Phone Designer compatibilty with 9.x phone firmware

[Scott Holden]

Hi all,

There have been several posts in the past surrounding errors in Phone Designer, but I wanted to see if I could get confirmation.  I'm running a two node UCM 8.6.2.21900-5 cluster.  I was getting new reports of the usual "unknown error with your IP Phone" problem from end users when trying to apply background images to their phones, and finally got some time to troubleshoot.

I'm testing this from a Windows 7 x64 laptop, running Phone Designer 7.1(3) SR2.  I'm using the .NET commands found in this thread to get around the 32-bit limitation of the software:  https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2030926

With a 7965 phone running the latest SCCP firmware, 9.3(1), Phone Designer errors out.  I've confirmed the usual suspects aren't the issue (personalization, web access, etc.).  Reading through some other threads, downgrading the phone firmware was a suggestion with a decent success rate.  I loaded 8.5(4), and Phone Designer works without issue; loaded 9.3(1) again, and Phone Designer is broken.

I suppose my question is, is this a known limitation with all the 9.x firmware releases?  Or is something else at play here?

Hopefully I didn't miss the answer in another thread.

Thanks for the help!

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Scott,

Did you see this thread?

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2041023

Cheers!

Rob

"Always movin' ahead and never lookin' back" - Springsteen

[Scott Holden]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the reply!  I did see that thread; it's the one that pointed me to downgrading the firmware on the phone actually.  Before downgrading, I tried pointing Phone Designer to our subscriber vs. the publisher as mentioned in that same thread.  Unfortunately, that didn't resolve the issue.  For the record, when the phone is running firmware 8.5(4), Phone Designer can be pointed to the pub or sub and work correctly (CM 8.6).  The "unknown error with your IP Phone" issue only appears to surface with phone firmware 9.x.

9.3(1), Designer to pub, Unknown Error

9.3(1), Designer to sub, Unknown Error

8.5(4), Desinger to pub, Successful

8.5(4), Designer to sub, Successful

I guess my next step will be to test with earlier 9.x versions, but 9.0(3) was mentioned in the thread as not working as well.

Thanks again!

Scott

[Aaron Harrison]

Hi Scott

I wrote software to do a similar function to PD, but bulk/admin style. It uses the same XML push to set the image, but AXL to retrieve the phone information in bulk etc. I've had no problems with new firmware.

The big difference between 9x and 8x firmware is security. 9.x supports ITL, HTTPs , and so on. I suspect that when you upgrade to 8.x either name resolution of the auth URL, trust neg with the auth URL, or some such is failing.

I would do this:

1) try browsing to http://phoneip/CGI/Screenshot - it will prompt for userid/password. Enter the userid/pass (both case sensitive) of a user that is associated to the phone, and if you see a screenshot then the auth system is working.

2) verify that the phones have DNS, and that the DNS names in the secure auth URls etc are resolvable

3) check the phone logs after browsing to the phone to see if there is evidence of trusts failing (tls handshakes etc)

4) if all that fails, do a packet cap of you trying to access the Screenshot URL and post it up.

Regards

Aaron

[Scott Holden]

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for the response.  Here are the results:

1) This results in the display of a screenshot when running 9x or 8x firmware.  A 2nd test, when I browse to http://10.1.2.100/ccmcip/authenticate.jsp?UserID=userid&Password=password&devicename=SEP0024C442D3DE (with actual credentials in the URL) I receive AUTHORIZED. 

2) The phone does have valid DNS server entries, but all of the URLs in UCM are configured as IP addresses.

3) I don't see any evidence of trusts failing in the logs on the phone.

This testing had an interesting side effect.  After browsing to http://10.1.6.108/CGI/Screenshot, Phone Designer is able push images to my phone running 9x firmware!  If I reboot the phone, it must clear the cached authentication from the browser, as Phone Designer errors out again.  Browse to the screenshot page again, and Phone Designer works without issue until I reboot the phone.

Thoughts?

[Aaron Harrison]

Hi

Sort of smells like a bug :-)

I'd be run a wireshark trace against the phone to capture the XML sent to it by phone designer and the response. It might be sending something in a strange format or something.

Aaron

[Yorick Petey]

Hi Scott,

Did you find a solution for this problem?

Phone designer is still supported until the 23rd of October, so this should be fixed to run with 8.6 or 9.0...

Thanks.

Yorick

[michaelfine77]

Scott,

Were you able to find a resolution to the phone designer issue? I verified phone designer worked on a phone with 9-2-1S firmware, but not 9-3-1SR1. I was also able to browse to the phone and see the display and have phone designer work temporarily......until the phone reboots.

Thanks

Michael

[Scott Holden]

Hi Michael,

I've since determined that it isn't a compatiblility issue with all 9.x firmware versions as originally believed (as you pointed out, it works with 9.2(1)). I hadn't tested with earlier versions of 9, simply because another thread mentioned it not working in 9.0(3) either.

I'm currently running 9.2(3) on all my 7941/61G-GE and 7945/65 devices and phone designer works without issue.  Both 9.3(1) and 9.3(1)SR1, at least in my environment, break Phone Designer.  As Aaron mentions above, it could be a bug in 9.3 versions, but I haven't had the time to keep troubleshooting it...I'm happy with 9.2(3) for now.

Scott

[michaelfine77]

Scott,

I have a TAC case opened and got a respones that phone designer is not compatible with CM 8.5 and above. That doesn't make sense as we are at 8.6 and it had been working with the 9-2 firmware. I have pushed back to TAC and await a response. This is the doc they referenced.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cupa/phone_designer/7.1/engli

sh/release/PDReleaseNote71.html#wp42101

Server/Network

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Release 6.0 or later1 Note Cisco Unified Communications Manager Release 8.5 or later is not supported. •The  Cisco Unified Communications Manager server must be installed,  configured, and operating correctly as described in the Cisco Unified  Communications Manager documentation, at the following URL: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps556/tsd_products_support_series_home.html •The Cisco Unified Communications Manager server must be configured to support the Phone Designer application.

[Scott Holden]

"Not compatible" means, "If it works for you, great!  If not, we don't have to offer or provide any support for it." 

I wonder if they will provide a replacement.  Phone Designer for us was always a little something we could offer to users, and they would think it was just the neatest thing and love us for it.

[michaelfine77]

I have an email out to our Cisco sales engineer to see if there is a replacement product. We actually use the phone designer program to test images before tying to upload to the TFTP server, so it will be unfortunate if there is no replacment.