Cisco IOS TFTP Server limitations and CUCM Load Server

Back to the day job today (yes I know it’s Saturday – but some things can only be done on a weekend!), so no study update. However, here I am upgrading CUCM (major version upgrade), and I am working with three remote locations on high latency links to a centralised deployment. To cater for this our phone firmware is loaded on IOS gateways in the locations. This is accessed thanks to the load server parameter on the phone device configuration. This serves two purposes: 1. It causes the phones to load firmware locally and; 2. It prevents the phone from attempting to upgrade over the WAN if the firmware is not on the load server (handy if you want to add a newer firmware than provided by the upgrade – which you need to do after the upgrade).

The problem with this setup is, what happens when all the phones reset due to the switchover of CUCMs after the switch version ? Well it seems that about 10 phones upgrade from the gateway and the rest re-register. I’m not sure if this is a hard limit within IOS, but I have consistently seen that through this upgrade – so here I am resetting the device pools to ensure that all the devices are eventually upgraded (and there’s another 10 phones done!).

Load servers are still a great tool in a small deployment – but maybe I should look more closely at peer-firmware upgrading (which seems like magic). Oh yes – and it takes about 7 minutes to upgrade each of the 10 phone batches!

T-1 month and counting.

So this time next month I should know if I am a CCIE. April 14th is rapidly approaching, so how am I going ? Well, I have booked my activities for the day after the exam – golf with 2 of my best mates in the world at Royal Pines resort followed by dinner with our other halves. So no matter what happens in Sydney, I’ll be actively engaged in a pleasant activity the next day.

And the study ? Well I seem to have had a bit of a boot camp hangover (plus there have been other distractions – six nations rugby, family events, work etc.) I got back on the horse this weekend and had a bash at IPExpert volume 2 lab 6 – but only for 4 hours (more distractions). I had the expected issues: setup ntp then fix replication, MLP QoS reload router no more connectivity bug and a few other things I can’t remember, but dealt with appropriately. The difference this time compared to earlier in my study was that I knew how to deal with each issue and was ready for the expected problems. I feel I have a much better handle on WAN QoS now. I still don’t know how you can deal with the reload bug in the lab if the proctor reloads your router though – maybe just leave a note in the pod ! (or maybe its a slight variation in the version of IOS used by IPExpert vs. the real lab!).

So what is the plan for the last month ? Well, more family events over the next two weekends mean I will only be doing full labs Sunday this weekend and Saturday next weekend. I start my holiday from work on the 2nd April, so I will be having my own 5 day lab boot camp from then until we fly to Oz. I intend to spend 10 to 12 hours a day each of these days as it will be the last serious lab time I get before hitting Sydney and the exam.

My chances of passing ? I’ll tell you in a month!