I like this line of thinking ... I would hope that whatever
is arrived at would would be simple and clean ... I would assume that the
interface would be php as that seems to be what is already available to support
this within Astlinux ...
As far as how one would interact with it, these are the
main things to keep in mind ...
most phones/ata's I am familiar with use strictly tftp ...
however, there are many that want to pull their config files from an ftp server
and others that expect to get them from an http server ... then there is the
Cisco phone which wants basic config from tftp but expects to find certain XML
files and the screen logo via http ...
the admin interface should provide a mechanism to push
files that already exist on the client machine to any of these locations on the
server ... and once the file is there, should permit easy navigation to the
correct folder to permit editing of the text based config files ... it
should be smart enough not to let you edit a binary file ...
if we had at least that level of support for provisioning
built into the Admin interface I would say that we at least had the basics
covered ...
Now comes the "blue sky" wish list ...
What I would really love to see is a template based system
... pick the top 10 or 20 or 30 or however many you think reasonable devices and
build a basic template of required text based config files ... the template
system would need to be aware of the peculiar requirements of that device ...
for example, it would have to know that the Cisco 7940/7960 wants a file called
"directory.xml" located at http://<server-ip>/cisco and that this directory contains dialing instructions
for internal phones (get this from voicemail.conf?) ... the
administrator would provision a phone using a fill in the blank form from the
web interface ... using variable substitution, the template system would
then create or update the required config files ...
if we had a provisioning tool that could this, we would
really have something special ... I know of only one Asterisk
implementation that is trying this and the results I have seen are
really quick slick ...
the downside to taking the template approach would be long
term support ... keeping those templates up to date as the various vendors bring
out new models or update their firmware could turn out to be a real challenge
... for example, the config files for the Cisco 79xx series is radically
different between SIP versions 8.2 and 8.4 ... so while I would love to see
something that slick, it may end up causing more problems in the long run than
it solves ...
I would agree that this feature might be best served by
something simple and flexible ... dont treat the admin like they are brain dead
but provide them with the tools that make the task at
hand quicker/better/cheaper ...
G.Hendershot
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul Davidson
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 12:15 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [Astlinux-users] Phone provisioning
That being said, I can throw my hat into the ring for this one in a couple of weeks. My personal goal- it should be 100% php, and work with any existing configuration- not destroy it or force compliance. Beyond that- what are small systems admins really looking for in configuring phones and interconnections? I have my own private list- but I think this makes a good forum to talk about it more openly. From this thread, I'd say "Ability to upload provisioning data, specific to vendor and model of phone", makes it high on the list. Next?
-pbd
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