Avoiding Common Digium Gateway Firmware Update Errors

Prior to updating Digium G-series Gateway appliances, there are a few relevant scenarios to be aware of. Even if you can not account for extraneous variables, consider taking the safer sequence of steps and implementing the following solutions as best practices.

• Scenario 1:

Troubleshooting has taken place on a gateway, and various advanced debug captures have been performed. This can create a condition where the unit can run out of temporary memory. When performing "automatic updates", the gateway must download, store, and prepare the update to be applied. Combine this with a lack of temporary memory, and you can experience failed updates with undefined error messages. Currently, there is not a mechanism to warn users of limited memory via the web interface.

Solution: Ensure the unit is clear of all vital call traffic, perform a reboot to clear device memory. This can be done by navigating to Maintenance-->System Reset-->Perform System Reboot

• Scenario 2:

A customer has initiated an automatic firmware update and believe the unit is "stuck". To alleviate this, they decide to power cycle the unit despite the status LED on the device being in a solid red or amber state. Even though the gateway administrator manual lists the ETA for a complete firmware flash to be around 10 minutes, this is only for the actual period the unit will take to flash. Before this can occur, the gateway must download the firmware image from Digium's download servers. Depending on the internet connection speed available to the gateway, this can make the entire process appear to take much longer. An disruptions during the flash can likely brick the unit and make in unrecoverable.

Solution:  Ensure the customer is aware of the LED status light, the meaning the the colors, and that the total process can exceed 10 minutes. Stress that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should power be removed from the unit until it has booted successfully and displays a green LED status. If in doubt, wait a bit longer to be sure.