Mitel 3300 System Upgrade

[cL4c0mb3]

Hello,

We have a Mitel 3300 phone system we are only running 4.0 SP3 and need to do a system upgrade. Our vendor is telling us that we need to either Virtualize our system as we are not able to upgrade our box anymore. The active software load is 10.0.3.14_1. The platform is MXe with 512MB of RAM.

Would it be possible to upgrade the RAM or is this box not capable of getting to 6.0?

Thank you for your time.

 

[sarond]

If you are at 4.0 you can go to 6. No problem.
Going Virtual sounds like their preference rather than being mandatory.

 

[kwbMitel]

Ditto, the major hurdle was getting to 4.0.

Any system running 4.0 or higher is fully compatible with the latest release.

Virtualization has a whole lot of other considerations as well
i.e.

Unless you switch to SIP trunking you will still need hardware for your Telco connection (like the one you already have)
[ul]
[li]Do you use PRI or analog trunks?[/li]
[li]Do you know if SIP trunking is supported in your area?[/li]
[/ul]
Virtual Servers do not support analog devices
[ul]
[li]Faxes, POS, Alarms Systems, Modems, Paging, etc[/li]
[li]These devices would either require additional hardware in the way of media converters or again a physical Mitel box (like the one you already have)[/li]
[/ul]
Hosted vs. Inhouse
[ul]
[li]Unless you already have a Virtual Host server you're looking at a lot of startup costs for installing one[/li]
[li]I suspect your vendor is suggesting a hosted service which would have them providing the server and running your phones over a dedicated service[/li]
[li]I also suspect this would require upgrading to your data services expanding bandwidth and providing QOS and what not[/li]
[li]A more cynical person might think your vendor is looking to provide these extra cost features as well[/li]
[/ul]

Frankly, I think they're shafting you. Time to start looking for other vendors in your area.

Mitel provides via their website -

http://mitel.ca/partners

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[LoopyLou]

As long as the MXe has 512 of RAM you can go to MCD 6 and likely MCD 7 which is coming soon. They might be saying that components, specifically the PATA hard drives in most MXe's are getting harder to get or they are trying to free you from the dependency on hardware but you should be good to go as long as you follow the right procedure and have software assurance.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Anyone else and you need to throw it harder.

 

[SXWizard]

Any 3300 controller variant with 512 mb of RAM can run any software up to and including the soon to be released MCD 7.0. If you are concerned about SATA HDD's becoming harder to source you could upgrade the MXe chassis to a MXe III with PATA drives, either HDD or SSD. All the MMC cards in your existing chassis can be moved to the new one.

 

[Billz66]

Think you made a typo there

If you are concerned about SATA (should have been) PATA HDD's becoming harder to source you could upgrade the MXe chassis to a MXe III with PATA (should have been) SATA drives, either HDD or SSD. All the MMC cards in your existing chassis can be moved to the new one.

If I never did anything I'd never done before , I'd never do anything.....

 

[jrgood0852]

I'm with Bill. This would be a very good preventive maintenance step.

Always look out for the next tech. because one day it will be you!

 

[cL4c0mb3]

Thanks for your all the answers looks like I will be asking some questions in my meeting today.

 

[Crowtalks]

I am with a CLEC and we are the vendor to many businesses across the US. Long term relations between the vendor and the customer needs to be of trust, as the customer needs to know their options, and also our recommendations when it comes time to change or upgrade...sounds like you need to shop for a new vendor...

Jim

"If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have become a locksmith" Albert Einstein

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