Retail Provisioning; Automatic In-House Preprovisioning - Cisco 8831 Administration Manual

Retail Provisioning

Retail Provisioning
The conference phone includes the web-based configuration utility that displays internal configuration
and accepts new configuration parameter values. The server also accepts a special URL command syntax
for performing remote profile resync and firmware upgrade operations.
In a retail distribution model, a customer purchases a Cisco voice endpoint device, and subsequently
subscribes to a particular service. The customer first signs on to the service and establishes a VoIP
account, possibly through an online portal. Subsequently, the customer binds the particular device to the
assigned service account.
To do so, the unprovisioned Cisco Unified IP Conference Phone 8831 for Third-Party Call Control is
instructed to resync with a specific provisioning server through a resync URL command. The URL
command typically includes an account PIN number or alphanumeric code to associate the device with
the new account.
In the following example, a device at the DHCP-assigned IP address 192.168.1.102 is instructed to
provision itself to the SuperVoIP service:
http://192.168.1.102/admin/resync?https://prov.supervoip.com/cisco-init/1234abcd
In this example, 1234abcd is the PIN number of the new account. The remote provisioning server is
configured to associate the phone that is performing the resync request with the new account, based on
the URL and the supplied PIN. Through this initial resync operation, the phone is configured in a single
step, and is automatically directed to resync thereafter to a permanent URL on the server. For example:
https://prov.supervoip.com/cisco-init
For both initial and permanent access, the provisioning server relies on the Cisco IP phone client
certificate for authentication and supplies correct configuration parameter values based on the associated
service account.

Automatic In-House Preprovisioning

Using the phone web user interface and issuing a resync URL is convenient for a customer in the retail
deployment model, but it is not as convenient for preprovisioning a large number of units.
The Cisco Unified IP Conference Phone 8831 for Third-Party Call Control supports a more convenient
mechanism for in-house preprovisioning. With the factory default configuration, the phone
automatically tries to resync to a specific file on a TFTP server, whose IP address is offered as one of
the DHCP-provided parameters. This lets a service provider connect each new Cisco IP phone to a LAN
environment configured to preprovision phones. Any new Cisco IP phone connected to this LAN
automatically resyncs to the local TFTP server, initializing its internal state in preparation for
deployment. Among other parameters, this preprovisioning step configures the URL of the Cisco IP
phone provisioning server.
Subsequently, when a new customer signs up for service, the preprovisioned Cisco Unified IP
Conference Phone 8831 for Third-Party Call Control can be simply bar-code scanned, to record its MAC
address or serial number, before being shipped to the customer. Upon receiving the unit, the customer
connects the unit to the broadband link. On power-up the Cisco IP phone already knows the server to
contact for its periodic resync update.
Cisco Unified IP Conference Phone 8831 for Third-Party Call Control Administration Guide
5-2
Chapter 5 Provisioning