Staging phones in GDMS prior to deployment

#1

I’m staging configuration for some phones prior to deployment. I’ve added the phones to inventory with the appropriate S/N’s and MAC addresses.

After adding the phones to inventory, I added them to the appropriate template groups and configured them with the correct account information. However, since GDMS can’t communicate with the phones, the status appears to be stuck in provisioning mode. I think GDMS should attempt provisioning after the phone has connected to the platform for management. Configuring offline devices should simply update the config and be ready to push the updates to the phone when it connects for management.

Please let me know if I’m approaching this incorrectly.

Thanks,
Blake

#2

Dear user,

Thank you for using GDMS platform! Could you kindly help to confirm:

  1. Your GDMS ACS URL is: www.gdms.cloud
  2. What is your device model?
  3. What is the firmware version of the device?

Thank you!

#3

Support, thank you for your response. Here are the answers to your questions.

  1. gdms.cloud
  2. These particular phones are GXP2135s, but I believe this applies to all devices that are being staged prior to being deployed with network access.
  3. I don’t know. I haven’t put them on the network yet. I’m trying to stage them in GDMS so that when they are connected to the network they pull the correct configuration.

Thanks,
Blake

#4

Dear user,

Based on your descriptions, please update your ACS URL to: https://acs.gdms.cloud

Then, your device should be compatible properly with GDMS platform. Please ensure that your device firmware is in 1.0.11.2.

Thanks for your feedback.

Thank you!

#5

I don’t understand how the URL I’m using has any impact on the functionality of GDMS. https://acs.gdms.cloud simply redirects me to https://www.gdms.cloud/sysAbout. The version of firmware on my phones is irrelevant because the phones haven’t been connected to GDMS yet. I’m trying to stage the configuration of the phones in GDMS so that when they are upgraded and connect to GDMS the configs will be pushed automatically.

Maybe i’m not being clear. Let’s consider a different scenario. Say I orderred 5 new phones from a channel partner. Now, that channel partner assigns those phones to my GDMS account for management. I want to stage the configuration of the phones in GDMS so that when the customer receives the phones and plugs them into the internet, the phones will connect to GDMS, and GDMS will push the staged configs to the phones.

Now, consider the phones are in transit. They are not connected to the internet. So GDMS shows them as offline. I proceed to add the phones to a group template. When I add the phones to the group template, GDMS tries to provision the phones even though they are offline. This causes the phones to get stuck in the “provisioning” status until the phones are received by the customer, connected to the internet, and connected to GDMS.

My point is that GDMS should be smart enough to NOT attempt to provision phones that are offline.

#6

Okay so let’s be clear here:

GDMS works as a provisioning server using TR-069. The URL “acs.gdms.cloud” is the TR endpoint used.

If the phone is offline, yes, it will show “Provisioning…” but it doesn’t matter at all.

When the phones are plugged in, they will boot and first thing they connect to is GDMS, then GDMS will send the config you created.

No need to “stage” anything.

#7

Thanks for the response. It just seems odd to have the status of “provisioning” with a constantly spinning circle when configuring phones that are offline. I was simply trying to suggest in my first post that phones that are offline shouldn’t be put in a constant “provisioning” status. This also impacts the dashboard. It causes offline phones to be reported with abnormal account status and for the phones themselves to report offline even though they haven’t been deployed yet.

It might make sense to have some sort of indication that a phone is configured and ready to deploy without impacting the status reports for your production phones in the field.

#8

I do agree on that. At least the “Abnormal” status should be silent-able for selected devices.

#9

I’ve also noticed that during this process when I add an offline device to a template and push the template to the device, I am unable to see the template applied to the config of the device. By that I mean, after pushing the template if I go to “devices” and configure one of the offline phones the config is blank.

Is this intended? It seems like it would make more sense to be able to look at the config, see the template was applied, and know exactly what’s going to be pushed to the new phones when they come online.

#10

Dear user,

Thank you for using GDMS platform! The test performance is correct by our design. When the template has been pushed into the device successfully, the settings will be combined in the device.

Thank you!

#11

In my testing, that’s not the case. If I push a config template to a device that is offline, the device does NOT receive those configuration updates when it’s connected. I’ve found that I have to push the templates to the device after it’s connected if I want them applied.

If it did work the way you describe, it would mean there is no way to see the cumulative configuration for a device before it is connected to the network. That’s not ideal either. The configuration to be pushed to the device needs to be viewable for verification before I send it to a customer. If I make manual updates to an offline device, those updates are visible. There’s really no reason that updates sourced from an applied template would be hidden. I suspect that they aren’t showing up because they aren’t applied correctly to an offline device. That would explain why I have to push a template to a device after it’s connected in order to have it applied correctly.

Regards,

Blake

#12

@MyWiFiGuy Agreed. I like what I’m seeing so far, but templates need a lot of work.

#13

I couldn’t agree more. I’m loving the GDMS platform, and I’m happy to provide some feedback to hopefully make it even better.

#14

Dear users,

Thank you for using GDMS platform! If the user sets the parameters on the specific device configuration page in GDMS platform, the device configuration will be updated once the device is online. If the user tries to click to push the configuration to the offline device, this operation will be considered as a task in GDMS platform, and when the task is timeout, the task will be failed so that the configuration will not be pushed into the device once it is online. We have a solution for this: The user can configure a scheduled task to push the configuration file to the offline device, and set the time range to a wide range such as a couple of hours or days, so the configuration will be pushed into the device once the device is online. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Thank you!

#15

Be sure your phone model are supported. HT8XX,
GXP2130/40/60/70, GRPXXXX, GXV33XX etc.

then go on the phone UI under maintenance/TR-069
ACS URL: https://acs.gdms.cloud
Periodic inform enable: yes
Periodic inform interval: 864500
Connection Request Username: 000B8XXXXXX (phone MAC address no space no colon)
Connection Request Port: 7547

save, apply and reboot