Phones behind SBC won't provision automatically

[Chris Ruffin]

If I preconfigure a user and a phone by configuring the MAC and provisioning details under the phone provisioning tab, I expect that the phone will automatically provision even if it is behind an SBC. Instead, the phone shows up as New on the phones page but it doesn't pick up the fact that it is already provisioned in the system. In fact, if you select the phone in the new state and select "add ext" t will say "this phone belongs extension XYZ. Use a different phone." But the phone does not provision. I have to go in and assign the extention and then it will provision. I have a lot of phones to deploy, and I need them to automatically provision if I've preconfigured them. Are my expectations correct? How can I get full auto provision with preconfiguration for phones behind and SBC?

 

[Saqqara]

the reason it is not working, you need to enter the provisioning url to the phone via the phone web front end - to resolve this Setup dhcp option 66 https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/DHCP-option-66/

Why not use sbc and PnP provisioning - do not enter any info in 3cx management console, connect the phone and it will appear until phones, where you can assign it to an extension https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/configuring-ip-phones/

Note: if you use option 66, PnP provisioning does not work

 

[Chris Ruffin]

the reason it is not working, you need to enter the provisioning url to the phone via the phone web front end - to resolve this Setup dhcp option 66 https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/DHCP-option-66/

Why not use sbc and PnP provisioning - do not enter any info in 3cx management console, connect the phone and it will appear until phones, where you can assign it to an extension https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/configuring-ip-phones/

Note: if you use option 66, PnP provisioning does not work

I just have a ton of phones to deploy. PnP is too much clicking. I'd rather build a spreadsheet ahead of time and assign the MAC to the extension/user, and have it provision automatically to that user when its plugged in. I guess option 66 is the way, I'll test that. Thank you!

 

[Saqqara]

If you have loads of phones at the same location I would suggest installing multiply sbc servers to load balancing the phones.

sbc does have some system specs based on what hardware it is running on https://www.3cx.com/docs/recommended-hardware-specifications-for-3cx/

 

[Chris Ruffin]

Something I still do not understand - why didn't pnp provisioning work when I assign the phone and MAC in advance, vs. letting it discover the phone through pnp and then assign the phone. It seems reasonable to expect these to be equivalent ways to set up the phone.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

The PBX will only instruct the IP Phone to provision if it is added via PnP (3CX Management Console Phones section".

Adding the IP Phone manually to an extension will not have the PBX send a provisioning command to the IP Phone. That is why you would have to also manually input the provisioning url to the IP Phone's UI as described in our Manual Link Provisioning method: https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/manually-provision-yealink/

 

[Chris Ruffin]

The PBX will only instruct the IP Phone to provision if it is added via PnP (3CX Management Console Phones section".

Adding the IP Phone manually to an extension will not have the PBX send a provisioning command to the IP Phone. That is why you would have to also manually input the provisioning url to the IP Phone's UI as described in our Manual Link Provisioning method: https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/manually-provision-yealink/

OK, I guess it just doesn't work the way I expected it to. Is there any technical complication here that I am missing? It seems like a reasonable use case to pre-provision a phone and have it provision the way it was configured to once that device shows up with the SBC. To not have that happen is a little bewildering. It seems like a reasonable design for the PBX to see a new phone via PnP, then compare its MAC against all the known phones that are provisioned, and send the provisioning command. It is counterintuitive to see a phone's MAC as "New" but have the PBX already know about it.

 

[VasilisV_3CX]

Hi @Chris Ruffin,

I'm afraid that this simply isn't how it works currently as explained above. What you can do is contact a 3CX Partner (https://www.3cx.com/ordering/find-reseller/) to have your feature request added to the Ideas section.

Tomorrow we'll be having a Webinar where we will explain the provisioning process. Now while it is for local devices, we will explain the process to provision a device through PNP. More here: https://www.3cx.com/blog/event-trainings/ (Basic: Part 2)