OSS Endpoint Manager - maybe i'm missing something?

I’ve got the endpoint manager up and running with Polycom phones - installed the firmware and enabled the phones. Phones will boot and take the configuration… BUT… I was watching the actual config files in /tftpboot and every time there is a change to a phone with a custom template it’s not making separate files for that phone it’s overwriting the distributed boot files. For example… if I make a custom template for a phone and modify sip.cfg it will show something like: mac-random number.cfg in the template editor. But when I save the template it writes out to the actual sip.cfg and not to a separate file. This to me doesn’t seem like it’s working correctly… if you have two phones with a custom template it will overwrite the same files.

Help?

Thanks.
Rich

That is exactly how it works. The sip.cfg file is a global file, you can’t have separate ones unless you know what you are doing in regards to polycom phones. Please remember that this was written to work with all phones not just polycoms. Anything you want to add to the sip.cfg file should just be added to a lower phone specific file.

I’m going to add a little more detail here - these are the steps I followed to produce this:

Connectivity->OSS Endpoint Template Manager
Click the pencil next to edit on the user’s phone template
Then click the pencil next to sip.cfg
make my changes and save (says database updated)
save the template
click the pencil next to the template again
click the dropdown under “select alternative file configuration for sip.cfg” and choose the custom one
check reboot phone and click save template

When I save the template the changes that I made are in the /tftpboot/sip.cfg file which would be the same file all phones download.

Also I’m noticing that the contacts directory is also not downloading and it also is doing the same thing where if I edit 000000000-directory.xml and put some entries in it, it creates a “custom” file but then edits the actual file.

Oh maybe I’m misunderstanding how it works. I thought that if I created a custom template for a phone then those files for that template would only pertain to that phone and all the other phones would just be “default” … .for example I want to add a specific softkey for a phone but I want it only on that phone so I set that phone to use a custom template and then edit sip.cfg which creates a “custom” sip.cfg and then that phone should boot using those changes?

-Rich

Yes they do only pertain to that phone, but you keep editing sip.conf that is a global file no matter how you think about it. Whatever settings you are setting move them to the mac.cfg file, delete your sip.cfg and be more specific about our settings.

Basically stop working in the sip.cfg file it will never do what you want in this context.

Wait I thought the mac.cfg file was the initial file that defines the application and all the config files locations? Or are you saying to define an additional config file and manually edit it?

If it’s done that way what is the point of having multiple sip.cfg files with the dropdown? What is that used for?

While Mac.cfg might not be the right file there is a specific file that has your registration information in it. That is the one you need to modify for each phone

As I said the module was not written soley for polycom. Because of its wide and broad usage there will be areas that overlap like global files examples are aastra.cfg and sip.cfg

Ok. I get that it was developed for multiple phone types. I’m just wondering what the function of having the dropdowns for the various files is? Like in my situation the sip.cfg. When I click the pencil the first time to edit it, it creates a new file and puts it in a dropdown. If it’s ultimately editing the original file then what is the dropdown for?

I’m just trying to get my mind wrapped around how it’s supposed to work so I can make it useful in my situation. I have no problem understanding Polycom’s syntax etc in the xml files. We’ve been manually editing the files in the /tftpboot folder for the 5 years they’ve had their system. I’m just looking for something easier as it’s much more difficult to manage with different phone types and different features available per type.

Also I was under the impression that you couldn’t edit the file with the registration information in it to contain phone feature configuration. I thought that HAD to go in the sip.cfg (or it’s “additional” file) which is what I had understood from the admin manual. It may not have specifically stated that, it might just be me latching onto the default organization of the files.

My plan is to eventually spring for the commercial endpoint manager which I’m told does much more but right now I’m fighting library dependencies on my box and I can’t get the zend thing to install properly to get the box licensed with schmooze.

The Polycom is easy to get your arms around. I don’t know what OS you are running or what version of the Polycom firmware. I can certainly attest to the OSS EPM working for Polycom’s with the Unified Communicator loads.

So in whatever init file starts tftpd add the verbosity flag in Redhat that’s /etc/xinetd.d/tftp add a -vvv as the very first argument.

Then tail the log file live with the -f flag. I forgot what file it loads first but you will see. In that file is a line that defines the files it will look for mac-features etc. If you redeclare and XML variable the last one wins. So the sip.cfg or whatever is the general globals, it gets more granular as you continue on down the line.

Does that makes sense? It’s so hard to communicate this, I could show you in 30 seconds.

I have a solid enough grasp on how the polycom files themselves work - i’ve been manually editing them for 5-7 years. What I’m trying to figure out is how the EPM is supposed to be manipulating them for multiple phones. I’ve changed the config so the changes are now in the registration file as tm1000 has suggested so we’ll see if the end user gets the expected results.

The polycom admin manual recommends never editing the distributed files by hand but adding override files (as you had described) as each one further down the line overrides anything in the earlier ones (or maybe the other way around I can’t remember). So with that in mind logically if you wanted to make a change to sip.cfg you would click the pencil, make your changes and the epm would automatically create an override file for that phone with the changes but I’m misunderstanding how it works. Maybe those dropdowns are for another type of phone.

I moved a post to a new topic: OSS EPM Reboot