Sonora Communications, Inc.

Reference

UPDATE: New Documentation and Support for Polycom Phones (read this first)
The SARK/SAIL provisioning system is now much improved and Polycom phones are now directly supported. However, this page may still be useful in a Polycom-specific way.

Also note that Polycom has changed their configuration files as noted in the new SARK/SAIL documentation. While the options discussed below may not have changed, the config files in which you will edit them may have changed. For example, the sip.cfg file will now not be edited; you will probably edit an 'overrides' file instead.

Provisioning for Remote Use with SAIL

Polycom Phones

Provisioning Polycom Phones

Polycom Contact Directory

More Provisioning

Polycom Admin Guide

Get the Files

Download the appropriate bootrom and SIP application files for YOUR phones. Be sure to check the Release Notes to verify applicability. Failure to heed this warning may result in 'brick'ing your phone which might require the time and expense of sending your phone to Polycom for reprogramming.

Go to here or ask your Polycom dealer for the latest/proper provisioning files.

The latest files at the date of this writing for most Polycom phones are:

• BootRom_3_2_3RevB_release_sig.zip
• spip_ssip_2_1_2_release_sig.zip

Server Configuration

Enable the TFTP server and turn it on:

• Server-Manager
  • SAIL PBX
    • Globals
      • Enable TFTP Server
        • Commit

Test TFTP server, if you wish, with this Windows command:

C:\> tftp servername get aastra.cfg
Transfer successful: 160 bytes in 1 second, 9599 bytes/s

Or with this Linux command (tftp must be installed):

tftp
tftp> get aastra.cfg
Received 160 bytes in 0.0 seconds
tftp> quit

If you want to allow phones to upload logs to the TFTP space, you need to add the "-c" option to the start portion of the /etc/init.d/tftp script. You will also need to change the directory permissions on the /tftpboot directory. These changes are not exactly necessary and they have security implications, but they are useful for troubleshooting provisioning issues.

vim /etc/init.d/tftp
chmod 777 /tftpboot

Update Polycom Firmware

Extract the zip files into the /tftpboot directory.

The Polycom phones typically use three files for provisioning:

• .cfg

  • use lower case letters and no puntuation
  • this is the mac address of the phone to be configured
  • different for each phone to be configured
  • ex: 0004f205ec90.cfg
• phone.cfg
  • different for each phone to be configured
  • ex: phone5001.cfg
• sip.cfg
  • same for all phones
  • contains site-wide configuration info
  • you will want to modify the SNTP time settings for your locale

The sip.cfg file contains global settings for all your Polycom phones. Edit the sip.cfg file:

vi /tftpboot/sip.cfg

You probably want to change these options for your locale:

tcpIpApp.sntp.resyncPeriod="14400"
tcpIpApp.sntp.address="192.168.0.1"
tcpIpApp.sntp.address.overrideDHCP="1"
tcpIpApp.sntp.gmtOffset="-25200"
tcpIpApp.sntp.gmtOffset.overrideDHCP="1"
tcpIpApp.sntp.daylightSavings.enable="0"
up.oneTouchVoiceMail="1"

Here in Arizona, as shown here, I decided to:

• resync the time every 4 hours

• point the phone to my SME/SAIL box (192.168.0.1)

• override any DHCP settings

• specify our GMT offset (-7 hours)

• disable Daylight Savings time (yeah, we're different)

• pressing the Messages key takes you straight to voicemail

SAIL Configuration

Create the extension from the SAIL Extensions menu.

• Be sure to enter the MAC address of the phone exactly.
• Use lower-case letters when letters are required.
  • Some older versions of SAIL automatically upper-case the letters. If so, edit the extension after creating it and manually change the letters to lower-case.
• Use the extension number for the "SIP/IAX name".

Phone Configuration

Finally, plug in the phone. Pay close attention as you need to press the Setup key as the phone first begins to boot up. Polycom phones default to using FTP instead of TFTP for automatic provisioning. FTP provisioning has advantages, but it is not supported by SAIL.

• The default admin password is '456'.
• Go to the Server Menu and press 'Sel'.
• Change the Server Type to 'TFTP'.
• Change the Server Address to the IP address of your SME/SAIL server.
• Exit, Exit, then Save and Reboot.
• Be patient.

If you feel you need to, you can reset (301 and 501) the phone configuration by pressing and holding 4,6,8 and * for a few seconds...then press Setup when the phone reboots.