Cisco 7941/7961

[jmurillo2]

First of all I am new to working with cisco phones. 

  My dilema is this, phone had been previously registered on system. Removed it because it was not needed. Now I have to add it again, when I did the phone 7941 and 7961 kept looping on configuring and it would not boot up. I did a factory reset and when it comes up I get the Cisco palsh screen and it says it is upgrading. It has been upgrading for hours. nothing else happens. Where do I need to go or what can I do to see if there are any other issues. As I said the phone had been working and registered in th Call manager.

Thanks

[Clifford McGlamry]

1.  Check to see what DHCP address it's getting, and then verify that the DHCP scope is correct.  Specifically check to ensure that option 150 is set to get the phones to the TFTP server.  If the System--> Servers settings are that the servers are listed by FQDN instead of IP address, make sure the DHCP scope also lists valid DNS servers.

2.  Check the TFTP logs on CallManager to see if the phones are even making requests of CUCM. 

3.  Try plugging the phones into a patch cable/jack where a phone is currently working (I've seen phones that will register on a bad patch, but not upgrade successfully on one). 

4.  If you can get to the point where you can get to the phone configuration settings, clear the ITL files (and CTL files to if you have them). 

5.  Check to see what current firmware version they phones are on, and see if they may possibly require a stairstep upgrade to get  to your configured firmware version for the phone type.  This one will bite you big time, and it looks exactly like what you're describing. 

Are you pointing them at the same CUCM cluster that they were used with previously? 

Let us know.

[jmurillo2]

I will try your suggestions, but we did go through a system upgrade and believe that the issue is the firmware version. Where can I go view information on how to do the stairstep upgrade.

Thanks

[Clifford McGlamry]

Generally, it's in the release notes.  If you can tell me what version they are currently on, and what version you're attempting to assign to them, I can help you locate the information you need.

Cliff

[jmurillo2]

Hi Cliff,

    As I mentioned before I am new to all of this so where do I obtain the information.

From the CUCM here is the information:

Cisco Unified CM Administration

System version: 9.1.2.10000-28

VMware Installation: 1 vCPU Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2643 0 @ 3.30GHz, disk 1: 80Gbytes, 4096Mbytes RAM, Partitions aligned

Not sure where I go about getting the information for the phone is it from the device itself. I get this information:

Version : *SCCP41.9-3-1SR2-1S

I did try your third suggestion and it did register/update the device. I was then able to add the new information to the phone.

Thanks, but would still like to find out about the stairstepping ugrading of firmware

[Clifford McGlamry]

You can find the release notes for 7900 series phones here:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/collaboration-endpoints/unified-ip-phone-7900-series/products-release-notes-list.html

When you pull the release notes for the version you are upgrading to, you'll see the note in the release notes.  I pulled one at random, but you can look at it here:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cuipph/7900_series/firmware/9-4-2/english/releasenotes/P790_BK_73355F5F_00_7900-series-rn-942/P790_BK_73355F5F_00_7900-series-rn-942_chapter_00.html#CUIP_TP_S3B5C8CB_00

You'll see a big section outlined that says

NOTE: For all SCCP firmware upgrades from firmware release versions earlier than 8.3(3) to Version 9.3(1) or later, you must first upgrade your phone firmware to an intermediate version (8.3(3) to 8.5(2)) and then upgrade to 9.3(1).

That's a stairstep upgrade.  What you do, is manually configure the phone ahead of time on the CUCM server, and then do a specifci assignment to the desired firmware load (i.e. the intermediate load).  Once it's up, just clear the assignment, save it, and hit apply settings/reset, and it should upgrade the rest of the way to the current level. 

Make sense?  As far as seeing the current load, you can see it on the phone itself if you can get into the menus, or from the internal web page the phone has (put the ip address of the phone into a web browser).  Of course, the web server for the phone has to be enabled in the phone config or it won't work. 

As you found out, often the reason stuff isn't upgrading is due to cable problems.  The drop you were on is likely bad.  You should get it checked out.  Often it just needs to be repunched down on the ends or possibly reterminated. 

Cliff

[Clifford McGlamry]

There are also some phones (new from manufacturing) that have loads that cannot be downgraded.  We ran into this about a year or so ago with a customer that ordered new 7962's, and had CUCM version 8.6.  CUCM firmware assigned version was lower than what they were made with, and it couldn't be downgraded.  SImilar behavior, and again, it was outlined in the release notes. 

Cliff

[jmurillo2]

I know I will have to read the notes, but is the firmware update by device or by the series?

[Clifford McGlamry]

It's model specific.  In your case, you'd look at the 7941/7961 (same firmware). 

[Clifford McGlamry]

You set the firmware assignment at a global level, but can individually assign specific loads on the phone configuration page if you need to.

[Glenn Martin]

Hi JMurillo2:

I see this wasn't answered on this community. This should be pretty straight forward, so, I'm sorry about your frustration. Did you try the reset again?