[FAQ] Automatically check for configuration changes or new software versions

[SteffenBaierUK]

Scheduling Automated Software Upgrades with Distributed Polling

You can set the polling behaviour to one of three modes – relative, absolute, or random – depending on how frequently you would like to upgrade your phone deployment.

The Polling will only look for configuration files specified within the Config_Files Section of the 000000000000.cfg or <mac>.cfg as explained => here <=

Please Note:

• Standard polling does not download a <mac>-directory.xml if dir.local.readonly is not set to ="1"

Random mode is a new mode available only in UC Software 4.0.0 or later.

• Relative
  Specifying the mode as rel enables phones to poll after every X seconds. You can specify the value of X in the prov.polling.period parameter.
  
  
• Absolute
  Specifying the mode as abs enable phones to poll at an exact time, based on the 24-hour clock. You can set the exact time in the prov.polling.time parameter.
  
  
• Random
  Specifying the mode as random enables phones to randomly poll for upgrades. The randomness depends on the period specified in prov.polling.period.
  If the period is less than one day, phones will randomly poll at any time of the day.
  If the period is greater than one day, phones will poll at a random time between the values in prov.polling.time and prov.polling.timeRandomEnd if specified, or a random time if these values are not specified.
  The polling day is determined by the MAC address of the phone.

Attribute	Permitted Values	Default Value	Interpretation
prov.polling.enabled	0 or 1	0	If set to 1, automatic periodic provisioning server polling for upgrades is enabled.
prov.polling.mode	rel, abs, random	rel	Polling mode: ·         relative (rel) ·         absolute (abs) ·         random (random).
prov.polling.period	integer >= 3600	86400	Polling period in seconds. Measured relative to boot time in relative mode. 86400s = 24h
prov.polling.time	hh:mm	03:00	Time of day to poll.
prov.polling.timeRandomEnd	hh:mm		Time of day to stop polling.

EXAMPLES

Frequent Polling, Fixed

• This will cause the phone to provision every 2 hours.

Attribute

Value

prov.polling.enabled

1

prov.polling.mode	rel
prov.polling.period	7200

Frequent Polling, Random

• This will cause the phone to provision every 2 hours.

Attribute	Value
prov.polling.enabled	1
prov.polling.mode	random
prov.polling.period	7200

 

Night Checks, Fixed Every Day

• All phones will poll at 4 am.

Attribute	Value
prov.polling.enabled	1
prov.polling.mode	abs
prov.polling.time	04:00

Night Checks, Random Every Day

• Phones will poll the server at a random time between 1am and 5am every day.

Attribute	Value
prov.polling.enabled	1
prov.polling.mode	random
prov.polling.period	86400
prov.polling.time	01:00
prov.polling.timeRandomEnd	05:00

Night Checks, Spread Out

• The phone will poll the server over a 30 day period, at a random time anywhere between 11pm and 3am during the day of the poll.
   
• The polling period will repeat every 30 days, regardless of when the phone was rebooted.
  
  
• The starting day (day of the poll) within the polling period is based on a calculation using a fixed reference starting point and the first octet of the phone’s MAC address.

Attribute	Value
prov.polling.enabled	1
prov.polling.mode	random
prov.polling.period	2592000
prov.polling.time	23:00
prov.polling.timeRandomEnd	03:00

More details can be found in the Feature Profile 68720 Scheduling Automated Software Upgrades with Distributed Polling => here <=

Postpone an Update:

The above can be combined with a new Parameter to let the customer delay an upgrade process utilizing UC Software 5.3.1 or later.

Example configuration:

<config prov.polling.enabled="1"
		prov.polling.mode="rel"
		prov.polling.period="3610"
		prov.userControl.enabled="1"
		prov.userControl.postponeTime="00:15" />

NOTE: Please be aware that if ZTP is being used this parameter is ignored! 

The phone "pulls" after around 1h the new firmware that was placed into the directory after booting and then displays as follows:

Pressing Details will show:

There even appears a new SoftKey:

The parameter prov.usercontrol.postponeTime allows:

• Configure a time interval for software update notifications. Permitted values for this configuration parameter are 15 min, 1 hour, 2hours, 4 hours and 6 hours using the format HH:MM. If a user configures an invalid value the default value is used.

After the period has elapsed this is shown:

[SteffenBaierUK]

The below configuration can be used to schedule a reboot.

The example below is for a daily reboot:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<!-- Enable a scheduled reboot-->
<!-- prov.scheduledReboot.enabled Default = 0 -->
<!-- prov.scheduledReboot.periodDays min 1 max 365 default 1 For a daily reboot use 1-->
<!-- prov.scheduledReboot.time min length 5 max length 5 default "03:00" -->
<!-- prov.scheduledReboot.timeRandomEnd min length 0 max length 5 default "" 24 hour time format(HH:mm)-->
<changes>
<test  prov.scheduledReboot.enabled="1"
	prov.scheduledReboot.periodDays="1"
	prov.scheduledReboot.time="03:00"
	prov.scheduledReboot.timeRandomEnd="04:00" />
</changes>