SNOM SIP phones are of great quality and offer very comprehensive features and full functionality. While there are some differences in terms of features and functionality between SNOM phones and Polycom phones, they both represent the current state-of-the-art in SIP IP phones and are highly recommended for use with sipXecs.

Starting in release 3.0 the sipXecs Configuration Server allows fully automated plug & play configuration and management of the SNOM 320 and 360 phones. Release 3.4 added full support for the new SNOM 300 phone. The SNOM 190 and other older models from SNOM can be used with sipXecs without any issues, but have to be manually configured.

Plug & play managed phones obtain configuration profiles automatically during startup from the sipX server, configured to act as their boot server. All the different configuration options and parameters are configurable using the sipXecs Web user interface, where default profiles provide an initial setup with standard settings that will allow the phone to automatically register and work with sipXecs. The phone's own configuration Web interface should no longer be used.

The description below assumes that the SNOM phone is connected to an enterprise or home network and that there is no NAT or firewall traversal required to reach the sipXecs server. While the SNOM phones are fully capable, NAT and firewall traversal is discussed elsewhere.

Desktop Phones

Configuring SNOM Phones with sipXecs

Configuring SNOM phones with the sipXecs Configuration Server is extremely easy. You do not need to understand the many parameters offered by the SNOM phones. Instead, sipXecs offers simple plug & play management.

It is as simple as this:

1. Unpack your new phone and type its MAC address into sipXecs Config Server
2. Assign one or several user(s) or line(s) to the new phone
3. Let sipXecs Config Server automatically generate a configuration profile
4. Connect the phone to your LAN and plug in the power cord
5. The phone will pick-up its configuration from the sipXecs server and come up fully configured and ready to use

The following describes in detail required steps as well as how to configure your DHCP server for SNOM phone mass-deployment.

Network Configuration before you start

Mass-Deployment using DHCP:

sipXecs supports mass deployment for SNOM phones where the sipXecs configuration server generates all the necessary configuration files automatically. These configuration files are picked up by the phone during its boot process using the HTTP protocol directly from the sipXecs server's docroot directory (/var/sipxdata/configserver/phone/profile/docroot).

The SNOM phones are able to use DHCP to obtain the name of the sipXecs server from where they can download the configuration profiles at startup. By default the phone is configured to look for the DHCP option server-name or tftp-server-name to obtain the hostname and port of the server that provides the configuration file. The server-name parameter is the variable with the number 66 (Option 66) in the DHCP Scope Options settings. The DHCP option bootfile-name also known as Option 67 is used to specify the directory and file name of the configuration file. Using the Linux dhcpd DHCP server, the configuration could look as follows:

        host snom360 {
                hardware ethernet 00:04:13:23:20:77;
                fixed-address 192.168.5.253;
                option tftp-server-name       "http://sipx.example.com:8090";
                option bootfile-name          "/phone/profile/docroot/{mac}.xml";
        }

NOTE: the "{mac}" portion of the bootfile-name should appear exactly like that. Do not use an actual MAC addr in the string. SNOM phones recognize {mac} as a variable, meaning 'include you own MAC addr here'.

In a Windows environment navigate to your Windows servers DHCP management window and define Option 66 and Option 67 with the parameters above.

Note: In a mixed environment with phones from different manufacturers (e.g. SNOM and Polycom), there is a conflict with respect to DHCP parameter settings as both types of phones require DHCP Option 66 (tftp-server-name) to include a string relevant to their respective boot process. This can easily be resolved by defining specific resource allocation records for your phones as shown above.

Alternative Manual Configuration:

If it is not possible to change the configuration of your local DHCP server, the phone can be configured manually with a Setting URL as follows:

• Open the phone's configuration Web interface. Go to the Advanced tab:
• Scroll down and find the section labeled Update and configure the following setting in the drop down box as required. The default setting used by sipX Config Server is "Update automatically", which causes the phone to upgrade its firmware and bootloader everytime a new version is made available in the sipXecs server's docroot directory. See additional options below.
• Paste the URL of the profile (path and filename) into the text field labeled "Setting URL" as follows. The {mac} portion is a parameter which will be replaced by the phone with its own MAC address. Refer to this Whitepaper from SNOM for further information.

http://{HOSTNAME}:8090/phone/profile/docroot/{mac}.xml

• Select "Save" then reboot the phone.

Update Policy: Select the update policy you wish to adopt for your phone:
*Update automatically does not ask again whether you are really sure that you want to update.

• Ask for update asks whether you are really sure that you want to update firmware or bootloader.
  *Ask for updating firmware only asks whether you are really sure you want to update the fi rmware.
  *Ask for updating bootloader only asks whether you are really sure you want to update the bootloader.
  *Never Update, Load settings only: loads only settings from settings server

Subscribe Config: The phone can subscribe to setting changes delivered via SIP when this option is switched to on. sipX does not currently support this feature, so turn it off.

You can verify that a profile exists for your phone on the sipX server (see below on how to generate such a profile using the sipX Configuration Server):

http://{HOSTNAME}:8090/phone/profile/docroot/

Firmware Update

http://wiki.snom.com/Firmware

Firmware Upgrade Procedure

1. Find the IP address of the phone by pressing the key market with a '?'. The About screen displays.
2. Find the latest firmware version on the SNOM Support Page. A good overview of the latest firmware version of all SNOM phones can be found here. Copy the URL of the firmware to your clipboard. It should look something like this: _http://fox.snom.com/download/snom360-6.0.0-beta-SIP-j.bin_.
3. Open the Web configuration portal of the phone by pointing a browser to the IP address of your phone, then go to "Software Update" (_http://10.1.1.156/update.htm_).
4. Copy the URL of the firmware binary into the firmware text field and press the "Load" button. NOTE: You will not get any feedback on the web page.
5. The phone should now reboot. Dependent on the installed firmware version it might ask for confirmation.
6. Navigate to the Web interface and go to the "System Information" link and verify that the last section of the "Version-Code" field matches the firmware version you loaded.

Configuring the SNOM phones with the sipXecs Configuration Server

Once the phone is able to find its boot server at startup, all remaining configuration is done automatically and remotely using the sipX Configuration Server and Web UI. The tasks required to complete the installation are as follows:

1. Create at least one user who will be using the phone
2. Create the phone as a device known to sipXecs
3. Assign one or several users to the phone (create lines)
4. Generate the profile for the phone and reboot the phone

Creating a new user in sipXecs

1. Log into the sipX UI as superadmin
2. It is recommended that you add different User Groups as Web UI and Call Handling Permissions are defined for groups and not individual users. Groups can consist of users with different phones.
3. Click on Users from the main navigation, then click the Add User button to create a new user:
4. Create a new user by entering the requested parameters. The extension number is populated based on the settings in User Extension Pool; however, it can be changed. Note that the PIN is only the password the user needs to login to the voicemail portal. The SIP password the phone will use for registration is automatically generated and assigned. It can be viewed / changed by clicking on Show Advanced Settings.

5. Edit permissions by going to Group Settings for the group the user belongs to. If the user should be able to record system prompts using the phone, enable it. Also, make sure you set correct permissions for dialing rules.

2. Create a Device for the new phone

1. Click on Phones in the main navigation, then Add Phone. Enter each phone's MAC address (lower case letters only) as the serial number, choose the appropriate phone model, and place it into the desired group.

2. Click on your new phone entry, listed by its serial number, then go to Lines.

3. Assign user(s) to the phone

1. Click on Add Line. You can search for a specific user or just click Search with empty fields, which will list all users. Select a user and press Select. You have now attached that user to the device. Dependent on the phone model, several lines can be attached to a device.

4. Generate the profile

1. Click the checkbox on the left side of the entry and select the Send Profiles button. This now creates the configuration profile for the phone with default parameters and stores it in the docroot directory of the sipX server. During the previous steps we have used default parameters for both the user we created as well as the device. These default parameters should allow the phone to properly register with sipX when it boots next time. Once registration is accomplished, user and device parameters can be changed to your specific requirements.

Note: You can verify that the profile was generated successfully by clicking on Job Status under Diagnostics in the main navigation menu. You will find an entry for the newly generated profile.

2. You now need to restart your SNOM phone manually by unplugging the power cord (or press Settings on the phone and navigate to Reboot). As the phone comes back up it should now successfully register with the sipX proxy. This can be verified by clicking on Registrations under Diagnostics in the main navigation menu. An entry should be shown for the phone. Once the phone registered successfully with ConfigServer it can then be restarted from the Web UI remotely as you make further changes to its configuration.

Enable Additional Features

Music On Hold (MoH)

SNOM phones support the standard IETF call flow for MoH. Starting with release 3.6 sipX automatically configures the SNOM phones with an appropriate music server to provide Music On Hold. Whenever the hold key is pressed on a SNOM phone, the caller will hear Music On Hold.

The MOH server URI is:

Web portal

The SNOM phones have a great phone Web portal that provides interesting additional features to the user of the phone:

*Dial a number: From the phone's Web portal an internal or external phone number or a SIP URI can be entered. Clicking on dial initiates the call from the phone.
*Call history: The phone's Web portal provides a complete history of dialed calls, missed calls and received calls.
*Address Book: the phone's Web portal offers a comprehensive address book. Entries can be manually created or imported from a .cvs file.
*Protection of phone settings: If the phone is configured using a server provided configuration file, the phone's Web portal automatically protects all settings and only offers read-only access to users.
*SIP trace and logs: The phone's Web portal offers SIP tracing capability as well as access to extensive logs.
*Software upgrade: The phone's Web portal offers a very simple way for firmware upgrades.

Additional features we consider exceptional:
*12 physical line keys: The phone offers 12 physical line keys assigned to function keys.
*Function keys: 12 function keys enable powerful features such as Intercom, Call Park Extensions, Voice Recorder, and Shared Lines, provided the server side PBX solution supports it.
Support for*Music on Hold (MoH) source
Support for*Secure VoIP (i.e. SRTP and certificates)
Extensive*NAT / firewall traversal support (STUN, ICE)

Message Waiting Indication (MWI)

For every line the Snom phone allows you to configure a Mailbox parameter. This parameter is used for both message waiting indication subscription as well as message retrieval. The default profile for the Snom phone configures this parameter to correspond to the User ID of the line.

Note: This does not work great with the sipX media server. The default setting is to set this parameter to the User ID or extension number of the line. This allows the phone to subscribe to notifications for that User ID's voicemail messages and it enables the message light on the phone to work as intended. However, when the Retrieve button is pressed on the phone, the phone calls the extension sip:userID@sipx.domain.com instead of the sipX media server voicemail extension (default 101). Therefore, you will be connected to your own voicemail box and because the line is busy you will get a message that asks whether you would like to leave a message. This issue has been logged with Snom and we hope a fix will be forthcoming (this applies to firmware 4.3).

Do Not Disturb (DND)

The DND feature is supported by the SNOM phone. However, the "DND Active" indication, displayed on the bottom line of the phone's display, is not visible if there also is a message waiting indication. This is presumably a bug in the phone (firmware 4.3).

Line State Indication (Presence)

The Snom phone can subscribe to another phone's line state using its Function Keys. This function depends on the phone and we have tested this with Polycom phones (firmware 1.5.2) and Snom phones (firmware 4.3).

Setup: Configure the Snom phone's function key with the SIP URI of a line registered on a Polycom phone as shown below. Nothing needs to be configured on the Polycom phone.

Function:

• If the line on the Polycom rings, the function key LED on the Snom phone blinks
• If the line on the Polycom is busy, the function key LED on the Snom phone is light solid
• The function key on the Snom phone acts as a speed dial key to call the line on the Polycom phone

Call History

The Snom phone logs details of calls dialled, received and missed, but this functionality will be broken if the registrar setting is appended by the string ";transport=udp" or ";transport=tcp". The presence of this string in the registrar field can be easily confirmed by directing a web browser to the phone's internal web interface, navigating to one of the identities, and looking at the Registrar.

The way to correct this issue through SipX is to edit the Line settings for the Phone or Phone Group, and manually enter the registrar under Registration > Registrar. Note that you will need to re-send the phone profiles after doing this.

Troubleshooting

• You can reset the phone to defaults in "Advanced" link from phone's web admin.
• Default admin password is 0000

Configure the snom 190 / 220 UI

1. Connect the SNOM phone to the network
2. Open the SNOM web interface
3. Move to the SIP subsection of the Settings section

Configuration Options

{{Box File|Submenu Lines|
Within Lines:

Within Stack:

Within Authentication:

Set Password to Credential - Password