For large installations configuring all the VoIP phones can be a pain. Perhaps you have polycom SIP phones which I have seen in the past delay starting the web configuration interface until after the phone is ready to handle calls. This is great when the phone is in use as the user can use the phone sooner while not waiting on the processes providing the configuration interface, however when configuring a large number of phones it causes delays if manually configuring each phone. Even when the config interface comes up fast it’s still a labour intensive task to go through each phone manually configuring them. During this manual process mistakes can and will, especially given a large enough set of phone be made, some of which may not be initially obvious. For example, if the dtmf mode of the 47th phone configured today left at the default of RFC2833 but the system is using SIP INFO? That phone gets used for a while but then the user goes to use an IVR and has to file a trouble ticket to get it resolved after finding out dtmf isn’t functioning as expected.
The solution to this manual headache and time drain? Provisioning. This is where the phone system will have the configuration for each phone and the phones download their configuration so they are synced with the phone system options.
Provisioning is usually accomplished via a tftp where the phones configuration files reside. At boot the phone gets an IP via the local dhcp server and the dhcp response has an extra configuration setting, usually Option 66, to inform the phone where the tftp server is. From the tftp the phone will generally request a general model configuration file, this can handle firmware upgrades and common settings specific to a model or make of phones. After that file a request is usually made for a file with the MAC ID to differentiate the phones. This MAC ID file is specific to that individual phone and will contain the details of the SIP connections, extensions, and anything else just for that phone.
The Q-Suite supports provisioning a number of SIP phones from various manufactures. With easy support via templating to extend to new models as needed. The administrator only needs to collect and input the MAC ID’s and choose the proper template when configuring the extensions and the generation of the config files will be done for them. With DHCP Option 66 is set properly boot up the phones and they’ll be functional and making calls.
