We run Cisco Unified Presence 8.5(4) and Communications Manager 8.5 publishers and subscribers across three geographically diverse UCS C210 M2 servers. We’re using the validated designs outlined in this document.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6790/ps5748/ps378/solution_overview_c22-597556.html
This configuration is certified for up to four VMs per host (depending upon the UC product). We have two or three VMs running on each UCS C210 M2. They’re pretty bullet proof as long as follow the installation instructions very carefully (if you don’t you will be rebuilding!).
Most of the UC and UCCE deployments can be virtualized (http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Unified_Communications_Virtualization).
Just beware that a lot of the features popularly associated with VMware installations (such as vMotion) aren’t yet supported. We run these hosts as standalone VMware hosts. No SAN, no cluster. But with the distributed computing architecture Cisco utilizes with their UC and UCCE products (publisher / subscriber) this has not been an issue (I think distributed computing is better, more responsive, than vMotion).
Ken
