More Info Requested for Nortel Upgrade

[LifeInsurance]

John Poole,

You replied and your insight has been helpful. We have more questions of you regarding the Nortel Upgrade (can't figure out how to resond to your notes on Tek-tips). Anyhow, I had outlined our current situation regarding an upgrade to our Meridian 61C to an 81C, splitting the cores and moving to Succession 3.0, yet leaving SCCS on 4.0 and TAPI on 2.3.1.6 until we find an alternative Dialer solution.

Your comments reflected the difficulty of rolling back if Succession 3.0 should fail. What issues have you seen around the software failing during install? Additionally, one of our concerns is the compatibility with keeping Symposium on 4.0 yet moving the switch to Succession 3.0 (Nortel is going to issue us Succession 3.0 even though we've moved into year 2005 and Nortel is now issuing Succession 4.0). So we will beupgrading to Succession 3.0 this Saturday, unless pending concerns/issues can not be resolved.

We've been reading the Nortel Message board and other customers out there who have taken this step (moving to Succession 3.0, while remaining on SCCS 4.0) and they seem to have issues with ACD Phones not being able to be Acquired, Non-ACD Phones are unable to be outted and CDN's Acquiring at random.(??) One post stated that it seems rather corruptive. (??)

Do you have any insight on these issues?
I appreciate your time to assist!

 

[johnpoole]

SCCS 4.0...problems with the Succession 3.0, is one of the reasons nortel got off of rls 3 as quick as they did, unless there are patches new this week the problems have been documented.. i don't have access to any more detailed information then you do, but i haven't found a single end user with this combination that is not having some problems. the 61 to 81 is not a killer upgrade, every cable has got to be right, the software has to match.. the troubles i have seen are usually operator error.. you do have to add cni's and your inter-group module.. cables that are not ordered, or way to short, pins that get bent on the backplane, any of those can cost hours of headaches.. i've done, maybe 6, of these upgrades and they all went, one took 40+ hours, but we had a working (nonreduntant) switch monday morning, on the other end i had one that only took 6 hours for two people.. depends a lot on how confortable your people in the switchroom are

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[LifeInsurance]

Thank you, John! Your expertise is very helpful. Currently, we are considering pushing this out for another week to be as prepared as possible. I've asked the vendor to conduct a complete test in their lab before hand (as you had commented to do so in our last conversation). with all our ducks in a row, we might not have as many problems as we are prepared for, which is a good thing.

Thank you!

 

[johnpoole]

always better to do a lab test before hand, if the lab is up to par they can take your customer data and do the software upgrade in advance, saving possible problems. for this kind of upgrade in this area the installer has the option of sending the software to out atlanta lab and getting back both cpu's cmdu's and backup disk with your data in place, not a must but it does make a lot of us more comfortable

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[pbxn]

Having a lab test, as John mentioned, is priceless. This prevents introducing unknown issues into an already existing working switch. We just completed several upgrades to 3.0, and a lab was used for all upgrades. A copy of our db was installed on the lab opt.11, and then all changes were made prior to changing my environment.
If you have a good vendor, those are at times far and few between, a lab setup will be part of the installation process.

 

[LifeInsurance]

Thank you, pbxn.

Duting these upgrades to Succession 3.0, were any of the upgrades conducted where Symposium 4.0 was present? If so, were there any issues with compatibility between the PBX and Symposium? Were there any problems? If so, what were the issues?

Currently, I am trying to gather all the information about the 2 softwares and the compatibility of the two. Our Vendor states that there are SCCS patches that will overcome any issues and we've requested several times documentation from Nortel stating that this configuration will work, yet we have not recieved a single piece of literature stating so. A bit concerned....

 

[pbxn]

Our upgrades also included the install of SECS. Sadly though our SECS install hasn't gone well. My Bell tech will be back next week probably to escalate to Nortel.

Patches typically fix known issues, but as you know, new patches come out almost daily. Just ask the vendor and or tech doing the install to make sure the latest "needed" patches are installed. Hope this helps
Brian

 

[LifeInsurance]

Thank you so much!

Any PBX upgrades with Symposium on 4.0 and TAPI on 2.3.1.6 when you upgraded the PBX to Succession 3.0? Any issues with that upgrade?

 

[johnpoole]

My Bell tech will be back next week probably to escalate to Nortel." if that's the case request a new tech thru second level support, if that is your vendor you can have the software done in the lab, a week or so before the actual upgrade...


john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc