asterisk users - Mar 2008 - Newbie Polycom: DHCP/boot server supporting 2 models of phones

I have a question about DHCP and boot server supporting more than 1
model of Polycom phones.

According to Polycom "standards", Polycom phone boots up to get a DHCP
address and at the same time getting a boot server string (with username
and password) to logon to boot server to download SIP, bootROM and etc.

That is okay if there is only one type of phone (that requires a
specific SIP and bootROM release).  

What about if the environment has to support two or more models of
Polycom phones?

On the boot server side, I can define another home directory like
/home/polycom1 and /home/polycom2 to store different SIP and bootROM
releases.  However, the issue is how different polycom phone model can
get a different user account and password to log on to different home
directories.

I understand the issue here is DHCP and not the boot server but I am a
bit of a newbie here.  

Can anyone help please?

For this, I would recommend using a smart DHCP device, which supports
the passing of 'option 66' - for example, the edgemarc series of
routers.

With that, you could pass "ftp://user1:password1 at bootserver1" via
dhcp
in order to provision the phone, and different credentials if you are
concerned about mixing up bootroms, and application loads.

As far as I am aware ( I think I tried this once) it is not possible
to pass  ftp://username:password at host/directory1 via option 66.

I am not too sure how much of an issue the versions is is with
polycoms, in their reseller training, they give a list of upgrade
paths, but I am not sure if this affects new versions, which may just
be upgradable out of the box without any clashes....

Robert

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 9:38 PM, Lee, John (Sydney)
<John.Lee at compuware.com> wrote:
> I have a question about DHCP and boot server supporting more than 1
>  model of Polycom phones.
>
>  According to Polycom "standards", Polycom phone boots up to get
a DHCP
>  address and at the same time getting a boot server string (with username
>  and password) to logon to boot server to download SIP, bootROM and etc.
>
>  That is okay if there is only one type of phone (that requires a
>  specific SIP and bootROM release).
>
>  What about if the environment has to support two or more models of
>  Polycom phones?
>
>  On the boot server side, I can define another home directory like
>  /home/polycom1 and /home/polycom2 to store different SIP and bootROM
>  releases.  However, the issue is how different polycom phone model can
>  get a different user account and password to log on to different home
>  directories.
>
>  I understand the issue here is DHCP and not the boot server but I am a
>  bit of a newbie here.
>
>  Can anyone help please?
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
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>

All Polycom phones use the same firmware and bootroms - one reason why 
the sip.ld is so damn large for them.


Lee, John (Sydney) wrote:
> I have a question about DHCP and boot server supporting more than 1
> model of Polycom phones.
>
> According to Polycom "standards", Polycom phone boots up to get a
DHCP
> address and at the same time getting a boot server string (with username
> and password) to logon to boot server to download SIP, bootROM and etc.
>
> That is okay if there is only one type of phone (that requires a
> specific SIP and bootROM release).  
>
> What about if the environment has to support two or more models of
> Polycom phones?
>
> On the boot server side, I can define another home directory like
> /home/polycom1 and /home/polycom2 to store different SIP and bootROM
> releases.  However, the issue is how different polycom phone model can
> get a different user account and password to log on to different home
> directories.
>
> I understand the issue here is DHCP and not the boot server but I am a
> bit of a newbie here.  
>
> Can anyone help please?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>

Can't you just use the same bootrom for all your polycom phones?

PaulH


On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 15:38 +1100, Lee, John (Sydney)
wrote:
> I have a question about DHCP and boot server supporting more than 1
> model of Polycom phones.
> 
> According to Polycom "standards", Polycom phone boots up to get a
DHCP
> address and at the same time getting a boot server string (with username
> and password) to logon to boot server to download SIP, bootROM and etc.
> 
> That is okay if there is only one type of phone (that requires a
> specific SIP and bootROM release).  
> 
> What about if the environment has to support two or more models of
> Polycom phones?
> 
> On the boot server side, I can define another home directory like
> /home/polycom1 and /home/polycom2 to store different SIP and bootROM
> releases.  However, the issue is how different polycom phone model can
> get a different user account and password to log on to different home
> directories.
> 
> I understand the issue here is DHCP and not the boot server but I am a
> bit of a newbie here.  
> 
> Can anyone help please?
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
> 
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

> All Polycom phones use the same firmware and bootroms - one reason why
> the sip.ld is so damn large for them.
Thanks Rob.
Alleluia!  Rob, I will take your word for it - it solves all my worries
in deploying different models to the same environment like IP5XX and
IP6XX.