TFTP: (Sometimes known as the “CUCM address”)

TFTP and call management in Cisco land is the same. It’s assumed you are treating your router to just do voice, and you’re not mixing this with another network like an ASA or an AirPort Express with it’s own IP network, etc. (I am not the only one that had this inexperience.) You use SolarWinds or tftp32d to insert new files to the Cisco router; then use the tftp-server command to serve the files for the actual sets themselves. You typically don’t use the laptop/management PC’s TFTP server to have the phones get their files. Why?

TFTP and call management in Cisco land is the same.

Now depending on the files, you’re going to have to do this individually. If you have some mind in IOS, you can do in config mode, tftp-server flash:loa [first three letters of the file, then Tab] you can speed up this process. This flags the files living in the flash: directory this can be spit out to the TFTP server you have previously set up. Ensure that in config mode your tftp-server source-interface is set on the same network/subnet that the VOIP is running under.

Your going back to the telephony-service function yet again, this is where you enter in the “Loads” for your Skinny phone. Why if say it works out of the box and it registers? You may run into some bugs. My Cisco 7970 which I’ve had for years; didn’t understand the quad-lines very well, and it locked up, and sometimes would constantly reload. The firmware dates back to CME 4 years and perhaps it needed a little more up to date code so it would work better.

You type in the telephony-service prompt in config mode the following:

load 7970 [filename without the .loads, or .default]

change the model number if different from the example

There’s roughly 6 files, and it’s best you put them in the order that the other documentation has it.

The Cisco IP Phones basically phones home via TFTP and if it sees a new bootloader and firmware and checks against what it has, it should restart and attempt to upgrade.

There are catches and gotchas, ensure you have read Cisco’s documentation on upgrading, because hopping well past major versions will make the phone become a brick, or totally just ignore the new files. For an example, you can’t go to version 9 unless you have patched to 8 if the version is below 7. Understandable for IP appliances, yeah?

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