Installation Guide

[swilson]

I am an end customer and we are going to be upgrading from 7 to 8.0 UR4 (i think, not quite sure on the UR4) and before we can do anything they want to make sure that everything is properly documented on how to perform the upgrade.  Being the customer I don't have full access to Mitel documentation and I am looking for the steps to install.  I have already contacted our vendor and they haven't been much help in this department so any help would be appreciated.

[Chakara]

  I would contact Mitel and find out what is needed to join their end user groups and support processes.  I think there is a way to do so as there was a track for them at Mitel Forum last year in Vegas.  I don't think that with our contract with Mitel I can provide you what you want directly. . .

 

[ralph]

I'd be interested in what's up with your vendor.  Normally a vendor will do the upgrade.  Then, if there are problems, they have direct access to tech support.  (as well as the latest software)

We have customers that do their own upgrades but we trained them to do it and we're available to them should something go wrong.   So I'm curioius as to why your vendor isn't doing it for you.

Ralph

[marklamond]

I agree with Ralph,

I would not want to do an upgrade on a business critical system unless i had support on standby, 9/10 times you don't get any problems but is it worth the risk?

The upgrade process itself is not particularly complicated - unless you hit a problem.

All sorts of things can go wrong, to give you a couple of real life examples:

Mitel changed the default value for a particular setting on T1/E1 links and didn't document it anywhere. On restoring our database the new software load mis-interpreted the value in our old database and ignored it as a safeguard - so it went to the default. This caused calls crossing these links to connect but they were garbled, caused a bit of head scratching to work out what was happening!

When upgrading a couple of our older systems the drives died. Bad sectors etc were present that were not affecting the system operation however the drives failed when they were asked to work hard repartitioning and installing the system software.

As an  end user you can apply for access to MOL (Mitel On Line) which gives you access to the knowledge base and technical documentation, but not to download software. Even if you could download the software and wanted to do the upgrade you would need to licence your system to run the new version if the jump in version is sufficent, otherwise you will be unable to retrieve your current licences. Only a vendor can do this for you.

[swilson]

I have done several upgrades in the past and we have already done 5 of 13 controllers.  We have new management and they don't like to do anything without seeing documentation from the manufacturer.  I was able to get the documentation from our vendor and we should be completed with the upgrades soon.  My company doesn't like to pay for anything that we could do ourselves and our vendor doesn't have enough resources to fully support our needs.  Because of this I have become the resident Mitel expert and we mainly use our vendor to gain access to Mitel support and purchase new equipment.  I am not able to get certified because Mitel sees me as only an end user, which is a joke especially since our vendor's technicians sometimes call me when they have questions.  If anyone knows of a way to get a customer to technician training so I can get certified and not as an end user I would be ecstatic. 

[ralph]

I believe that your vendor can sponsor you to take I/M training.
That won't help you getting the software/Docs but you can go through the training.

Ralph

[v2win]

I think Mitel still has a COAM program

Customer Owned and Maintened.

You might be able to contact Mitel directly about that.

800-SX-MITEL

[Chakara]

  Then what is the Mitel User Groups?  Just curious as it's not clear ot me from the website.....

[v2win]

I believe COAM gives you access to Tech Support.