On how will CUCM 11.5 change our lives
After we picked in the IM&P new features the stage is ready for the main event.
CUCM 11.5 is available and it comes with some nice tweaks. Here are few.
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Installing a new device pack?
Do not reboot the cluster!
Now wasn’t that otiose? All I wanted was for my new MX device to work.
Cluster reboot? oh man, you must be joking!
For big deployments and mission critical environments that could mean days or even weeks to wait for a maintenance window. Well, no more!
CUCM 11.5 offers new functionality and while no services will be interrupted during the install, you would still need to restart TFTP services right after and the publisher server (during the next maintenance window). But hey, at least you can get home before bed time.
One PIN to rule them all
OK, maybe not the hottest feature around but still deserves a mention.
You could now synch PINs from CUCM to CUC (and back) for EM, Conference Now, Mobile Connect and Unity Connection voice mail!
One down, 457 different passwords to go. Thank you Cisco.
Less memory, more users
Cisco has drastically optimized CUCM 11.5 version’s memory consumption which would allegedly allow increase of 50-70% for VMs capacity and even go beyond the 10k users per VM restriction. The official numbers are not out yet and the final numbers will depend on your deployment so keep your eyes open.
The Display Name revolution
In a dramatic announcement Cisco revealed the fact that users will now have the ability to change their own Display Name from the Self-Care portal. Power to the people!
LDAP search for Expressway MRA endpoints
Wait, I know what you are thinking, no customer would ever let some clients on the web to access his Active Directory. However that’s ok, there would be no need for that.
The new feature will allow consistent search whether you are in the office or on the move via EDI (Enhanced Directory Integration. To simplify, LDAP with Active Directory in most cases).
The implementation method doesn’t really let you directly query the LDAP server from your internet based endpoint but rather utilizes a new UDS proxy feature that would keep unwanted internet traffic to your AD server at bay.
Location awareness service
CUCM 11.5 will now get updates from the endpoints (at least some of them) about the upstream device they are connected to. Wired phone will snitch on the switches (and ports) they are attached to while the wireless devices will let us know about the SSID and the AP they are connected to. Needless to say that either CDP or LLDP must be enabled on the switch while BSSID should be available for the wireless devices for this to work.
Ease of management it is. Nicely done.
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