Provisioning a CISCO SPA 501G, 502G, 504G, 508G, 509G, 525G for 3CX Phone System

Note 1: This guide has been tested with firmware version 7.3.7. Be aware that different firmware revisions may have different web interface formats and functionality. Your phone may have shipped with an older version of the firmware, in this case you must update to the newer firmware first!

Note 2: This FAQ is based on a new phone OR one that has been reset to factory defaults. If in doubt, reset the phone to Factory Defaults.

The easiest way to set up a phone for use with 3CX PhoneSystem is to use the built-in provisioning functionality inside 3CX PhoneSystem. This will allow the phone to configure itself by retrieving a 3cx-generated phone configuration file. To fully take advantage of this, you can configure your DHCP Server to also deliver to the phone the location from where it can retrieve its configuration file – the result will be completely automated phone configuration.

This is a 3-step process:

  1. Enable provisioning for an extension to create the phone's configuration files
  2. Configuring Time Zone and DST Settings
  3. Tell the phone where to get its configuration files from.

Enabling Provisioning for an Extension

  1. Select the extension you want to provision and go to the "Phone Provisioning" tab
  2. In the "MAC Address" field, enter the phone's 12-character MAC Address. This information is normally printed on the back of the phone.
  3. In the "Model" field, select the model number of the phone you want to provision
  4. If your 3CX Phone System machine has multiple network interfaces, select the interface IP Address through which the phone will be connecting to the 3CX PhoneSystem machine using the "Select Interface" drop down. You can skip this step if you have only one network card in your 3CX Phone System machine.
  5. 5. If you have the Cisco SPA500S Extension unit (a.k.a. sidecar) attached to the phone, you can set the BLF fields to monitor the status of other extensions.
  6. Click on the "OK" button at the bottom of the page to create the configuration files. These will be created in a folder on the web server, and picked up by the phone upon boot-up

Configuring Time Zone and DST Settings

The provisioning function inside 3CX PhoneSystem can also set up Time Zone and DST on your phones. By default these are set to Central European Time. How to change the time zone is documented in this wiki article:

http://wiki.3cx.com/documentation/phone-configuration/timezone-provisioning

 

Getting the Phone to Retrieve its Configuration Files

Now the phones must be told to download the configuration files from the central server. There are two options for doing this:

1. Provisioning using DHCP Option 66

The preferred method is to set your IP phones to retrieve the provisioning URL automatically via DHCP Option 66. DHCP Servers can be set to not only deliver IP Addresses, DNS Servers, and Router IP Addresses to network devices, but can also specify a Boot Server Address, which most SIP Phones use to obtain the URL for retrieving configuration files.

This is the recommended method for larger networks. For more information, see this configuration guide.

2. Provisioning without using DHCP Option 66

If you do NOT want to use DHCP Option 66, you will need to manually tell the phone where to retrieve its configuration files. To do this:

  1. Start up the phone and identify its IP Address - using the menu key on the phone, go to the "Network" option and press the "Select" button. For this example we will assume the IP Address of the phone is 10.0.0.126, and IP Address of the 3CX PhoneSystem machine is 10.0.0.2
  2. Point your browser to the web interface of the phone: http://10.0.0.126
  3. Click on the "Admin Login" link, and next click on the "Advanced" link at the top of the page to the phone's advanced administration page
  4. Click on the "Provisioning" tab, and set the "Profile Rule" field to:

    http://10.0.0.11:5481/provisioning/$MA.xml (Cassini)

    OR

    http://10.0.0.11/management/provisioning/$MA.xml (IIS)

     

  5. Click the "Submit All Changes" button at the bottom of the page. Your phone will restart. After rebooting, the phone will retrieve its configuration files and register with the 3CX Phone System. This can be verified via the "Extension Status" page of the 3CX Management Console.