First Published: February 11, 2019

Last Updated: June 19, 2019

Introduction to Cisco Collaboration Systems Release for Contact Center

As part of our standard methodology for each Cisco Collaboration Systems Release, we:

  • Perform system-wide testing of Cisco Collaboration products to supplement the product-level testing performed on each collaboration product.

  • Recommend compatible software releases that were verified by the testing teams. The recommendations are not exclusive and are in addition to interoperability recommendations for each of the individual applications or products.

    For software compatibility data, see the Cisco Collaboration Systems Release Compatibility Matrix.


    Note

    Software compatibility data for all Cisco Collaboration Systems releases before 10.5(1) is available from the Cisco Collaboration Systems Compatibility Tool.


    Note
    Not all Collaboration System product release versions may be available at the same time. For latest product version availability, see individual product support pages at, Support and Downloads.

This document focuses on the Contact Center components tested as part of the Cisco Collaboration Systems Release. For information focused on Collaboration components that were tested as part of Cisco Collaboration Systems Release, see: https://cisco.com/go/unified-techinfo.

This document provides release notes details based on the system-wide testing which includes the following types of components:

  • Call control components, such as Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), and Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service.

  • Contact center components, such as Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE), Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise (Packaged CCE), Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (Unified CCX), Cisco Unified Intelligence Center (Unified Intelligence Center), Cisco Finesse, and Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal (Unified CVP).

  • Enterprise Edge components such as Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server, Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE), and Cisco Expressway Series.

  • Devices (Endpoints), such as Cisco DX Series (DX Series), Cisco IP Phone 7800/8800 Series (7800/8800 Series), Cisco Jabber for Windows (Jabber for Windows) and Cisco Virtualization Experience Media Edition (VXME) for Windows.

  • Communications gateway components such as Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISR).

Tested Functionality

System-wide testing was done for features and upgrade paths.

Feature Testing

In this release, the following features were system-tested:

Cisco Packed Contact Center Enterprise (Packaged CCE) 12.0(1)

  • Cisco IP Phones 8845 and 8865 in Packaged CCE environment

  • Jabber multi-line support for Packaged CCE features

  • FiNext: the new Finesse Agent Desktop

  • Single GUI for all the administrative configurations (replacing OAMP)

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (Unified CCX) 12.0(1)

  • Jabber multi-line support for Unified CCX features

  • Unified CCX migration from RHEL 6 to CentOS 6.8

  • FiNext: the new Finesse Agent Desktop

  • Advanced Supervisor Capabilities

  • Agent to Agent chat: Agent can chat with another agent using the Finesse desktop without using Social Miner/DMZ

Upgrade Paths

The system-wide functionality testing included verifying upgrade paths across various product components for a single stage upgrade from Cisco Collaboration Systems Release 12.0 to Cisco Collaboration Systems Release 12.5 and 12.6.

For a list of versions that are compatible with Cisco Collaboration Systems Release 12.5 and 12.6, see the Cisco Collaboration Systems Compatibility Matrix.

New and Changed Features

For details about what is new for Cisco Collaboration Systems Release 12.5 and 12.6, see the Solution Overview.

For details about new and changed contact center product features, access individual product release notes from Product Documentation.

System Requirements

This section provides information about system requirements for this Cisco Collaboration Systems Release.

End-of-Sale Components

The following components have reached end-of-sale (EOS) status but are still supported.

The EOS date is the last date to order the product through Cisco point-of-sale mechanisms. The product is no longer for sale. Another process, the end-of-life (EOL) cycle, guides the final business operations associated with the product.

The EOL process consists of a series of technical and business milestones and activities that, when completed, make a product obsolete. After a product becomes obsolete, it is not sold, manufactured, improved, repaired, maintained, or supported.

For information about recommended replacements and a comprehensive list of announcements, see Products & Services End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Products.

For information about specific products, go to Product/Technology Support. Then click End-of-Sale and End-of-Life and select products or technologies from the lists to the right.

Go to End-of-Life Policy for more information about the EOL policy.

Deployment Considerations

This section lists deployment considerations for Cisco Collaboration Systems Release. Cisco Collaboration Systems validation does not test every rebuild. Therefore, more regression testing in a customer or Cisco-specific certification lab is recommended before deployment.


Note

For your reference, see the Cisco Collaboration Systems Release Design Guides.

When deploying Cisco Collaboration Systems, consider the following.

  • At the minimum, deploy the software release that is recommended in:

    Cisco Collaboration Systems Compatibility Matrix


    Note

    For compatibility information before Collaboration Systems Release 10.5, refer to the Compatibility Tool.

  • For other software components, use the most current rebuild of a maintenance release. For IOS, information about the latest releases, including deferral advisories, is available at:

    http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/CFN/jsp/index.jsp

  • If the recommended release has been deferred to a subsequent release, use the subsequent release.

  • Before deploying a release, examine the open caveats in the chosen release to determine if any affect your implementation. View open caveats through the Bug Search tool, which is located at:

    https://tools.cisco.com/bugsearch/

  • Deploy the chosen release in a lab environment that uses the same product components as your product components before moving to a production environment.

Component Versions

For current Cisco Collaboration Systems Release compatible component versions, refer to the Cisco Collaboration Systems Compatibility Matrix.


Note

For compatibility information before Collaboration Systems Release 10.5, refer to the Compatibility Tool.


Note

Product-specific compatibility documents provide complete compatibility information between components.


Note
Not all Collaboration System product release versions may be available at the same time. For latest product version availability, see individual product support pages at, Support and Downloads.

Note

You can set up a virtualized environment by running collaboration applications on a virtual machine on a Unified Computing System (UCS). For more details, including UCS hardware information and third-party requirements, see:

https://www.cisco.com/go/virtualized-collaboration


Note
Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (Cisco HCS) is a hosted solution that includes various Cisco Collaboration Systems release components. For more information about Cisco HCS, see: Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution and Cisco HCS Product Support.

Related Documentation

Product Documentation

The following table provides links to product documentation for the major Collaboration Systems Release components. The table provides links to:

  • Product Information pages, from which you can access product overview and marketing material such as product data sheets.

  • Product Documentation pages, from which you can access technical documentation such as Release Notes, Design, Installation, Configuration, and Troubleshooting guides.


Note

For details about component versions, see Component Versions.

Table 1. Component Resources Documentation

Component

Links

Call Control

Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service

Contact Center

Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise

Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express

Cisco Unified Intelligence Center

Cisco MediaSense (End-of-Sale: Oct 4, 2017)

Cisco Finesse

Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal

Cisco Virtualized Voice Browser

Cisco Unified Intelligent Contact Management Enterprise

Cisco Unified E-Mail Interaction Manager (EOS)

Cisco Unified Web Interaction Manager (EOS)

Conferencing

Cisco TelePresence Conductor

Enterprise Edge

Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server

Cisco Expressway Series

Cisco Unified Border Element

Endpoints

Cisco DX Series

Cisco TelePresence System EX Series (EOS)

Cisco Unified IP Phone 6901

Cisco Unified IP Phone 6911, 6921, 6941, 6945, 6961 (EOS)

Cisco IP Phone 7800 Series

Cisco Unified IP Phone 7900 Series

Cisco IP Phone 8800 Series

Cisco Unified IP Phone 8900 Series (EOS)

Cisco Unified IP Phone 9900 Series (EOS)

Cisco Jabber for Mac

Cisco Jabber for Windows

Cisco Virtualization Experience Media Edition for Windows

Cisco Virtualization Experience Media Edition for SUSE Linux

Cisco Jabber Guest

Communication Gateways

Cisco Unified SIP Proxy

Cisco 2900 Series Integrated Services Routers

Cisco 3900 Series Integrated Services Routers

Cisco 4400 Series Integrated Services Routers

Limitations and Restrictions

If you are a Cisco partner or a registered Cisco.com user with a Cisco service contract, you can use the Bug Search tool to find caveats of any severity for any release. Access Bug Search at: https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/.

We offer a Cisco Notification Service that allows you to set up one or more profiles. These profiles enable you to receive email notification of new Field Notices, Product Alerts, or End of Sale information for the products that you have selected. The Product Alert Tool is available at: https://www.cisco.com/cisco/support/notifications.html.

Important Notes

This section includes important notes related to the testing of this Cisco Collaboration Systems Release.

Push Notifications Calls Fail During Unified Communications Manager Failover

Incoming Push Notifications calls to Cisco Jabber on iPhone or iPad will fail if Cisco Unified Communications Manager is in failover state and the Jabber client has been in standby mode for more than 3 minutes, or if Jabber is in a killed or swiped-away state. In this case, to receive incoming Push Notifications calls, the mobile device, or the Jabber client, must be relauched.

For details, see CSCvj93746.

Open Caveats for 12.5

The following table lists known caveats, grouped by severity, related to Cisco Collaboration Systems Release testing. It also includes caveats from previous releases, which were not resolved at the time this document was written. For more information about each defect, click the linked caveat number in the Identifier column.

For information about a defect not listed in the table, go to Bug Search Tool.

Table 2. Contact Center Open Caveats

Identifier

Headline

Severity 2-3 Caveats

CSCvo04890

Multiple observations on PCCE when VM tools are out of date for CUIC post upgrade

Open Caveats for 12.6

The following table lists known caveats, grouped by severity, related to Cisco Collaboration Systems Release testing. It also includes caveats from previous releases, which were not resolved at the time this document was written. For more information about each defect, click the linked caveat number in the Identifier column.

For information about a defect not listed in the table, go to Bug Search Tool.

Table 3. Open Caveats

Identifier

Headline

Severity 2-3 Caveats

CSCvo12799

Call is not getting connected in Forking Re-INVITE scenario

CSCvj72294

Memory leak @ CCSIP_SPI_CONTR

CSCvp72978

VXML gateway crashed on 4th day Load run - ISR G2 Platform

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting information, tips, and recommendations related to Cisco Collaboration Systems Releases, see individual product Troubleshooting Guides located in Component Documentation.