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BLF flashing after switch upgrade

General installation and configuration help.
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ChrisM
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 4:14 pm

BLF flashing after switch upgrade

Post by ChrisM »

I recently upgraded from Netgear switches to a couple of Cisco 2960-s switches. After the upgrade I have BLF's which start flashing at random. The setup is very small and I haven't been able to figure out why the phones are behaving this way.

Allworx 6x, 7.2 software I believe.
Phones: 9212, VLAN auto config.
Switches Cisco 2960-s, Voice vlan 10, data vlan 1. Smartports are set to phone+desktop, access vlan1, voice vlan 10.

I've tried disabling IGMP snooping and it doesn't seem to have any impact. I've rebooted the Allworx and several phones. I've reset one phone to factory and re-added to the system and behavior remains.

Is there anything special which needs to be done on the Cisco switch to support the Allworx phones?
HildaCSC
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 12, 2017 12:11 pm

Re: BLF flashing after switch upgrade

Post by HildaCSC »

Hi there, happy Friday!
In a case like this, it would be good to know if the problem is related with PoE or a communication issue between the phones and the BLFs.
Usually, the phones send “keep alives” to the call manager. If these “keep alives” fail, the phones just reboot in order to fix the problem. Since the Allworx is not a Cisco solution it would be good to review with the providers of this solution what is happening. It is recommended to take a span capture on the port where the IP phones are having issues, that to have a look to the communication between the IP phones and Allworx.
Also, you can visit the Cisco Support Community. There you can find information, documents or events regards any Cisco technology and the assistance of experts that could help you solve doubts: https://supportforums.cisco.com/
Alternatively, it may be good as well to open a case with Cisco TAC to find out more details of this scenario and determine where the problem is having place
ChrisM
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 4:14 pm

Re: BLF flashing after switch upgrade

Post by ChrisM »

Hilda,
Thanks for the reply, I actually forgot I made this post, I have since figured this out.

SOLUTION:
In my novice move of using the Cisco Network Assistant to configure these switches, I used the switchport function to configure the ports and I'm assuming that it doesn't work so well...

I had the ports setup as VOIP+Desktop, with VLAN1 as access, VLAN10 was voice. I had this same configuration on ports 1-14, with the Allworx box on port 13. I think what was happening is that the switch was using VLAN1 for the multicast messages between phones for some reason.

How I solved the issue:
1. Changed the switchport settings in CNA to none for ports 1-14.
2. Set the phones to Auto Config for the VLAN settings.
3. Configured the ports as static access with VLAN1, Set the voice VLAN10 to trust ports 1-12.
4. Configured ports 13 + 14 as static access ports on VLAN10, Allworx 6x is attached to port 13.
5. Rebooted all the phones and the Allworx box.

Once i did this everything has worked smooth, no more flashing BLF's.
HildaCSC
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 12, 2017 12:11 pm

Re: BLF flashing after switch upgrade

Post by HildaCSC »

Hi Chris
It's great to read that you were able to solve this issue. Also, thanks for sharing the steps and process you followed to solve this.
I'm sure this info will help other users that have similar issues.
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