Solved Yealink SBC Phones are not provisioning correctly

[Sparky Bear]

We use primarily Yealink T53W phones for clients that request physical devices,

Whilst we push towards softphone only it is not a fit for all as we have some clients that just prefer the feel of a physical device.
I am having issues configuring SBC on a new device.

Background,
PBX is hosted in Azure, and has been working for over a year softphone works well,
The client wants to hire a PA/Receptionist using a physical phone,
We have ordered a Yealink T53W, an EXP50 sidecar, and a Yealink WH62 Headset

I have the user provisioned in 3CX via Azure AD and in the IP Phone tab I added the MAC to the T53W phone
I am then told to reboot the phone and magic will happen.

This is a brand new phone, never provisioned before,
The network is a Voice VLAN with no restrictions outbound to the internet.
When I boot the phone, it says no service, account unregistered.

is this a firmware issue or something else?

 

[Sparky Bear]

okay so it apparently was firmware was running 96.86.0.70 and needed 96.86.0.72 or newer,

is it possible to allow 3CX to push updates to SBC phones as they provision,
Additionally I noticed that if the firmware is too old it will blacklist the IP,

is there a workaround, i'd rather not have to update the firmware every time,
And Yealinks instructions are to set a local provisioning server, which that doesn't really help as I need 3cx to be the prov server.

 

[Lee Cramman]

Currently I don't think it's possible to automatically push new firmware via 3CX (either as part of provisioning or on an ongoing basis) and you have (in theory) to be on a minimum base firmware before you can add to 3CX / update manually. I'm not sure how you could make automatic firmware updates for older firmwares at provisioning work as the base firmware is often specified because it has the necessary certificates or security features to connect to 3CX securely. Expired certs = no secure connection = no communication between phone / 3CX.

I say in theory because I've had success manually updating phones with firmware older than the base version using 3CX in the past but it doesn't always work (again, I suspect it's related to security certs). I'm a bit confused by the blacklisting as this is done per WAN IP so I don't see how it would blacklist something coming via an SBC without blacklisting the entire SBC.

In any case, whether you are able to update phones on older firmware or not, it is not supported. Not a problem for a one-off but a PITA if you have hundreds of endpoints to install.

I understand that some manufacturers have specific advice / management tools to help with updating firmware en masse. For example, I believe with some phones you can use DHCP ooptions to point them at a specific firmware image. It's not something I've ever done personally though.

 

[SteveITS]

I’ve seen a few posts about older firmware triggering the IP blacklist.

Re: updates, I believe one suggestion was to add the phone to someone/anyone, update it, delete it, then add again as a router phone.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi,

You have to manually upgrade the phone to the version on our website (mandatory if you want to use the SBC feature ie. act as a router phone).

Then you have to delete the entry from your extension, and add it again using the new Webclient admin (the management console does not have the ability to add router phones).

If you tried to add it with older firmware, the device will not have the router function available, it will try to register like STUN, and get blacklisted.

 

[Sparky Bear]

so I got it working,
then when we moved the phone to the clients site it had rolled back to the old firmware,

Updated a second time and it is working again, and the W60B DECT Base works again too.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

then when we moved the phone to the clients site it had rolled back to the old firmware,

It will roll back if the PBX has old firmware on it, and you probably didn't delete and re-add the phone to force the recreation of the provisioning file.

Update the firmware on the PBX, and also use the Options button in the Phones page to purge the older firmware that may be stored on the machine.

It should be fine after that and will no longer roll back.