Cisco 7941G with UCM61XX

#1

Greetings Gurus,

My current set up is UMC6116 and approximately 40 IP Phones, 35 of them are Cisco 7940. The are all working fine, I wanted to avoid using POE injector so i opted for a new batch of 7941G’s for another site.
I have flashed them all with the latest known working SIP firmware (SIP41.9-4-2SR1-1S) and I used a couple of SEPmac.xml’s i’ve found online.
The problem is none of them except one works (accepts the config file) but when I try to modify the working xml to my environment, the changes aren’t reflected on the phone.
I Have attached the working SEPmac.xml (SEPMAC-Working.cnf) and the modified one for my environment. Can anyone lead me in the right direction to get this working?

#2

Floyd,
I don’t see anything attached.

I have quite a few cisco phones running on UCM units. 7960, , 7970g, spa5xx, etc.

A few things I have learned over the years dealing with Cisco phones coming from enterprise scale Cisco infrastructures are as follows:

  1. Older Cisco phones like the 79xx series phones are picky without a cisco switch handing off the “global voice” proprietary command, so you have to give them a few minutes to stop looking for it.
  2. The phones assume your using a full cisco backbone and don’t always look at things like they would be expected to so when you hit a wall try factory resetting one of the non-working phones and you would be surprised to see how often that fixes issues pulling a new config (if the phone doesn’t notice a big enough change in the xml they sometimes don’t load the new config)
  3. Take a copy of the KNOWN WORKING phone config and edit just the pieces needed for the next phone to minimize typos and extra spaces as the XML is very finicky at times
  4. TFTP logs are your friend, you want to verify in the logs that the config files for that phone are being requested (easy enough to see as the filename will include the mac address.
  5. Going along with point 4 you may have an issue of the file names being case sensitive and your using lowercase when you need uppercase or vice versa
  6. On the 79xx phones after it gets a DHCP address you can jump through the menus on the phone itself and check the “status” section and in there you can actually watch real time on the phone what the provisioning status is such as it can’t find the file it’s looking for or that the xml is invallid (it’s pretty quick so just keep your eye on the phone or you will miss it)

Those are the main points but I will also ask you about your tftp setup and are you using option 66 i your dhcp server? You could potentially have the TFTP link incorrect.

#3

Thanks your your reply and sorry about attachment. It should be attached now.
For now I have the phones set up in a lab environment. I found Serva tftp/dchp/http server to be small, simple, lightweight and easy to use. I have been using it in product for almost a year with my 7940’s without problem.
To re
"Take a copy of the KNOWN WORKING phone config and edit just the pieces needed for the next phone to minimize typos and extra spaces as the XML is very finicky at times"
I have very subtle changes to the KNOWN WORKING configs only to see the phone ignore it.

"TFTP logs are your friend, you want to verify in the logs that the config files for that phone are being requested (easy enough to see as the filename will include the mac address."
The tftp logs show that the XML was loaded but the changes aren’t reflected on the phone. This goes to your point about the phone ignoring subtle changes in config.

"Going along with point 4 you may have an issue of the file names being case sensitive and your using lowercase when you need uppercase or vice versa"
I go back to the lab and modify the file name. I’ll provide feedback when it’s done.

"On the 79xx phones after it gets a DHCP address you can jump through the menus on the phone itself and check the “status” section and in there you can actually watch real time on the phone what the provisioning status is such as it can’t find the file it’s looking for or that the xml is invallid (it’s pretty quick so just keep your eye on the phone or you will miss it)"
I’ll be checking this out in the lab ASAP.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

#4

Floyd,
Things have been a bit busy. Have you been able to get your phones going? If not let me know, I actually found a 7941 laying in my garage that I can test out your configs with if needed.

#5

Hi Primethios,

I can relate to things getting busy. I have had a bit of progress but not to the point of having the phones functioning on the UCM.
I have managed to flash to SIP version 9-4-2SR1 and have finally gotten the phones to accept the configs (it was case sensitive).
I’m at the point where the phone refuses to register with the UCM. Usually this is solved by turning NAT on or off but it doesn’t seem to change anything now. Any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

#6

Unless your trying to use the phones over the internet (based upon your example config this is not the case) there should be no reason to enable NAT on the phones.

I will try to throw this on my tftp server later today or tomorrow and see if I can replicate your needs.

You may need to run a packet capture to watch the messages back and forth as there is nothing in the UCM that lets you know if there is a problem with the account settings (username/password). Even with other errors and not being able to make/recieve calls you can normally get a 79xx to register without much issue.

I am also looking through old files to see if I can find a copy of a 7960 config from one of my customer sites (the 7940 and 7960 use the same config there are just less extensions) that we can do a line by line comparison on.

#7

Hi,

NAT is indeed off but sometimes the xml may have had it “on”, that’s the reason i enabled it on the UCM (just throwing stuff to the wall to see what sticks).

I’ve checked the phone status and the only error i’m seeing is “Error updating Locale”. A quick google search points to nat being enabled but both my UCM and the xml files have it disabled.

I have a few 7940’s and 7960’s in my environment and they are working fine (except to centralized directory service). The configs are similar but quite different. The 7941G, especially when running the latest SIP firmware has just a few parameter that you should manipulate to get it working.

#8

Hi All,

I just wanted to update this thread and share my findings with everyone. I have finally managed to get my phone working in my lab environment.
My Lab environment:
UCM6116 running Firmware version: latest version
Cisco 7941G (flashed to SIP41.8-0-2SR1S)
Configuration file (see attachment)
TFTP server (Serva)

After several errors and firmware changes I finally got this setup working. One caveat is that i kept getting a tftp ack timeout error. I allowed it to keep retrying and after about 20 minutes it finally accepted the xml config file.

I’m off to configure the other 25 Cisco 7941G’s. Best of luck to anyone attempting a similar setup. These phones are indeed old but are rock solid.

#9

Floyd,
Glad you got it working. You are correct, the 79xx phones are built like tanks and I LOVE them in industrial environments. In 15+ years I have had very few “brick or die”. Generally the biggest issues would be the desk stand clip breaking or liquids. Right now I have a good twenty 7960’s sitting on my office floor for installing in classrooms for a school that needed something a bit more solid in those areas.

#10

Primethios,

Thanks again for your guidance. It’s only been a year or two that I’ve ventured into the realm of IP PBX (I’ve been slaving behind Nortel Meridian Option 11’s since I started my career).
I did have problems with a few desk stands breaking…(no liquids thank god), and I found a little fix for that.

Fingers crossed, these will serve me well during this proof of concept and hopefully my company will buy a few modern phones with all the bells and whistles.

Regards…

#11

I have years of dealing with the various Nortel boxes (option 81 down to option 11) as well as old partner systems and once the IPPBX market started to focus on a strong network infrastructure as the backbone there are definite advantages as well as many more expanded features without all kinds of crazy addon modules and boxes.

Focus and handing them a solid phone with good audio presentation and start to show them the ability to do things like the potential to move to a temporary desk without having to punch down new cross connects and being able to use the switchport on the phone to plug in another device if needed.

If you have a solid backbone with good cabling you can provide everything the Nortel units do/did with less “hands on” changes and not needing to wall mount a bookshelf. Add that along with the potential cost savings of using SIP trunks and you can have an ROI of less than two years (I have often seen an ROI of less than 12 months depending on what the currently monthly service fees are).

#12

You are indeed correct these UCM’s makes a lot of task much easier, but with a struggling company that spans 11 different locations it’s hard to justify replacing all those obsolete but working Option 11 with IP PBX’s.
With the cost of the UCM6116 being relatively inexpensive, I made a proposal to purchase a couple of them to test my proof of concept. So far they have delivered.
My only concern right now is persuading management to purchase 900 phones to provide service to everyone at all of our locations. I have a few analog phone I can reuse with the help of some FXS gateways but that won’t begin to satisfy my customers needs.
Billing would be nice as well, I may work with one of our in-house programmer to get this up and running.

#13

I have been trying to make my 7940 work with UCM 6100 but it does not register. I have my line 1 registered to another SIP server and it is working. Just to test that my 7940 is sip configured. For line 2, i am trying to register it to my ucm but to no avail.
I used syslog to check what it reads and am getting the following:

Dec 13 18:22:05 UCM6108 user.debug asterisk: [20161213 18:22:05.609] SECURITY[07477] res_security_log.c:119: SecurityEvent=“ChallengeSent”,EventTV=“2016-12-13T18:22:05.608+0800”,Severity=“Informational”,Service=“PJSIP”,EventVersion=“1”,AccountID=“1002”,SessionID="00169d46-56c80003-1a7f9f77-6fde4d8f@192.168.10.234",LocalAddress=“IPV4/UDP/192.168.10.224/5060”,RemoteAddress=“IPV4/UDP/192.168.10.234/51078”,Challenge="“
Dec 13 18:22:06 UCM6108 user.debug asterisk: [20161213 18:22:06.116] SECURITY[07477] res_security_log.c:119: SecurityEvent=“ChallengeSent”,EventTV=“2016-12-13T18:22:06.115+0800”,Severity=“Informational”,Service=“PJSIP”,EventVersion=“1”,AccountID=“1002”,SessionID="00169d46-56c80003-1a7f9f77-6fde4d8f@192.168.10.234”,LocalAddress=“IPV4/UDP/192.168.10.224/5060”,RemoteAddress=“IPV4/UDP/192.168.10.234/51078”,Challenge=""

Dec 13 18:22:06 UCM6108 user.debug asterisk: [20161213 18:22:06.611] SECURITY[07477] res_security_log.c:119: SecurityEvent=“ChallengeSent”,EventTV=“2016-12-13T18:22:06.610+0800”,Severity=“Informational”,Service=“PJSIP”,EventVersion=“1”,AccountID=“1002”,SessionID="00169d46-56c80003-1a7f9f77-6fde4d8f@192.168.10.234",LocalAddress=“IPV4/UDP/192.168.10.224/5060”,RemoteAddress=“IPV4/UDP/192.168.10.234/51078”,Challenge=""

#14

Go etherent capture not syslog.
start phone you will see register packets.
Check error code

#15

hi can i have the config for 7941 to ucm pls

#16

hi floyd, ive bought a ucm6204 and im gonna configure 25 cicsco 7941g, can you send me the file? thanks

#17

Hello Floyd,
I have same problem with 7911 and 6941. I keep trying, but I only managed to do local and inbound call, but there is no audio when I try to do an outbound call. Can you please attach files or send them it would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

#18

Hello Floyd,
I have a setup of UMC6202 with cicso 7942 phones could you kindly assist with the config xml file