Upgraded IP500V2 to R11, H.323 Hardphones not upgraded

[JM27310]

I worked with a regional business partner to upgrade my extremely out of date IP500V2 system which had been on R6 to R11. This was a multi step upgrade as we had to go from R6->R8 then R8->R10 then R10->R11.

While the 9630,9640,9641 H.323 hard phones registered and unregistered a few times during the nearly all day upgrade, I never saw them load new firmware.

I checked the firmware on them today and see they are still running version 3_1_1 which I believe is 12+ years old.

I used the File explorer on the Manager application and can see that in the PRIMARY folder there is a 2017 date 3_2_2a firmware version, however the 96xxupgrade.txt file still points to version 3_1_1 even though I no longer see those binaries on the system SD card.

Is it safe to modify the upgrade.txt file to get the phones on the newer firmware?

IP Office documentation indicates this file is automatically generated by IPO and never to mess with it, so I'm confused on how to proceed here.

Thanks

 

[biv343]

You could download the existing 96xxupgrade.txt file to your PC, then delete that file from the system/primary folder. The system then should auto create a new file, though it may not show up in the file list - I don't remember which auto-generated files do or don't show up in embedded file management. It would be easy to verify if the auto generated file is correct by checking in a web browser (

http://ipoaddress/96xxupgrade.txt

If that file doesn't get auto created, upload the original 96xxupgrade.txt file back to the primary folder and no harm done, or you could upload the one from the Manager directory on your PC, but its best to leave auto created files alone.

 

[JM27310]

Hi biv343

I downloaded the 96xxupgrade, manually edited to point to the 3-2-2a firmware and bootloader, uploaded it to the SD card, rebooted a phone and the phone upgraded to the new load.... so I think I'm good, unless there would be some other advantage of blowing the file away and seeing if the system auto-creates it.

I do see there is also a 3-2-8a binary on the SD card, but it has the same date as 3-2-2a so I'm not sure if it's truly a newer patch or what.

Thanks.

 

[JM27310]

Just another small update.

I was doing more research on this and saw where in some older Avaya documentation it noted you might have to upload the 96xxupgrade.txt file from the CD/installation-media for Manager onto the IP Office SD card.

In the Manager files I found the new 96xxupgrade.txt file that is dated Feb 2021 and it shows below, so apparently Avaya considers the phones End of Life and doesn't upgrade the FW automatically.

I'm documenting this here as it might help someone else who stumbles across the thread at a later time;

############################################################
##
## DECEMBER 2020 - 9600 Phones are no longer in Support.
## FW and Language Files will not be packaged by IP Office.
##
## THIS IS TO SUPPORT 96x0 SIP TERMINALS
## USING US AS THEIR FILE SERVER
## THE ASSUMPTION IS THAT THE SWITCH WILL HAVE BEEN PATCHED
## WITH THE SIP FIRMWARE AND A '96xxupgradeSIP.txt' FILE
############################################################
IF $SIG SEQ 2 GOTO SIPUPGRADE96XX
GOTO GETSET
############################################################
# SIPUPGRADE96XX
GET 96xxupgradeSIP.txt
GOTO END

# GETSET
GET 46xxsettings.txt

# END

 

[Westi]

which version of 8.0 did you use to upgrade?

there is a re-arrangement in memory in 8.1.65 or 9.0 that needs to be done before going to 11.0

Not sure why this would have any effect on the firmware it tells to the phones but, hey, it is Avaya.

[highlight #FCE94F]The 11.0 is the same image that they had in the 10.0 manual btw
[/highlight]

Joe
FHandw, ACSS, ACIS

 

[JM27310]

Hi Westi,

I contracted with a local business partner to do the upgrade/migration due to the age of the system and knowing it would need multiple jumps.

I'd have to see if they left the installer binaries on the system used to stage the upgrade to find out exactly what R8 version and what other intermediate versions were used.

The system appears to be stable, and the phones I've updated to 3_2_2A appear to be working okay so I'll probably upgrade the rest of the phones tomorrow.

My primary concern in leaving the phones on 3_1_1 was it is such an ancient load and possible problems using it with a much newer IPO version.

To really be good I'd just swap the terminals out for 96x1 series phones, which I still might do at some point, but the 9620s/30s I have are still working and I have a few spare sets as well.

Thanks