VMPT Readme

The Cisco Collaboration Virtual Machine Placement Tool (VMPT) is to be used AFTER design guides and sizing tools, and BEFORE creating a bill of materials, quote or configuration in Cisco Commerce Workspace.

It helps you visualize a deployment of virtualized Cisco Collaboration to simplify specifying the required physical servers and virtualization software. It is not intended to be used as a "design tool", "sizing tool" or "quote tool" that substitutes existing processes.

Join "Ask VMPT" in Cisco WebEx Teams!

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Share this Design

• Please join the "Ask VMPT" Spark Room, or use the existing Feedback alias, for assistance with any issues.
• Allows owners of a VMPT design to grant other CCO users with read-only or read-write permission to for each of their VMPT design.
• Only one person at a time my open the shared design in write mode. All other users may open the design in read-only.
• All designs you own and shared with another will be marked with a blue share icon within My Solutions: Owned Solutions tab.
• All designs owned by another and shared with you will be within the My Solutions: Shared Solutions tab.
• All shared designed currently opened by you or another user will be marked as "Locked". Hovering your mouse over this icon to see who currently has the solution open in read-write mode.
• If a design is marked as "Locked" by another individual, note that it can take up to 2 minutes to refresh the status to available.

• Create a new VMPT design or open an existing design.
• Click on the "Share This Design" option within VMPT's dropdown list.
• A window will be displayed to prompt the user enter a Cisco user id or email address and then select either "Read-Only" or "Read-Write" within the dropdown list. Then click "Add".
• After adding one or more users, you will see their name in the details table with the option to send them an email altering them to this share, alter their access type or remove their permission.
• Once complete, click "Save and Continue" if you wish to go back to your design or "Save and Close" if you wish to close your design.

• MM 410v Blade Server and MM 410v Server has been added to the B and C-Series Server tab.
• To view and add these servers to the workspace, checkmark "Multi-Party Media 410v" solution type located just above the product tabs.
• Only vTS Large VM may be added to these servers. VMPT has moved!
• If you have not already done so, please to use http://ucs.cloudapps.cisco.com/ for your VMPT bookmark. This link will continue to be utilized for our new location.

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveates

• None

• CCW Import is no longer in Beta.

Export to Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW) - In Beta

• This is a Beta Feature so you may occasionally experience issues. Please join the "Ask VMPT" Spark Room, or use the existing Feedback alias, for assistance with any issues.
• Allows users to create an Estimate in Cisco Commerce (CCW) using SKUs imported from a Collaboration Sizing Tool(CST) XML file and SKUs generated by VMPT.
• Any modifications performed on your configuration with Cisco Commerce will not be reflected within your VMPT design or CST solution.
• How to use:
  • Optionally, import a CST XML file into a VMPT solution. See Video for detailed steps.
    • Note: All recommended VMs will be visible from the CST Tab and all CST recommended SKUs will be stored in the VMPT database.
  • Complete your VMPT design for Servers and Virtualization Software.
  • Click on the "Export to Cisco Commerce(CCW)" option within VMPT's dropdown list.
  • A window will be displayed to prompt the user for a solution title (save filename), if not previously saved, and enter the CCO userid or email address of the person you wish to assign the CCW Estimate to. Then click "Submit".
    • The owner of the VMPT solution may assign another user as the owner of the Estimate in CCW as long as that person has access to CCW.
  • VMPT will update the CCW Tab with the link to the Estimate and the list of SKUs submitted to CCW.
    • Some SKUs might be marked as "Removed" when CCW did not accept the SKU. When that occurs, you will need to determine if the Estimate needs to be manually updated in CCW.
    • You might experience a corner case where an Estimate cannot be generated at all. When this occurs, additional assistance can be provided from the "Ask VMPT" Spark Room.

• Server SKUs
  • Business Edition appliances with Export Restricted Software Preloads
    • BE6000S based on ISR2921V and UCS E-Series M2 (BE6S-PRI-M2-K9, BE6S-BRI-M2-K9, BE6S-FXO-M2-K9)
    • BE6000M, BE6000H, BE7000M, BE7000H appliance SKUs based on UCS C-Series M4 (BE6M-M4-K9=, BE6H-M4-K9=, BE7M-M4-K9, BE7H-M4-K9)
  • UConUCS TRCs
    • Small, Small Plus, Medium and Large TRCs using above BE6K/BE7K appliance SKUs
    • Large Blade TRC bundle SKUs based on UCS B200 M3 or B200 M4 (UCUCS-EZ-B200M3, UCS-UC-B200M4)
  • Virtualization Software SKUs
    • Collaboration Embedded OEMs
      • Cisco UC Virtualization Hypervisor 5.x (VMW-VS5-HYP-K9)
      • Cisco UC Virtualization Foundation 5.x (R-VMW-UC-FND5-K9)
    • Data Center Resale OEMs
      • VMware vSphere ESXi Standard, Enterprise, Enterprise Plus Editions (1 year term license-only SKUs, e.g. VMW-VS5-ST-1A=)
  • Application, User Licenses and additional Hardware SKUs
    • SKUs are limited to those included in the imported Collaboration Sizing Tool(CST) XML file.
    • CST does not support SKUs for Business Edition 6000 licensing or Enterprise Agreement licensing.

• UCS B-Series and C-Series servers for BE6000, BE7000 and UConUCS have been separated into Shipping vs. End of Sale models. Click on the appropriate child tab for the one you want.
• Added UConUCS Extra Small TRC (UCS E160D M2 TRC1).

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveates

• None

• No updates

• Specify a Server's VMware version and license type
  • Servers now have a new pull-down menu called "Virt. SW =" that lets you specify two things:
    • the version of VMware vSphere ESXi (e.g. 5.1, 5.5)
    • the license type, either
      • Cisco Collaboration embedded OEM, "Cisco UC Virt. Hypervisor" (only if server is a BE6000 or BE7000)
      • Cisco Colaboration embedded OEM, "Cisco UC Virt. Foundation" (only for UCS servers)
      • Cisco Data Center resale OEM, "VMware vSphere ESXi Standard / Enterprise / Enterprise Plus" editions (only for UCS servers)
      • Customer-provided license (for site licenses, ELAs, customer buying direct from VMware, etc.)
    • Black options are allowed, Gray options are disallowed.
      • When you drag a server, the virtualization software defaults to one of the options. Remaining options will only be those allowed for the server.
      • As you drag VMs onto the server, some of the remaining options will gray out if they are incompatible with one or more of those VMs.
      • If a VM doesn't support the selected option, a message will be displayed to alert of the incompatibility with the option to continue anyway (in which case virtualization software option will be reset to "None Selected"), or cancel the VM addition.
  • You may change the selected virtualization software option from this menu at any time. VMPT is checking and enforcing the following rules whenever you make a menu selection and/or drag a VM to a server:
    • Which OEM license types are allowed for that server type.
    • Compatibility of each VM's application-version-VM configuration with the ESXi version and license type (including a VM you just dragged onto that server.
    • Max vcpu per VM by license edition (e.g. max 8vcpu with Cisco UC Virt. Hypervisor 5.5, 32vcpu with Cisco UC Virt Foundation 5.5, 64vcpu with VMware vSphere Standard Edition 5.5)
    • Custom VM tab now has warning text to remind you to ensure any 3rd-party VMs are allowed by the BE6000/BE7000 co-residency policy.
  • If all options are gray, then you have an app combination for which there is no combination of OEM license types and ESXi version that will work for all of them. Start moving VMs off the server to remove some of the constraints.
  • The GUI workspace, PDF export and image export all list the short name of the license type and version.
  • The Excel export contains the virtualization software license SKU if applicable.
• Auto-save - GUI will auto-save your configuration.
• Updates for new servers and software versions
  • Cisco Unity Connection 1000 user 2vcpu VM is now allowed on BE6000S hardware. See Unity Connection and Sizing Guidelines pages on www.cisco.com/go/uc-virtualized for more details.

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveates

• None

• No updates

• Handle new sizing rules for Cisco Unity Connection and VCS/Expressway Large VMs
  • Details here: www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/collaboration-virtualization-sizing.html#generalrule.
  • Unity Connection 10.5(2) or higher with ESXi 5.5 or higher may leverage ESXi 5.5's "Latency Sensitivity" feature to avoid the Unity Connection requirement for one unallocated core per host.
  • VMPT will still auto-allocate this core by default, but now you can delete it. If you delete it, you 'll get a popup warning to remind you of the design requirements, which are also enforced in Cisco Collaboration Sizing Tool.
  • VCS/Expressway Large VMs now require 1 unallocated core per host (regardless of Large VM quantity). VMPT now auto-allocates this core and it cannot be deleted. For a physical server running both VCS/Expressway Large VMs and Unity Connection VMs, this means the extra core cannot be deleted even if Unity Connection does not require it.
• Updates for new servers and software versions
  • Cisco Collaboration System Release 11.0 (CSR 11.0)
    • Rolling updates to synch with new CSR 11.0 content on www.cisco.com/go/uc-virtualized
    • System docs for CSR 11.0 will be at www.cisco.com/go/unified-techinfo as always
  • Business Edition 6000 - add refreshed BE6000M (M4) server (M4 means UCS C-Series M4 model)
  • Collaboration System
    • Added new UConUCS Extra-Small TRC (XS TRC / E160D M2 TRC#1). A-la-carte equivalent to the blade server in BE6000S (M2), with same restrictions on allowed deployment models. Note this TRC is not following the strict memory sizing rules for ESXi, which is part of why deployment models are restricted.
    • Added refreshed UConUCS Small TRC (S TRC / C220 M4S TRC#1). A-la-carte equivalent to BE6000M (M4).

Experimental-only features (not guaranteed to work or work consistently)

• Export to Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW) - you may occasionally see a new Export option in the pull down menu for CCW. This is part of testing for a future feature and is not yet supported. Please continue to use VMPT
• Export to Excel for summary of server SKUs and manually enter those into CCW.

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveates

• None

• Handle new sizing rules for Unity Connection.
• Improper disallowing of Unity Connection 10.5.2 1K user 1vcpu VM. Workaround was use Quick Pricing Tool (QPT) for BE6000S.
• Oversubscription used by Medium VM for Cisco TelePresence Server 4.1 not correctly handled. Until this issue has been resolved, the only servers supported will be those supporting a minimum of 30 physical CPU cores.

See a quick video on community of beta 1.4 overview and demo (click here).

• Next-gen GUI
  • New VM/server selector tabs - easier to find what you want, and can hide to maximize usable workspace
  • New toolbar with filters for servers displayed. Can also mix & match servers from different solution types.
  • In the workspace, drag and drop VM from one server to another
  • In the workspace, reposition a server
  • Support on tablet in a browser
• Export improvements
  • Export workspace to JPEG image, e.g. for easier proposal insertion
  • Customize title of PDF and JPEG exports. First save your project to set the "Document Title" (the "File Name" is what VMPT's database will store the project as). In the graphics of the PDF or JPEG, the "Document Title" will replace the VMPT default text.
• New servers and software versions
  • Collaboration System Release 10.6 versions of all shipping apps
    • Note UCCE suite does not yet support UCS M4 TRC as TRC, only UCS M4 as specs-based
  • Business Edition 6000 - add new 6000S server (M2 means UCS E-Series M2 model), and refreshed BE6000H (M4).
  • Business Edition 7000 - add refreshed servers for 7000M (M4) and 7000H (M4).
  • Collaboration System
    • New UConUCS M4 TRCs - Small Plus TRC (C220 M4S TRC2), Medium TRC (C240 M4S2 TRC1), Large TRC (C240 M4SX TRC1), Large Blade TRC (B200 M4 TRC1)
    • Spec-based 12C/14C (only in certain E7v2 and E5v3 CPUs)

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveates

• Default version will vary by app; make sure to always check the version dropdown before dragging a VM, as several apps have rules that are different in CSR 10.6 vs. CSR 10.5. If doing a BE6000S, must manually select the CSR 10.6 version (e.g. UCM 10.5.2) as this may not be the default displayed.
• Unity Connection on ESXi 5.5 no longer requires an "extra core" per server as in ESXi 4.0 thru 5.1. This new sizing rule not yet reflected in VMPT (backlog item). allowed Unity Connection 10.5.2 1K user 1vcpu VM. Workaround use Quick Pricing Tool (QPT) for BE6000S.
• Some Conferencing co-residency rules are not correctly reflected.
  • Oversubscription used by Medium VM for Cisco TelePresence Server 4.1 not correctly handled. Until this issue has been resolved, the only servers supported will be those supporting a minimum of 30 physical CPU cores.
  • Co-residency rules for Cisco TelePresence Server and Cisco WebEx Meetings Server not fully implemented.
    • vTS 4.0 Medium VM allows co-residency but vTS 4.1 Medium VM does not (due to increased vcpu and change to using oversubscription). These rules not fully implemented. Co-residency may be incorrectly blocked for 4.0 vs. incorrectly allowed for 4.1.
    • CWMS not allowing all CWMS co-resident VM combinations.
  • Export to JPG only supports 1 sheet. If the deployment is too big to fit on 1 sheet, it will be cropped.

• None.

• Tabular output - Great for Specs-based deals!
  • Graphical view will now tally not just vcpu but also vram, vdisks and vnics.
  • Internal resource tallies include these overhead items: extra RAM for ESXi, "the extra core" when CUC VMs are on a host. Also includes basic infrastructure to tally IOPS, but since not all apps have complete information yet, will still see a lot of zeroes.
  • New "Export to Excel" button includes two summary views:
    • Breakdown of each physical server with derived hardware specs requirements, VMs on that host, and "overhead" items. Intended use is handoff to a server hardware quoter, or inclusion in a design/quote doc.
    • Server Summary - server option (which TRC or Specs-based), quantity, and bundle SKU if one exists. Note for BE6000 and BE7000 designs, this does NOT account for "Export Unrestricted" software preloads (XU bundles) - so if your deal requires XU make sure you use the right bundle. For UC on UCS TRCs, they are HW-only so the same Solution Pak bundle can be used regardless of XU. Intended use is convenience with tracking total server count, or BOM simplification by providing first steps of tracking server bundle SKUs/quantities.
• Nomenclature clarity - VMs say "vcpu" instead of "cores". These tend to be used interchangeably in Collaboration designs but they're actually separate things. This is also to avoid confusion with app requirements in other documentation for physical CPU requirements vs. VM configurations.

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveates

• In some combinations of Solution choice and app tab, selecting CSR 10.0 version of that app may display VMs from both 10.0 and prior version. Switching to another version and back usually clears.
• Some recent changes to CSR 10.0 app docwiki pages may not yet be reflected.

• "Save" functionality now correctly handles "save as new design with different filename" vs. "overwrite design with same filename".
• TelePresence Server Virtual Machine - sizing logic changes to correctly handle vTS 20vcpu or 16vcpu VMs on allowed hardware.
• PDF export - intermittent issues where file either not generated, or generated with no content.
• Load - a few issues causing Load to not populate servers and/or VMs from saved file
• CSR 10 - options added for BE6000 and BE7000.
• The following have not been consistently reproducible. If they occur, use help alias and provide timestamp, solution name, what you were doing, browser and version.
  • Load button hangs
  • Save button hangs, or says it saved but didn't.
  • Workspace hangs while trying to add a server.

• Integration with Collaboration Sizing Tool (CST) for further simplification of end-to-end design process.
  • Partner can view a "how-to" VoD on partner community here: www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/UConUCS_HighAvailability_Jan2013.pdf
  • Perform the application sizing of your design in CST (http://tools.cisco.com/cucst) as before. Outputs VM count and size mix for use in VMPT as before.
  • From the Create Bill of Materials questionnaire, click on the "Export to VMPT" link. This will save CST application sizing to files in your home directory. In the VoD example the directory is Libraries\Documents\MySavedSolutions\UC\VMPTExport. The file to use has the same name you used for your solution in CST.
  • Launch VMPT and press button for "CST XML Import" to import the CST file. The correct file will be located within MySavedSolutions:UC:VMPTExport. If you select the file from MySavedSolutions:UC, this will not include the data required for VMPT.
  • VMPT will display a message when done importing the CST information.
  • VMPT will update the "CST" tab to include list of VMs that were recommended by CST AND recognized by VMPT. NOTE: any VMs recommended by CST but not recognized by VMPT will be skipped by VMPT and will not appear in this tab. They'll have to be manually added as Customized VMs.
  • Drag and drop as before. OK to add other VMs from VMPT tabs in addition to the VMs from the "CST" tab.
  • Each VM displays a counter "X/Y". X = number of times this VM is used in this deployment. Y = quantity of this VM recommended by CST. The counter is updated whether VMs are dragged from the "CST" tab or from the application's specific tab.
    • E.g. "0/2" means CST recommended 2 instances of this VM, but you haven't put any instances of this VM into the deployment.
    • E.g. "2/0" means you have put 2 instances of this VM into the deployment, but either CST did not recommend this VM, or it did but VMPT did not recognize that VM.
    • E.g. "3/4" means CST recommended 4 instances of this VM, but so far you have only put 3 into the deployment.
    • Any changes made within VMPT will not feed back to CST. You may, however, import an updated VMPT file from CST to your existing VMPT design. VMPT will update the �CST� tab accordingly but will not alter any VMs added within your workspace.
• Cisco Business Edition changes
  • Added Cisco Business Edition 7000
  • Cisco Business Edition 6000 formatting simplifications
  • Added new Medium TRC (C240 M3S TRC#2) to Collaboration Solution
• Cisco Collaboration System Release 10.0 updates
  • New application versions to synch with updates to www.cisco.com/go/uc-virtualized
  • Changes to VM configuration sets and/or specs for each release, if any
• Modified VM label format - a little more verbose but provides more consistency/clarity.
  • New format: Product Short Name : Release : Child Product Short Name : VM Name : # vcpu
    • Release is the version number either selected by User on VMPT's Product tab, or imported from CST on VMPT's "CST" tab
    • Child Name is from any existing "Sub-tab" name (e.g. "CallCtrl" for UCM)

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveates

• Cisco TelePresence Virtual Machine (vTS) - 20vcpu and 16vcpu not handled correctly for Large TRCs or Specs-based with 16+ physical cores. This is because vTS is using a form of physical CPU oversubscription to fit on that hardware, but VMPT sizing rules logic does not handle oversubscription at this time. Workaround is use a specs-based server choice or handle vTS part of the design manually / external to VMPT. Targeting resolution in next VMPT release.
• Cisco Work Force Optimization (WFO for CUCCX) - discrepancy between CST and VMPT on correct vcpu counts for various VM configurations.
• Cisco MediaSense - discrepancies between docwiki and VMPT.
• For some users, VMPT may not start or may hang after adding two servers. Have not been able to reproduce.

• No older caveats resolved in this release.

• No new features.

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveates

• When accessing VMPT over VPN, the VMPT will just keep loading, but the page will not load. Seen so far in Safari and Firefox (latest version if mixed mode blocker is enabled).

• After creation of a new "Customized VM", if it does not show up in the "Customized VM" tab, refresh the web page.
• Issues with deleting "Customized VM"
• Retaining customized name for the "extra core for ESXi" with Unity Cxn.
• Miscellaneous rules corrections to align with www.cisco.com/go/uc-virtualized as of 9/18/2013.
• Issues loading saved configs (stuck with the "loading" status bar), and error is received when attempting to export to PDF.

• Foundation for future co-residency policy enforcement - i.e. "under the hood" infrastructure to later enforce Full, UC with UC only, Limited or None as defined at www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/collaboration-virtualization-sizing.html#generalrule. A future release will actually contain the enforcement. At this time you must manually validate a co-resident application mix vs. UC app co-residency polices.
• Added option to pick version of each Collaboration app. The minimum versions in the tool continue to be Unified Communicaitons Manager 9.1 and latest compatible versions at that time. This is foundation to handle applications later adding (depending on app) a 9.5 and/or 10.0. At this time, no plans to support older versions like 8.x - continue to use www.cisco.com/go/uc-virtualized for those.
• Define a "Customized VM" to describe either VMs for 3rd-party apps (such as VMware vCenter or Cisco Developer Network apps in Collaboration category), or VMs for Cisco non-UC apps (such as the Nexus 1000V's VSM). User must enter some names and vcpu count, vRAM (GB), vDisk (GB), vNIC count and min/typical/max IOPS.

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveates

• Tally of "Resource Usage" for a host in the design does not include IOPS for UC apps, only for customized VMs.
• Save feature allows duplicate names (does not overwrite, and there is no "Save As").
• After creation of a new "Customized VM", if it does not show up in the "Customized VM" tab, refresh the web page.

• Fixed versions on IME, PCP, PCA.
• Not really a VMPT caveat, but the support alias is working with users external to Cisco.
• Export to PDF and Save now retain customized server and VM names (in addition to previous fixes with save/re-load breaking the configuration). Exception: any custom name for the "extra core for ESXi" that is auto-added when Unity Connection is in the deployment.

• No new features added.

Update on Known Caveats

New Caveats

• None

• Fixed BE6K max applications/VMs (corrected to allow 4 or 8 applications plus Prime Collaboration Provisioning). Currently, if you add Unity Connection, tool only allows 3 or 7 applications because unallocated core for ESXi scheduler is being counted as an app.
• Corrected vcpu count for Cisco Paging Server VM configuration options.
• Fixed intermittent issue where in the loading and saving dialog, the loading/saving image doesn't appear.
• Fixed Export to Pdf (blank page with lots of code in the browser URL but no PDF).
• See community links for other customer/partner-discovered issues.

• Select a "solution" (Cisco Collaboration or Cisco Business Edition 6000). "Cisco Collaboration" includes UC on UCS TRC, UC on UCS Specs-based and 3rd-party Server Specs-based, though Public Beta focuses on BE 6000 and UC on UCS TRC.
• Add physical servers allowed for the "solution" into a deployment.
• Drag and drop Virtual Machines for Cisco Collaboration applications into the deployment. Only Cisco Unified Communications 9.1 and contemporary compatible versions of other applications are supported.
• Use the tool to enforce vcpu vs. physical core sizing, including "extra core per host for Unity Connection".

Beta version does NOT do any of the following:

• Enforce version compatibility between applications, or between a Cisco Collaboration system version and an application version. Instead use the System Compatiblity Tool and system compatibility matrices.
• Size or design applications to determine VM count/size mix, or to design for high availability. Instead use the Collaboration Design Guide and Collaboration Sizing Tool.
• Enforce other virtualization rules from www.cisco.com/go/virtualized-collaboration. Instead manually verify your deployment follows those rules.
• Application co-residency policy
• VM configuration compatibility with TRC or Specs-based hardware options
• Application version compatibility with TRC or Specs-based hardware options
• Application compatibility with VMware vSphere versions or application's OEM/feature Edition requirements
• Translate this tool's output into a quote or bill of material. Instead use the ordering guides and manually configure in Cisco Commerce Workspace.
  

  Update on Known Caveats

  New Caveats

  • When selecting Solution = BE 6000, tool doesn't enforce correct maximum VMs. BE 6000 on medium-density server (C220 M3S TRC#2) should allow PCP + up to 4 apps (using "1K user VM configs"). BE 6000 on high-density server (C220 M3S TRC#3) should allow PCP + up to 8 apps (using "1K user VM configs"). "Unallocated core for ESXi scheduler" is being counted as an app so only allowing 3 or 7 apps. Workaround is set solution to Cisco Collaboration and build as a UC on UCS with either the Small TRC or Small Plus TRC.
  • Cisco Paging Server for 1K users incorrectly shows as 2vcpu instead of 1vcpu (per VM config specs at www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-cisco-paging-server.html).
  • See community links for other customer/partner-discovered issues.

• UC on UCS: www.cisco.com/go/uconucs
• Cisco Business Edition 6000: www.cisco.com/go/be6000
• Hosted Collaboration Solution: www.cisco.com/go/hostedcollab

• Virtualization of Cisco Collaboration: www.cisco.com/go/virtualized-collaboration