Virtualization for Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal
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Version 10.5(x)
Note: Download the 10.0(1) version of the OVA template for 10.5(1) version, there is no separate OVA template available for 10.5(1) release.
Version 10.0(x)
Version 9.0(x)
Version 8.5(x)
Version 8.0(x)
Notes on Call+VXML Server VM configuration
The following deployments and Unified CVP components have not been qualified and are not supported in virtualization:
- H323 Call flow Deployment
- Distributed VXML Server and Call Server deployment where each server runs on a separate VM
- All in one lab deployment with small reporting server.
Note: Unified CVP components are supported on the UCS platform only in a virtualized environment with ESXi server.
Depending on design requirements, the Media Server component may either be hosted in this VM, or run in a separate VM (see Notes on Media Server VM configuration )
Notes on Reporting Server VM configuration
- The creation of the virtual machine for the Reporting Server requires a large virtual disk size. Max disk size for a single VM to be 438GB for the large reporting server.
- Steps to configure the ESXi for CVP Reporting server to RAID10 found at CVP Reporting Server Configuration.
Notes on Operations Console VM configuration
None.
Notes on Media Server VM configuration
The Media Server component may either run inside the Call+VXML Server VM or run in a separate VM.
If it runs in a separate VM, it can either use the same VM configuration as the Operations Console or be a customer-tailored VM configuration (since this is a 3rd-party VM).
IOPS and Storage System Performance Requirements
Windows 2003 R2 Server:
IOPS Summary: (Unit in Number, Data are Blade-based)
| CVP Server component | Average | MAX | 95th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call Server/VXML Servers | 380 | 1536 | 797 |
| Reporting Server | 692 | 3403 | 2024 |
| Operation Server | NA (Insignificant) | NA | NA |
Windows 2008 R2 Server:
The following IOPS metrics are measured in peak load conditions with failover:
| CVP Server | Average | MAX | 95th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| CS/VXML/Media Servers | 50 | 1300 | 124 |
| Reporting Server | 329 | 1250 | 984 |
| Operations Console | 22 | 100 | 80 |
The following IOPS metrics are measured in peak load conditions with no failover:
| CVP Server | Average | MAX | 95th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| CS/VXML/Media Servers | 21 | 450 | 30 |
| Reporting Server | 40 | 930 | 56 |
| Operations Console | 22 | 100 | 80 |
- Read/Write Ratio:
The following table provides Read/Write Ratio:
| CVP Server | Average | MAX | 95th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| CS/VXML/Media Servers | 199/327 | 2249/1654 | 411/928 |
| Reporting Server | 3563/3000 | 14375/15390 | 10010/11506 |
| Operations Console | 22/21 | 107/94 | 67/79 |
Performance Requirements
- CPU usage (average) should not exceed 60% for the ESXi Server and for each of the individual processors, and for each VM.
- Memory usage (average) should not exceed 80% for the ESXi Server and for each of the VMs.
- VM snapshots are not supported in production since they have significant impact on system performance.
- The SAN must be able to handle the following Unified CVP application disk I/O characteristics.
- Enable hyperthreading on all ESXi servers.
Performance Numbers on UCS Platform
HTTP Performance Metrics
- The following metrics are measured with full reporting
| Call flow | Simultaneous Calls Supported | Calls Per Second |
|---|---|---|
| SIP Comprehensive | 900 | 10 |
| VXML Standalone | 900 | 10 |
| VXML Standalone with Req ICM Label (VXML Server on Tomcat) | 900 | 10 |
| VXML Standalone on WAS | 900 | 10 |
| VXML Standalone with Req ICM Label on WAS | 900 | 10 |
HTTPS Performance Metrics
- The following metrics are measured with full reporting
| Call flow | Simultaneous Calls Supported | Calls Per Second |
|---|---|---|
| SIP Comprehensive | 275 | 3 |
| VXML Standalone | 275 | 3 |
| VXML Standalone on WAS | 275 | 3 |
Timekeeping Best Practices for Windows
You should follow the best practices outlined in the VMware Knowledge Base article VMware KB:Timekeeping best practices for Windows
- ESXi hosts and domain controllers should synchronize the time from the same NTP source.
- When Unified Unified CVP virtual machines join the domain, they synchronize the time with the domain controller automatically using w32time.
- Be sure that Time synchronization between the virtual machine and the host operating system in the VMware Tools tool box GUI of the Windows Server 2003 guest operating system remains deselected; this checkbox is deselected by default.
System Performance Monitoring Using Windows Perfmon Counters
You must comply with the best practices described in the section titled System Perormance Monitoring in the Unified CVP SRND.
Unified CVP-Specific VM Installation Information
Migrating Unified CVP Installation from Physical to Virtual Server
Migration of Unified CVP from physical (MCS) server to any virtual server (UCS or non-UCS) server is not supported.
UCS Network Configuration
IMPORTANT: For instructions on performing the network configuration needed to deploy Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal (Unified CVP) on a virtualized platform, please see below.
1) Network adapter setting modification on Reporting Server -The customers must modify the "Number of Receive Buffers" setting on the Reporting server to maximize full reporting and call load on the virtualized platform. If this setting is not modified after installing the OS, messages will get backed up on the CallServer and Message Queues will fill up resulting in a sharp drop in cps rate.
- Set the "Number of Receive buffers" on the Reporting Server TCP settings to 4096 (max).
Instructions:
- On Reporting server, click on Control Panel->Network Connection.
- Right click on Network Connection.
- Click on advanced tab.
- Under property tab, select "Number of Receive Buffers".
- In the Value pulldown, enter 4096.
- Restart the Reporting Server.
2) The following table provides the transport protocols supported by different CVP versions on virtual and non-virtual (bare metal or MCS servers) deployments. The same transport protocol must be used on all call legs of the SIP comprehensive call flow deployments.
SIP transport protocols supported across various deployments:
| Type of Hardware | Releases prior to CVP 8.5(1) ES6 | CVP 8.5(1) ES6 or later releases |
|---|---|---|
| UCS C Series Virtualized* | TCP | TCP & UDP** |
| UCS B Series Virtualized* | TCP | TCP UDP*** |
| Non Virtualized (bare metal) | TCP & UDP | TCP & UDP |
The session transport protocol can be set to tcp or udp in the POTS dialpeer.
Any other combinations of the transport protocols other than the ones listed above can cause call setup failures or abnormally long call setup times under heavy load.
Footnote:
* Check the Docwiki supported Application page for the Cisco UCS B-series and C-series hardware models supported by the Unified CVP.
** To avoid CPU utilization spikes under load conditions, the time synchronization between virtual machine and the ESX server must be disabled. To disable it, install VMware Tools in the virtual machine, in the Windows task bar, double click on the VM icon, in VMware Tools Properties window, uncheck Time synchronization between the virtual machine and the ESX Server checkbox.
*** All the UCS servers listed on the Unified Communications Virtualization Supported Applications page support UDP on both VMWare ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.0.
3) Cisco VLAN trunking to VMWare For information on best practices for Cisco VLAN trunking to VMware, refer to the VMware website
Steps for Installing Unified CVP Components on Virtual Machines
Follow the steps and references below to install or migrate the Unified CVP components on Virtual Machines.
- Install, setup, and configure the UCS Hardware.
- Configure the UCS Network. See reference at UCS Network Configuration for Unified CCE.
- Install and Boot VMWare ESXi. For UCS B seriees, refer to the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers VMware Installation Guide.
- Create the Unified CVP Virtual Machines from the OVA template available.
- Install Windows OS and Websphere Application Server (if using VXML Server with WAS) on the created Virtual Machines.
- Install Unified CVP Software components on the configured Virtual Machines. See install reference for installing Unified CVP Components in the CVP Install and Upgrade guide
Creating Virtual Machines from OVA VM Templates
Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is an open standard for packaging and distributing virtual appliances. Files in this format have an extension of .ova. The naming convention for the template is PRODUCT_COMPONENT_USER COUNT_VERSION_VMVER.ova
Follow the instructions in the Downloading OVA Templates section below to download the OVA templates from cisco.com to a local datastore that vSphere Client can access.
Downloading OVA Templates
- Proceed to the Cisco Download Page for CVP.
- To download a single OVA file, click the Download File button next to that file. To download multiple OVA files, click the Add to Cart button next to each file that you want to download, then click on the Download Cart link. A Download Cart page appears.
- Click the Proceed with Download button on this page. A Software License Agreement page appears.
- Read the Software License Agreement, then click the Agree button
- On the next page, click on either the Download Manager link (requires Java) or the Non Java Download Option link. A new browser window appears.
- If you selected Download Manager, a Select Location dialog box appears. Specify the location where you want to save the file, and click Open to save the file to your local machine.
- If you selected Non Java Download Option, click the Download link on the new browser window. Specify the location and save the file to your local machine.
Note:
Creating Virtual Machines by Deploying the OVA Templates
In the vSphere client, perform the following steps to deploy the Virtual machines.
- Highlight the host or cluster to which you wish the VM to be deployed.
- Select File > Deploy OVF Template.
- Click the Deploy from File radio button and specify the name and location of the file you downloaded in the previous section or click the Deploy from URL radio button and specify the complete URL in the field, then click Next.
- Verify the details of the template, and click Next.
- Give the VM you are about to create a name, and choose an inventory location on your host, then click Next.
- Choose the datastore on which you would like the VM to reside - be sure there is sufficient free space to accommodate the new VM, then click Next.
- Choose a virtual network for the VM, then click Next.
- Verify the deployment settings, then click Finish.
Notes
- VM CPU affinity is not supported. You do not need to set CPU affinity for the VMs that are running Unified CVP applications on the VMware ESXi on UCS platform.
- You cannot change the computing resource configuration of your VM at any time.
- Ensure you enable only one NIC.
- You can never go below the minimum VM computing resource requirements as defined in the OVA templates.
- It is required that hyperthreading be enabled by default when running CVP on ESXi. ESXi Server hyperthread is enabled by default and this setting should not be modified. Please ensure all VM's with CVP servers has hyperthreading enabled.
Remote Control of the Virtual Machines
For administrative tasks, you can use either Windows Remote Desktop or the VMware Infrastructure Client for remote control.
Installing VMware Tools
The VMware Tools must be installed on each of the VMs and all of the VMware Tools default settings should be used. Please refer to the VMware documentation for instructions on installing or upgrading VMware Tools on the VM with Windows operating system.
