Reconnect handset after Mitel Controller reboot

[IanOne]

Occasionally, we have to reboot/reset the Mitel controller.
Most of time we need to wait till 45 minutes for all the handsets to be reconnected back after the controller finished rebooting.

One option we used is to unplug the PoE cable and let the phone reboot.
Are there any ways to shorten the time? Change the retry time on the phone.
Or do something on the console to reconnect the phone?
Or any easy to reboot the phone without unplugging the cable, keypad option?
Any suggestion?

[acejavelin]

The answer is maybe... the delay in reconnecting is kind of by design to prevent the system from getting overwhelmed with phones booting up all at the same time, which slows down the boot process (and thus everything else).

The fastest way to reboot the 3300 is to initial a reset (via software preferably), then disconnect the LAN cable and allow the system to boot fully, then reconnect the LAN cable. To get the phones to reconnect fast, either do what you have been doing, or reset the PoE switches, not that depending on the size of your implementation this could cause significant load on your DHCP server as well..

As far as the console goes, you should just be able to unplug and plug back in the power supply to get it to respond quicker.

The real question here is why do you need to reset the controller frequently enough that this is an issue? This is not normal, I have 3300's out there that have run for months, even years, without ever being reset.

[lundah]

What software release are you running, and on what chassis/controller type (LX, MXe, CX, etc.)? Any resiliency enabled to a secondary controller? Is the 3300 providing DHCP & TFTP services to the IP phones or is that being done by another device on the network?

[IanOne]

Thanks a lot for your reply.

It is not the controller itself causing the required reboot.   It is the environment factor - Blackout!  The handset was boot up much sooner than the controller.  By the way, are there any keypad shortcut to reboot the handset, other than unplug the cable.
It may be quicker, I think!

[sarond]

Are the handsets powered by a POE Switch? it sounds like it may be quicker to reboot the switches.

[acejavelin]

I would strongly suggest a UPS, the cost can far out weigh the benefit in this circumstance...

There is a shortcut to rebooting the phones by the keypad, sort of, but to be honest it is much quicker to just pull the cable and re-attach it. I am in a hurry right now but can give it to you later, it takes too long to type out for the time I have right now.

[Crowtalks]

It sounds like you may be running into a DHCP issue...are the phones DHCP or Static? If they are DHCP is the DHCP server on the controller or a router? Are you using a Phybridge?

Jim

[IanOne]

Phones are powered through PoE from the switch.  Not that keen to reset the PoE switch which would affect the computer connections.

They are DHCP with DHCP on the controller. No phybridge used.

[Crowtalks]

Hmm...this may be a bigger job than you would want to tackle, but statically assigning the phones would probably solve this issue.

If you wanted to use the last 2 (or 3) digits of the phone's DN to match the last 2 numbers in the last octet of the IP address, it would make reassigning IPs easier to remember.

Jim

[Mattmayn]

I'm with Ace on this one, get a UPS. I would not suggest putting static addresses on all of your handsets.

[acejavelin]

I'm with Ace on this one, get a UPS. I would not suggest putting static addresses on all of your handsets.

"Never, Never, EVER put static IP addresses in phones, why would you waste your **** time, you might as well just throw this thing away..." - Mike S., Technical Trainer with Mitel as he literally throws a 5330 across the room to make his point, and continues to ramble on about DHCP after a fellow student said it was slow and a waste of time and that they always use static IPs on phones! Best day of Mitel 3300 training EVER!!!

[ralph]

So does Mike S. still work for Mitel?

Ralph

[acejavelin]

So does Mike S. still work for Mitel?

Ralph

Yes... and has for a very long time, he was an Inter-tel merger guy. One of the best and most knowledgeable instructors I have ever had.

[sarond]

If you have management rights to the switch you can normally disable/enable POE on each port rather than reset the entire switch.
I'm not saying this is ideal but it is still better than physically walking to each phone to unplug/plug phones.

But as the others have suggested, get a UPS.

[IanOne]

I agree the option to disable/enable the PoE of the swtich, though it will reset some of the wireless access points. Still a very good alternative. Thanks!

We got UPS but it cannot last for more than an hour.