Tech Tip: Deploying Mitel IP Phones in a VLAN/DHCP Environment

I recently burned way too much time implementing a Mitel IP phone system for a customer, and it should not have been this difficult. Doing it the "easy" way - giving each phone a static IP on the same VLAN as the rest of the network - is just sloppy, especially considering that the phones are happy to play well on a more properly segregated network.

Our local support person was a great and helpful guy, but he simply didn't have this information, and my impression was that we were expected to go to Mitel Professional Services for network consulting (presumably for a fee).

Um, no.

So, I wrote this paper to help the next guy accomplish what we did, and maybe the general direction will be useful for other kinds of IP phones: feedback and related experiences are welcome.

Tech Tip: Deploying Mitel IP Phones in a VLAN/DHCP Environment

Comments

[Paul Slade]

Excellent article. We spent all day trying to get a new Mitel phone system installed because the IP Phones couldn't discover the DHCP server.

The issue was the DHCP options as we use a Win2008R2 DHCP server and VLAN's across multiple sites.

After reading you article we got it working! Mitel Support in the UK couldn't fix the problem!

Thanks
Paul.

[iOS Application Developers]

Now, I suspect many phones act this way, as it sort of makes sense. Is there a configuration file to look into? It's quite possible things are in there to define what VLAN it should use for the PC port.

[Mobile App Developer]

Pretty insightful post. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to explain this subject clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that.Keep it up.

[John White]

Anyone get the error "tftperr: Packet Send" after following these instructions? Its getting one the right vlan etc... not sure what I am missing.

[root_taker]

Great writeup! Do you know, do the Mitel phones work with the "switchport voice vlan " command on interfaces? I know this is typically how we set things up in a Cisco environment but not sure if it would play well with Mitel stuff or not... An example of this would look something like:

interface FastEthernet0/7
description Mike's phone
switchport mode access
switchport access vlan 1
switchport voice vlan 4

[Tonym Pa]

Excellent article and instruction on this, what should otherwise be, a simple process.

Before finding this article, I spent the better part of an entire weekend, plus the Monday afterwards, searching google, digging through forums, testing phones, and calling every Mitel support tech who speaks Layer 2 and 3 that I could find.

What ended up saving us was your procedure (with the Magic Mitel String :) ) and a DHCP Helper Address entered into the router.

[Phone system]

The information regarding Mitel IP phone system seems to be great.we using so many IP phone system with different facility which they provide on it.But after reading this blog for the mitel IP phone system which you provide them with a static IP on the same VLAN as the rest of the network is interesting.

[how to attract women]

Don't stress yourself out in finding a way to solve this experimentation. Time will be the best solution there. Take it easy and for sure, you can find what you are looking for.

[root_taker]

I wrote a similar article to this a little while back on doing DHCP with linux or Cisco DHCP services rather than windows. Check it out at http://technologyordie.com/mitel-phone-dhcp-configuration-with-multiple-vlans