Upgrading MICS from 4.1 to 7.1--What will happen???

[TxRadioGuy]

Hello everyone!

I have upgraded several MICS units from R1 T1 to 7.1, but they have all been cabinets removed from field offices and brought in to the shop as spares when replaced with new cabinets... AND they have all been stand-alone cabinets, 2 trunk cards, nothing fancy.

Now, I have one field office that I have to upgrade SW from 4.1 to 7.1 without removing the cabinet. This particular office has DID's, extra trunk module, etc.

Here's the question: When I do the upgrade, am I going to lose my system programming and have to go from scratch to rebuild? I am planning the upgrade for after hours but I'm a little nervous about this one, since it's the only office that I take care of with norstar MICS and DID's. The only other office with DID's has the mackdaddy Meridian 1 opt. 11 with 200 DID's and totally different animal from the norstar.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[exsmogger]

You'll also need a R6.1 software card to use as a pit stop before going to R7.1. There will be some renumbering of lines and target lines, so you might have to reprogram some of your DIDs. You shouldn't lose any programming unless the memory cap in the MICS has gone bad, but backup your programming with NRU before starting the upgrade. Is there a PRI involved?

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

http://groups.to/jandj/

(updated 3-13-09)

http://phonewire.blogspot.com/

(updated 3-13-09)

 

[Dasheen]

Use the upgrade kit and u'll be fine.

 

[TxRadioGuy]

No PRI involved in this office, just wink starts... I have already done a backup in NRU, but assumed that making the jump to 7.1 I wouldn't be able to do a restore with information backed up from a previous version. If I can do a restore with what I've already done, then I'm golden...

 

[exsmogger]

I just wondered about possibly losing your PRI Enabler in case the system ID changed. You can use the backup in case you need to go back to R4.1 and start the upgrade process again.

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

http://groups.to/jandj/

(updated 3-13-09)

http://phonewire.blogspot.com/

(updated 3-13-09)

 

[jerryreeve]

If the sysid changes can you use the backup to restore with? I had one that wouldn't do the restore because it said that I was working on another system.

----------------------------
Hill?? What hill??
I didn't see any $%@#(*$ Hill!!
----------------------------
JerryReeve
Communication Systems Int'l
com-sys.com

 

[MarvO1]

Yes, to restoring to a different sysid. I do a lot of cookie-cutter systems for retail stores and I always start them with a restore from my lab system.
The requirements are that the software must be identical, and expansion hardware identical (most of the time). I have restored to systems with non-identical expansion, but if I remember correctly, that didn't always work correctly.
I make it a point to make the systems identical before I copy over.

MarvO said it

 

[RikRodgers]

But a restore won't save your PRI key if it's a different sys id, right?

 

[MarvO1]

That is true.

MarvO said it

 

[TxRadioGuy]

Ok here's an update: I did the upgrade monday. Everything "seemed" to be fine after it was all said and done, but today I found out the hard way that all my target lines "vanished". Not only that, nearly every set changed.

So, I decided to do a full system startup and let it build the DID template from scratch. Only there's one little hitch: I powered the system down, powered it up, and the desksets have yet to stop flashing (It's been well over an hour). The cabinet is clicking periodically like it's running through its self test, but the phones never come out of flash. I've had a few cabinets that took 10-15 min before but never this long. Any ideas???

 

[RikRodgers]

Something's hosed... I'd try putting the old sw back in, let it come up on that, then run startup and pull the plug when it says Applying Template. Put in the new sw (make sure you've got a rel 2 NVRAM for 7.1), and power it back up.

Then run startup again, and when it comes up, start programming from scratch.

 

[TxRadioGuy]

Yep... I took it back to 4.1, it booted up fine. I ran startup and built a new DID template, with the leading DN as 221. Then I re-ran the upgrade process, and BAM! It came up and ran. Just for good measure, I ran startup again and built the DID template in 7.1

I've been taking care of Norstar systems now for about 3 years, but this is the ONLY one that is configured this way, so I've really come up against a learning curve on this one.

Thanks to all for your help.