Is there any news on whether/when the new Yealink lineup (T7X and T8X models) will be natively supported in the endpoint manager or is this something that could use feature request?
From what I remember, the company who makes the phone (Yealink) has to pay for the integration of the new models in Endpoint Manager. Can someone at Sangoma tell us if there are discussions with Yealink regarding the addition of the T7X and T8X series in Endpoint Manager ? The T54w template works, but it’s missing the extra BLFs (T74w can have 30 BLFs, not 27)
Thank you
@mwhite mentioned back in October, that some brands/models were being added. Mike, do you have any updates you can share? https://community.freepbx.org/t/alcatel-m7-with-endpoint-manager/107967/2
I have several districts that have expressed interest in leaving Call Manager(Newer Cisco Phones) and Mitel systems if their existing hardware can be used.
Thanks,
Taylor
Howdy @TaylorDurden We’re focusing on some major brands that are regular players in the space. Specifically the usual SIP suspects. Some new models have been added.
That said, check out the latest update - We’ve added some Mitel models and will continue to do so as we move through the next quarter or so.
Just a quick add here @TaylorDurden we’ve added the Mitel 6920 and 480G. It’s my understanding that there are the two most widely deployed models in K12. Please let me know if you have some additional insight to add here.
I think its actually 50 BLFs.
Im wondering if you could add those manually in Basefile Edit
Hi @chrischevy Yes - the certified solution for 3rd party phones does come with some small fee.
Hey Mike! Thanks for the quick response, I do know the particular district uses a few of those two phones(which I had noticed in Endpoint manager) though the majority of their phones district-wide are actually 6930s and 6940s.
We asked Yealink directly and here is their reply:
Unfortunately, there are no plans to coordinate with FREE PBX at this moment.
So I guess that the T7X and T8X won’t be added to Endpoint Manager anytime soon.
I am planing to use the new T7X phones for a new side with FreePBX. Are there good alternative products for deploying Yealink endpoints? Anyone have expirience with the Yealink Device Management Platform?
We use yealink RPS and YDMP, for initial deployment and to update firmware remotely, it works awesome, but there is a learning curve.
I still prefer EPM for local provisioning and its user friendly templates. Thats why we don’t deploy any models not listed in there.
This unfortunately doesn’t solve your issue, but it may be worth while to keep your eye’s on this project, or if you do any coding perhaps forking:
Yealink Phones Module for FreePBX
Yes - the certified solution for 3rd party phones does come with some small fee
- Is the commercial EPM module that can be bought on a FreePBX instance, considered being part of “a certified solution for 3r party phones” ?
- I’ve not tested T7X and T8X phones yet. Are they configured the same way T5X for instance used to be (with ,boo, .cfg, files) ?
You can run all of the Cisco phones, whether or not they are running Call Manager AKA Enterprise firmware, or Cisco 3PCC firmware, off FreePBX. EPM is not required. The USECALLMANAGER patch is not required, either.
I have 400+ extensions all Cisco enterprise firmware, 3/4 of those on a UCM 1/4 on a FreePBX system. In a few years all will be transitioned over to FreePBX.
The new phones are configured the same way as the older ones. The only real issue is limited the number of BLF keys
In Endpoint Manager, I copied the Cisco SPA509 and SPA504 templates and use them for 6851-3PCC, 8851-3PCC, 8832-3PCC and 7841-3PCC with light modifications.
Even if the Cisco EM templates for 500 series phones was copied and renamed something related to the new 3PCC phones, that would help a lot. Our company has spent a lot of money on EM licensing over the years, and we have to hack together a workaround to make it work for us since Cisco moved to the 3PCC series. Because of whom is doing the provisioning at our company, we need to have a way to do it with the GUI, and EM fills that need.
I realize that doesn’t speak to Yealink specifically, but I’ve asked a few times to add Cisco models to EM. Usually, I’m told something about concerns related to lawsuits.
Obviously, the lawsuit thing is bogus. 8845 and CP-8845 are not registered trademarks of Cisco Systems and as long as the circle R is used every time the word Cisco is listed, and you make it very plain that the EPM entry isn’t Cisco-provided and is not supported by Cisco, you are compliant. I cannot stand it when companies throw the word “lawsuit” around to make excuses for being lazy about doing something, it’s basically the company telling you that they think you are stupid, and it’s highly insulting. In any case they already have the antique Cisco phones listed in EPM.
The problem, of course, is that since EPM is making money for Sangoma, Sangoma does not want to give up any chance of getting Cisco to send them some money. But, Cisco isn’t going to pay a competitor for listing their phones in it’s provisioning software to just make it easier for that competitor to steal it’s business. And Sangoma also isn’t interested in undercutting sales of it’s own phones by making it easier for Joe Public to just throw any old cheap Cisco phone they dug up from Ebay on the system.
This is why I eschewed EPM and just provision with the raw config files and have trained my staff to do it that way. After all, how stupid does your IT staff have to be to not be able to do the following:
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read MAC off the bottom of the phone or from the setup screen
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ssh into tftp server and cd to tftp directory
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cp 8845-template SEP[MAC address].cnf.xml
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nano filename
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arrow down to the 3 lines with the extension # and change them
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arrow down to the password and change it
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save and exit file
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plug phone into network and verify it works
Frankly, any of my IT techs that I cannot train to do this, I for sure do not want provisioning phones. I think that’s your real problem, honestly. You even said “because of whom is doing the provisioning” which is a dead giveaway. This really isn’t a technical problem, this is a you are willing to hand over something as critical as phone provisioning to someone you can’t trust to not screw it up without training wheels and you are willing to pay a yearly subscription fee for those training wheels. I do feel sorry for you, but not that sorry, honestly, because the fees you are paying gives me lots of free open source toys that are Really Useful. 
And that process probably works well for two or three PBXes and a few hundred extensions.
try 400 extensions.
If I had many thousands of extensions, I’d custom build a database for tracking phones. The easiest way to do it, and one I have already used successfully with different apps, is to use MySQL and front end it with Excel connected to it via ODBC. Then you can use it for provisioning or whatever you want, it is pretty easy to write a set of scripts that query the database periodically and generate the XML provisioning files for the TFTP server.
There’s already a couple other provisioning front ends but they all go to the web browser as the interface, and there’s nicer interfaces than a web browser IMHO