ok, so I got this mitel sx2000 light sitting in my lab

[modulistic]

and I dont know anything about it.

what is plane a?
what is plane b?

etc.

any tips? tricks? hints? I have like 84 binders full of documentation that doesnt make a bit of sense to me, so if anyone has something that can kickstart me on my learning, that would be most awesome.

kinda like how someone teaches you feature ** 266344 and then you are on your way with a key system.

just a quick overview in your own words.

please and thanks.

 

[outphase84]

The 2000 light supports redundant controllers. Plane A would be the first controller, plane B would be the second. They're usually programmed to do an activity switch at 2:15am to swap controllers. Each plane has its own drive, and the active plane writes everything to the inactive plane's memory and disk. In the event of a failure, the system will automagically switch to the other plane with no interruption of service.

What particular questions did you have? It's a fairly complex system, and a whole different beast from a key system.

 

[KE407122]

Plane a and plane b are at an airport. If plane a travels 50 miles North, 50 miles East and 50 miles South and lands at the same airport where plane b is still waiting to take off; where are you?

Although, 99.9% of all techs with some hands-on mentoring can usually grasp most, if not all, system design, maintenance and administrative programming, the Sx2000 is not proof that a chimpanzee can type Shakespeare. It was 2 week I&M course and a 1 week system administration course.

Plane a and Plane b refer to the redundant common control core, similar to Core 0 and Core 1 of a Nortel Meridian.
Formatting Drives, commissioning software and ensuring the system planes are joined and healthy itself is a rather complex set of instructions and process that has interesting side-effects if not performed properly...end up having a midnight activity switch dump you to an empty plane and hard drive.

Although I've stumbled through many key systems and earlier PBX's with a manual in one hand and a brick in the other you can't learn the system basics of a Sx2000 Light this way.

Fellow Chimp



KE407122

What was I thinking?
A.G. Bell

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Plane A Main Controller is in chassis slot 1-1-2
where 1-1-2 = Cabinet-Shelf-Slot
Plane B Main Controller is in chasis slot 1-1-7

Unlikely factory passwords are still in it, but if so, then the userid is "installer" and the password (default) is "sx2000"

Do you have any prior PBX or telephone key system experience?

 

[modulistic]

three years with nortel key systems, CICS, MICS, BCM. not option 11 though.

1 year ago I took the 3300 class but i havent been forced to work on them until the last two months.

 

[modulistic]

Plane A and Plane B are at the south pole. Where am I? I'm in Alaska.

However I would like it if Plane A had all the Mitel equipment in the world in it and Plane B had all the Centrex equipment in the world in it and then they crashed together and burned a hole in the ice and fell through the ice never to be seen again.


jk I really love mitel.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

The Mitel can be your best friend. Properly configured and provisioned it will run for ages without much attention.

I have several SX2000 Light systems (all -48v DC powered) that have been in faithful service for almost 10 years with practically no unscheduled outages. One system is approaching 85,000 hours on the drives.

The new 3300s are a great box as well. However, just as with early adopters of the SX2000s back in the early days of the black boxes (mid-1980s), those of us who dove headlong into the 3300 platform back around software vers 3.x can remember when times weren't nearly as rosy.

 

[northportphoneguy]

Just to get a little philosophical…..

I think I detect a note of frustration with the hyperbole that been tossed around and I actually feel the same way about linux. I’ve been playing with PC’s and DOS since the 8088 chip and I want to learn linux (wave of the future and all that) and I’m trying; but I just can’t seem to get head around it. If I had an plane in Alaska, it would have linux in it. However, I will persevere.

I started with sx2000SG in 1988 and it has been a brick. From the SG to the Lite to the MXe, all have been very stable and incredibly adaptive. I could count the times our campus lost phone service due to the SX2000 on one hand, even if it was missing the thumb and pinky. Our main redundant(now MXe) has more than 1200 extensions, 7 T1s to other Sx2000s, 2 PRIs, 6 pnodes, ground starts, loop starts and more. A key system, this is not. It is a beast, but what a great beast it is, and it took me a long time to learn it and I still discover new stuff.

It seems to me that if you come primarily from the key system area you already have a good understanding of the telecommunication’s world of thinking, but the level of complexity is a quantum leap ahead. With enough peripherals hanging on that sx2000 you could support a small village.

I will not let my frustration stymie my goal of learning linux. Here’s hoping your “Plane A” has not set course for Alaska yet.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

I actually have a small village ;-)
Seriously I have a 550,000 sq. ft. office complex in which there is an SX2000-Light/Redundant. Running with expanded peripherals, there are 16 peripheral nodes (8 masters and 8 slaves) plus 1-1/2 DSU nodes. It has 6 PRIs to the LEC, 2 PRIs to the IXC (Sprint) and 4 E1-CEPTs to other machines in the network. It's been running literally for years (since 1999) when it was installed to replace an SG that had been in place since 1987. There are today almost 1600 multiline sets on this system (MFRD-23). Everything is today and has always been DC-Powered (-48) w/dual redundant battery banks & dual redundant backup generators.

As northportphoneguy says, it has been a brick. Literally the Rock of Gibralter. We keep log books on site for all our systems and this particular one has not experienced an unscheduled service interruption since 2003 and that one was self-inflicted when our battery load-test crew accidentally shorted -48 to ground.