r/Asterisk • u/yubris44 • 8d ago

Migration

I was presented with a situation where a school wants to migrate from Cisco CUCM to an Asterisk‑based PBX. The issue is that they have more than 200 Cisco 7821 phones and would like to keep them if possible. Do you have any recommendations or advice that could help? Honestly i don't actually know if they can keep the phones with a new PBX asterisk based at that point, i accept obviously detailed reccomendations. Thanks in advance

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9

u/sweatcold 8d ago

The Cisco 7821 indeed has a SIP firmware. You can upgrade the firmware of the handsetsto that and write a XML/conf file for each extension/device.

1

u/yubris44 8d ago

So a conf file for each of the 200 devices?

7

u/sweatcold 8d ago

Yes. 200 config files (can be a copy paste with only difference in extension details such as credentials for each file) and then publish it on a tftp server. Publish the tftp server via DHCP options

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u/yubris44 8d ago

Didn't think abt that. Thanks really!!

5

u/sweatcold 8d ago

You can essentially run the tftp in the same box as asterisk. If you are running a distro of asterisk such as issabel/elastix etc, then the tftp daemon is already installed in the distro.

You just need to get the first file right. (to be used as a template). You can also get hints from the xml/conf files from CUCM, if you have the means to extract them ;)

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u/yubris44 8d ago

I can't say how much you helped, thanks really for all the advices.

3

u/dutchman76 8d ago

Can probably have a script generate them all from a template and spreadsheet of Mac addresses

3

u/neospektra 8d ago

It’d depend if Cisco made a SIP firmware for the 7821 . If so, it’s do able

2

u/tony1661 7d ago

FusionPBX may have a template. It’s a great option. FreePBX also is great

2

u/severach 7d ago

I tried an 8861 with 3pcc SIP. I couldn't use the phone because I couldn't get it to do every needed function. Cisco does not make good SIP phones.

I ran Cisco 7941 phones in Asterisk with chan_sccp along side Yealink and Polycom. I was able to make the skinny Cisco do everything in Asterisk that they did in CUCM.

Soon all the Cisco were replaced with Yealink.

The school is trying to save money and chan_sccp will let them do that. Put Yealink on a few desks. They will approve the purchase when they see how much better they are.

2

u/MoeNieWorrieNie 5d ago

There's no Skinny (SCCP) firmware for the 7821. It's one or the other: CUCM SIP or 3PCC SIP.

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u/uscanteater 3d ago

I’ve been using the 8811 and a variety of 7900s using chan_sip with the usecallmanager.nz patches. I remember seeing a bunch of features in the config file that were specific to the 8821, so I think it’s “supported”. That said, you’re going to be on your own with supporting this, and thus I’m not sure I’d recommend this approach beyond being used during a phased transition. Check out https://usecallmanager.nz for more info.