Hacking or Bypassing Hardware Check for UC Applications like CUCM, CUC, IM&P, UCCX.

Sometimes when you setup your own lab at your home and you have limited hardware resources, it gets difficult to install UC application, specially Cisco Unity Connection. You will not get an options to install Cisco Unity Connection until and unless the hardware requirements are met i.e., Cisco Unity Connection needs minimum of 4GB RAM and 160GB HDD (as per virtualization requirements).

In such cases, we can tweak the installation in such a way that it would bypass the hardware check for Cisco Unified Communications Manager or Cisco Unity Connection.

Prerequisites for Bypassing Hardware Check:

In our example, we are going to see how to tweak / bypass Cisco Unity Connection hardware check. To do so, you need to have the following files ready.

1. Notepad ++ file installed in your system
2. PowerISO or alternative to PowerISO installed in your system. If you are using PowerISO, make sure it is full version.
3. Cisco Unified Communications Manager Bootable ISO file. We will be using UCSInstall_UCOS_9.0.1.10000-37.iso file for testing purpose.

Locating the file callmanager_product.conf in the ISO Image using PowerISO:

Let’s get started:

1. Open the UCSInstall_UCOS_9.0.1.10000-37.iso file using PowerISO.
2. Navigate to the path /Cisco/install/conf
3. Right click callmanager_product.conf and click Extract To…
   Choose a location where you want to extract this file. In our case, we have selected Desktop

   Modifying the file callmanager_product.conf using Notepad++:

4. Right click “callmanager_product” and select Edit with Notepad++
5. If you would like to bypass the hardware for your Call Manager installation, you can search  id=”callmanager”
6. Change the Value from NOT, to VAL. See below:NOT, VMware, *, *, 2047, *, *, *, *, *    –>> Change it to
   VAL, VMware, *, *, 1024, *, *, *, *, *    –> > Change to this value
7. If you would like to bypass the hardware for your Cisco Unity Connection installation, you can search  id=”connection”
8. Change the Value from NOT, to VAL. See below:NOT, VMware, *, *, *, *, *, *, *, *
   VAL, VMware, *, *, *, *, *, *, *, *
9. Save the callmanager_product.conf file
   

   Replacing the existing callmanager_product.conf file in the ISO and Save the file:

10. Delete callmanager_product.conf from the ISO file and replace callmanager_product.conf with the one you just modified.
    Replace : Drag and drop the file (the one you modified just now) :
11. Click on File > Save
    

    Load the modified ISO file in your Virtual Machine and boot your UC Application:

12. Now you can use this ISO file to boot your Cisco Unified Communications Manager or Cisco Unity Connection with your limited hardware resource.

Demo Video on Bypassing the CUCM/CUC/UCCX/Unity hardware check and making the ISO bootable.

Hope this helps!

Avinash Karnani

I am working in an IT company and having 10+ years of experience into Cisco IP Telephony and Contact Center. I have worked on products like CUCM, CUC, UCCX, CME/CUE, IM&P, Voice Gateways, VG224, Gatekeepers, Attendant Console, Expressway, Mediasense, Asterisk, Microsoft Teams, Zoom etc. I am not an expert but i keep exploring whenever and wherever i can and share whatever i know. You can visit my LinkedIn profile by clicking on the icon below.

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