Increasing from 4-Digit to 5-Digit Extension Numbers

[bluewhite4]

We have a 10 controller cluster that due to some poor planning 10 years ago and expansions has the need to change from 4-digit to 5-digit extension numbers.

Has anyone out there been tasked with something similar, and if so have any insights to share?

[martyn]

If you plan well then it shouldn't be an issue.
Are you going to stick with 4 digit codes locally and just prefix a site code for inter site dialing, or going to just go to full 5 digits?

[bluewhite4]

Have to change everyone/everything to 5 digits.

[ralph]

I took a cluster of 6 systems from 4 digits to 6.
I started out with a fresh database in my lab, exported the old info into spreadsheets, modified them and uploaded them.
Once my lab system was up and debugged we just uploaded the databases into the original systems.
I'm not sure it would have been feasible to try it on a live system.

I think the biggest problem is going to be with SDS errors.
You may have to change several phones and then resync the elements.

Ralph

[bluewhite4]

I think the biggest problem is going to be with SDS errors.
You may have to change several phones and then resync the elements.

Thanks Ralph, thats my fear as well. The customer is only willing to give us an 8 hour maintenance window and I'm struggling to determine how to get it all done in that time-frame.

When you did your conversion in your lab, did you have 4 controllers so that you were live, or did you do it system by system?

[ralph]

I had to have the same number of controllers in my lab, including enough licenses to be able to program all the phones.
That's something I wouldn't expect other dealers to have.

It does occur to me I've been through this with another customer when I was with another dealer.
I forget how many controllers there were.
What we did in this case was to farm the database out to Mitel.
They programmed the databases and handed them back to us.
All we had to do was upgrade the systems and upload the databases.

This worked really well in my opinion for the following reasons.
1) They had all the controllers and licenses needed to do it in their labs.
2) We didn't have enough "bandwidth" to take a tech out of normal service routines to dedicate to the task of reprogramming everything.

I would think that doing it that way would allow you to meet your 8 hour maintenance window.

Ralph

[bluewhite4]

Thanks Ralph! I hadn't thought of talking to Mitel about having professional services do it. I'll look into that.

[mszodiac]

I've done it on two-controller cluster (25 pairs).  If you plan ahead and know your way around SDS debug and Excel, you can make the changes.  If you have Nupoint, keep in mind that the digit string also has to change to reflect the new one. 

[markyb73]

you could put a new controller into the cluster, export, modify and import to the new controller, move phones across to there.

Take old controller out of cluster, move to next site, start again.

[bluewhite4]

you could put a new controller into the cluster, export, modify and import to the new controller, move phones across to there.

Take old controller out of cluster, move to next site, start again.

After getting a quote from professional services, and talking with the customer, this is indeed the route they've chosen to go. We'll be collapsing all their extensions onto a single vMCD running in Hyper-V, with fail-over to their current physical units.