

5000

16

80

500

PG

2

4000

6

80

Finesse

4

5000

10

146

VVB

4

9000

10

146
1 The vRAM value for Unified CM 15.0 is 12 GB. The vRAM value in the Total Requirements table below will also vary and needs to be recalculated accordingly. For more details, see the Compatibility Matrix.
2 For the latest VM specifications, see the row for 400 agents in the Virtualization for Enterprise Chat and Email page at https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-enterprise-chat-email.html.
Table 4. Total VM Requirements for 2000 Agent Reference Design

Server

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk

Data Center Site A

36

46300

106

2216

Data Center Site B

34

40500

100

2544

Server 2

16

36000

40

584

Support on the Cisco HX220c-M5SX TRC Server

This figure shows the base layout of the components in a 2000 Agent Reference Design on Cisco HX220c-M5SX TRC server.

This table lists the specifications for VMs.

Table 5. VM Specifications for 2000 Agent Reference Design

VM

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk1

vDisk2

vDisk 3

HX Data Controller

16

10800

48

Rogger

4

5000

6

80

150

Unified CM

4

7200

83

110

Unified CVP OAMP

2

400

4

80

Unified CVP Server

4

3000

12

250

Unified CVP Reporting Server

4

1800

6

80

438

ECE Dataserver4

4

4000

20

80

50

300

CUIC-LD-IdS

4

5500

16

200

AW-HDS-DDS

4

5000

16

80

750

PG

2

4000

6

80

Finesse

4

5000

10

146

VVB

4

9000

10

146

Cloud Connect

4

6000

10

146
3 The vRAM value for Unified CM 15.0 is 12 GB. The vRAM value in the Total Requirements table below will also vary and needs to be recalculated accordingly. For more details, see the Compatibility Matrix.
4 For the latest VM specifications, see the row for 400 agents in the Virtualization for Enterprise Chat and Email page at https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-enterprise-chat-email.html.
Table 6. Total VM Requirements for 2000 Agent Reference Design

Server

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk

Data Center Site 1A

48

53100

134

1786

Data Center Site 1B

46

47300

128

2114

Data Center Site 2A

32

38800

98

868

Data Center Site 2B

32

38800

98

868

4000 Agent Reference Designs

All contact center enterprise solutions support the 4000 Agent Reference design on the following TRC servers:

  • Cisco UCS C240 M5SX Large

  • Cisco UCS C240 M6SX Large

  • Cisco HX220c-M5SX

This model adds servers to scale up from the 2000 Agent Reference Design.


Note

You can only deploy two AW-HDS-DDS per data center site in the 4000 Agent Reference Design. In larger solutions, you use a combination of HDS-DDS and AW-HDS.

Support on the Cisco UCS C240 M5SX and Cisco UCS C240 M6SX TRC Servers


Important

If you plan to upgrade to 12.x on Cisco UCS C240 M4SX servers, make the following changes to your servers and VM layouts:

  • Deploy Unified CM and ECE HA VMs on external servers.

  • Add 16 GB of physical RAM to each server that hosts Unified CVP call and VXML servers.

  • Increase the memory reservations for the Unified CVP VMs to 12 GB.

This figure shows the base layout of the components in a 4000 Agent Reference Design on Cisco UCS C240 M5SX and Cisco UCS C240 M6SX TRC servers.

Figure 4. 4000 Agent Reference Design Model

This table lists the specifications for VMs.

Table 7. VM Specifications for 4000 Agent Reference Design

VM

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk 1

vDisk 2

Rogger

4

5000

6

80

150

Live Data

4

5500

30

146

IdS

4

1500

10

146

Unified CVP Reporting Server

4

1800

6

80

438

Unified CVP OAMP

2

400

4

80

Unified CM

4

7200

85

110

PG

2

4000

6

80

Unified CVP Server

4

3000

12

250

Finesse

4

5000

10

146

Unified Intelligence Center

4

3600

16

200

AW-HDS-DDS

4

5000

16

80

500

VVB

4

9000

10

146
5 The vRAM value for Unified CM 15.0 is 14 GB. The vRAM value in the Total Requirements table below will also vary and needs to be recalculated accordingly. For more details, see the Compatibility Matrix.
Table 8. Total VM Requirements for 4000 Agent Reference Design

Server

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk

Data Center Site A - Server 1A

34

44800

90

1596

Data Center Site B - Server 1B

28

37200

78

1406

Data Center Site A - Server 2A

36

41200

120

2512

Data Center Site B - Server 2B

36

41200

120

2512

Server 3

24

54000

60

876

Support on the Cisco HX220c-M5SX TRC Server

This figure shows the base layout of the components in a 4000 Agent Reference Design on Cisco HX220c-M5SX TRC server.

Figure 5. 4000 Agent Reference Design Model

This table lists the specifications for VMs.

Table 9. VM Specifications for 4000 Agent Reference Design

VM

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk 1

vDisk 2

HX Data Controller

16

10800

48

Rogger

4

5000

6

80

150

Live Data

4

5500

30

146

IdS

4

1500

10

146

Unified CVP Reporting Server

4

1800

6

80

438

Unified CVP OAMP

2

400

4

80

Unified CM

4

7200

86

110

PG

2

4000

6

80

Unified CVP Server

4

3000

12

250

Finesse

4

5000

10

146

Unified Intelligence Center

4

3600

16

200

AW-HDS-DDS

4

5000

16

80

500

VVB

4

9000

10

146

Cloud Connect

4

6000

10

146
6 The vRAM value for Unified CM 15.0 is 14 GB. The vRAM value in the Total Requirements table below will also vary and needs to be recalculated accordingly. For more details, see the Compatibility Matrix.
Table 10. Total VM Requirements for 4000 Agent Reference Design

Server

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk

Data Center Site A - Server 1A

50

54400

140

1632

Data Center Site B - Server 1B

48

54000

136

1552

Data Center Site A - Server 2A

48

50800

152

1932

Data Center Site B - Server 2B

48

50800

152

1932

Data Center Site A - Server 3A

24

44200

70

1708

Data Center Site A - Server 3B

20

37000

62

1598

12000 Agent Reference Designs

This Reference Design for a contact center enterprise solution supports 12000 agents on the following TRC servers:

  • Cisco UCS C240 M5SX Large

  • Cisco UCS C240 M6SX Large

  • Cisco HX220c-M5SX

This model adds servers to scale up from the 4000 Agent Reference Design.

Support on the Cisco UCS C240 M5SX and Cisco UCS C240 M6SX Large TRC servers

The following figure shows the base layout of the components in a 12000 Agent Reference Design on Cisco UCS C240 M5SX and Cisco UCS C240 M6SX Large TRC servers.

Figure 6. 12000 Agent Reference Design Model

This table lists the specifications for VMs.

Table 11. VM Specifications for 12000 Agent Reference Design

VM

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk 1

vDisk 2

Router

4

4000

8

80

Logger

4

6000

8

80

500

Live Data

8

16500

30

146

IdS

4

1500

10

146

Unified CVP Reporting Server

4

1800

6

80

438

Unified CVP OAMP

2

400

4

80

HDS-DDS

8

17500

16

80

420

AW-HDS

8

17500

16

80

500

PG

2

4000

6

80

Unified CVP Server

4

3000

12

250

Finesse

4

5000

10

146

Unified CM

4

7200

87

110

Unified Intelligence Center

4

3600

16

200

VVB

4

9000

10

146
7 The vRAM value for Unified CM 15.0 is 12 GB. The vRAM value in the Total Requirements table below will also vary and needs to be recalculated accordingly. For more details, see the Compatibility Matrix.
Table 12. Total VM Requirements for 12000 Agent Reference Design

Server

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk

Data Center Site A - Server 1A

34

47700

82

2050

Data Center Site B - Server 1B

32

47300

78

1970

Data Center Site A - Server 2A

40

60100

106

1628

Data Center Site B - Server 2B

36

52900

98

1518

Data Center Site A - Server 3A

36

52900

98

1518

Data Center Site B - Server 3B

36

52900

98

1518

Data Center Site A - Server 4A

24

52500

48

1740

Data Center Site B - Server 4B

24

52500

48

1740

Data Center Site A - Server 5A

40

60100

106

1628

Data Center Site B - Server 5B

36

52900

98

1518

Server 6

24

54000

60

876

Support on the Cisco HX220c-M5SX TRC Server

This figure shows the base layout of the components in a 12000 Agent Reference Design on Cisco HX220c-M5SX TRC server.

Figure 7. 12000 Agent Reference Design Model

This table lists the specifications for VMs.

Table 13. VM Specifications for 12000 Agent Reference Design

VM

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk 1

vDisk 2

HX Data Controller

16

10800

48

Router

4

4000

8

80

Logger

4

6000

8

80

500

Live Data

8

16500

30

146

IdS

4

1500

10

146

Unified CVP Reporting Server

4

1800

6

80

438

Unified CVP OAMP

2

400

4

80

HDS-DDS

8

17500

16

80

500

AW-HDS

8

17500

16

80

500

PG

2

4000

6

80

Unified CVP Server

4

3000

12

250

Finesse

4

5000

10

146

Unified CM

4

7200

88

110

Unified Intelligence Center

4

3600

16

200

VVB

4

9000

10

146

Cloud Connect

4

6000

10

146
8 The vRAM value for Unified CM 15.0 is 12 GB. The vRAM value in the Total Requirements table below will also vary and needs to be recalculated accordingly. For more details, see the Compatibility Matrix.
Table 14. Total VM Requirements for 12000 Agent Reference Design

Server

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk

Data Center Site A - Server 1A

50

54200

132

1806

Data Center Site B - Server 1B

48

53800

128

1726

Data Center Site A - Server 2A

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site B - Server 2B

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site A - Server 3A

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site B - Server 3B

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site A - Server 4A

32

45800

80

1160

Data Center Site B - Server 4B

32

45800

80

1160

Data Center Site A - Server 5A

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site B - Server 5B

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site A - Server 6A

32

45800

80

1080

Data Center Site B - Server 6B

32

45800

80

1080

Data Center Site B - Server 7A

36

55800

98

730

Data Center Site B - Server 7B

36

55800

98

730

Server 8

24

54000

60

876

Reporting Users in the 12000 Agent Reference Design Model

AW-HDS 3, AW-HDS 4, AW-HDS 5, and AW-HDS 6 in Servers 4A and 4B, are optional to support more than 400 reporting users. Servers 5A and 5B are optional to support more than 8000 agents. Servers 6A and 6B are optional to support more than 400 reporting users.

This Reference Design supports a maximum of six CUIC VMs and six AW-HDS VMs, three VMs on each site. This limit can accommodate a maximum of 1200 reporting users. If one site shuts down, the remaining site can only support 600 reporting users on its three nodes.

24000 Agent Reference Designs

This Reference Design for a contact center enterprise solution supports 24000 agents on the following TRC servers:

  • Cisco UCS C240 M5SX Large

  • Cisco UCS C240 M6SX Large

  • Cisco HX220c-M5SX

This model adds servers to scale up from the 12000 Agent Reference Design.


Note

A Unified CCE or HCS for CC solution with PGs of version 11.6 and Packaged CCE do not support the 24000 Agent Deployment.

Support on the Cisco UCS C240 M5SX and Cisco UCS C240 M6SX Large TRC Servers

The following figure shows the base layout of the components in a 24000 Agent Reference Design on Cisco UCS C240 M5SX and Cisco UCS C240 M6SX Large TRC servers.

Figure 8. 24000 Agent Reference Design Model

This table lists the specifications for VMs.

Table 15. VM Specifications for 24000 Agent Reference Design

VM

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk 1

vDisk 2

Router

4

4000

8

80

Logger

4

6000

8

80

500

Live Data

12

24000

46

146

IdS

8

3000

10

146

Unified CVP Reporting Server

4

1800

6

80

438

Unified CVP OAMP

2

400

4

80

HDS-DDS

8

17500

16

80

500

AW-HDS

8

17500

16

80

500

PG

2

4000

6

80

Unified CVP Server

4

3000

12

250

Finesse

4

5000

10

146

Unified CM

4

7200

89

110

Unified Intelligence Center

4

3600

16

200

VVB

4

9000

10

146
9 The vRAM value for Unified CM 15.0 is 14 GB. The vRAM value in the Total Requirements table below will also vary and needs to be recalculated accordingly. For more details, see the Compatibility Matrix.
Table 16. Total VM Requirements for 24000 Agent Reference Design

Server

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk

Data Center Site A - Server 1A

42

56700

98

2130

Data Center Site B - Server 1B

40

56300

94

2050

Data Center Site A - Server 2A

40

58200

106

1628

Data Center Site B - Server 2B

36

51000

98

1518

Data Center Site A - Server 3A

36

51000

98

1518

Data Center Site B - Server 3B

36

51000

98

1518

Data Center Site A - Server 4A

24

52500

48

1740

Data Center Site B - Server 4B

24

52500

48

1740

Data Center Site A - Server 5A

40

60100

106

1628

Data Center Site B - Server 5B

36

52900

98

1518

Data Center Site A - Server 6A

36

51000

82

1518

Data Center Site B - Server 6B

36

51000

82

1518

Data Center Site A - Server 7A

36

54600

90

1428

Data Center Site B - Server 7B

32

47400

82

1318

Data Center Site A - Server 8A

36

51000

82

1518

Data Center Site B - Server 8B

36

51000

82

1518

Data Center Site A - Server 9A

24

54000

60

876

Data Center Site B - Server 9B

24

54000

60

876

Server 10

24

54000

60

876

Support on the Cisco HX220c-M5SX TRC Server

This figure shows the base layout of the components in a 24000 Agent Reference Design on Cisco HX220c-M5SX TRC server.

Figure 9. 24000 Agent Reference Design Model

This table lists the specifications for VMs.

Table 17. VM Specifications for 24000 Agent Reference Design

VM

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk 1

vDisk 2

HX Data Controller

16

10800

48

Router

4

4000

8

80

Logger

4

6000

8

80

500

Live Data

12

16500

46

146

IdS

8

3000

10

146

Unified CVP Reporting Server

4

1800

6

80

438

Unified CVP OAMP

2

400

4

80

HDS-DDS

8

17500

16

80

420

AW-HDS

8

17500

16

80

500

PG

2

4000

6

80

Unified CVP Server

4

3000

12

250

Finesse

4

5000

10

146

Unified CM

4

7200

810

110

Unified Intelligence Center

4

3600

16

200

VVB

4

9000

10

146

Cloud Connect

4

6000

10

146
10 The vRAM value for Unified CM 15.0 is 14 GB. The vRAM value in the Total Requirements table below will also vary and needs to be recalculated accordingly. For more details, see the Compatibility Matrix.
Table 18. Total VM Requirements for 24000 Agent Reference Design

Server

vCPU

MHz

vRAM

vDisk

Data Center Site A - Server 1A

54

56900

146

1770

Data Center Site B - Server 1B

48

49300

134

1580

Data Center Site A - Server 2A

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site B - Server 2B

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site A - Server 3A

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site B - Server 3B

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site A - Server 4A

32

45800

80

1160

Data Center Site B - Server 4B

32

45800

80

1160

Data Center Site A - Server 5A

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site B - Server 5B

48

54700

136

1372

Data Center Site A - Server 6A

50

52800

120

1372

Data Center Site B - Server 6B

50

52800

120

1372

Data Center Site A - Server 7A

44

49200

120

1172

Data Center Site B - Server 7B

44

49200

120

1172

Data Center Site A - Server 8A

44

49200

120

1172

Data Center Site B - Server 8B

44

49200

120

1172

Data Center Site A - Server 9A

36

51800

90

1226

Data Center Site B - Server 9B

36

51800

90

1226

Data Center Site A - Server 10A

36

55800

98

730

Data Center Site B - Server 10B

36

55800

98

730

Server 11

24

54000

60

876

Reporting Users in the 24000 Agent Reference Design Model

AW-HDS 3, AW-HDS 4, AW-HDS 5, and AW-HDS 6 in Servers 4A and 4B, are optional to support more than 400 reporting users. Servers 5A and 5B are optional to support more than 8000 agents. Servers 6A and 6B are optional to support more than 400 reporting users.

This Reference Design supports a maximum of eight CUIC VMs and six AW-HDS VMs, three VMs on each site. This limit can accommodate a maximum of 1200 reporting users. If one site shuts down, the remaining site can only support 600 reporting users on its three nodes.

Scale up to 36000 Agents

You can modify your existing 24000 agent reference design to scale up to 36000 agents.

The 36000 agent deployment must adhere to the spec-based constraints with respect to supported processors and ESXi server resource reservations. For more information, see Virtual Machines Resource Provisioning Policy. You must also adhere to specific configuration limits as described in Table 1.

Add more agent PGs, Unified CVP nodes, and Cisco Finesse nodes to support 36000 agents as required. Add two Cisco Unified Communications Manager clusters to the deployment to support the additional 12000 agents, with no more than eight subscriber nodes and 8000 users per cluster.

To scale up to 36000 agents, OVA values such as vCPU allocation (MHz), RAM, and vDisk size for Logger, Live Data, and Cisco IdS will need to be increased. For the specific values, see the virtualization table for your CCE version on the Virtualization for Unified Contact Center Enterprise page at https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-unified-contact-center-enterprise.html.

For Unified Intelligence Center, two 6-node clusters are required to support the overall reporting load. Dedicate one Unified Intelligence Center cluster to support 1200 reporting users and Live Data reports for a maximum of 18000 agents. Dedicate the second cluster to handle Live Data reports for the remaining agents. Configure Cisco Finesse desktop layouts so that each of the 12 Unified Intelligence Center nodes (across the two clusters) serves Live Data reports for a maximum of 3000 agents.

Use the Config Limit CLI tool to modify the value of calls per second (CPS) for your deployment. You can then use the Configuration Manager tool to modify the values for the other parameters listed in the following table. For more details, see the Change Limits for Calls Per Second to Support 36000 or 48000 Agents topic in the Appendix chapter of the Administration Guide for Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/unified-contact-center-enterprise/products-maintenance-guides-list.html.

Table 19. Parameter Values for 36000 Agents

Parameter

Value

Agent Limits

Configured Agents

108000

Average Skills per Agent

5

Number of Agents in a Skill Group

Same limit as for 24000 Agents

Maximum Number of Agent PGs

24

Supervisor and Reporting User Limits

Active Supervisors

3600 Cisco Finesse Supervisors

No change to the number of reporting users

Configured Supervisors

10800

Precision Queue and Skill Groups Limits

Skill Groups per System

No change to the number of skill groups per system

System Load Limits

Maximum Inbound Calls per Second (CPS)

235

Congestion Control (CPS)

310

Contact Director

Only Unified CCE supports the Contact Director reference design. The Contact Director distributes incoming calls to other contact center instances. The targets can be Unified CCE instances or Unified ICM instances that connect to third-party contact centers. The Contact Sharing feature uses a Contact Director to distribute incoming contacts to a maximum of 3 Unified CCE instances. The 3 instances can support a total of 24000 active agents.

Figure 10. Contact Director Solution with Two Unified CCE Target Instances

For information on the Contact Sharing feature, see the Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Features Guide at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/unified-contact-center-enterprise/products-feature-guides-list.html.

Topologies for Reference Designs

The Contact Center Enterprise Reference Designs also define the allowed topologies for your deployment. The deployment topology consists of where you install the VMs for your data center and how your agents connect to the data center. This figure shows the basic topologies that you can use in a Reference Design.

Figure 11. Reference Design Topologies

  1. The Main Site can use either a Centralized or a Distributed topology.

  2. A Remote Site can be geographically colocated with the Main Site.

The Reference Designs allow the following topologies:

Topology

Description

Centralized

You host both sites of the redundant components in the same physical data center. Even when they are on the same LAN, the maximum round-trip time between the two sites is 80 ms. The data center includes the core contact center components and Unified CM.

Distributed

You host each site of the redundant components in a different geographical location. Distributed sites allow you to keep running on the other site if one site fails. You can also handle routing without sending a contact to a site in a different geographical region. The maximum round-trip time between the two sites is 80 ms.

Global

You have a centralized or distributed main site. You also have a remote site that is generally in a different geographical location. The remote site gives you local access in that geographic region. The remote site allows you to handle your global work load without creating another contact center instance.

The remote site requires a separate Unified CM cluster and a separate Cisco Finesse cluster if the RTT from the data center is greater than 80 ms. The maximum round-trip time between the main site and remote sites is 400 ms.

Note

 

A remote site cannot include a Cisco Unified Intelligence Center server.

This topology fits the outsourcer model where the outsourcer has a separate peripheral gateway and a corresponding peripheral.

Note

 

Starting in Release 11.6, Packaged CCE supports this topology.

The Reference Designs allow the following methods for connecting your agents to a site:

Remote Office Topology

Description

Remote Office with Agents

A contact center office with agent workstations that connects to a site through a WAN router. The voice termination is at the site. All contacts go through the site first and then to the agents.

Remote Office with Agents and Local Trunk

A contact center office with a connection to the local PSTN. Contacts come in on the local trunk and the local gateway passes them to the data center for routing.

Home Agent with Broadband - Cisco Virtual Office (CVO)

An agent at a remote location with a VPN connection to a site. The agent has a Cisco IP Phone and a Cisco Finesse desktop. The agent can optionally use a Cisco Virtual Office (CVO) router for a permanent VPN connection.

Unified Mobile Agent

An agent who uses a PSTN phone.


Note

The maximum allowed round-trip time between any remote office and the data center is 200 ms.

Non-Reference Design Solutions

The Contact Center Enterprise Reference Designs define what you can use in your contact center solution. If your solution includes anything that the Reference Designs do not explicitly allow, your solution is a Non-Reference Design. Most Non-Reference Design solutions require Unified CCE.

Figure 12. Non-Reference Designs

Elements with Alternatives in the Reference Designs

There are newer technologies that supersede most of the components, options, features, and configurations that are not supported in Reference Design solutions. Some of the elements in this category are:

Table 20. Non-Reference Designs and the Reference Design Alternatives

Non-Reference Design Element

Reference Design Alternative

Cisco ICM to ICM Gateway (Except in the Contact Director model)

Contact Director

Unified IP IVR or third-party Voice Response Unit (VRU) applications

Unified CVP

Mismatch versions in Unified CCE subcomponents (This is allowed only while upgrading your contact center from one release to another.)

All versions match after upgrade

Unified CVP Call Director

Unified CVP Comprehensive call flow

Generic PG

Coresident Agent PG, VRU PG, and MR PG

Translation Route

Unified CVP Comprehensive call flow, except for third-party PGs

Multi-Unified CM PIM configuration

Multiple PGs on separate VMs

Unified CM Multi-cast Music on Hold (MoH)

Gateway-based MoH or Unicast MoH

Tomcat as the media server for Unified CVP

Prepackaged IIS included in the Unified CVP install

MGCP protocol

SIP

G.722, iSAC, and iLBC codecs

Mixed codec support

Dialed Number Plan (DNP)

Dialed Numbers and CTI Route Points

Note

This is not an exhaustive list.

Elements Without Alternatives in the Reference Designs

There are some elements that you cannot use in Reference Design solutions that do not have a defined alternative. Some of the elements in this category are:

  • Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) (third-party legacy Automatic Call Distribution integration)

  • TDM NIC

  • Parent/Child topology for out-sourcing deployments


Note

This is not an exhaustive list.