Metaswitch Provisioning Tutorial

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If you wish to install, configure and manage our application without using the Metaswitch SIP Provisioning Server please follow the Tutorial here instead.

  Creating a line for VOP

To install Voice Operator Panel (VOP) with Metaswitch you need to create a line that VOP will use to register to the Metaswitch server.

This line will also be used to receive incoming calls, monitor other lines and transfer incoming calls to them.

This line must be dedicated to VOP and not shared with another phone even when VOP is tethered to a hardphone.

This line must be configured to receive all the incoming calls destined to your company. If a tethered hardphone is used its purpose is only to be called by VOP to talk/listen to calls received/placed by VOP. Please read "How does VOP behave when tethered to a hard phone ?" in our FAQ before using a hard phone.

VOP can only manage and transfer its own incoming/outgoing calls.

However, VOP can also pick-up a ringing call on a monitored line then transfer it to another line, but this behavior shall not be the regular way to handle calls.

To allow VOP to monitor the presence of other lines/phones you need to ensure that the VOP line is in the same business group than them.

You also need to ensure that the VOP line has "Line State Monitoring" enabled. This option is under "Services" in Metaview Web. You can see a screenshot of this option by clicking here.

If you want to see the DND status of the phones, you also need to ensure that the VOP line has "Monitor Do Not Disturb status" enabled.

For this tutorial we will use the line phone number "1234567890" and the line CommPortal password "cppassword".

  Installing and configuring VOP

First you need to ensure that you have installed the VOP endpoint pack at your SIP Provisioning Server.

You need to download the pack from this link and install it. (a minimum EAS version of 8.3.10 is required, and an EAS version of 9.1 or higher is optimal)

Be sure to install the endpoint back in the Base version set. (other version sets requires a specific provisioning URL, read the notes at the end of the tutorial to learn about it)

You also need to download the specific VOP installer, created for the Metaswitch Provisoning Server, from this link and execute it on the computer(s) where you want to install VOP.

After the installation you will start VOP and see a window which will ask you to enter the following information:

"Server:" - Enter the URL to the Provisioning Server. ("https://host.domain.com/sip-ps" for example, be sure to enter the full URL including "http(s)://")
"Username:" - Enter the line phone number. ("1234567890" in our tutorial)
"Password:" - Enter the line CommPortal password. ("cppassword" in our tutorial)

Then click on "OK" and you are done.

The application will automatically do all the following things:

. Save the information (server, username, password) to an encrypted file to not ask them again. ("VOP.inf" filename)
. Connect and authenticate to the Provisionining Server.
. Download its firmware, which contains the software, and save it. ("VOP.bin" filename)
. Download its configuration, with everything already set up, and save it to an encrypted file. ("VOP.cfg" filename)
. Download and show the business group directory with all the extensions monitored. ("Local" directory)
. Download and show the parking orbits directory with all the orbits monitored. ("Orbits" directory)
. Import and show the CommPortal contacts. ("Contacts" directory)
. Import and show the Outlook contacts. (when Outlook is installed/detected)
. Register to the Metaswitch server and become ready to receive incoming calls.

All of this will be done without having to configure anything at the Provisioning Server.

You should now see all your business group lines and parking orbits in green (Green: Available, Yellow: Ringing, Orange: Busy, Red: DND).

You can now receive and transfer incoming calls using a simple drag and drop of the calls to the lines or parking orbits, and you can also pick-up a ringing call on a line (or a parked call on a parking orbit) by right-clicking on it and selecting: Intercept.

When started again, the application will not ask for any information (unless the Provisioning Server rejects its authentication) and it will refresh its firmware, configuration and directories.

If the Provisioning Server is unreachable the application will automatically start with the firmware, configuration and directories previously downloaded and saved.

  Managing VOP

The phone (VOP) is automatically attached to the line and can be managed by the provider or the admin through the Metaview Web or the CommPortal.

To achieve this VOP automatically generates, for each computer, a MAC address (starting with 26) which is within a reserved range of locally administered MAC addresses that can not exist in a live network.

Using the Metaview Web or the CommPortal the provider or admin can modify all the settings of the application.

Each setting has a detailed description shown when leaving the cursor over the question mark.

Usually the only setting that needs to be entered is the license for the line (in the "License" settings section) created at our license manager. When no license is entered the application will offer a 30-day trial period (without limitation) on any computer where it is installed for the first time.

If you have purchased a branding you also need to enter your logo name in the "Appearance" settings section ("Logo" field).

After modifying the settings the application needs to be restarted to refresh its configuration, a delay of approximately 30 seconds is required for the modified settings to be updated and available at the Provisioning Server.

A few settings are still available in the Settings section of the application, these settings are computer specific (such as available sound devices selection, installed font type/size selection or network interface selection) or settings that require a local file (such as ringing, alert or message sound file selection) or settings that may require to be quickly changed without restarting the application. These settings are saved in a file named "settings.xml" located in the application folder. VOP also saves, in a file named "state.xml", the state of the application when exited including the main window location/size and the sub-windows layout.

If for some reason you want to force VOP to forget and ask again for the Provisioning Server URL, the line phone number and CommPortal password, just delete the file "VOP.inf" in the installation folder. When you do this VOP will also generate a new MAC address, be sure to first delete/unlink the previous one from the line using the Metaview Web or CommPortal interface. Likewise you can delete the file "VOP.bin" to force VOP to download its firmware again, or the file "VOP.cfg" to force VOP to download its configuration again.

If you get a "403 Forbidden" response from the Provisioning Server it means that VOP generated a new MAC address for a line (either because you deleted the file "VOP.inf" as explained above or because you are installing the same line on another computer) but the previous MAC address is still linked to the line. Please delete/unlink the previous one from the line using the Metaview Web or CommPortal interface.

If you get the message "Invalid server, try again" it either means that the provisioning URL is wrong or the endpoint pack is not installed in the Base version set or not installed at all. If you wish to install the endpoint pack in a different version set please read the notes at the end of the tutorial.

If you get a message telling you that the application was unable to load its firmware it means that the HTTP port of your Provisioning Sever is not opened. Metaswitch designed the provisioning system so that non-sensitive information (like firmwares) are downloaded through non-secure HTTP. You can overcome this by either opening the HTTP port of your Provisioning Server or by forcing the firmware to be downloaded through HTTPS instead by selecting "Force HTTPS" in the "Provisioning" settings section of the profile.

  Done

You have now fully configured VOP for your Metaswitch SIP Provisioning Server and can easily deploy and manage all your installation.

If you have any problem you can press Alt-D to show the debug window of VOP, you should be able to read the problem from there.

If not, please contact us we will gladly help you.

  Notes

. If you have an EAS version inferior to 9.1 the following features will not be available:
  . Parking orbits directory.
      You can overcome this limitation by manually creating a directory in the application and adding the parking orbits one by one.
  . CommPortal contacts directory.
      You can overcome this limitation by manually creating a directory in the application and importing the CommPortal contacts (Directory > Import > Metaswitch CommPortal).
  . CommPortal web window.
      You can overcome this limitation by manually entering the CommPortal URL in the profile (Provisioning > Online Settings > Other > Online Settings URL).

. If you want to install the endpoint pack in a version set different than Base (Test for example) you need to modify the provisioning URL accordingly.
  If your provisioning URL is "https://host.domain.com/sip-ps" you need to use the following one instead in our example "https://host.domain.com/sip-ps/vsetTest*".

. Only the lines with an extension (Intercom Code) will appear in the directories retrieved from the provisioning.
  This is a current restriction of the Metaswitch Provisoning Server.
  Please add an Intercom Code to the lines that do not show.

. The number of lines you can monitor is currently limited to 200 by Metaswitch.
  This is the maximum number of lines you can have in a Metaswitch Line State Monitor group.
  You may break this limit by monitoring lines through XMPP instead if you have a CFS v9.2+ and the AMS/MVD configured.

. Line monitoring may require to configure VOP to connect to the CFS through TCP instead of the default UDP protocol.
  In some cases the notifications generated by the CFS may exceed the UDP MTU size and thus not be sent.
  If this happens you will not see activity on the monitored lines (they will stay available/green) because VOP will not receive notifications.
  In that case please switch VOP from UDP to TCP in the "Account" section. ("Server transport protocol" field)

. If you want to use a hard phone when NAT is involved, you need to enable media bypass on the SBC.
  This is usually done by setting up a VOP dedicated port on the SBC where media bypass is enabled.
  You can still use a hard phone without enabling media bypass by enabling "Bridge Mode" in the "Hard Phone" settings section.
  But in that case the RTP streams will flow through VOP.

. To use an outbound proxy you need to enter its host or IP in the "Account" settings section.

. To be able to place intercom calls you need to enable in the MetaView Web: Business Group > Services > Enable advanced alerting features.

. To enable users presence, messaging and file transfer in VOP you need to configure your AMS server.
  You need to enter the AMS server in the "XMPP - AMS" section. ("Server domain or host name" field)
  If your AMS server has a different name than the XMPP users domain you need to enter both.
  For example if your AMS server is "ams.domain.com" and your XMPP users domain is "domain.com", enter "domain.com" in "Server domain or host name" and enter "ams.domain.com" in "Server address".
  If you need to use a proxy server to connect to your AMS server, enter the proxy server hostname or IP in the "Server Address" field.

. VOP has been certified with Metaswitch as you can see here.

  Discovering VOP

To learn how to use VOP please watch our Videos.

To learn more about VOP please also read our F.A.Q

You will learn how to set up many features such as: Hardphone tethering, Outlook, LDAP, CRM, Multi-tenancy and more...