Device pack installation and its side affects

[robertchung1]

Good morning forum members,

I recently installed device pack cmterm-devicepack9.1.2.16147-1.cop.sgn, to add the latest Cisco 8821 wireless phone.  I had not yet restarted the TFTP service or rebooted the CUCM clusters. I just added the device pack ready for the reboots at a later date. I have a 7925G phone which I restarted and it went through a firmware upgrade and lost its authentication with the ACS server, so effectively the phone did not work. I factory reset the phone and re-entered the authentication details to connect the phone to the wireless network and the phone was then operational. 

Checking the 7925G's firmware, it was using CP7925G-1.4.8.4.LOADS. Before loading the new device pack, I made a note of the Device Defaults and the 7925G was using firmware CP7925G-1.4.5.3. To avoid issues with 7925Gs already in operation and for them to avoid downloading a new firmware, I manually typed in the old CP7925G-1.4.5.3 firmware in place of the latest version, saved it in CUCM and restarted my 7925G phone. I was expecting the see the phone go back to its previous firmware of CP7925G-1.4.5.3, but it still had the latest version.

1. Did I do the correct thing by manually typing in the old firmware to replace the old one? There is no drop down menu to select the previous firmware.

2. How can I avoid a mass firmware upgrade of my phones (6921s, 7821s, 7925Gs, 7926Gs, 7945s) in operation, before I restart the TFTP service and reboot the CUCM clusters (starting with the Publisher first, then the Subscribers)?

3. Do I manually type in the previous firmware versions for my phones, then save the CUCM configuration database (in Devices>Device Settings>Device Defaults)? 

I have read the phones will gracefully failover to the next server in their list when the CUCM clusters are rebooted. That is OK if they just reboot and re-register and not go through a firmware upgrade. If someone could clarify this and the answer the points above, that will be much appreciated.

Thanking you in advance.

Robert

[Rajan]

Hi Robert,

the new device pack if it includes firmware upgrade for all phone models, alters the device default in CUCM. So in order for the phones to retain the current firmware versions, you can manually change it to the previous versions you have noted down (in Devices>Device Settings>Device Defaults) and then proceed with reboots.

if any phone has already upgraded to the new firmware version, check for that firmware version to see if they are backward compatible as some of them cannot downgrade. 

HTH

Rajan

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[robertchung1]

Hello Rajan,

Thank you for your reply. I thought that would be the correct procedure, to manually change the new firmware to the previous version. 

Don't know if you could tell me this, but I manually changed the 7925G firmware from CP7925G-1.4.8.4 to CP7925G-1.4.5.3 on the Device Defaults, after I reboot the CUCM clusters, will my 7925G go back to firmware CP7925G-1.4.5.3?

Regards,

Robert

[Rajan]

Hi Robert,

After reboot, the device default will still have the firmware version that you manually updated CP7925G-1.4.5.3. So the 7925 phones which currently has CP7925G-1.4.5.3 will function normally and the ones which have CP7925G-1.4.8.4 will try to get CP7925G-1.4.5.3 if possible. If it has any issues in downgrading, it will retain the existing firmware and register.

HTH

Rajan

[robertchung1]

Hello Rajan,

That makes sense. I will see what happens when I reboot the CUCM clusters.

Regards,

Robert

[ramiz.shaikh1]

To avoid such situation we can upload the firmware file from software upgrades >> TFTP file management instead of install/ upgrade.

If we upload firmware files through TFTP file management and restart the TFTP service then load name in device defaults won't change and remain as it is.

Further just copy new load name and paste it in phone load name in device settings of a particular device.

In your case you need to insert the firmware name(to which you need to downgrade) into that device setting under phone load name and reset the device however as mentioned by
Ranjan please check if the version can be downgraded.

[robertchung1]

Hello Ramiz,

Thank you for your reply to my post. I will take note of your comments.

Regards,

Robert