Cisco Systems 10.x Touchless Installation for Virtual Machine, Methods for Touchless Installation

Chapter 1 Installing Cisco Unity Connection

Installation Tasks

Touchless Installation for Virtual Machine

Touchless installation is an enhancement of the existing unattended installation, which promotes simplified cluster installation. In unattended installation, you first install Unity Connection on the publisher server using answer file, add the subscriber server to the Cluster page of the publisher server, and then start the installation of subscriber server. However, in Touchless installation, you are not required to manually enter the details of the subscriber server on the publisher server. The subscriber details are automatically updated through clusterConfig.xml file or dynamic-cluster-configurationoption in the AFG tool, which minimizes the need for intervention and scheduling during the deployment of a new cluster.

Note ClusterConfig.xml file is generated only for the Touchless installation of Unity Connection 10.5(2) and above.

Methods for Touchless Installation

You can use either of the following two methods for Touchless installation:

•Predefined Cluster Configurations (AFG Process)

•Automatic Sequencing of Touchless server (Subscriber-Dynamic-Cluster configuration).

Predefined Cluster Configurations (AFG Process)

In this method of installation, the Answer File Generator (AFG) tool generates the clusterConfig.xml file along with the existing platformConfig.xml file for both the publisher and subscriber servers. If you specify the details of the subscriber server in the AFG tool, those details are included in the clusterConfig.xml file. After the publisher server is installed, it reads the clusterConfig.xml file and if the publisher server finds the subscriber server, it adds the subscriber server to its processnode table. Adding the subscriber server to the processnode table eliminates the need to wait for the publisher server to finish its installation, and then manually add the subscriber server on the server page.Thus, the entire installation process occurs automatically.

Automatic Sequencing of Touchless Server (dynamic-cluster-configuration)

In automatic sequencing feature, subscriber gets configured dynamically along with the publisher during the installation. To use this functionality, enable the dynamic-cluster-configurationoption in the AFG tool or use the command line interface (CLI) command on the publisher server. To use CLI to enable dynamic-configuration functionality, see (Optional) To Enable Dynamic-Cluster-Configuration Using CLI, page 1-19. There is no clusterconfig.xml file in this process of Touchless install.You need to enable the Dynamic Cluster Config Timer (1-24 hours) and start the installation on both the servers at the same time. The number of hours is the duration for which subscriber waits for publisher to receive the subscriber entry in the processnode table.

Task List for Touchless Installation

You need to perform the following tasks to generate answer files and create floppy image for Touchless installation.

1.Generate and download answer files that includes the platformConfig.xml files for both the publisher and the subscriber server and clusterconfig.xml file (only for AFG Process). For more information on how to generate answer files, see To Generate and Download Answer Files using AFG, page 1-16.

Install, Upgrade, and Maintenance Guide for Cisco Unity Connection Release 10.x

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