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July 10, 2006

What's New in CallManager 5.X?

This post has been a long time in coming, but after Cisco Networkers 2006, I thought I'd put together the high points of the changes that are appearing in Cisco CallManager 5.X versions. Bullets always work best for me!

• Underlying Operating System – this is, by far, the biggest change to Cisco CallManager. Cisco has moved the software to an appliance model (I’m sure some industry pressure forced this). The CallManager runs on top of the RedHat Linux operating system; however, you will have no direct access to the operating system. What does this do?
  
  
  
  • Easier installations & upgrades
    
  • Increased security and reliability
    
  • You can only access the CallManager via Cisco approved tools & interfaces
    
  
  

• The CallManager uses a new database platform: IBM Informix DB replaces Microsoft SQL 2000

• Two instances of CallManager can run on separate Linux partitions. This will make upgrades nearly seamless.

• The GUI now supports browsers other than Internet Explorer, but is no where near as pretty as the CallManager 4.X GUI.

• The licensing implementation has changed. The maximum number of provisioned devices in the CCM database are tracked and enforced (with a 5% overdraft of devices being accepted). No more free installs! The Cisco CallManager can run without a license, but it will not allow any changes to the database at all.

• The CallManager can still be a DHCP server; however, this feature is extremely limited and should be handled by another server/network device.

• The CallManager now supports SIP end-devices. Of course, the industry standard SIP version out there is VERY limited in functionality, so if you plan on using third party phones on a Cisco CallManager network, they won’t be able to do much.

• The SIP communications now support a feature called “Presence.” This allows you to see the state of any line in the IP Telephony cluster. So, I could scroll through the corporate directory and see if someone was using their phone (if the access privileges allowed) before calling them.
  

Those are the big ones; there are some other “minor” tweaks. If you know of any big features that I missed, feel free to add them!