What feature is supported in Client Hyper-V that is NOT supported in the server version

Virtual Machine Templates (OVA files)

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

See www.dmtf.org for details on the Open Virtualization Format, which describes an OVF Package (a directory of files describing a virtual machine's configuration) and an OVA Package (single tar file containing an OVF Package).

"Template" in this context refers to an OVA file that defines the virtual server (but not the "workload", i.e. the UC OS and application). Each virtualized UC product provides a set of predefined virtual machine templates (as OVA files) for supported Virtual Machine (VM) configurations. Customers must download and use these OVA template files for initial install, as they cover items such as supported capacity levels and any required OS/VM/SAN "alignment". OVAs configured differently than the predefined templates are not supported unless specifically allowed on the app's page on www.cisco.com/go/virtualized-collaboration. To download the OVA files, refer to the Collaboration Virtualization Sizing guidelines.

Copy Virtual Machine

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

Copying a Virtual Machine (VM) copies both the virtual server configuration and the workload (UC OS and application) running on that virtual server to a file on networked shared storage. This allows VMs to be copied, then subsequently modified or shut down. This feature effectively provides a method to do full system backup/restore, take system images or revert changes to software versions, user data and configuration changes.

• Prior to copying, the VM must first be shutdown (which will shut down the virtual server, the UC OS and the UC application).
• If uploading a VM copy as a "whole system restore", clustered UC applications such as CUCM will probably require their replication to be manually "fixed" via a CLI command.

Large Receive Offload (LRO)

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

VMware vSphere ESXi 4.1 introduced a new setting called "Large Receive Offload (LRO)". When enabled on VMs running ESXi 4.1 or later, you may experience slow TCP performance on certain operating systems (depending on which Collaboration application and version). This setting usually needs to be disabled on an ESXi host running Collaboration app VMs (either new install of ESXi 4.1+, or upgrade from ESXi 4.0 to 4.1+ followed by upgrading VMwareTools in app VMs to 4.1+).

To disable LRO, follow this procedure:

1. Log into the ESXi host or its vCenter with vSphere Client.
2. Select the host > Configuration > Advanced Settings.
3. Select Net and scroll down slightly more than half way.
4. Set the following parameters from 1 to 0:
   • Net.VmxnetSwLROSL
   • Net.Vmxnet3SwLRO
   • Net.Vmxnet3HwLRO
   • Net.Vmxnet2SwLRO
   • Net.Vmxnet2HwLRO
5. Reboot the ESXi host to activate these changes.

Restart Virtual Machine on Different ESXi Host

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

A Virtual Machine (VM) file on network/shared storage can be booted on any physical server hosting ESXi that has access to that network shared storage. With multiple physical ESXi hosts connected to the same network shared storage, this can be used to perform:

• Fast manual server moves, e.g. moving VM from ESXi host A to ESXi host B in another chassis, closet, building, etc.
• Fast manual server recovery, e.g. moving VM from ESXi host A that has just had a server hardware or VMware failure to ESXi host B that is healthy. See also VMware High Availability and Site Recovery Manager.
• Setting up software at a staging location to be later moved or deployed elsewhere. For multi-site scenarios, this may instead require "exporting" the VM.

Resize Virtual Machine

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

Similar to adding/removing physical hardware to/from a physical server, you can add/remove virtual hardware (vCPU, vRAM, vDisk, vNIC, etc.) to/from a Virtual Machine (VM) via a software change in VMware's configuration interfaces. Where supported, this provides the VM equivalent of migration to a more powerful or less powerful server.

• Any changes to a VM must align with the best practices in Virtual Machine Templates (OVA files). VM changes that result in an unsupported OVA configuration are not allowed. Even if you align with supported OVA configurations, desired VM changes may be prevented by one of the other caveats below.
• Support for adding virtual hardware resources (similar to moving from a less powerful server to a more powerful server, such as MCS 7825 -> MCS 7845) depends on which resource, and which UC product:
  • Adding vCPU is supported for all apps except Unity Connection, but requires VM to be shutdown first.
  • Adding vRAM is supported but requires VM to be shutdown first.
  • Adding vDisk is not supported as it would require re-partitioning by the application.
  • Adding vNIC is not supported unless the UC app supports multiple network connections with different IP addresses. See best practices for Multiple Physical NICs and vNICs.
• For all other changes, it is recommended to backup the application, reinstall application on a new OVA file, and restore the application.
• Removing virtual hardware resources (vCPU, vRAM, vDisk, etc.) is not supported (similar to moving from a more powerful server to a less powerful server, such as MCS 7845 ? MCS 7825). These migrations require backing up the application, reinstalling on a new OVA file, and and restoring the application.
• Live runtime resizing via the VMware Hot Add feature is not supported.

VMware Hot Add

Not supported. See Resize Virtual Machine instead.

Multiple Physical NICs and vNICs

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

Some virtualized UCS servers are configured with multiple physical NICs (see UCS page at http://www.cisco.com/go/swonly). Network traffic is switched from physical NICs to "vNIC's" of the Virtual Machines (VM) via either VMware vSwitch or Cisco Nexus 1000V. Customers can use these multiple NICs for VM network traffic, VMware console access, or management "back-doors" for administrative access, backups, software updates or other traffic that is desired to be segregated from the VM network traffic. All these uses are supported for UC but note that UC apps like CUCM and UCCX only support a single vNIC with a single IP address.

VMware High Availability (HA)

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

This feature automatically restarts a Virtual Machine (VM) on the same physical server or a different physical server. It can be used to supplement software redundancy as a means of fast, automated Failed-server recovery when a VM (but not the application) is hung or if there is a fault with the physical host server or VMware software.

• Failovers to other servers must not result in an unsupported deployment model (e.g. destination server must align with supported co-residency after failover occurs).
• Does not protect vs. faults with the SAN or network hardware.

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

This feature provides an automated disaster recovery solution that works on a "site to site" basis, where a "site" comprises physical servers, VMware and SAN storage. Refer to the VMware documentation for requirements to use this feature. Cisco recommends to power off the VMs before the SAN replication occurs. Also always ensure a DRS backup of the Cisco Collaboration applications is available in case there are issues with the replicated VMs.

Softswitches

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

Please note the following caveats:

• Cisco physical / virtual networking infrastructure is presumed transparent to Collaboration workloads.
• Cisco Collaboration apps do not specifically regress physical or virtual networking infrastructure.
• Cisco Collaboration apps do not consult on or debug virtual switch configuration outside of networking guidance in design guides.
• Cisco TAC will isolate Collaboration app issues to the app or infrastructure.

VMware vMotion

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

This feature migrates a live, running Virtual Machine (VM) from one physical server to another.

The following applies to any use of vMotion with UC apps:

• Prior to ESXi 5.1, VM must be installed on shared storage (SAN) and source and destination physical servers must be connected to same SAN. In ESXi 5.1+ vMotion allows "DAS to DAS", i.e. VM can be installed on DAS and source/destination physical servers can have different DAS yet still vMotion the VM.
• Destination physical server must not end up with over-subscribed hardware after the migration. Supported capacity and co-residency rules for UC must be followed before and after the migration.
• VMware "Long Distance vMotion" (site to site) is not supported.
• The only supported scenario is a manual move to a different server, e.g. for planned maintenance on the server or VMware software, or during troubleshooting to move software off of a physical server having issues.
• For real-time load-balancing of live UC VMs (e.g. via Distributed Resource Scheduler [DRS]), a few applications have caveated support (see here for details); otherwise it is not supported.
• Moving a shut down VM during a maintenance window, i.e. a "cold migration" or "host to host migration", is not vMotion and is supported.

• Migration of UC VMs that are live and processing live traffic is supported, but note that Cisco testing cannot cover every possible operational scenario. Testing has shown there is a slight risk of calls in progress being impacted for a few seconds as the migration occurs, with worst case result of the affected calls being dropped. If vMotion is suspected as the cause of dropped calls, customers should gather appropriate application logs as well as performance data from VMware vCenter and send to Cisco TAC for analysis.

• "Maintenance mode only" - VMware vMotion by definition operates on live VMs, but the VM running the UC app must be "live but quiescent". I.e. in a maintenance window, not in production, not processing live traffic. This is because during the vMotion cutover, the system is paused, which for real-time UC apps creates service interruption which degrade voice quality after the migration for calls in progress.
• Specifically for Cisco Unified Attendant Consoles, this means the CUxAC VM must not be doing any Hot Swap or taking any active calls, with no active Directory Synchronization in progress.

Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

UCM, IMP and CUC have caveated support (see Caveated Support for VMware CPU Reservations and Distributed Resource Scheduler). Not supported for other applications. See vMotion for what is supported.

VMware Dynamic Power Management

Not supported. See vMotion for what is supported.

Long Distance vMotion

Not supported. See vMotion for what is supported.Long Distance vMotion is a joint Cisco and VMware validated architecture for using the vMotion feature across data centers. For more information, see http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/comments/cisco_and_vmware_validated_architecture_for_long_distance_vmotion/ and http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns836/white_paper_c11-557822.pdf.

Storage vMotion

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

This "customer convenience" feature provides easy migration of a live system from one SAN to another SAN. For UC apps, an easier suggested alternative is to just perform manual VM shutdown and migration to the new SAN. However, if Storage vMotion must be used, it is only under the following conditions:

• Requires SAN storage.
• May only be done during a maintenance window with UC VMs shut down.

VMware Update Manager (VUM)

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

This feature automates patching and updating of VMware vSphere hosts and Guest OS.

Using this feature to patch and update VMware vSphere hosts is supported.

However, using this feature to patch and update the guest OS is only supported by some applications and some versions, this is what is shown on this page when referring to VUM support. Note that Cisco Unified Communications applications upgrades, patches and updates can not be delivered through VMware Update Manager.

VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

This feature provides integration with 3rd-party backup utilities so that they can non-disruptively backup the OS and application in a Virtual Machine (VM). See also VMware Data Recovery and Copy Virtual Machine.

Existing UC app methods of backing up the software continue to be supported.

VMware Data Recovery

Not supported. See VMware Consolidated Backup for what is supported.

VMware Snapshots

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

Used to preserve the state of a VM without copying or creating additional VMs, effectively as a backup/restore or reversion technique. See also VMware Data Recovery and Copy Virtual Machine.

VMware Fault Tolerance

Not supported. See VMware High Availability for what is supported. Another alternative is manual Virtual Machine shutdown and migration.

VMware vCenter Converter

P2V tools are not supported. To migrate from bare-metal servers (e.g. Cisco 7800 Series Media Convergence Server) to UC on UCS, the supported procedure is:

• upgrade to 8.x software version on the bare-metal server
• take a software backup
• fresh install 8.x software on VMware / UC on UCS
• restore from backup

VMsafe

Not supported. See the documentation for the UC application software or UC appliance software to see what is supported.

VMware vShield

Not supported. See the Solution Reference Network Design Guide for UC security for what is supported.

Virtual Appliance Packaging of UC apps

Not supported. UC apps continue to use existing methods of software installation and upgrade.

3rd-Party VM-based Backup Tools

Not supported. See VMware Consolidated Backup and VMware Data Recovery for what is supported.

3rd-Party VM-based Deployment Tools

Not supported. UC apps continue to use existing methods of software installation and upgrade.

3rd-Party Physical To Virtual (P2V) Migration Tools

Not supported. See VMware vCenter Converter for what is supported.

VMware Boot from SAN

NOTE: support varies by app and version. Before reading the best practices below, verify support at Supported Editions and Features of VMware vSphere ESXi, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere Client.

vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA)

VSA is not really a "feature" but rather a storage product from VMware.

If VSA is desired to be used as shared storage for a virtualized Cisco Collaboration deployment, it must meet the storage requirements for UC on UCS Specs-based or 3rd-party Server Specs-based (e.g. HCL, latencies, application VM capacity and performance needs).

vSphere Data Protection (VDP)

Not supported. VDP in vSphere ESXi 5.1 replaces "VDR" (vSphere Data Recovery / VMware Data Recovery) in prior ESXi releases: see http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2016565.