I need to bulk change several hundred phones and extensions, what is my best option?

[davisjaron]

Here is the situation:  I have to move several hundred phones to a new building. 

This new building will have a different DN range, along with a new device pool, calling search space, etc..  Everything at the new building is already configured in CUCM and there are already several hundred phones functioning there.

Now I need to figure out what the best method is to change these hundreds of phones that are different phone models, that all have different calling search spaces and different DN's, to reflect the new calling search spaces, their new DN's, etc..

I was hoping I could export details, adjust what I need in an excel spreadsheet, and then just upload it back to CUCM and make all the needed changes, unfortunately I'm finding this to be more difficult than expected.

A phone template for each device model could work, except that I have different calling search spaces, several different softkey templates, and phone button templates for each device model.  So how do I get all of these changes made without having to make 15 different combination phone templates for each device model?

Thanks in advance

[Kita]

Change 1 or 2 phones manually

1.BAT export all phones / all details (depending on how many phones you have this can take a while)

2. Open in excel, sort and delete all but the rows except the ones you want to change (I'm assuming you can sort by DP

3. Start changing necessary attributes
  eg: CSS, REG, LOC, DP, DN, PT, etc..... (use the 1 or 2 you changed manually as a guide)
4. save the file as a csv

   IF YOU HAVE A BUNCH OF SPEED DIALS AND BLFS ---> Delete them and save a 2nd copy of the CSV

5. upload file(s) to CUCM / target phones - insert all details (do the one without the speed dials and BLFs first)

6. BAT phones - insert all details / select your file

7. Check the box to overwrite existing data

If you're lucky, you won't have any errors.  Most likely you will have a couple things to correct....users that no longer exist, fat fingered CSS, etc....look at the log and correct any errors. 

Once you have the phones in, run the BAT file with the speed dials and BLFs (BAT - insert phones - all details - overwrite) to restore speed dials.

It is a tedious process, but it is doable.  I've migrated a few customers from type 4 dial plans to +E164 and it is a very similar process. 

Good luck!  Let me know if you need further explanation.

[davisjaron]

Thanks for your response.  I actually was planning to do this and attempted to.  The problem is that we have a huge cluster and there were over 22,000 devices, so the export all file was over 22MB, so when I tried to download the txt file, the entire publisher froze and we had to restart the tomcat service.

[Kita · Accepted solution]

Oh wow!  I've been doing with much smaller numbers (500-2000 devices)

Without doing the same thing above, but splitting into smaller exports (Create a phone file format with all phone/line fields)

BAT - Export Phones / Specific Details (export by Device pool, DN, or something to break into manageable chunks)

Use the phone file format created....rinse and repeat. 

But then you are manipulating several files and that just sounds like a nightmare!

I'm not sure there is a clean/easy/quick and dirty way possible without a 3rd party provisioning/migration tool...and even those take time to set up to do exactly what you want

[Dennis Mink]

I am with Kitas approach on this one, but i would advise a more gradual approach, say export per device pool. once you have the bat file right,. delete the phones in that devicpool and bulk import them back in with the new settings. there is no way to sugercoat this, it is a lot of work. but certainly the approach you should take