atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Avaya - Lucent Telephones & Systems Partner Version issues and problems from five installs

Dear Sundance Experts. We thought we were getting a set it and forget it product but are pulling our hair out. Perhaps we are doing the installs wrong. Perhaps someone has some insights to these 6 scenarios we have experienced. Thanks in advance.

1. Upgrading. Some of the Partner Version manuals tell how to do SD card software upgrades through the system with the manager software on a laptop. Recently we have been told to pull the sd card out and do upgrades through a card reader because it takes 20 minutes instead of hours. Upgrades with the sd card in the chassis allows the voice mail recordings to remain, in a card reader wipes all the greetings out and the customer has to redo all recordings. Is there a way to upgrade the software and binary files without wiping out the voice mail on the SD cards in the pc and card reader?
2. We have a medical office that has a Partner Version 6.1. Everything was working great until they added some new sets. The intercom buttons did not show up on the new sets. So we reformatted the card and upgraded them to a 7.0 license. Everything fine until we added 3 more sets and the same issue showed up on the 3 new sets. So we took their programming info to our office, bought a new Partner Version 7.0 SD card and upgraded it to 7.0. 27. Then we manually programmed the sd card in our manager software all the features our customer has on to the new SD card while plugged into a spare chassis that was in our office. We tested it and it worked fine. We took the brand new working SD card to our customer site and plugged it into their chassis and immediately we get an error that sais a license is required. The SD card worked fine in our test chassis in our office. The customers chassis was working fine until we added the last 3 new sets. The customer had no other licenses on its old SD card. The new SD card the 7.0 license. Why are we getting this error? This took 5 man hours, and we have one unhappy customer. Why can’t we just plug 3 phones in and have it work?
3. We have a pharmacist that bought a Partner Version 7.0. We updated it to a 7.0. 27. During training we showed them how to use the voice mail retrieve button but we just got beeps. We took out the SD card, reformatted it, and the customer had to re-record all their voice mail prompts. Why did the 7.0.27 card do this? The customer was not happy and it looked like we installed a defective product.
4. We have a Partner Version customer with a 6.1 software that is working great. They are growing so we took a new combo card and it did not work. We were told the new cards wont work on older software. Not backward compatible? Why?
5. We installed a Partner Version 8.0 at a funeral home. The intercom page was not 2 way and the back up failed. We had to lower their software to Release 7.0.27. We were told there was not a good 8.0 option out there. Is that true? Why would 8.0 even be sold if there were issues?

I would ask if you spoke to tech support about these issues.
These are not common problems that i've seen.
We have done about 10 IP Partners.

hitechcomm,
yes... we spoke to tech support and that is how we got the information to upgrade and such. However, unsure if we got the straight stuff.

1) We will do the initial upgrade of the SD in our laptop reader (much faster), then if we upgrade after system is installed we do it through the chassis.
2) Yes, after the chassis and SD have been installed for more than 90 days, you will need to purchase an upgrade key code in order to upgrade. Meaning you can't just upgrade the SD and put it in an older chassis and get it to upgrade.
3) We have never had this happen.
4) Yes, a new combo card will need at least 7(12) in order to work.
5) We are sticking with 7(27) for the time being. Until all the bugs are worked out of R.8.

Hope this helps,

mdaniel- on #2. We did buy and use new 2nd sd card, a 7.0. We manually retyped all teh programming. We test the heck out of it in our chassis. It works great. So we take it to the cusotmer site and it says license needed.. really?

#1. Shouldnt these cards come upgraded and ready to install... teh system was marketed as "set it and forget it"

Again on #2, you must purchase a upgrade keycode, not just get a updated SD and try to put it in an older chassis.

No, they do not.

on #2. To be clear, the customer had a 6.1 we had upgraded with a license to 7.0. When it started having problems we decided to not use the old sd card- one tech thought it was hosed. We bought a new sd card to use. The new SD card we bought was a 7.0. In manager we made it a 7.0.27 before we programmed it. Then we take this new card up to customers chassis. We were told the chassis was just a piece of metal with no programming, sort of like the old 5 slot in the acs world. We plug in the new 7.0.27 sd card with new programming and got the error. What upgrade license do we buy- the new sd card was a 7.0 (so I was told by our programmer)? And the new SD card worked fine as we tested it in our own test chassis. We take it to the customers chassis and it gives us teh error- "license needed". Why did it error there but not in at our office? What am I missing here

It's a "keycode" that you purchase and must come from an authurized Avaya distributor.

And no, the IPO chassis isn't just a dumb chassis like the ole 5-slot ACS.

So in short, you will need to contact your Avaya distributor (Like Jenne, Catalyst or Voda-One) and purchase an upgrade "Keycode".
After you purchase the keycode there is a place to enter the code in the advanced setup.

Thanks Mdaniel. What I found out further is that we had a brand new 6.0 sd card we got from catalyst. We put it in our card reader and since it was never used it easily upgraded to 7.0.27. We put it in our chassis in our test room it looked great. We hand programmed everything. We then tested the SD card. 7.0.27 came up, all teh programming was fine. Then we took it to our customers site. We threw away their sd card cause we susppected it was hosed. We put in our new sd card and it said license required. The sd card is 7.0.27. What license would we buy from catalyst? It was a new sd card? Do we put the keycode off the old sd card?

You will need the old SD if you had any licenses on it like .......mobile twining, or SIP trunking. And only your distributor can move licenses from one SD to another.

If not, then you will just enter in the "keycode" that your distributor sells you in the advanced settings of manager.

The keycode will be a string of number/letters that your distributor will e-mail you.

thanks so much.
In this partner version the only keycode the old SD card had was the upgrade from 6.1 to 7.0 we threw the sd card away. We bought a new sd card and out of the box upgraded it to 7.0.27. It worked fine in our chassis in the office. We took the SD card to customers chassis and it says "license required". What license? the new sd card is 7.0.27. There were no sip or other things turned on. The card worked fine in our chassis. Why isn't the old chassis accepting a different/brand new card. My guys are going crazay with this one. Any ideas?

Again, you will need to purchase an upgrade keycode if you want to use the new 7.27 SD.
In short, you can not take a 7(27) SD and put it into a 6.1 chassis without a keycode and upgrading the chassis.

Ok, we will. My techs will ask- so we have a 7.0.27 sd card that works in our chassis and we still buy an upgrade key to make a 7.0.27 into a 7.0.27 to work elsewhere.

The old SD card was upgraded... does the chassis remember it was first installed as a 6.1, upgraded, and the new card, even though it is a 7.0.27, is not enough for the chassis to run as a 7.0.27 without another upgrade license. That gets even me confused.

Yes, the chassis is the system. You can upgrade within a release- 6.0 to 6.XX for instance without having to get a license. If you want to go from 6.XX to 7.XX then you have to get a license. The only exception to this is if the chassis is new, then you have 90 days to upgrade to the latest release regardless of what it is for free. The 90 day clock starts ticking when the chassis is first powered up.

If you insert a SD card with a newer release it would be the same as trying to upgrade the existing system and SD card. If the release is higher it will say you need a license.

...first installed as a 6.1, upgraded, and the new card, even though it is a 7.0.27, is not enough for the chassis to run as a 7.0.27 without another upgrade license?

Are you saying that that system was upgraded to 7.0.27 then the SD card was replaced with another 7.0.27 from another system? I'm thinking it's probably asking for a license because the upgrade was not applied to the original SD card number that is in the chassis?

-Hal

hal
good info. We were told the licensing is only on the sd card and the chassis is "just a piece of metal" Your info is a game changer. It means for future repairs and exchanges of chassis we have to have different releases in our repair stock to do like for like repairs (changing a chassis out that is 6.1 needs to be done with a 6.1) Is this the same for essential and preferred sd cards or just basic (version)? Do they have a tech bulletin on this? Just rewatched the advertising video for the partner version (office basic) and they say it is a 15 minute, ready at of the box, set it and forget it system. Until you have to figure all this out.

they say it is a 15 minute, ready at of the box, set it and forget it system.

It is assuming that it works and you don't have to touch it.

-Hal

The chassis is the same chassis regardless of release. You upgrade/downgrade via manager by changing the working directory. So there is no need for multiple releases in stock.

Yes!
I do believe you are starting to get the picture.

Thanks,