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July 17th

· 4 min read

Good morning. Find some tasks below.

Main Tasks​

  • Provisioning Zoom Phones

Please read what Shawn at TCS stated:

in doing some more research, it appears that because the devices came from different vendors (listed in the email Jeffrey sent) that the firmware version ambiguity is most likely the issue.

Why ZTP Isn't Working — Firmware Ambiguity Across Vendors​

Your three vendors shipped units carrying whatever firmware happened to be loaded at manufacture — ranging from 8.0.x (older) up to 8.6.0 (current). That firmware version is the deciding factor, not the phone itself:

  • PVOS 8.0.x and earlier: local admin password is the static industry-standard default (456), with no forced change. ZTP runs uninterrupted straight through to Zoom.
  • PVOS 8.5.0 and later: Poly enforces California's IoT security law (SB-327), which prohibits a device from operating on a known default password indefinitely. On these builds, the phone halts on first boot and forces an admin password change before allowing anything else to proceed — including the ZTP handshake to Zoom. That local gate is what's stalling these units, not a Zoom-side or network problem.

Bottom line: phones on older factory firmware auto-provision cleanly; phones on 8.5.0+ stall at the password gate until someone clears it. Mixed vendors = mixed firmware = mixed results, all on the same network.

Forcing Provisioning / Reset Path​

For any stalled phone:

  • Check firmware first (phone screen: Settings → Status → About, or the web UI Home tab).
  • If firmware ≥ 8.5.0 (or already upgraded): the phone will stop at the password screen — that's not avoidable. Clear it:
    • Enter 456 as the current/old password.
    • Enter your standardized org password as the new password (same one every time — don't let it vary by tech).
    • Continue through the remaining setup screens.
  • Once past the password gate, force config delivery instead of waiting on ZTP redirect:
    • Manually set Provisioning Server Address to Zoom's provisioning URL, or
    • Better at scale: point your DHCP option (66/160) at Zoom's Poly-specific provisioning URL — https://provpp.zoom.us/api/v2/pbx/provisioning/polycom. Every phone on that subnet picks this up on boot without depending on Poly's ZTP redirect server at all.
  • Confirm the device shows Online/Registered in Zoom Admin Console.
  • If a phone is locked out with an unknown password: use the factory reset sequence you already have (unplug/replug → Cancel → hold 6+8+* → try 456/789/MAC-no-dashes). Know going in: this resets config, not firmware — it'll land right back on the same forced password screen on 8.5.0+ units. Don't treat repeated resets as a routine fallback; there are scattered reports of Edge E-series units getting into a bad state after repeated reset/reprovision cycles, so if one reset doesn't resolve it, escalate rather than keep cycling it.

In my honest opinion, this isn't exactly what we've seen, especially with phones that have the 8.0.xxx firmware version we have seen that this

"PVOS 8.0.x and earlier: local admin password is the static industry-standard default (456), with no forced change. ZTP runs uninterrupted straight through to Zoom." and this "Bottom line: phones on older factory firmware auto-provision cleanly; phones on 8.5.0+ stall at the password gate until someone clears it. Mixed vendors = mixed firmware = mixed results, all on the same network." is not entirely accurate. It is actually the opposite - phones on 8.0.x stall at the password gate until someone clears it.

With this being said, Dominic I like your thinking which is restated there by Shawn. Good work.

So now, we can attempt to have our DHCP server do the work of having it point the Zoom phone to the provisioning URL. I created a DHCP reservation for one phone as a test (Christine Badi) and set 066 configure option to the provisioning url. Let's start with hers, see what results we get, and move forward.