Bulk Phone Resets and TFTP Performance

[Brian Carscadden]

I have approximately 1500 7941/61 phones in Callmanager 4.1(3)SR2 that are to be upgraded with the 8.0(3) phone load. I plan to reset the devices via device search (not device pool) and we want to know the estimated system impact and overall time to process all of the requests. We have a cluster of 3 7845 Callmanagers, all enabled for TFTP, with priority to sub2, sub1, Pub.

[lisa.hall]

Try this link

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps556/products_user_guide_chapter09186a00800c4d3a.html

[Brian Carscadden]

Thanks, but this is just for bulk edits, this isn't related to my question.

[Sascha Monteiro]

Hi,

Are your phones on the same site as the sub2?

if that sub is not primary call processing,

change the service parameter in tftp ,

max serving count to i.e. 1500

your phones should be upgraded in about <15 min I think

[Brian Carscadden]

Thanks! This is the info I needed.

We actually ran the update last week with catastrophic results. Although we have three TFTP servers, they were set to the default of 200. Approximately 400 of the phones hung on the reboot, stopped dead and not registering to Callmanager, with no way to reset. We opened a P1 with TAC. They said the multiple TFTP servers should have handled the requests just fine (we're using three 7845s). Recommendation was to shut/no shut switchport interfaces to hopefully reboot the phones - no luck. Even reloading the switches didn't do it, because apparently there is still some power provided to the ethernet interface somehow. The ONLY sure fix was to unplug and reconnect each IP phone ... all 400 of them. In a college campus of 60-70 buildings and multiple IDFs per building let's just say is was a real long night. We're still not sure if this was a TFTP performance issue or an issue with the 7.0(2) to 8.0(3) phone loads.

Thanks again for your help.

[Sascha Monteiro]

ghee, that was not very good.

I have just recently upgraded a cluster with 7000 phones, and only used 1 TFTP server,

but the backup TFTP is only a 2nd option in the DHCP scope, so only will be used if 1st is not available.

we reset the phones in 5 blocks (5 subscribers) and per group it took around 10-15min, no probs at all