downgrade/upgrade - is it a dangerous and aggressive move? 1

[levskipetrov]

I recently worked on a 406 that was having trouble with a transfer issue. After several hours of troubleshooting I decided to do a downgrade/upgrade to ensure the previous upgrades were done in the correct sequence. In the middle of the downgrade the system locked up for about 3 hours, eventually returning to a default configuration on its own. The customer claims the downgrade/upgrade technique to be "a dangerous and aggressive move" as they were told by a representative of the company who retails the equipment to them. I was taught how to do this back in my IP Office training through Avaya so I never considered this to be shooting from the hip. I told the customer that this is a very common procedure taken by technicians and engineers when troubleshooting, but is it "dangerous and aggressive"? Opinions please?

 

[amriddle01]

No it's not at all, I have very few (none in last 12 months) upgrades go wrong and they only take 5 mins to do. Did the 406 have enough free memory to do the upgrade? That may be why it failed

ACS - IP Office Implement

"I'm just off to Hartlepool to buy some exploding trousers

 

[TomMills]

its only as dangerous and aggressive as the engineer performing the upgrade.

I reckon Andy is right on the money about the memory.

I regularly upgrade systems to fix bugs/provide new features.

EVERY system is upgraded before its delivered to a customer.

Whoever told them that has screwed it up and been bitten before and is now scared of doing it.



Never argue with an idiot. bystanders won't be able to tell the difference.

 

[tlpeter]

I agree with both above me
If you do not know what you are doing then everything can be dangerous !
Even crossing the the street can be

It is the most simple upgrade path i have ever seen on a pbx so i think that says enough

ACS - Implement IP Office
ACA - Implement IP Telephony -- ACA - Design IP Telephony
ACA - Voice Services Management
______________
Women and cats can do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea!

 

[kholladay]

The only issue you may encounter with the process you described woudl be if you didn't backup your configuration prior to the downgrade. Taking a system from 4.2 down to 3.2 would result in the configuration losing features that are specific to 4.0+. Thus the recommendation would be to backup the configuration, downgrade the system to whatever version to intend, follow your expected upgrade process then re-load the configuration from the backup.

I find that most often when a 3rd party tells a client that the process being used is "dangerous" it is because they are trying to cover up any potential problem that they may have caused do to their limited experience with the system.

Kyle Holladay
ACA-I, ACA Call Center, ACS-I, ACS-M, TIA-CTP, MCP/MCTS Exchange 2007
ACE Implement: IP Office

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it." - Henry Ford

 

[TomMills]

good post kyle. That is a huge point to consider when jumping between firmware levels

Never argue with an idiot. bystanders won't be able to tell the difference.

 

[levskipetrov]

Two questions:

1. What is the minimum memory required when downgrading from 4.2 to 3.2?

2. I did save the config prior to the downgrade, but what does happen to the features that are present in the upgraded config that are not supported by a downgraded version? Ultimately, should the system be defaulted before downgrading and could such a feature cause the system to lock up like it did? Thanks for everyones input.

By the way, when the system locked, I tried to DTE into it but was not able to enter any commands, that is the system never said "OK". The last line shown on the screen during boot said something about the boot file.

 

[TomMills]

1. doesnt apply. if the unit has enough memory to run 4.2 then anything below isnt a problem.

2. features present when downgrading to a version that doesnt support them will stop working. I cant see an active feature being a problem but you never know. Manager is very good now in terms of compatibility, it will only allow you to change features relevant to the firmware you are running, i can only assume that the systems are built in the same way. I personally havent had to make a jump from 4.2 down to 3.2, it seems a bit drastic, so unless i tried it, which i will now out of interest, i cant really comment further.

Never argue with an idiot. bystanders won't be able to tell the difference.