6941 firmware 9.3(3) - Web access disabled

[etamminga]

Hi,

Just installed the latest firmware for the 6941 phones and found out it disables Web Access by default.

In order to re-enable web-access the release notes state that you need to install the latest device package. On CUCM 8.6(2), the device package that is available for download dates from december 2012, this firmware dates februari 2013. The device package contains older 6941 firmware.

Can someone confirm that the device package for 8.6(2) dated december 2012 allows me to re-enable web access on the phone?

Regards,

Erik

[Joseph Martini]

Erik, the device pack needed to make 9.3(3) work properly on the 69XX phones is not available yet.  I'm checking with the phone developers to see why it is not available because it is needed to make everything work on the 69XX phones such as web access as you have found.  For now you will have to downgrade the firmware to get web access to work if you need it.  I'll let you know what I find out about the status of the new device pack to allow the 9.3(3) firmware security by default (SBD) features to work.

[Joseph Martini]

I just heard back that the device pack which is needed to make this firmware fully functional should be on cisco.com sometime next week.  Keep an eye out for it.

[etamminga]

Hi,

In the mean time we installed the devicepack released in December and it also gave us the web access ( instructed by TAC). It turned out that without the devicepack CUCM was not even generating signed configuration files and therefor the phone had to do with the default.cnf.xml and thus missed all phone specific confg, like web access. Cisco should specify the version of devicepack required in the release notes of the phone firmware, that will help next time.

We are seeing a lot of bug on the 69xx phones. I certainly hope a new fw and devicepack will solve a lot of them. I'll keep an eye on the download section on CCO.

Regards,
Erik

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[Joseph Martini]

Curious, when you installed cmterm-devicepack8.6.2.23057-1.cop.sgn, did you then change the device defaults back to the 9.3.3 load or did your 69XX phones go back to the load in the device pack of 9.3.1?

[etamminga]

Before I installed the devicepack I made sure all phones had a local load configured. So the phones are still running 9.3.3(2).

Regards,
Erik

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[Joseph Martini]

Thanks.  Also we do document which device pack is needed for each CUCM/firmware version here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/compat/devpack_comp_mtx.html. However this has not been updated with 9.3(3) yet because the device pack with support of all 9.3(3) features for the 69XX phones is not available yet on cisco.com.  Once the file is available that matrix will be updated to reflect it.

[etamminga]

Thanks, but I think it would be better to put the required devicepack version (in full detail, not only 8.6.2, but 8.6.2.xxxx) in the release notes of the firmware!
To be honest, I have never seen this document you mentioned in my whole UC lifetime. We look at the release-notes and do not have the time to turn Cisco.com upside down to read all other related documents regarding the upgrade.

Regards,
Erik

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

[Joseph Martini]

Thanks for the feedback.  The firmware release notes do link to that document.  The reason for the link over the explicet versions is that when it has to be updated, multiple documents would have to be updated/maintained rather than just one which everything links to.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cuipph/6900_series/firmware/9_3_3/release_notes/P069_BK_R9A78776_00_rn-9_3_3-6900-series.html#P069_RF_F6995D52_00

Features available with latest Cisco Unified Communications Manager Device Pack

The  following features require the installation of a Cisco Unified  Communications Manager device pack containing the Cisco IP Phone  configuration files. The device pack installs the firmware and the  configuration files needed to enable the features. These features can be  configured and may be turned off by default. After being turned on,  these features may also have attributes or settings that can be  configured. See the sections below for more details.

For information on the availability of Cisco Unified Communications Manager Device Packs, see:

http:/​/​www.cisco.com/​en/​US/​docs/​voice_ip_comm/​cucm/​compat/​devpack_​comp_​mtx.html

[Clifford McGlamry]

Erik is not the only one who had never seen that document before.  I have to LOUDLY echo his comment that we do not have time to turn Cisco's web site upside down to find this stuff.  We also don't have time to follow a billion links contained in these documents to see if they *might* be relavent, because most of the time, they aren't.

At the end of the day, the release notes for a particular firmware load should contain a section that outlines ANY prerequisites required.  We should not have to play hide and seek to find this stuff.

I got bit recently because we installed a 6941 load we got off CCO, and had issues.  The TAC engineer was extremely rude and told us we should have known that it had to be installed using a device pak.  Personally, I'm somewhat baffled why Cisco would EVER release firmware individually if it has to be installed via a device pak, but that's just me.  If there is a dependancy, why isn't it identified in the release notes as to when you have to and when you don't?  It makes very little sense as it's a black box process from the outside view. 

And the time zone issues with this particular model (69XX) are insane.  I don't know where in the development the decision was made to do things the way they are done, but the old 7940/7960 just got time from CUCM.  Given all the frustration that happens with the approach used by the 6941's, I'm really baffled why we continue using this approach.  It just creates unhappy customers. 

My two cents worth anyway....