#in Upgrading of Cisco 7900 Series firmware

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2nd February 2012

Upgrading of Cisco 7900 Series firmware

This one has come up a few times recently.

Some background info to explain why you can’t directly upgrade to firmware version 8.5(3) from anything lower than 8.3(3) on 7900 series IP phones.

Basically Cisco change the CA that signed the phone load certificates. Between versions 8.3(3) and 8.5(2) the phone loads contained both the old and new CA certificates. Version 8.5(3) and higher only contains the new CA certificate.

So basically, if you try and upgrade from 8.3(2) or lower to 8.5(3) or higher the phone doesn’t trust the new CA certificate and you get an “auth fail” message. This is also true if you do a factory reset on an old phone – i.e. one that has the old CA certificate burnt into it in the factory.

Cisco have apparently “lost” the old CA certificate, so it will never be seen again.

So the lesson here is to always have a copy of 8.3(3) lurking around that you can get your hands on.

Barry Hesk

#in EoS of Cisco 6500 Supervisor Engine Modules Sup32 + Sup720

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2nd February 2012

EoS of Cisco 6500 Supervisor Engine Modules Sup32 + Sup720

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s announcements of new products from Cisco, a slew of end of sale notices has also just followed.

Of particular note is the EoS of the Supervisor 32, and non 10 Gigabit versions of the Supervisor 720 – both of these are the main controller modules for the 6500 chassis.

Replacements are somewhat interesting.

For the Sup32, the recommended replacement is either the 10 Gig version of the Sup 720, or the new Sup 2T.
For the Sup 720, the recommended replacement is the same.

So for customers who had been installing the Sup32 the Cisco recommended replacement module at least doubles in price to RRP £17k EACH or higher in some configurations.

Obviously the age of austerity that we are all living in doesn’t apply to Cisco customers,or at least Cisco don’t think so.

The full EoS notices are here and here

Barry Hesk

Cisco announce new 40 gig ports

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01 February 2012#in

Cisco announce new 40 gig ports

Cisco have announced a slew of new products aimed squarely at the data centre market. New 40 gig modules are available for both the 6500 and Nexus 7000 platforms. The 6500 module is a 4 port module that can also be equipped with a convertor plug in to provide 10 gig ports. Overall switching capacity is 80 gig so supports 2 40 gig ports at line rate, or 4 ports oversubscribed 2:1. The 6500 modules require the new Sup-2T supervisor engines.

100 Gig modules are also available for the Nexus 7000.

Another new launch is the 4500-X which provides up to 40 Ten Gig interfaces utilising VSS support which has been available on the 6500s for a few years.

No pricing or availability information is out there yet…but don’t expect them to be cheap!

#in
Barry Hesk

Our customer Derek Campbell, G…

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Our customer Derek Campbell, General Mgr of Sims Metal just been on Radio 5 live talking on the government ban on scrap metal merchants accepting cash payments…. And he’s talking on one of the Cisco phones we sell. Great sound quality…. even though I say it myself!