R7.0 to R10.1 Upgrade Disaster 4

[dsm600rr]

All,

I have some questions on an Upgrade I was doing that turned into a Disaster.

The customer has Two IPO's on a SCN, both running 7.0

Now I am not sure if this matters or not - however I was at the Main Site, So I logged into the Main Site IPO to do the Upgrade to R9.0

When I selected the Upgrade, It brought up both locations on the SCN - So I selected them both and began the upgrade from R7.0 to R9.0

Now this got me thinking after the fact. Should I have selected the actual SCN to do the multi-site upgrade or does it not make a difference? Selecting either the actual SCN in Manager, or simply just logging into the main site both brought up options to upgrade both location over the SCN.

Either way, the upgrade to R9.0 went without a hitch. Once on R9.0, I loaded in the PLDS Licenses.

Going from R9.0 to R10.1 is where the issues started. The remote site kept failing. What Kept happening during the upgrade was the "Status" on the remote site was coming back either "Contacting" which would fail after some time or "Failed" all together. For the time being I gave up on the remote site and just got the main site on R10.1

Once the Main Site was Successfully upgraded, I noticed that the phones said "Please Wait" - And they stayed on "Please Wait" for at-least an hr. I thought maybe they were doing a firmware update or something however Every phone I could located (They had alot) was simply saying please wait.

My Next thought was possibly the expansion modules needed to be downgraded and then upgraded, however I was experiencing the same "Please Wait" on the phone plugged into a DS8 card as well.

By this time it was 1:00am and they were completely out of telephony services. The only thing I could think of was to roll them both back to R7.0.

As soon as I started rolling them back to R7.0 the phones came right back up and were working as normal.

I am looking for suggestions on what I could of possibly did wrong.

Thank you.

 

[fieldtechonIR]

If you went 7->9 that's wrong. should have been 7->8.1.95->9 Probably why you had some weirdness? Can't say.

 

[intrigrant]

If you went 7->9 that's wrong.

Now you are wrong. The TB coming with 10.1 says that upgrading from pre 8.1 then first upgrade to 8.1.95 OR to any 9.0 release.
That is the route followed. Saying that it is well known (at least to a lot of members here) that a upgrade to 9.0 corrupts the security settings which cause a lot of problems when upgrading with the upgrade wizard.
Due to that all members here always advise to recreate the SD card locally when upgrading a IP Office, no matter what Avaya advise.
Learned the hard way, i also experienced that and i always go on site to perform a upgrade and i have done a lot of them.
BUT, last weeki had a upgrade from 6.0 and even with recreating the SD card it was a complete disaster as AegisTech had.
It seems to be a problem with the older small size (4 Gb) SD card, we had to replace the IP500v2 AND the SD cardd to get it up and running again.
The issue was that although there were no error messages in Manager, System Statur or sysMonitor the phones came up with "No system license" and it refused to work.

Great job Avaya, cost us a lot of time, money and customer confidence!

 

[fieldtechonIR]

I'm wrong often, but doing this way has never caused me an issue so I will stick with it.

 

[IPGuru]

The safest way to upgrade a system is by recreating the SD card (which also is considerably quicker)

as previously suggested were the units of the correct PCS level to take V9.0 + if not then they need the 2 stage upgrade via 8.1.95

also are the units IP500V2? IP500 will only upgrade as far as V9.0
.



Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[dsm600rr]

I thank you gents for all your input. Yes they are on a V2 Chassis. PCS Level - That is a good question I do not have the answer to.

Question on re-creating the SD Card Method. Would this need to be done in steps as well? R7.0 to R9.0 (or 8.1.95) and finally R10.1?

Would I export the .cfg, recreate to R10.1, and then send the config back, Load the PLDS Licenses and be done with it?

Thanks.

 

[intrigrant]

The intermediate steps are always required as it may load a new bootloader or it does a internal memory remapping.
If not performing the intermediate steps you will endup with a IP Office in a endless reboot sequence,

 

[dsm600rr]

I guess my confusion on the 8.1.95 comment is, reading Avaya's Documentation - It appears that either R8.1.65 or R9.0 would work to update the boot loader. I do not even see a mention of: R8.1.95 (Specifically)

"The boot loader can be upgraded by installing either Release 8.1 (65) (or higher) or any IP Office Release 9.0, before upgrading to Release 10.1. If this has already been done, it does not need repeating."

With that being said, wouldn't 8.1.65, 8.1.95 or 9.0 update the boot loader in the same way?

 

[intrigrant]

Yes but only if the PCS level citerium is met.

 

[dsm600rr]

intrigrant: Thank you. I see the Boot Loader Version can be checked via System Monitor

Is the PCS Level only on the IPO Unit? Can it be checked remotely?

If the PCS is indeed "PCS 14 and Earlier" - Would I need to go from R7.0 to R8.1.95 to R9.0 and finally R10.0/1

 

[intrigrant]

R7 -> R8.1.95 OR any R9.0 -> 10.x

 

[dsm600rr]

intrigrant: Hum, I wonder why it failed then. I did Exactly that: R7.0 > R9.0 > R10.1

Perhaps because I did the update through IPO Manager and not by re-creating the SD Card?

Or Perhaps I should of skipped R9.0 "upgrade to 9.0 corrupts the security settings which cause a lot of problems when upgrading with the upgrade wizard." And went R7.0 > R8.1.95 > R10.1?

 

[critchey]

Somewhat commonly when you use the upgrade wizard to upgrade the firmware for phones does not make it for the new version. It seems to happen far more often with IP phones but I have seen it happen (more so recently in fact) on even digital phones. This is almost certainly why your phones displayed please wait they wanted to upgrade firmware but could not find the file (wish the message was a bit more descriptive but it is what it is). That being said it is one of many reasons most people on here will tell you to recreate the SD card as you run into fun little issues using the upgrade wizard.

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[dsm600rr]

critchey: Thank you for your input as well. So I want to make sure I have this process correct to avoid as many future headaches as possible.

I'm going from R7.0 to R10.1

- Backup all programming, Shut Down the IPO And Remove the SD Card.

- Recreate the SD Card to R9.0. Once Recreated, Put SD Card back into the IPO and turn back on. Once booted up, shut down the IPO and remove the SD Card

- Recreate the SD Card to R10.1, Put SD Card back into the IPO and turn back on. Load PLDS Licenses.

 

[Caps007]

As simple as this sounds, we do on occasion have systems which are in a rack and covered in patch leads which resemble a rats nest. access to remove the SD card is sometimes a no go and upgrade wizard via Manager is the only option.

I haven't usually had many problems upgrading via Manager but if we are talking about it not being reliable for IP and DS handsets then surely there's a potential sh!tstorm for some installers/maintainers?!

Great job Avaya, cost us a lot of time, money and customer confidence!

 

[Pepp77]

All you have to do is manually upload the handset files via Embedded File Manager for the new version you are upgrading to, then run the upgrade wizard, this means the handset files are available straight away and can upgrade and become available to users whilst the rest of the files are uploaded via the upgrade wizard.

95% of the upgrades I have done have been this way as it is very difficult to upgrade via the SD card when you are several hundred miles away from the actual site.

| ACSS SME |