Question about Deleting Custom Templates

[beboop]

I have been working with 3CX for a long time and always subscribed to a keep it stock where able, or if it is custom it is custom. I had a deployment where we had no control of DNS or DHCP up against a hard deadline and the easiest way to work around it was to custom template because they got option 66 right. This is a few thousand phones, so I am not excited to open each extension, copy, delete, recreate assign to SBC, paste a mac in, save and then reprogram BLF. That would take a couple of resources a month to do if they could stay awake.

What is the best path out of this? What would happen if I just deleted the template and rebooted the phones? Ive never encountered a situation such as this one, and its not something i know the answer to. I could write a script to enable save local settings, download the configs, then reenable API and pipe them back into the endpoint pretty easily to get all the BLF and localized settings back into the device, but what I don't want to happen is remotely mangle a bunch of endpoints, they drop offline or require factory reset because they don't know what to do and with the phones scattered across 30ish locations, it would be a mess. These are all Yealinks T54W current rev firmware, current V18 Firmware on 3CX (we haven't installed the latest hotfix).

 

[SweetAction]

What would happen if I just deleted the template and rebooted the phones?

The phone would continue to work with the stored info. Any updates from 3CX would not downloaded to the phone.

What's in the custom template? Assuming you tool 3CX's template and copy/pasted, then made changes, what is not the same?

In theory, all you need to do is edit each phone, copy the mac, delete the IP phone from the extension, add a new ip phone with the desired template, paste the mac, hit save. Should take.... 30 seconds per phone and no interruption to the end user. However, if there is a bunch of settings in the custom template that need to be translated to 3CX management console, that could add some time.

 

[beboop]

Not many things and there are only a handful we care about. 1 enable persistence for local settings, enabling API, local changes they have made, BLF, BG image, DM, and a few other little lamp and blinking on XX feature.. We were working around an issue with addressing and DNS resolving incorrectly on subnets and a deadline looming so we did what we had to. This is a few thousand phones, so even at peak 100% efficiency it would take 25 hours @ 30s to touch each of them, most of them have BLF, which we can overcome rather easily, and they are all on SBCs, so realistically we are at 1.5 minute peak efficiency and after restoring config, which is sanitized programmatically but they still have to look up the phone password so call it 2 minutes (best case) putting it at 100 man hours. This wouldn't be fun.

 

[SweetAction]

I'm confused - so you have custom templates and significant changes that are only available in custom templates.

What do you want to do? If you want these settings you need to stick with your custom templates.

 

[beboop]

All of what we need to accomplish can be achieved with standard templates at this point now that the DNS and DHCP works as needed . We desire in built templates as a supported config which is the best practice from 3CX point of view, and ours. By dumping, processing and loading the config, with local persistence enabled on standard templates we get to keep all of the functionality we want, still keep the endpoint API accessible, and user settings programmed either from the endpoint or dashboard (we have some multicast paging that 3CX does not support very well and has to be setup outside it). while with all that remaining on a supported design. The hurdle to clear is not having to touch 3k handsets individuality. We have figured out a process to programmatically address all BLF, keep the endpoint local settings after the change, and everything else required. The part we have yet to work out is how to remove all of the custom templates without breaking them, or deleting and reimporting 3K extensions which would wreck logs, delete voicemails and boxes, etc.... I am reasonably confident there is a way, we just have to identify it so I am here fishing for ideas because being frank that process sucks.