Unified Communications

Hi all, in preparation for my data networking bretheren upgrading their core switches, where my 96xx H.323 phones get that sweet, sweet connection to the call and utility servers, how long should I expect 100, 500, or 1000 phones that simultaneously lose connection to both the CM core and any LSP's to come back online once the data network is re-stabalized? I.e., can 1000 phones all ping the utility server at once to retrieve their backup files, etc.?

Chip,

I guess it depends on which version of the Utility server.  I think the older utility servers (7.1.x and below) were tuned to at most 100 connections at a time.  The newer "AADS" server that replaced the utility server is tuned to be in the thousands.  

Now, that being said -- it would be quite unlikely to have 100, 500 or even 1,000 phones all pulling their content at the same time.  The nature of networks re-connection will usually stagger phones going back online.  If it's a switch being rebooted or cold-started, most manufactures will turn on one port at a time (with some having a half or full second between each port). If it is a link between sites coming back up, usually all the phones on that portion of the link will be in different portions of their reboot cycle to catch that the link is back online.  Remember, that when these phones download settings files, backup files, etc. these are really small, and really only tie up the utility server for at most a half-second.  The only time I've seen one of these servers get busy at all was when a whole network was turned up, and all the phones had to download new firmware.  Even then, firmware downloads can usually be grabbed in a few seconds.

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Nick Kwiatkowski
Michigan State University
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2019 05:07 PM
From: Chip Powell
Subject: Expected reboot time for phones

Hi all, in preparation for my data networking bretheren upgrading their core switches, where my 96xx H.323 phones get that sweet, sweet connection to the call and utility servers, how long should I expect 100, 500, or 1000 phones that simultaneously lose connection to both the CM core and any LSP's to come back online once the data network is re-stabalized? I.e., can 1000 phones all ping the utility server at once to retrieve their backup files, etc.?

Thanks for the input, most appreciated.
Original Message:
Sent: 11-22-2019 08:42 AM
From: Nick Kwiatkowski
Subject: Expected reboot time for phones

Chip,

I guess it depends on which version of the Utility server.  I think the older utility servers (7.1.x and below) were tuned to at most 100 connections at a time.  The newer "AADS" server that replaced the utility server is tuned to be in the thousands.

Now, that being said -- it would be quite unlikely to have 100, 500 or even 1,000 phones all pulling their content at the same time.  The nature of networks re-connection will usually stagger phones going back online.  If it's a switch being rebooted or cold-started, most manufactures will turn on one port at a time (with some having a half or full second between each port). If it is a link between sites coming back up, usually all the phones on that portion of the link will be in different portions of their reboot cycle to catch that the link is back online.  Remember, that when these phones download settings files, backup files, etc. these are really small, and really only tie up the utility server for at most a half-second.  The only time I've seen one of these servers get busy at all was when a whole network was turned up, and all the phones had to download new firmware.  Even then, firmware downloads can usually be grabbed in a few seconds.

------------------------------
Nick Kwiatkowski
Michigan State University

Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2019 05:07 PM
From: Chip Powell
Subject: Expected reboot time for phones

Hi all, in preparation for my data networking bretheren upgrading their core switches, where my 96xx H.323 phones get that sweet, sweet connection to the call and utility servers, how long should I expect 100, 500, or 1000 phones that simultaneously lose connection to both the CM core and any LSP's to come back online once the data network is re-stabalized? I.e., can 1000 phones all ping the utility server at once to retrieve their backup files, etc.?