Configuration Reboot Mode Merge Immediate - Cisco Avaya

We have very old Cisco Avaya phones at work. I remember around 10 years ago when these things were considered state of the art but today they are pretty basic, albeit still better than the thousands of unbranded phone systems in use in small businesses around the world.

Despite it being quite basic by today's standards, there is still a lot you can do on the configuration side. I was using the configuration software called IP Office and had changed the config for an extension. I clicked the "Save" button and it asked me how I wanted to send the configuration.

The choices were:

• Merge
• Immediate
• When Free
• Timed

Now I could not remember which was the best option. "Immediate" sounds like the obvious one but I recall my colleague telling me that one option would reboot the server!

Basically, "Merge" works with most config changes and will merge your changes with the existing configuration.

"Immediate" will guaranteed the changes immediately by rebooting the server! This is only really needed for changes for which "Merge" alone would not be enough. Luckily, most simply changes can be under "Merge".