2.3. Devices
- Former user (Deleted)
The Device Menu
The main devices we are dealing with here are obviously phones.
In these menu options we have, however, also gateways – these are devices which connect a phone system to the outside world, or at least to a telephone company. Gateway configuration is covered in the advanced section of this manual.
Phones
The Phone option shows the list of all phones configured.
It shows the serial number of the phone (this is usually the MAC address), the phone number and the model.
Click on any of the serial numbers or phone numbers to enter the editing screens for the phone settings.
It is important to note that you do not have to configure any phones in sipXecs.
This is an optional step – only configure phones here for which you want the device configuration automatically generated and sent to the phones. This automatic configuration generation and distribution is called “provisioning”.
If your desk phones are not supported by automatic sipXecs (not all models are), or you do not want the automatic provisioning to take place, do not configure phones here.
Adding a Single Phone
After you added a single user manually, you would have to add a single phone.
Display the list of phones by selecting the Devices > Phones menu option, then click on
the arrow next to Add New Phone … to the right.
A list of phone models appears.
Select the model of your phone and you will end up on a screen for inputting serial number, description and groups:
After clicking Apply, the setting screen for the selected hone model will then appear and you can edit any settings required.
If the model of your phone does not appear on the list, this phone is not supported for automatic provisioning by sipXecs. In that case you do not need to enter any phone. Configure the phone directly on the device manually.
Automatic Phone Provisioning
Generating configuration information for a phone automatically and sending it to the phone is called provisioning. sipXecs can act as provisioning server for many phone models.
This means you can enter the settings of a phone on the sipXecs screens, and without having to walk over to the phones or logging on to their web interface, you can have all their settings configured automatically.
In most cases, provisioning requires a reboot of the phone – in other words you have to (1) generate the new configuration file in sipXecs, and (2) reboot the phone.
This disadvantage of that is of course that you cannot make configuration changes while the phone is in use. But you can schedule automatic reboots, so they can happen at midnight, when nobody is around.
Provisioning a Single Phone
Here is how you automatically send settings to a single phone.
• After having selected a phone and made any settings change, you go back to the main screen (entitled Identification).
• Click Send Profiles.
• Choose the schedule when the phone reboot is meant to occur. You could also disable the automatic reboot entirely (you’ll have to do it manually later then).
Provisioning Multiple Phones
You can provision any number of phones at the same time by selecting them from the list of phones and then clicking the button Send Profiles:
Alternatively, you can choose to provision all phones in the system by clicking the Send All Profiles button.
You can also restart selected phones using the same method.
Settings for Phones
Most IP phones have an innumerable amount of settings. We will not go into describing all of the settings of specific phone models here. Rather we show how this works for specific settings in sipXecs.
Click on any of the serial numbers or phone numbers on the phone list, and select one of the setting options to the left. Below the Basic Settings screen is shown.
You can change any of the settings here, then click Apply or OK at the bottom of the screen.
Most screens hide less-frequently advanced settings. Click on the Show Advanced Settings link at the top right corner of the screen to show these hidden options.
When you are done with all settings changes, go back to the tab Identification at the top, and then click Send Profiles as described above to move the settings over to the actual phone.
Phone Groups
All of the settings can also be set on phone groups. When they are set on groups, all phones of the groups take on these settings.
Group settings are linked, i.e. if you have defined a group and have created several phones based on this group, then change a group setting, each phone in the group will get the new setting. (Note that you have to use the Send Profiles button to actually deploy the changes via provisioning to the phones).
You can override group settings by changing individual settings on a phone.
Here is an example of an installation with two groups for two different phone models of the manufacturer snom:
When you click the Add Group button to add a new group, you will have to enter a name and description. Click OK returns you to the list of groups.
Click on any of the group names in the list to edit the settings. You first will be presented with a long list to enter the phone model:
Selecting the model applicable the phone group brings you to the settings screens applicable for that type of phone.
This setup implies that each phone group must represent one single specific phone model. That is also the purpose of these groups – specifying settings for all phones of a certain type.
The settings here are the same as for individual phones.
Most settings are chosen by the sipXecs system in such a way that the phone work optimally with the system. There is no need to change much.
Specifically, you do not need to change settings for the phone number or user names – they are being automatically taken from the user associated with each phone.