VOIP HOME LAB - Part 1.7 Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.5.1 Installation

This is another tutorial from the series of articles that describe building VOIP lab at home. So far we have built network infrastructure and installed end-user virtual machines. This tutorial discusses installation of Cisco Unified Communication Manager 8.5.1 on VMware virtual machine. It also offers a solution to problems that you may face during and after CUCM 8.5.1 installation.

1.Starting Network Infrastructure

Prior to Cisco Unified Communications Manager installation, network infrastructure must be ready to assist installation. First, power on Cisco Catalyst 3550 switch. Then start the script start_openvswitch.sh on the machine where Open vSwitch is installed.

$ ./start_openvswitch.sh

The script will load openvswitch module, connect to the database, start Openvswitch daemon and configure IP addresses for VLAN interfaces.

CUCM installation requirement

• NTP server and a default gateway must be reachable during installation otherwise installation cannot continue.

2. Creating New Virtual Machine

Start VMware Workstation and create a new virtual machine according to the configuration options below.

$ sudo vmware

File-> New Virtual Machine
Virtual Machine Configuration -> Typical (recommended)
Use ISO image -> Navigate to CUCM ISO installation image
Personalize
Full name -> administrator
User name - > administrator
Password -> .123cisco
Virtual Machine Name -> CUCM and Select location where the VMware files will be kept
Disk Size-> 80 GB, select option Store virtual disk as a single file
Customize Hardware
Network Adapter-> Custom: Specific virtual network-> /dev/vmnet100
Memory-> 2048 MB

Click on Close button. Once you click on Finish button, installation begins.

3. Installing CUCM 8.5.1 on Virtual Machine

Below is the list of configuration windows with selected option on the right.

DVD Found -> Media Check -> Yes
Product Deployment Selection -> OK
Proceed with Install -> Yes
Platform Installation Wizard -> Proceed
Apply Patch -> No
Basic Install -> Continue
Time Zone Configuration -> Europe / Bratislava
Auto Negotiation Configuration -> Yes
MTU Configuration -> No
DHCP Configuration -> No
Static Network Configuration
Hostname -> CUCM-I
IP Address -> 192.168.100.252
IP Mask -> 255.255.255.0
GW Address -> 192.168.100.254
DNS Client Configuration -> No
Administrator Login Configuration
Administrator ID -> administrator
Password -> .123cisco
Certificate Information
Organization -> Home
Unit -> Home Unit
Location -> Home Lab
State -> Home Land
Country -> Slovakia
First Node Configuration -> Yes
NTP Server 1 -> 192.168.100.254
Security Configuration
Security Password -> .123ciscodb
SMTP Host Configuration -> No
Application User Configuration
Application User Username -> ccmadmin
Application User Password -> .ccmadmin
Platform Configuration Confirmation -> OK

4. Detected Problems

These are the problems that I noticed during and after CUCM installation.

a) The host system - Linux Debian randomly shutdowns during CUCM installation

Depending on your CPU, CPU usage can reach 100% during CUCM installation. Temperature is increasing and if it reaches defined value, Debian will automatically shutdown to prevent CPU damage. This breaks installation processes. For this reason use cpulimit utility to limit maximum CPU usage for VMware process.

First get information about current temperature.

$ acpi -t
Thermal 0: ok, 100.0 degrees C
Thermal 1: ok, 34.4 degrees C
Thermal 2: ok, 56.0 degrees C
Thermal 3: ok, 89.0 degrees C
Thermal 4: active, 85.0 degrees C
Thermal 5: ok, 55.0 degrees C

Cpulimit is in Debian repository thus you can install it with the command:

$ sudo apt-get install cpulimit

Restrict maximum CPU usage to defined value.

$ sudo cpulimit -e vmware-vmx -l 65
Process 9674 detected

Cpulimit detects VMware process with ID 9674 and dynamically limits it to maximum 65% CPU usage.

b) CUCM looses network connectivity after its installation

CUCM 8.5.1 looses network connectivity when it is rebooted after successful installation. The problem occurs only on VMware Workstation with CUCM version 8.5.1. The issue is originally discussed here. The solution is to update VMware tools for virtual machine.

a) Get the actual VMware tools version

admin: utils vmtools status

Currently installed VMware Tools version = 4.0.0-164009

b) Mount VMware tools installation files to CD/DVD

Left click on VMware machine and select option Update VMware Tools. It will add VMware tools tarball to CD/DVD drive.

Note: If an error message VMware Tools installation cannot be started manually while Easy Install is in progress, is displayed, read this article

c) Install VMware tools on CUCM using it's CLI

admin:utils vmtools upgrade

VMware tools are being installed. It will takes up to 10 minutes depending on your system. After the update, connectivity problem disappears. Yo can check an actual VMware tools version again.

admin: utils vmtools status

Currently installed VMware Tools version = 9.6.1-1378637