Polycom VSX 7000 Registering to VCS - Use H.323 or SIP ?

[bvanbenschoten]

I have a customer with a new VCS 8.5 install with newer C-Series endpoints on TC7.2.1 code.

They have a few older Polycom VSX 7000 units currently registered to a h.323 Polycom gatekeeper they would like to move over to the VCS environment.

They have 4 total units: Three of them are 7000a and one is 7000 

The Polycom endpoints are out of support and running software: 

(1 unit) 7000 - Release 8.5.3 - 28Feb2007

(1 unit) 7000a -     Release 8.5.3 - 28Feb2007

(2 units) 7000a -       Release 8.7.1 - 04Feb2008

From reading other posts and checking out the units, it appears that the only the "a" units can run both SIP and H.323 at the same time.  The "non-a" is either/or.  Is this correct

Given the age of the software, i was thinking of leaving them h.323 to register to VCS.  I'd like an all SIP environment but i fear finding all sorts of bugs and interop issues trying to run these old Polycom units as SIP.

Any opinions or advice ?

[Patrick Sparkman]

Because you said you searched the forums, you might have found the following discussion polycom-vsx-registration-cisco-vcs where Wayne said he's worked with the Polycom VSX endpoints, he might be able to tell you more when he sees this discussion.

I also found the following KB on the Cisco website vcs_registration_problems_polycom_endpoints_kb_435, might be of some use.

In your case, because you want to use SIP, and it appears they can register using SIP, I don't see why it wouldn't work, unless there is some reason you would want to keep using H323.  SIP is the preferred protocol going forward with Cisco.

[Wayne DeNardi]

As Patrick mentioned, I've had a reasonable amount of experience with the old Polycom VSX devices.

We've had both the 7000 and 7000a, and had them all working previously registered to our Cisco VCS, but we've been slowly replacing them all with current model endpoints given they went end of support in June 2014.

You will need to upgrade the firmware on the devices to at least version 9.0.5 of the VSX software to gain the functionality you're after.

From the 9.0.5 Release Notes:

In version 9.0.5, H.323 and SIP calling can be enabled simultaneously, and the Polycom system can place and participate in mixed H.323 and SIP calls.

The Version 9 software on the Polycoms also help fix a number of the interop issues with the Cisco endpoints, especially with Capset negotiation.

The Polycom VSX we have here is on the latest version: Release 9.0.6.2-103 - 04Sep2011.

Wayne
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[Chris Swinney]

+1 on the upgrade to 9.x for the VSXs if you can. The 9.x software came out in 2008 (November I think), and if you had a maintenance contract at that time, you should be eligible for an upgrade. I'm not sure what you can do if you not entitled - personally I don't think they are cost effective putting under maintenance now.

Cheers

Chris