I have a new Cisco 8961 model and I am trying to provision it from a tftp server on a linux server. I don’t have much experience with cisco phones and how they download their configs. Would someone help me understand the required config files and what should be in them for these phones to boot?
You have to install a dhcp server and tftp server. The dhcp server must provide the address of the tftp server. The phone will contact it for all the files it needs. There are several files to prepare in the tftp server. The most important is the file named SEP .cnf.xml. You can use the sample file for the Cisco 7960 that is widely available on the Internet. Remember to enable support for TCP SIP in asterisk (at least use a release 1.6). With this you should be able to send and receive phone calls.
Regards
Gianrico Fichera
ITESYS SRL