IP Phone Auto Provisioning Options

Auto Provisioning lets Cloud Voice configure IP (Internet Protocol) phones for you instead of you touching each device by hand. You would use it to roll a setting out to many phones at once, keep a fleet consistent, and cut down on repeat manual work. This page summarizes the settings you can deliver through Auto Provisioning and points to the detailed procedure for each one.

Preferences and codecs

The everyday options that most extension users care about are handled here: the display language, the phone’s date and time, and the codecs (the audio compression formats, short for coder/decoder, that a call uses to trade off sound quality against bandwidth). Because these settings live in a provisioning template, you define them once and Cloud Voice applies them to every device the template covers.

Tip

Set common preferences in a template rather than on each phone. Editing the template once and reprovisioning is far faster than visiting devices individually, and it keeps every phone consistent.

See Apply a New Template to a Provisioned IP Phone/Gateway.

Extension registration

When Auto Provisioning runs, it registers an extension on the device so the phone can make and receive calls.

Caution

If you later change any registration detail (for example the registration name or the registration password), you must reprovision the affected devices. Until you do, the phone keeps its old credentials, its registration can fail, and the user will not be able to place or receive calls.

Note

How many extensions a device can hold depends on its type:

• IP phone: Auto Provisioning assigns a single extension per phone.
• DECT phone: each handset registers its own extension. (DECT, Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, is the standard used by cordless desk phones.)

For the related workflows, see:

• Auto Provision IP Phones Remotely with Proxy
• Auto Provision IP Phones Remotely via RPS Method (RPS, Redirection and Provisioning Service, points a phone to Cloud Voice for its configuration when the phone first comes online.)
• Reassign an Extension to a Provisioned IP Phone/Gateway

VLAN

A VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) puts voice traffic on its own logical network, which helps protect call quality by keeping it separate from other data. You can apply VLAN settings to a provisioned phone on either its WAN (Wide Area Network) port or its PC port, or configure the phone to pick up its VLAN ID from a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) option instead of setting it directly.

Caution

The VLAN ID you push must match the VLAN configured on the switch port the phone plugs into. A mismatched or wrong VLAN ID can cut the phone off the network, after which it cannot reach Cloud Voice or place calls, including emergency calls.

See Configure VLAN for a Provisioned Phone.

Function keys

Function keys let you tailor each user’s phone to how they work. Common examples are BLF (Busy Lamp Field, a key whose light shows whether another extension is on a call and that lets the user pick up or dial it) and speed dial. Because keys are tied to the extension rather than the handset, they travel with the extension and are applied whenever the phone is provisioned.

See Auto Provision Function Keys for Phones.

Device firmware

Auto Provisioning can also push firmware updates to your devices in bulk, so you can keep a whole fleet of phones current without updating them one at a time.

Caution

A firmware update reboots the phone and interrupts any call in progress. Schedule bulk updates outside business hours so you do not drop active calls.

See Update Phone Firmware via Auto Provisioning.

Other settings

If you need options beyond those above, build a custom template that includes the extra parameters and provision your devices with it to apply the additional settings everywhere.

See Create a Custom Auto Provisioning Template.