Avaya Upgrade Procedures

The 4 Stages to help you implement the new software

As you read through this post, you’ll get to see the four stages to help you through the “Avaya Upgrade Procedures”, the different types of software packages available, ways to find out if the update is necessary, and my go to apps when getting ready to install software.

Earlier this year, I helped a customer upgrade their system software in order to swap their G350s/S8300Bs with G430s/ S8300E Media Processors. They were looking to improve their voice solution by implementing encryption, get overall processing improvement, increase their resources, among other benefits.

I have documented these 4 stages to help you refresh, and prepare for any upcoming software updates that you have coming your way.

• 1.- Test and Compare
• 2.- Software Preparation
• 3.- Types of Software Packages
• 4.- Cables, Connectors, and OS

1.- Test and Compare

Every customer has different types of system programing. Before performing any updates there are a couple things that you should consider. From backing up the system configuration, to optimize the system for better performance by cleaning unused station ports, removing old signaling groups, data modules, etc. You can also:

Test – As we get dispatched to upgrade the customer’s voice solution, the first thing that you should do is document the existing issues, test the system hardware/firmware and confirm that the problem is not related to any circuit packs, chassis/carrier, media module, or any physical component.

Compare – Now that you have the problem narrow down to a specific error, it is your job to go through the http://support.avaya.com and check that the recommended software has the fix that you are looking for. These could also be found in PSN (Product Support Notices), and PCN (Product Correction Notices),

If the errors are not covered or corrected with the new software, I suggest that you contact Avaya, and have them create a custom patch. Be sure to have the latest Service Packs or software version loaded.

2.- Software preparation

There are a few steps that you need to follow when preparing any software for installation. I have listed some of the steps here=

Where to get it from? – You can download the software from PLDS and the Avaya Support Site.

Preparing the downloaded software and packages – With the software downloaded, it is time to test it before you can burn it to a DVD, or USB Flash Drive.  Each software package comes with a series of hexadecimal numbers called Checksum, which allows us to run a test and compare the values and file integrity.

Personally, I use the MD5Summer application. It allows you to select the downloaded file, run an analysis, and check that it was successfully downloaded without any corruption.

Licensing – Licenses can be downloaded from the  PLDS and RFA website portals. You may also get them from your local Avaya distributor. Download this PDF for more info on PLDS, or watch this Westcon video

After installing the new system software package, it is a good practice to create or modify the Administrator’s accounts and install the system license after.

For Avaya Aura it is required to install the Authentication or Password file (this file will have a .pwd extension) after installing the license file which has a .lic extension.

3.- Types of Software Packages

When downloading and installing new software, there are a few choices available. Some of the software packages are released before the GA (General Availability) version. Some other packages are created to supplement older version of software and provide system stability. These are the 4 principal software types that Avaya releases:

General Availability (GA) – About every 9 months or so, Avaya comes out with a new software release. This type of software version comes in form of a DVD, ISO, OVA or OVF file. The software is created to support new hardware, features, and fixes.

Feature Pack (FP) = This type of software is created to compliment add-on features requested or necessary by the Avaya system/customer.

Service Pack (SP) = This type of software is released to fix bugs related to firmware or software, degrading the telecommunications services without new add-on features.

Critical Patches = If a GA has been released and it contains multiple issues related to reboots, or any other problem impacting 60% or more of the system health, a Critical Patch is immediately created to fix those known bugs. In some cases, you might get special patches created for you, depending on the level of maintenance and how critical the problem might be.

4.- Cables, Connectors and OS

Depending how you are connecting to the system, you might need to use special cables or connectors in order to establish communication between your terminal (Laptop) and Avaya Server or Media Gateway. These are some of the considerations that you should be aware of=

Silver satin RJ45 cable with Female DB9  – To connect to legacy G250, G350, G700 Media Gateways,  a silver satin RJ45 cable with Female DB9 Connector (Page 9 of this document) is needed. Connect the cable to the console port and perform the initial file server configuration, as well as requesting the files to be downloaded from a remote location, or USB Flash Drive. In the Avaya Media Gateways, I cover this process more in-depth.

Crossover Cable – For those who are connecting to the system directly via an Ethernet port such as a Services Port (Media Server), an Ethernet Crossover cable is needed to allow for a Peer to Peer connection. It is important noting that the IP Office system uses the auto-sense mechanism that allows you to connect a straight-through or crossover cable.

Preparing your service laptop’s Operating System

Now that you have the connection ready, you have to be aware of what features and applications you need to have ready prior to start working on your system upgrade. Here, I have listed a few steps and apps for you to review:

For the most of us, we are using Microsoft Windows as the OS. Depending the version you might need to tweak a few things in order for the Avaya applications, FTP, SFTP, TFTP, and SCP to work.

Windows Updates – Make sure that there are no updates pending with your Windows laptop. The last thing that you need is the “Automatic Windows Updates” to start either downloading or installing while you are about to start working on transferring or upgrading the Avaya platform.

Windows Firewall – The easiest thing to do is shutting down the Windows Firewall while transferring the files over from your PC/Server to the Avaya system. For those who can’t shutdown the Windows-Firewall-Service, head over to the exception tab, and add each applications there. By applying these rules will improve the file transfer process.

Windows UAC (User Access Control) – This application was introduced to help the Windows OS from malicious activities, forcing the regular user (us) to enter the Windows Admin mode and allow the desired application (Programs that you are about to install or launch) access to the Windows Core Protected Areas.

For those frequently used applications, I suggest that you add them to run as “always elevated”. Click here for more details.

Most used Applications – I have collected the most popular apps that you might need to use when performing the upgrade procedures to your Avaya Server. I encourage you to share any other ones that you mainly use. I am always looking for new alternatives.

TFTP Application – Solarwinds, is the prefer free app of use. TFTP might be needed for those legacy systems when transferring files.

SCP / SFTP Application – WinSCP I use to establish and secured copy files across to the Media Server as well as a secured file transfer.

FTP Application – Filezilla is a free application that allows file transfer.

DVD Burning Application – IBurn, this little application is ideal for those using Windows and wanting to burn ISOs into a disk. It runs a full analysis to the burned image.

SSH / Telnet / Console Apps – For those using a newer version of Windows without HyperTerminal, you can use Telnet, SSH or COM Port Serial Connections with the PuTTY application.

Customer Based Applications – These are applications or services used to facilitate system functionality and help optimize system performance and stability.

WebLM – It is a web-based license server that can run as stand-alone or embedded central license manager running in Linux or Windows. Licenses are manually uploaded to the WebLM server.

LDAP – Another way to integrate the Avaya Server solution to the customer’s enterprise or intranet via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Server, and the Avaya System Manager services with the main purpose of providing directory access via the telephone. Get the white-papers here.

SNTP – A time server is crucial for those Avaya Media Servers with remote sites implemented. They help keep the time synced between all the nodes, allowing each site to send and receive synchronized signaling and media stream.

ntpd – This process or daemon that keeps the time server connection synchronized between the Time Server and the Avaya Server. To update any server address you may want to update the ntp.conf file, usually located under the “etc/ntp.conf” directory.

DHCP – This service is used to provide addresses to the Endpoints or IP-Phones. Not recommended for the signaling and media servers. With option 242 you can push VLAN Information, Call Server, QoS parameters with the 802.1Q settings, failover servers, file server, and more. Continue reading about IP Phones here.

File Servers – For enterprise deployments, the customer most likely has a server serving the phone files and some other services. Have them update those files, as you get ready to perform the software update. Remember that every file should match the software version to be loaded

Question

When preforming Avaya system upgrades, which step do you take first?