Converting to Auto Provisioning

[Axion Communications]

We have a several T26's and T38's that are already in production. The current phones were provisioned manually, but we are moving to Auto Provisioning.

Auto Provisioning a new server works perfectly, but we're having issues when trying to auto provision phones that were manually provisioned.
The phone downloads the new configuration file, but it continues to use the settings that were manually entered. Is there a flag we can add to the configuration file that will force the phone to disregard manual changes and use the settings from the configuration server?

[Mauro]

AFAIK, autoprovisioning overrides only the settings that exist in the provisioning file. If you add them to your provisioning file, they should override those already existing on the phone; if some sections are missing in the provisioning file, they will not be modified on the phone.
I think however there are some settings that you cannot set at all by autoprovisioning, but only through web gui or directly on the phone (I think once I found a Yealink document with a table indicating which features is possible to configure through the three modes... take a look to phone support page on main site).

To have the phones start from "clean", you may tell people to hold "ok" button for 10 seconds, then press it again when the phone asks for "factory reset?". This way, all settings should return to their defaults, also those that cannot be set through autoprovisioning. Then the phone will download and apply the autoprovisioning settings.

[Axion Communications]

(02-20-2013 06:19 PM)Mauro Wrote:  AFAIK, autoprovisioning overrides only the settings that exist in the provisioning file. If you add them to your provisioning file, they should override those already existing on the phone; if some sections are missing in the provisioning file, they will not be modified on the phone.
I think however there are some settings that you cannot set at all by autoprovisioning, but only through web gui or directly on the phone (I think once I found a Yealink document with a table indicating which features is possible to configure through the three modes... take a look to phone support page on main site).

To have the phones start from "clean", you may tell people to hold "ok" button for 10 seconds, then press it again when the phone asks for "factory reset?". This way, all settings should return to their defaults, also those that cannot be set through autoprovisioning. Then the phone will download and apply the autoprovisioning settings.

Thank you so much. That was what I was expecting, but that is not what's happening. Here are the exact steps we're following. This issue is happening with both the T26's (firmware 6.70.0.130) and T38's (firmware 38.70.0.115).

Take a phone that has been manually provisioned then plug it into a network that has auto provisioning working. I can see in the ftp server logs that the phones download the configuration files, but the phone only updates values that were not manually specified.

If you take the same phone, reset it to default, then plug it into the network then it auto provisions correctly. This is an issue for use because we have dozens of remote locations and home users that don't have access to a local tftp server.

We need to be able to change phone settings without requiring the user to reset the phone, and then manually entering the auto provisioning information. Is that possible?

[Mauro]

Are you saying that autoprovisioning changes only parameters that have not been breviously modified by the final user?
Strange... I'm sure that, when I did some provisioning tests, it worked like this:
step1: autoprovisioning, with ringtone1 along with many other settings.
step2: manually changing ringtone on the phone to ringtone2
step3: making any change in autoprovisining file, then restarting the phone, that updates config
step4: checking: the phone has automatically got ringtone1 back.

Please notice that in the tftp server logs you may see the phone download autoprovisioning file every time it boots up.... but this does not mean it re-applies the provisioning file each time.
AFAIK, if the file is unchanged (I don't know how it does control if the file "changed", checking last modify date maybe? Or comparing content?), the phone does nothing (and thus, does not overwrite any user setting modified after the provisioning occured time ago). If the file is changed, it completely re-applies it (you see "updating config" on display for a short time), overwriting all setting that are mentioned inside the provisioning file (I guess that all other settings work like the ringtone setting does!).

I don't know about a way to avoid overwriting user-customized values, if they are also mentioned in the autoprovisioning file (that might be interesting for some aspects), but I'm not a real "expert".
Who knows, maybe they changed something. I did the tests mentioned with series 6x firmware. I have never tried series 7x firmware yet (and that firmware changed a lot about autoprovisioning, considering that introduced a completely new autoprovisioning file format).
So, I hope someone from Yealink may give some better hint...

PS: What do you mean with "manually entering the auto provisioning information", exactly? I never used it, but in the Upgrade -> Advanced screen from the phone web config, there are some controls to force autoprovisioning (note: the autoprovisioning on boot-up set by the DHCP server option -what I use- to make the phone point to a TFTP server -maybe also a HTTP server without authentication may fit- works also if settings in this screen are not used and the "Check New Config" option is disabled) and specify a server URL, that may probably be also an HTTP (or FTP) server with autentication.

[Axion Communications]

Sorry I wasn't clear. When I say "manually entering the auto provisioning information" I mean logging into the phone's web gui and changing a setting that way.

Here's the issue specifically. A brand new phone, or a phone that has been reset to default pulls the config from the provisioning server, and applies the config perfectly.

If you change the config file on the provisioning server, the phone pulls down the file, but does not apply the changes.

[Mauro]

(02-22-2013 01:11 AM)jtcary Wrote:  If you change the config file on the provisioning server, the phone pulls down the file, but does not apply the changes.

Any setting? Also the ringtone? So the same test that I did, has got a different result in your environment? I don't know... Do you have some phones with an old 6x firmware, to repeat the same test?

Please notice that 6x firmware phones do not support the new format (M7) autoprovisioning file, and that it is not possible to downgrade a phone firmware from 7x to 6x (I read that in some Yealink V70 documentation).

Considering that v 70 firmware supports both old and new autoprovisioning templates, you may repeat the test with the other one on a v70 phone.

[Axion Communications]

(02-22-2013 01:19 AM)Mauro Wrote:  

(02-22-2013 01:11 AM)jtcary Wrote:  If you change the config file on the provisioning server, the phone pulls down the file, but does not apply the changes.

Any setting? Also the ringtone? So the same test that I did, has got a different result in your environment? I don't know... Do you have some phones with an old 6x firmware, to repeat the same test?

Please notice that 6x firmware phones do not support the new format (M7) autoprovisioning file, and that it is not possible to downgrade from 7x to 6x (I read that in some Yealink V70 documentation).

Considering that v 70 firmware supports both old and new autoprovisioning templates, you may repeat the test with the other one on a v70 phone.

Hi Mauro,

I'll test that and get back to you. Also we provisioning over ftp instead of tftp. That could make a difference because from what I can tell, the phone boots up, uses the existing local config, and then 5 seconds later I see it requesting the new config from the ftp server.

[Axion Communications]

Thanks so much for your help Mauro. It turns out the error was caused by a line in the configuration file. I've fixed the file and everything is working perfectly now.

[Mauro]

Glad to hear that. Bye!