Music Video

Step By Step Guide For Ordering from Gilmore

Hi Saro / Arjun,

The following video shows how you would order online using Gilmore.

Please use the video as your guide.

UCCX 8 on VMWARE

Hi Guys,

Here I am again. Got hold of the new UCCX 8 recently. As you know UCCX 8 was a major change from the Windows environment application to a Linux environment application. Just means that you are not gonna see them being installed on Windows Server host no longer which cuts some cost for Cisco I believe and stops development project for updating the host all the time.

So in line with the rest of the UC products of Cisco in the V 8 release, all the apps now run on Linux environment. So we see some consistency here which also means migration from the SQL database dependency.

I am gonna come back to you on some of the things how I got this beast installed on VMWare. Videos for sure and I will take this a step further to show the interface from a browser. Stay Tuned be back tomorrow.

CUCM BE 8 on VMWare

It has been a while sinced I blogged. Before I start, in case you are wondering how different am I compared to the many sites out there like blindhog.net or sadikhov or even UCCert, well you figure it out.

I just got hold of CUCM BE 8. So I decided to give it a go at installing it.

Guess what! It failed just like the previous version for 7.1.2.It seems that the hardware detection code put in place earlier is also in effect for v8. Darn! So after some trial and errors and some guidance I finally got it working!!! It had been killing me to figure this problem out. Trust me I tried everything there was on the NET. It was like I was pulled closer and closer to the "DARK SIDE" aka smashing my keyboard- where are you Obi Wan Kenobi at my desperate times, I need the FORCE as guidance.

Kinda busy tonight to finish this story. Gonna continue tomorrow. Keep watching same time same website - as I tell you how I tamed this beast. :) Videos and pictures will be coming your way!!!

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Day Two

Ok! Here is the thing. As usual everyone goes about installing the BE with the same specs as CUCM, which is a 80GB SCSI hard disk, 2GB RAM and Red Hat Ent 4 VMWARE config.

Whamm!! That's where we go wrong. The new hardware detection code uses this hardware config you just inserted and compares it against the closest approved list of hardware known to it. Our normal config does not meet any of the approved hardware list for BE to work.

To cut a long story short, so what is the approved config in VMWARE which will allow me to install:
Here is one of them:

RAM = 6GB -> Yes that is huge...I hope you are on a 8GB Machine or be ready to upgrade.
Hard Disk = 200GB / 250GB SCSI - both works  (SCSI only, they stopped IDE from 7.1 onwards)
CPU = 2 vCPU -> yes 2 vCPU vs the normal 1 we usually use. Time to get a i5 or i7 processors people.
VmWare profile = RedHat Ent v4. -> no change here.

Below is the video I recorded, where you will notice towards the end you will be given the option to choose CUCMBE v8 installation option. Previously with the old config this option is always greyed out and you have notice saying that the hardware is not approved for BE installation.

Installing CUCM 7.1.2 on AMD Processor

Everyone was wandering if Cisco fixed the problem on getting CUCM 7.x installed on a AMD processor based machine. Well the wait is over.

I had an opportunity to get hold of Cisco CUCM 7.1.2 and guess what the installation worked fine on my machine.

I am running a PC with an AMD Phenom Processor. Should work with other AMD processors as well.

But One thing I noticed is that CUCMBE is not allowed to install on my VMWare Workstation. Says that this hardware configuration does not support installation for CUCMBE 7.X. Haven't figured it out yet though.

No worrries still have a copy of CUCM/BE/CUC 7.0.X with me which does not have this problem.

One more thing it requires that you have an external NTP Server for installation. I don;t have a router at home as an NTP server so I am using a Windows XP / 2003 as an NTP server for my CUCM.

In case for those who are having a copy of CUCM/BE/CUC 7.0.X iso file, you can install the CUCM on a Intel based machine then transfer that image to an AMD based processor. There are some hacks to solve this on copy of CUCM/BE/CUC 7.0.X but I really don't want top go though all that trouble.

Here is my installation of CUCM 7.1.2

Settings On VMWare Server for CUCM Installation

Hi All,

This blogging thing catching on to me.

Anyway, I thought I share with you on some questions pondering people's mind on what VMWare Server settings are required for CUCM / CallManager 7.x installation, as a matter fact it worked for all version of CCM 6 as well.

The normal setting is as following:

1. Type of OS - Typical / Linux / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
2. Network Set @ Host Only
3. Memory - 1024GB or more the merrier
4. Hard Disk - 72GB. Do not allocate all the space now. SCSI is OK!!!!! Why anyone bothers to change this to IDE GOD Knows.
5. Single Processor works well.

In case you are not aware CUCM 7.x does not install on AMD Processors. It is really troublesome for someone like me and Cisco comes out with a patch on this soon.
Alternative there are solutions to overcome this but frankyly I will wait till they release a version that's compatible with AMD processors.

How to Install CUCM 7.x Subscriber on VMWare Server with Images?

I thought I'll write about something I was trying to find a solution to for a while now.

I am sure a lot of you have been trying to find info on how to get Cisco's Unified Communications Manager or CUCM or Call Manager 7 installed on VM Server (the free edition).

I got it installed and running last night. Really don't know why I go around doing it especially on holidays.

Anyway to cut it short I got it running with the publisher and subscriber installed.

The problem was surrounding the NTP setting. VMWare Server image had problems synch'ing with the machine time.

So I got the sync going and all is well. In case you are wondering which version of VM I was using, its 1.o.8. I think the 1.0.9 came out recently. Mostly security fixes.

The following are some images of the installed Publisher and Subscriber.

I have not got a hold on the CUCM 7.1 yet. I'll try that on VMWare Server and see if it works.