Transitioning Phones from Version 3 to 5

[Vernon]

Hello,

 

Ultimately what i want to do is painlessly transition my customers from version 3 PBX's to a version 5 PBX without having to touch the phones physically or to upgrade their respective servers. What i want to do is completely take down a version 3 server and change the DNS records and point them to a version 5 server.

 

For the purposes of this discussion let's say 100.xxx is version 3 server and 200.xxx is version 5 server

The FW of the phones on 100.xxx is 7.3.30

 

I will explain the procedures i take in my migration.

 

1. Export the domain from 100.xxx and import to 200.xxx

2. Obtain MAC of the phone and attach it to it's respective extension

3. Change DNS records to point testdomain from 100.xxx to 200.xxx

4. Reboot the phone once records change

5. Phones attempt to obtain configuration file but give return code 500 and ultimately fail

6. I upgrade the FW of the phones to 8.4.18

7. Reboot phone and it picks up configuration file and register on 200.xxx without issues

 

What i'm looking for is guidance on how to do this is seemlessly without any issues. Preferably i would like to not have to push any updates to the phones on 100.xxx that has to upgrade the FW to 8.4.18 but so far it looks like this is the only way to transition the phones from 3 to 5.

 

I would welcome any suggestions or direct me to the right path i would appreciate it,

 

Thank you for your time.

 

[Vodia PBX]

Instead of exporting single domains you better copy the working directory to the new server. Exporting a single domain wasn't always 100 % bug-free, for example exporting global phone numbers was a challenge. If you want to split a server up, you can copy the working directory to two servers and then delete the domains that are not needed on that server.

 

If you are using snom phones, you might want to obtain one of those XML-RPC passwords from snom, so that you can automatically redirect the phones based on their MAC to the new server, no matter what has been set up on the phones.

 

Otherwise the question is how the phones were provisioned. If they were provisioned with a DNS address for the setting server, it will work to change the DNS address. You might have to open up the MAC addresses on the new server for provisioning (make the duration e.g. one day, not just ten minutes), so that the phones can provision even if they don't have the password for provisioning (or the client certificate which not all snom phones have).

 

If you want to keep the firmware, you can change the snom_3xx_fs.xml and take out the links (leave the XML body, though). Then the phones will load that file, but not detect any firmware URL and stay with the current firmware. I would recommend in the beginning of the migration; later you can undo these changes and have phones upgrade to the L&G firmware.

 

The other "cliff" you might experience with the upgrade are your trunks. If you have complex trunk settings (SIP headers), you might have to tweak them again to get this going properly.

 

And of course set aside some off-line time when you want to do the migration (don't do it while all users are busy). You might also want to let the Vodia support know about the time frame for a stand-by, just in case...