Best Practices for Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite on Virtualization [Cisco Unified Operations Manager]

Best Practices for Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite on Virtualization provides requirements, recommendations, policies, and performance metrics to aid in deploying the Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite components on VMware ESX.

This document is intended for anyone responsible for the design or configuration of any Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite components on VMware ESX. Successful deployments require configuration of Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite application servers, VMware ESX software, server hardware, data networking, and storage.

Although installation of the Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite components on VMware ESX is identical to installation on a physical server, this guide highlights the considerations for deploying Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite in a virtualized environment.

The following components are part of Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite:

• Cisco Unified Operations Manager 2.2

• Cisco Unified Service Monitor 2.2

• Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager 1.2

• Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.3.1

Introduction

Virtualization has emerged as a leading trend in enterprises. Organizations are embracing virtualization in enterprises for a variety of reasons, including total cost of ownership (TCO), consolidation, operational efficiency and flexibility, disaster recovery and business continuity, security, and reduced carbon footprint.

Cisco is committed to leading the transition toward virtualization through innovative products and solutions. In that effort, Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite can now be run on the VMware ESX platform, part of the VMware Infrastructure suite.

Deploying Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite on VMware ESX delivers the following advantages:

• Extends the benefits of virtualization and storage data center investments to Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite

• Maintains the same predictable scalability provided by running the Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite application on a dedicated non-VMware (physical) server

You can virtualize the Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite in various configurations based on the number of phones being managed. Cisco® Unified Operations Manager, Cisco® Unified Service Monitor, and Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager have been tested to support various deployment sizes. Cisco® Unified Service Statistics Manager only supports medium deployment models, which are described in the tables in each product section.

To virtualize Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite applications, users must provide the hardware, VMware ESX software, and Microsoft Windows Server OS software following the requirements of the Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite products. Users are also responsible for obtaining support for the above components including provisioning and performance troubleshooting.

VMware ESX Requirements

For best results when deploying the Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite in a virtualized environment, the following requirements should be met at the VMware ESX level for the entire Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite:

• VMware ESX 3.5

• VMware ESX should be deployed in a configuration supported by VMware.

• All the hardware components such as servers, CPU, storage, and Storage Area Network (SAN) models should be compatible with the VMware comprehensive compatibility guides posted at http://www.vmware.com.

• The VMware ESX host/IP must be reachable.

• VMware Infrastructure client must be able to access the VMware ESX host.

• The Virtual NIC (vNIC) on a Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite application virtual machine should be configured with a static MAC address. (See "Setting the MAC Address Manually for a Virtual Machine" at http://www.vmware.com.)

Note: Refer to the product-specific sections for options supported only for trials.

Each component of the Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite has a minimum requirement to successfully run on VMware 3.5. The following sections outline the individual product requirements.

VMware Infrastructure Feature Support

VMware Infrastructure includes a number of innovative features such as VMotion or High Availability or DRS that are not available with traditional physical hardware installations and are not supported. At this time, Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite components can only run on a virtual machine that is a native ESX feature. Other VMware infrastructure features such as VMotion, High Availability, and DRS are not supported. Users should follow the recommended templates for Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite component virtual machine resource configuration.

Virtualizing Cisco Unified Operations Manager on VMware ESX

Requirements

• VMware ESX Requirements should be met

• Cisco Unified Operations Manager 2.2 or later

• Cisco Unified Operations Manager virtual machine configuration properties must match or exceed a virtual machine template. (See the "Cisco Unified Operations Manager Virtual Machine Templates" section)

• The CPU Reservation feature is required for each Cisco Unified Operations Manager virtual machine. (See the "Processor" section in Appendix A)

• The Memory Reservation feature is required for the Cisco Unified Operations Manager virtual machine. (See the "Memory" section in Appendix A)

• Disk size and I/O performance should meet or exceed the required level

• The Cisco Unified Operations Manager virtual machine clock (time) must be reliably kept in sync with true time. (See "Timekeeping Basics" from Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines)

• The Cisco Unified Operations Manager virtual machine must have VMware Tools installed. (See "Installing VMware Tools")

Cisco Unified Operations Manager Virtual Machine Templates

Scalability for Cisco Unified Operations Manager on VMware ESX can be predicted by adhering to the hardware requirements and virtual configuration parameters in the following virtual machine templates.

A virtual machine template defines the configuration of the virtual machine that includes CPU, memory, disk, and network resources. The configuration of a Cisco Unified Operations Manager virtual machine must match a supported virtual machine template defined in Table 1

Each virtual machine requires a minimum amount of CPU and memory resources, and by default VMware ESX is set to use unlimited CPU resources. Resource utilization should be limited to avoid one virtual machine taking all available resources. Table 1 shows resource reservation minimum amounts and recommended limits for three typical deployment sizes.

Table 1. Virtual Machine Templates

Requirement Type	Small Template For up to 5000 IP Phones	Medium Template For up to 10,000 IP Phones	Large Template For up to 30,000 IP Phones
vCPU*	• 4000 MHz • Reservation at 3950 MHz • Limit at 4000 MHz or more	• 4000 MHz • Reservation at 1950 MHz • Limit at 1700 MHz or more	• 12000 MHz • Reservation at 11950 MHz • Limit at 12000 MHz or more
Memory*	• 4 GB • Reservation at 3.9 GB • Limit at 4 GB or more	• 4 GB • Reservation at 3.9 GB • Limit at 4 GB or more	• 8 GB • Reservation at 7.9 GB • Limit at 8 GB or more
vNIC	1 with static MAC	1 with static MAC	1 with static MAC
vDisk	• vDisk1: 10 GB OS • vDisk2: 70 GB for Cisco Unified Operations Manager
Peak I/O**	1690 Kbps	1846 Kbps	2115 Kbps

* Without CPU/memory reservations, Cisco Unified Operations Manager performance will degrade noticeably due to resource oversubscription by VMware ESX 3.5; therefore reservations must be set for the virtual machine.

** Storage design is left to your discretion, except for the need to meet the disk I/O specified. Without sufficient disk I/O, Cisco Unified Operations Manager performance will degrade noticeably. This will adversely impact the CPU and memory utilization in some cases.

Software Installation and System Setup

Installation of Cisco Unified Operations Manager and the system setup follow the same processes described in the Cisco Unified Operations Manager installation guide, available at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6535/prod_installation_guides_list.html.

• Create a virtual disk on a data store with sufficient I/O as outlined in the "Cisco Unified Operations Manager Virtual Machine Templates" section of this guide.

• Install Cisco Unified Operations Manager on the vDisk2 defined in the "Cisco Unified Operations Manager Virtual Machine Templates" section of this guide.

• Follow the Cisco Unified Operations Manager Installation Guide instructions for installing, uninstalling, and upgrading Cisco Unified Operations Manager. (The other options in the Installation Guide do not apply in the virtualization context.)

Licensing

Cisco Unified Operations Manager can be installed on a virtual machine with dynamic MAC address for evaluation. A static MAC address needs to be configured on the virtual machine to use the permanent Cisco Unified Operations Manager license from Cisco.com.

Note: The Cisco license is issued only to the static MAC address on the virtual machine. Please refer to http://www.vmware.com/support/esx21/doc/esx21admin_MACaddress.html.

Virtualizing Cisco Unified Service Monitor on VMware ESX

Requirements

• VMware ESX Requirements should be met

• Cisco Unified Service Monitor 2.2 or later

• Cisco Unified Service Monitor virtual machine configuration properties must match or exceed a virtual machine template. (See the "Cisco Unified Service Monitor Virtual Machine Templates" section)

• The CPU Reservation feature is required for the Cisco Unified Service Monitor virtual machine. (See the "Processor" section in Appendix A)

• The Memory Reservation feature is required for the Cisco Unified Service Monitor virtual machine. (See the "Memory" section in Appendix A)

• Disk size and I/O performance should meet or exceed the required level. (See the "Disk" section in Appendix A)

• The Cisco Unified Service Monitor virtual machine must have VMware Tools installed. (See "Installing VMware Tools" on the VMware website)

• The Cisco Unified Service Monitor virtual machine clock (time) must be reliably kept in sync with true time. (See "Timekeeping Basics" from Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines)

Cisco Unified Service Monitor Virtual Machine Templates

Scalability for Cisco Unified Service Monitor on VMware ESX can be predicted by adhering to the hardware requirements and virtual configuration parameters in the following virtual machine templates.

A virtual machine template defines the configuration of the virtual machine that includes CPU, memory, disk, and network resources. The configuration of a Cisco Unified Service Monitor virtual machine must match a supported virtual machine template defined in this section. The size of the template is defined based on the number of IP phones, call detail records (CDRs), and Cisco 1040 Sensor or Network Analysis Module (NAM) RTP streams per minute monitored by each Cisco Unified Service Monitor instance.

Each virtual machine requires a minimum amount of CPU and memory resources, and by default VMware ESX is set to use unlimited CPU resources. The resource utilization should be limited to avoid one virtual machine taking all available resources. Table 2 shows resource reservation minimum amounts and recommended limits for two typical deployment sizes.

Table 2. Virtual Machine Templates

Requirement Type	Medium Template For up to 10,000 IP Phones, 666 CDRs per minute, and 5000 Cisco 1040/NAM streams per minute	Large Template For up to 45,000 IP Phones, 1600 CDRs per minute, and 5000 Cisco 1040/NAM streams per minute
vCPU*	• 1700 MHz • Reservation at 1600 MHz • Limit at 1700 MHz or more	• 6000 MHz • Reservation at 5800 MHz • Limit at 6000 MHz or more
Memory*	• 4 GB • Reservation at 3.9 GB • Limit at 4 GB or more	• 4 GB • Reservation at 3.9 GB • Limit at 4 GB
vNIC	1 with static MAC	1 with static MAC
vDisk	vDisk1: 10 GB OS vDisk2: 70 GB for Cisco Unified Service Monitor
Peak I/O**	1024 Kbps	2048 Kbps

* Without CPU/memory reservations, Cisco Unified Service Monitor performance will degrade noticeably due to resource oversubscription by VMware ESX 3.5; therefore reservations must be set for the virtual machine.

** Storage design is left to your discretion, except for the need to meet the disk I/O specified. Without sufficient disk I/O, Cisco Unified Service Monitor performance will degrade noticeably. This will adversely affect the CPU and memory utilization in some cases.

For steps to set up virtual machine resource reservations and limits, please refer to Appendix A.

Software Installation and System Setup

• Installation of Cisco Unified Service Monitor and the system setup follow the same processes described in the Cisco Unified Service Monitor 2.2 installation guide, available at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6536/prod_installation_guides_list.html.

• Create a virtual disk on a data store with sufficient I/O as outlined in the "Cisco Unified Service Monitor Virtual Machine Templates" section of this guide.

• Install Cisco Unified Service Monitor on the vDisk2 defined in the "Cisco Unified Service Monitor Virtual Machine Templates" section of this guide.

• For Cisco Unified Service Monitor, follow the Installation Guide instructions for installing, uninstalling, and upgrading Cisco Unified Service Monitor. (The other options in the Installation Guide do not apply in the virtualization context)

Licensing

Cisco Unified Service Monitor can be installed on a virtual machine with a dynamic MAC address for evaluation. A static MAC address needs to be configured on the virtual machine to use the permanent Cisco Unified Service Monitor license from Cisco.com.

Note: A Cisco license is issued only to the static MAC address on the virtual machine. Please refer to http://www.vmware.com/support/esx21/doc/esx21admin_MACaddress.html.

Virtualizing Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager on VMware ESX

Requirements

• VMware ESX Requirements should be met

• Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager 1.2 or later

• Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager virtual machine configuration properties must match or exceed a virtual machine template. (See the "Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager Virtual Machine Template" section)

• The CPU Reservation feature is required for the Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager virtual machine. (See the "Processor" section in Appendix A)

• The Memory Reservation feature is required for the Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager virtual machine. (See the "Memory" section in Appendix A)

• Disk size and I/O performance should meet or exceed the required level. (See the "Disk" section in Appendix A)

• The Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager virtual machine must have VMware Tools installed. (See "Installing VMware Tools" on the VMware website.)

• The Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager virtual machine clock (time) must be reliably kept in sync with true time. (See "Timekeeping Basics" from Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines.)

Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager Virtual Machine Template

Scalability for Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager on VMware ESX can be predicted by adhering to the hardware requirements and virtual configuration parameters in the following virtual machine template.

Each virtual machine requires a minimum amount of CPU and memory resources, and by default VMware ESX is set to use unlimited CPU resources. Resource utilization should be limited to avoid one virtual machine taking all available resources. Table 3 shows resource reservation minimum amounts and recommended limits for a typical deployment size.

Table 3. Virtual Machine Templates

Requirement Type	Medium Template For up to 10,000 IP Phones
vCPU*	• 1700 MHz • Reservation at 1650 MHz • Limit at 1700 MHz or more
Memory*	• 6 GB • Reservation at 5.9 GB • Limit at 6 GB or more
vNIC	1 with static MAC
vDisk	vDisk1: 10 GB OS vDisk2: 70 GB for Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager
Disk I/O Peak**	2048 Kbps

* Without CPU/memory reservations, Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager performance will degrade noticeably due to resource oversubscription by VMware ESX 3.5; therefore reservations must be set for the virtual machine.

** Storage design is left to your discretion, except for the need to meet the disk I/O specified. Without sufficient disk I/O, Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager performance will degrade noticeably. This will adversely affect the CPU and memory utilization in some cases.

For steps to set up virtual machine resource reservations and limits, please refer to Appendix A.

Software Installation and System Setup

• Installation of Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager and the system setup follow the same processes described in the Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager 1.2 installation guide, available at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps7285/prod_installation_guides_list.html.

• Create a virtual disk on a data store with sufficient I/O as outlined in the "Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager Virtual Machine Templates" section of this guide.

• Install Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager on the vDisk2 defined in the "Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager Virtual Machine Templates" section of this guide.

• For Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager, follow the Installation Guide instructions for installing, uninstalling, and upgrading Cisco Unified Service Monitor. (The other options in the Installation Guide do not apply in the virtualization context.)

Licensing

Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager can be installed on a virtual machine with a dynamic MAC address for evaluation. A static MAC address needs to be configured on the virtual machine to use the permanent Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager license from Cisco.com.

Note: A Cisco license is issued only to the static MAC address on the virtual machine. Please refer to http://www.vmware.com/support/esx21/doc/esx21admin_MACaddress.html.

Virtualizing Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager on VMware ESX

Requirements

• VMware ESX requirements should be met

• Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.3.1 or later

• Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager virtual machine configuration properties must match or exceed a virtual machine template. (See the "Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager Virtual Machine Templates" section)

• The CPU Reservation feature is required for the Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager virtual machine. (See the "Processor" section in Appendix A)

• The Memory Reservation feature is required for the Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager virtual machine. (See the "Memory" section in Appendix A)

• Disk size and I/O performance should meet or exceed the required level. (See the "Disk" section in Appendix A)

• The Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager virtual machine must have VMware Tools installed. (See "Installing VMware Tools" on the VMware website)

• The Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager virtual machine clock (time) must be reliably kept in sync with true time. (See "Timekeeping Basics" from Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines)

Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager Virtual Machine Templates

Scalability for Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager Manager on VMware ESX can be predicted by adhering to the hardware requirements and virtual configuration parameters in the following virtual machine templates.

A virtual machine template defines the configuration of the virtual machine that includes CPU, memory, disk, and network resources. The configuration of a Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager Manager virtual machine must match a supported virtual machine template defined in Table 4

Each virtual machine requires a minimum amount of CPU and memory resources, and by default VMware ESX is set to use unlimited CPU resources. The resource utilization should be limited to avoid one virtual machine taking all available resources. Table 4 shows resource reservation minimum amounts and recommended limits for three typical deployment sizes.

Table 4. Virtual Machine Templates

Requirement Type	Small Template For up to 1000 IP Phones	Medium Template For up to 10,000 IP Phones	Large Template For up to 30,000 IP Phones***
vCPU*	• 3000 MHz • Reservation at 1000 MHz • Limit at 3000 MHz or more	• 6000 MHz • Reservation at 2000 MHz • Limit at 6000 MHz or more	• 6000 MHz • Reservation at 4000 MHz • Limit at 6000 MHz or more
Memory*	• 2 GB • Reservation at 1.8 GB • Limit at 2 GB or more	• 4 GB • Reservation at 3.5 GB • Limit at 4 GB or more	• 4 GB • Reservation at 3.5 GB • Limit at 4 GB or more
vNIC	1 with static MAC	1 with static MAC	1 with static MAC
vDisk	vDisk1: 30 GB	vDisk1: 60 GB	vDisk1: 30/60 GB****
Disk I/O Peak**	600 Kbps	600 Kbps	1500/1800***** Kbps

* Without CPU and memory reservations, Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager performance will degrade noticeably due to resource oversubscription by VMware ESX 3.5; therefore reservations must be set for the virtual machine.

** Storage design is left to your discretion, except for the need to meet the disk I/O specified. Without sufficient disk I/O, Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager performance will degrade noticeably. This will adversely affect the CPU and memory utilization in some cases.

*** For Large Template use, the distributed deployment, Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager application, and database server are deployed on different virtual machines. It is preferable to deploy the Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager application and database server on the same physical server (ESX).

**** vDisk1 is of 30 GB for the Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager application, and it is 60 GB for the database server.

***** Disk I/O Peak is of 1500 Kbps for the Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager application, and it is 1800 Kbps for the database server.

For steps to set up virtual machine resource reservations and limits, please refer to Appendix A.

Software Installation and System Setup

• Installation of Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager and the system setup follow the same processes described in the Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.3.1 installation guide, available at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps7125/prod_installation_guides_list.html.

• Create a virtual disk on a data store with sufficient I/O as outlined in the "Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager Virtual Machine Templates" section of this guide.

• Install Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager on the vDisk1 defined in the "Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager Virtual Machine Templates" section of this guide.

• For Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager, follow the Installation Guide instructions for installing, uninstalling, and upgrading Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager. (The other options in the Installation Guide do not apply in the virtualization context.)

Licensing

Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager can't be installed on a virtual machine with a dynamic MAC address. A static MAC address needs to be configured on the virtual machine to install and use a temporary or permanent license from Cisco.com.

Note: A Cisco license is issued only to the static MAC address on the virtual machine. Please refer to http://www.vmware.com/support/esx21/doc/esx21admin_MACaddress.html.

Appendix A

Provisioning of Host Resources for Virtual Machines

The Reservation feature of VMware ESX is the mechanism used to dedicate minimum CPU/memory resources and is applied at the virtual machine level. The virtual machine won't start if the ESX host is out of minimum resources.

By default VMware ESX is set to use unlimited CPU/memory resources. It's recommended to limit the resource utilization limit to avoid one virtual machine taking all available resources.

This section addresses the following resources on ESX:

• Processor

• Memory

• Disk

• Network

Processor

Each virtual machine must have a reserved average CPU dedicated to the virtual machine. Without CPU reservation, performance of Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite components may degrade noticeably due to resource limitation issues.

Figure 1 shows CPU settings for a virtual machine with vCPUs.

Figure 1. Virtual Machine CPU Settings

Memory

Each Cisco Unified Operations Manager virtual machine must have a reserved average memory dedicated to the virtual machine. Without memory reservation, Unified Communications Management Suite component performance may degrade noticeably due to resource limitation issues.

Figure 2 shows memory settings for a virtual machine with memory.

Figure 2. Virtual Machine Memory Settings

Disk

The performance requirements and minimum disk I/O are those that each virtual machine hard disk must meet, as reported by ESX.

Storage design is left to your discretion, with the exception of the requirement of meeting the disk I/O specified under the machine templates section for each product.

Network

Network design is left to your discretion, with the exception that gigabit or faster NICs are required.

When multiple virtual machines share the same VMware ESX host physical network interface, there is the possibility of contention for inbound and outbound bandwidth. Inbound bandwidth contention can be managed with quality of service (QoS) in a hardware switch. The VMware ESX soft switch does not support the same QoS capabilities for outbound traffic, making contention more difficult to manage dynamically.

One way to avoid outbound contention completely is to dedicate a NIC on the VMware ESX hosts to the Cisco Unified Operations Manager/Cisco Unified Service Monitor/Cisco Unified Service Statistics Manager/Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager virtual machine. This, however, is not a requirement.

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Best Practices for Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite on Virtualization

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