Category: 8945 phones

The 8945 firmware upgrade dance

For awhile now I’ve been hitting the fabulous issue mentioned in this Cisco forum post for 8945 phones in which the phone basically stops incrementing the time display. Being as I only had a few of these deployed and unplugging/plugging them would fix the issue, I had put off upgrading them. I had plan to put off upgrading the firmware until the proverbial upgrade cows came home and sat around my desk mooing their demands for attention, but unfortunately my plans were udderly derailed*.

I discovered while reading various release notes that the usually cumbersome but predictable upgrade process would be a bit more involved and would need to be done before I started major version upgrades, otherwise my phones would be shiny dialtone-less bricks with no usable firmware to make their happy little phone lives better.

Cutting to the chase, here’s what you have to do if you happen to be in the same series of release boats that I’m paddling around in.  Keep in mind that in this particular situation I am starting with 8945 phones with SCCP894x.9-2-3-5 installed and CUCM version 8.6.2.20000-2, your mileage may vary:

  • You must have the minimum Device Package 8.6.2(22030-1), which in this case I didn’t have. 8941 and 8945 phones won’t register at all if you try to install 9.3(1) or later without this device pack installed first. Yay.
  • Next, you’ve gotta do a step upgrade from 9.3(4) to 9.4(x) because in the grand tradition of voice upgrades being about as much fun as root canals, you can’t just upgrade straight from a 9.2 release to a 9.4 release. Double Yay.

There are a few key things to keep in mind when doing device pack and firmware installations.  First and foremost, always always always read the release notes. If something doesn’t seem clear or make sense, open a TAC case to clarify. This is way better than blowing up your server or phones because you assumed something the release notes didn’t cover or explain properly.

It should go without saying that you should always confirm you have a good backup before doing any file installations at all. I’m saying it anyway, check your backups, never assume they ran. Trust but verify, the emphasis being on verify.

Remember to copy down the values on the Device Defaults page before the upload of the files and to paste in old values if necessary directly after the upload. Check out this previous post for why you will thank me for this later.

Lastly, always remember to reboot after device package installs and to stop/start the TFTP service after firmware file installs.  These processes will save you some heartache and potentially a bruised skull from repeated head-desks when you finally realize you never did stop and start that service and the last 45 minutes of troubleshooting was for nothing.

*Anyone with a beef about my cow puns probably shouldn’t follow me on twitter either, the puns only get worse more fabulous from here… 

Published: 10/23/2014

When simple changes aren’t…tales of MGCP to h.323 conversions

Maintenance windows have a way of reminding you that simple changes aren’t always so simple.

Take a recent after hours task of switching over some MGCP gateways to h.323.  The primary inbound gateway was already h.323 and the MGCP gateways were – well, MGCP – so it made sense to make everything uniform and do the conversion.

So I changed all my calls to route in and out the primary gateway, which was already h.323, and set about making my changes.  In case you haven’t done this before, here is a brief outline of the process – not meant to be a step-by-step, all inclusive list, just a general idea of the process.

On the gateway side:

-set isdn switch type on the router (you can get this from the MGCP configuration in CUCM)
-bind h323 to source interface
-create inbound and outbound dial peers on the router
-remove MGCP bind command and other MGCP configuration (you will need to shutdown the voice port to do this)
-reconfigure the T1 controller
-confirm MULTIPLE_FRAME_ESTABLISHED
-put in place any translation patterns required
-add commands for calling name and/or Facility IE support if required

On the Cisco Unified Call Manager side:

-create the gateway 
-add the gateway to a route group
-add the gateway to a test route list
-create a few route patterns to send calls out the gateway
-add gateway to production route list(s)

My plan was proceeding perfectly up until I needed to send a long distance call out one of the recently converted gateways.  The call received a reorder tone from the carrier even though the debug isdn q931 output showed my call going out with the proper digit format. I knew long distance calls were working going out this gateway before, so I was pretty sure it had to be something with my configuration even though it looked like a carrier issue.  

After comparing configurations with the current h.323 gateway (PRI to the same carrier), uttering a lot of fairly creative yet non repeatable curses, and wasting an hour of my life with a clueless carrier tech who swore I wasn’t sending the 1 required for long distance, the obvious finally hit me.  And it was annoyingly painful.

See, I had made the assumption that long distance calling had been tested out the primary gateway when it was installed.  I foolishly believed that outbound long distance via the primary h.323 gateway had been tested at installation, as this is pretty much standard and *should* be part of any voice gateway install process.  Once I wised up and tested that theory, however, I realized that all long distance calling to the carrier was broken from every gateway, including the old h.323 one which I hadn’t changed anything on.  Knowing this couldn’t be the result of my conversion efforts, I was now able to think through what the real source of the issue could be.

When you send the carrier the right digit format and yet they emphatically insist you most definitely aren’t, you are likely hitting an issue I blogged about in my first ever post.  In some cases, a carrier switch reads your ISDN plan type and takes digit stripping action based on it. They seem to be completely unaware they are even doing it, so don’t expect the carrier to ever discover this is your problem. The solution is simply to set a translation pattern that changes the plan type to UNKNOWN and then the carrier switch doesn’t try to do you any favors and manipulate the digits. Problem solved.

I am now adding testing inbound and outbound calling from ALL gateways before making changes to my check list.  Pass the bourbon please.

Bonus material:
At the time, I didn’t think about the 8945 phones (and newer phones with video capabilities) that often require you add a specific command to the ISDN voice port, otherwise outbound calls from the device fail. I discovered this while finishing up my testing plan and was able to fix it before anyone noticed.  A very good reason to have a thorough testing plan no matter how small the changes being made. Here’s a link to a forum post on this type of issue and the command you need to fix it:

voice-port 0/1/0:23
bearer-cap speech

Also, your lucky day, some commands for calling name when carrier is using the Facility IE:

voice service voip
h323
h225 display-ie ccm-compatible
!
interface Serial0/1/0:23
isdn supp-service name calling
isdn outgoing display-ie

Published 7/2/2014