scripted DN assignment on BCM400/3.7 -- possible?

[johnathcc]

I have a customer who just added 48 set ports to his BCM400/version 3.7, and wants to know if he can somehow automate assigning a series of DNs to a series of ports. Ideally he could feed in an arbitrary-order list of DNs to be assigned to an arbitrary-order list of ports, but he'd settle for less, as long as it's better than the contiguous-series assignment that the native DN Wizard does.

Since the underlying OS is a version of Windows, I would think scripted changes would be possible. Anyone done it?

 

[acewarlock]

Why in the world would anyone want to do that and why?

But the answer is NO you can't do it.

 

[MagnaRGP]

Some people get a system with all kinds of whiz-bang features and think..."hmmm....no what can I try to make it do that it doesn't already do" and report that as a problem to their vendor.

 

[johnathcc]

Thanks for your replies. Ace, the answer is: for convenience. On non-Nortel boxes it's pretty common to have text-based configuration and script files; you do all your thinking and planning first, and then load the whole thing into the box. He's not complaining, he just wants an easy and quick way to do it so he can get on to his other service calls. He inherited this system and is really being pretty good about adapting himself to Nortel's idiosyncrasies.

The change-DN facility is one of the most broken things about ICS and BCM software -- change one DN on an ICS, and that's it for that config session, either you change some more or you've got to hit RLS and start over. On the BCM it's better, but it's still dog-slow. We're all used to it, but a new guy isn't and looks for a way around it. Can't blame him for that!

Again, thanks for your help. I had a feeling he was asking for the moon, but I needed someone to confirm that.

 

[DigitelD]

My question to you is does Avaya allow this on their phone systems? How about Toshiba, Intertel, Mitel, Panasonic? We are dealing with a hybrid for one thing and I don't find it that strange that Nortel does not allow it.

SHK Certified (School of Hard Knocks)

 

[johnathcc]

True, it's not common on KSUs; most of them don't even let you change DNs. Still, the BCM's basically a PC running a version of Windows (Linux in the BCM ver 4.0), so lots of things ought to be possible that aren't possible with other KSUs. No harm in asking, right?

 

[DigitelD]

Certainly no harm in asking. But lets be honest here. Who in their right mind would "create" something like the BCM, spend tons of time and money, set up a tech support department, only to allow users to get into the operating system and possibly create havock. How could they support that. It would create more problems than it's worth.

SHK Certified (School of Hard Knocks)

 

[acewarlock]

I have never understood the reason for changing the DN on a phone to move it, I move the crossconnects. I know some people like to move phones in software, but on the BCM that becomes a nightmare to keep up the paper work. What happens if the system blows up and you don't have the paper up to date. what ext goes on what port. I use the wizards to creat the phone templets the way I want them and creat a range of phones with this templet. the only paper work I need to keep is the templet info. If I need to replace the box and don't have a backup, I just hookup the box and all the phones get the right DN and I only have to recreat the templets on the new box and everything is back the way it was.

Why buy a BCM and then try to recreat the wheel.