Path translation for files in flash

Ovidiu Popa · ‎06-07-2009

I think that with the plethora of files required for CME to work the router's flash becomes a little crowded an could use a little housekeeping. I poked around a little and i found a surprisingly simple example to cleanup the router's flash.

The tftp-server command allows you to define an alias for the files that it serves to the IP phone. Saw this in several Cisco.com examples regarding phone backgrounds and localization files. It is used by default by CME but it's hidden under the hood. Do a show telephony-service tftp-bindings and you'll see lots of files that use the same technique.

#sh telephony-service tftp-bindings
tftp-server system:/its/united_states/7960-tones.xml alias United_States/7960-tones.xml

tftp-server system:/its/SEPDEFAULT.cnf alias SEPDefault.cnf

...

How is this helpful to us? Instead of changing the name of a file we change the location of the file, so a request for tftp://X.X.X.X/RingList.xml actualy reads the file Ringtones/RingList.xml which is in the Ringtones directory not a file in the root of the filesystem.

DISCLAIMER1: This configuration is probably not supported by Cisco TAC so bare that in mind if you use it.

DISCLAIMER2: The CME GUI files are not compatible with this solution so follow the Cisco.com instructions when installing them.

Here's the configuration for several files. You must create aliases for all the files that you want to move from the root of the filesystems to a directory.

(config)#tftp-server flash:Ringtones/RingList.xml alias RingList.xml
(config)#tftp-server flash:Ringtones/DistinctiveRingList.xml alias DistinctiveRingList.xml
(config)#tftp-server flash:Ringtones/Analog1.raw alias Analog1.raw
(config)#tftp-server flash:Ringtones/Analog2.raw alias Analog2.raw
...

Same goes for the phone firmware, place them in a Loads directory:

(config)#tftp-server flash:Loads/P00308000500.bin alias P00308000500.bin

In the end we have a cleaner flash with directories:

#dir flash:
Directory of flash:/

    1 drw-              0 May 26 2009 22:40:20 +02:00 Loads
    4 -rw-      496521 Mar 29 2004 11:40:48 +02:00 music-on-hold.au
    5 drw-              0 May 26 2009 22:40:40 +02:00 Ringtones
   39 drw-             0 May 26 2009 22:43:42 +02:00 Desktops

...

To check that all works well, here's the debug of a 7940 registering to CUCME:

#debug tftp event

...

*Jun 7 21:21:07.727: TFTP: Looking for RINGLIST.XML
*Jun 7 21:21:07.727: TFTP: Opened flash:Ringtones/RingList.xml, fd 8, size 2823 for process 227

*Jun 7 21:21:07.815: TFTP: Finished flash:Ringtones/RingList.xml, time 00:00:00 for process 227

*Jun 7 21:21:07.847: TFTP: Looking for DISTINCTIVERINGLIST.XML
*Jun 7 21:21:07.847: TFTP: Opened flash:Ringtones/DistinctiveRingList.xml, fd 7, size 2823 for process 225
*Jun 7 21:21:07.867: TFTP: Finished flash:Ringtones/DistinctiveRingList.xml, time 00:00:00 for process 225

...

Hope you enjoy it...

David Harper · ‎06-07-2009

You'll find that the software bundles from about 7.0.2 onwards are setup in exactly this way. If you upgrade to one of these bundles using CCA, you will find you get a nice clean directory structure on the flash card that is much easier to navigate, with all the configuration entires adjusted according.

Cheers,

Dave.

Steven DiStefano · ‎06-08-2009

Agree and emphasis that CCA has a checkbox in the SW Upgrade (Maintenance Drawer) that you should check when performing SW upgrade and it builds the Flash: structure for you.....

The only heads up is since it uses the PC as a temporary share space to copy everything off flash, if it doesnt recognize a file (some custom picture or ring tone) in the root, it wont put it back, so back these up yourself first :-)