Auto-Provisioning: DHCP vs TFTP

[NOSaturn]

I might be very confused, but in reading Avaya's documentation, I should be able to auto-provision a ll of the same settings via DHCP or with a file on a TFTP server.

If that is true, what are the pro's and con's of either?

We are currently on CS1000m and will (at some point this year) move to 7.5 Session and System. What is used for configuration management in the new environments?

[RMcEnery]

Hi NOSaturn,
I agree with you on the confusing details in the documentation. I spent a considerable amount of time ironing this out before i presented the DCHP updates to out network engineer.

The items available to provision an 11xx series phone by TFTP or HTML can also be incorporated into a DHCP option using the "Nortel-i2004-B" string. To figure out what will work best for your setup depends on what your network is currently supporting and what you want to automatically configure.

Do you only have 11xx series phones on your system? Unistim 3.0 and prior sets only accept DHCP offers.

If your DHCP already offers option 66, (TFTP or BootP server address) for your desktop systems (PXE), you may need to utilize Nortel-i2004-B to populate the correct provisioning server address.

The system I manage is supporting a variety of Nortel/Avaya IP phones. 2033 conference phones only respond to the Nortel-i2004-A string. IP 2004 Phase 2 sets (NTDU92) also accept provisioning from the Nortel-i2004-B string, then the 11xx series also include TFTP provisioning. All three sets utilize the VLAN-A string to offer the appropriate VLANs.

I found the DHCP server is best for the basic settings to get all models of IP sets onto the network. I have a "Nortel-i2004-A..." string and a "Nortel-i2004-B..." string included in the same DHCP offer. While Avaya does not recommend doing this, It does work if you, a) do not duplicate the provisioning data, anything offered in i2004-A should not be offered in i2004-B, b) assign the Nortel-i2004-B string to an option that is not recognized by a Unistim 2.9 or older IP set, I have Nortel-i2004-B offered in Option 144, and c) pay close attention to the size of the entire DHCP offer so it does not exceed the size limits for any devices that will be utilizing DHCP.

The VoIP network I support is a CS1000E on Release 7.5. I removed the handful of 2004 Phase 0/1, F/W B76, NTDU82 sets from service. I have 2033 conference phones, F/W S80, Unistim 2.9, which only understand vlan-A and i2004-A, and do not tolerate a period missing from the end of those 2 strings. The i200x Phase 2, F/W DCN, and 11xx series sets don't care about the missing period (this delayed discovering a DHCP trouble which only affected the 2033 sets). The i2004 Phase 2 sets receive additional details offered in the i2004-B string and the 11xx series receive prov=x.x.x.x to instruct them to look for the TFTP server for the remainder of their settings including  Node and TN for registration.

Option 191 - "VLAN-A:aa+bb+cc+NONE."

Option 128 - "Nortel-i2004-A,10.x.x.x:4100,1,3;10.x.x.x:4100,1,5."

Option 144 - "Nortel-i2004-B,lldp=n;cachedip=n;vq=y;vvsource=a;vcp=5;vmp=5;vlanf=n;pc=y;pcs=a;pcd=a;dq=y;dv=n;dp=0;st=y;pcuntag=n;igarp=n;srtp=n;bold=y;prov=10.x.x.x;"

The 11xx phones then look for System.PRV, <Type>.PRV and <Device>.PRV. I use <Device>.PRV to populate <Zone>.PRV and the Node/TN info to complete the phone. The IP phone firmware is managed by the PBX, so it has not been configured on the TFTP server.

Regards!
Rob

[NOSaturn]

Thanks for the great info... I've been experimenting lately and had some success.
We have mostly 1140 and 1150 phones plus some 2033 conference phones. I'm using the i2004-A , but haven't been able to get i2004-B working. perhaps because i'm using the same ip's like you said won't work.

Another interesting thing I've discovered is that the VLAN-A strings have to be all capitol letters - VLAN-a won't work. Also, if your doing this on a Cisco router, your Data vlan DHCP pool needs the VLAN-A option, while the i2004-A string needs to sit in the voice DHCP pool settings.

next i have to figure out this A and B string and if i _should_ be configuring any of the extra settings. Then i have to figure out how to remotely set a phone to Auto-config......

Thanks all

[RMcEnery]

I haven't found anything to remotely restore a 11xx or 12xx if it is set manually. IF your DHCP and TFTP are all set you'll need to visit each phone and dial **RENEW<MAC Address>##, the "Live Dial Pad" option should be "Off" for this to work. The phone will restore to factory default with no IP network info (cached IP info from factory testing).

Caveat: If you use the factory reset code you will be unable to use manual config immediately following the reset without entering IP information manually. This can be a problem if you need to manually set EAP parameters for the phone to Authenticate on the network port.