Replacement for failing Cisco UC520

[RichardParry]

Hi All!

I was wondering if you could help please.

We have a Cisco UC520 in our office which I purchased about 4 years ago and fully configured to our requirements. It is the 48U-4BRI-K9 version, so has the 4x built in ISDN BRI ports.

It's been working perfectly for years, supporting our small business with 4x ISDN channels (2 ISDN lines) and about 6x Cisco phone extensions (7941G).

Today we found the system had crashed - Internal calls worked fine, but outbound or inbound calls weren't working. I reset the system and while it booted fine, and still presented all services and still allowed internal calls, it wouldn't bring up the Voice Mail service, plus wouldn't allow outbound or inbound calls.

I could connect using Cisco Configuration Assistant, but it hung on loading any voice configuration. Upon trying to going into the CUE module from CLI it was stuck in a constant boot cycle for the CUE software - It would say there was a fault with the flash module after loading most of the OS, with a kernel panic.

I took the unit apart to see what I could find, reseated the mezzanine card, and reseated the various DIMM memory, and the internal 1GB Compact Flash card. Upon rebooting it loaded fine, and we were able to make outbound calls and inbound no problem, but despite the "VM" (VoiceMail) light showing on the unit itself, the voice mail still doesn't work, and Cisco Configuration Assistant still won't load any voice related config, such as users, phones etc. There's no errors showing, just sits on loading the config, a process which would always take moments before - I left it for over 30 minutes before giving up.

This is the state our unit is in now, so we can at least make and receive calls OK, but its a big worry about the reliability of the phone system, as calls in and out of the business are so incredibly important.

Does anyone have any ideas what could have happened to this? It's protected behind a high end APC Online UPS, so has excellent clean power going into it. It's also in an air conditioned server room, kept around 21*C. The internal fan is also working fine. It's also relatively dust free.

Moving forward, I can see the UC500 series have gone end of life, and we've never had any kind of extended support on it. Could anyone suggest a way forward to potentially replace this system cost effectively? I don't want to replace the phones, as our staff are very used to these, plus they work great on our PoE Cisco switch network.

Appreciate any feedback or suggestions here.


Thank you! Richard

 

[mikeyb123]

Were there any changes made to it prior to it going pop?

Can't comment on why it's gone pop but going forward...

Depends on budget really?

get another 520 from a certain online tat market - there's one on there currently at around the £200

Go down the asterisk/freepbx - depends on how tech savy you are. You can still use the cisco phones - but you may have to convert them to SIP. Cant remember if skinny is supported on asterisk. My other half's company is running a piaf with nortel phones (SIP Load) with both analogue and sip trunks

or go the whole hog and put something new in - for 6 users and 4 lines there's loads of key systems. it will depend on how you want to handle calls/current cisco set up

It's not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to terms with stupidity, and make it work for you.

 

[RichardParry]

Thanks for the reply!

I haven't touched the config or anything hardware wise for some time, so it's really quite odd.

Indeed I did think about another UC520, but they're getting a little old now. I actually bought this one a good 4 years ago, and it went end of life from Cisco in January this year.

I have played with Asterisk/Trixbox before, but I found it to be a little too buggy and unreliable for a commercial install. As we use ISDN then the cost of a multi-channel ISDN card would be quite expensive too, and I don't think worth the investment.

I was looking last night at a Cisco 2911-CME Bundle. Hardware.com are selling them for around £1k refurbished, and have CME installed, latest IOS, the PVDM module for 16 concurrent calls. I can re-use the ISDN VIC2 card from the UC520. The only thing I would lose is the ability for an auto-attendant and voicemail. I don't use the auto-attendant at the moment, so that's no loss, and the voicemail would be nice, but not essential. However I ca see you can install an ISM module for approx £300.

At least with the 2911 as it's a current model it would have full Cisco support. We have some other Cisco kit with SmartPAC support, so I could add the 2911 to this. The cost of the support is worth it if it mean we can get something back up and running quickly - I would say Telephones second to the Internet in our office are super important - every moment they are down we can be losing sales.

I can configure IOS by CLI no problem, but never delved into CME config by CLI. Previously for the UC520 this was covered by the Cisco Configuration Assistant, which automated everything and worked great. Problem is that software only supports the UC range, so won't work with the 2911. I understand the 2911 has a web GUI for some configuration, but it looks pretty basic, so I suspect most config I would need to learn and do by the CLI, which isn't particularly easy!

Do you have any experience with CME on something like a 2911?



Thanks, Richard

 

[mikeyb123]

a little - I was working on a CME version 8.8 running on a 2821 router, with cisco unity v7

Did it with the intention of getting CCNA Voice after I got laid off from my last job. Gave up as I'm now working again but with a shoretel system, plus i just picked up an avaya system to play around with.

Fairly easy to do as I remember and I come from a traditional voice back ground and as it happens my kit is listed on a certain online tat market as it's just taking up space and annoying the missus....



It's not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to terms with stupidity, and make it work for you.

 

[mikeyb123]

The wif'e s asterisk system is fronted by a cisco 2911 with pots modules - you could put bri modules into the router.. and with the sip trunks terminating directly on the asterisk. She does credit control so all the business is telephone based.

It's not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to terms with stupidity, and make it work for you.