The Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express (Unified CME) feature set is delivered with hardware router platforms, such as the Cisco Integrated Services Router (ISR) series. From Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 16.10.1, a subset of Unified CME features (virtual CME) is used in virtualized environments with the Cisco CSR 1000v Series Cloud Services Router.

From Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.4.1a, virtual CME is available for use with Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software (Catalyst 8000V) series.

Note	When upgrading to C8000V software from a CSR1000V release, an existing throughput configuration will be reset to a maximum of 250 Mbps. Install an HSEC authorization code, which you can obtain from your Smart License account, before reconfiguring your required throughput level.

Virtual CME has the following prerequisites:

• Hardware Requirements for Virtual CME

• Software Requirements for Virtual CME

The endpoints with the following protocols are supported on virtual CME:

• SIP—All SIP endpoints that are supported on Unified CME. For information on the endpoints supported on Unified CME, see Virtual Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 12.5 Supported Firmware, Platforms, Memory, and Voice Products.

• SCCP—Only Analog Voice Gateways, such as Cisco VG310, VG320, and VG350 are supported as SCCP endpoints on virtual CME.

• Mixed Deployment (SIP and VG acting as SCCP endpoints). SCCP phones are not supported with virtual CME.

Virtual CME supports most of the features that are supported by Unified CME. Due to the physical architecture of the router platform, the following features are not available with virtual CME:

• Hardware Conference (Due to the limitation in supporting the PVDM hardware)

• Transcoding (Due to the limitation in supporting the PVDM hardware)

• Physical Voice Ports

The following phone features are not supported by virtual CME:

• Music On Hold Groups

• cBarge

• Hold and Remote Resume with Shared Line (not supported for Analog VG endpoints)

• Multicast MOH is not supported for SIP or Analog VG endpoints.

• Live MOH is not supported for SIP or Analog VG endpoints.

Virtual CME does not support the hardware conferencing-related CLI commands available on Unified CME.

The following CLI commands cannot be configured on virtual CME:

• Within telephony-service configuration mode:

  • conference hardware

  • fxo hook-flash

  • Virtual CME does not support any of the sdspfarm related commands that are supported in Unified CME. Some of the examples are:

    • sdspfarm units number

    • sdspfarm conference mute-on mute-ondigits mute-off mute-off-digits

    • sdspfarm tag number device-name

• Within voice register global configuration mode:

  • conference hardware

• Within ephone-dn configuration mode:

  • conference ad-hoc | meetme

• Within global configuration mode:

  • call-manager-fallback

• All caveats, restrictions, and limitations of Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 16.12.1a are applicable to virtual CME.

• Only Unified CME features supported by Cisco IOS XE Fuji 16.9.1 (Unified CME 12.3) are available on virtual CME.

• As DSP or voice interface hardware is not available for the CSR 1000V or the CSR 8000V, related Unified CME features such as transcoding and hardware conferencing are not supported on virtual CME.

• NIM-based Analog or Digital PSTN Trunks are not supported.

• No support for colocation with CUBE.

Use the CSR1000V or C8000V OVA application file (available from software.cisco.com) to deploy a new virtual instance directly in VMware ESXi. For details about how to perform the deployment, see Installing the Cisco CSR 1000v in VMware ESXi Environments and Installing Catalyst 8000V in VMware ESXi Environment.

Note	Explicit subscription of CPUs and Memory is required while deploying OVA provided by Cisco CSR 1000V or C8000V series.

Virtual CME offers the same licensing options that are available for Unified CME.

To allow the configuration of virtual CME:

• Enable an APPX or AX license on a Cisco CSR 1000v Series Cloud Services Router.

• Enable a DNA Advantage subscription on a C8000V series.

The licensing options for virtual CME on the router platform are available under the CLI command license boot level :

Router(config)#license boot level ?
  appx      Enable appx license
  ax        Enable ax(ipb+sec+appx) license
  ipbase    Enable ipbase license
  security  Enable security license

For virtual CME, throughput license suitable for the number of calls and other traffic processed by the router should be selected. For information on throughput licenses, see Changing Throughput Licenses.

Install Cisco Smart License for virtual CME. Cisco Smart License for virtual CME is enabled with the same entitlement tags that are assigned for Unified CME.

For more information on licensing options available for Unified CME, see Licensing.

For detailed steps about how to install Cisco CSR 1000V Licenses or C8000V series, see Installing Cisco CSR 1000V Licenses and Cisco Catalyst 8000V Licensing.