New Training: Cisco Collaboration: Provisioning Endpoints

In this 8-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Lalo Nunez reviews the different methods to provision directory numbers and devices. Watch this new Cisco training.

Learn Cisco with one of these courses:

• Cisco CCNP Collaboration Core

• Cisco Collaboration Protocols, Codecs, and Endpoints

This training includes:

• 8 videos

• 47 minutes of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Intro: Provisioning Endpoints

• Universal Line Template

• Universal Device Template

• User Profiles

• Feature Group Template

• Quick User/Phone Add

• Self-Provisioning

• Changing phone models for a single user

What is the Purpose of a Universal Line Template?

Today's telephony services in an enterprise environment are far easier to manage than in the old days of using PBX systems. Vendors, like Cisco, offer various tools to configure telephony devices quickly and easily. One of those tools is called a universal line template.

A universal line template is a generic template that applies settings to a VoIP phone. UTLs apply to directory numbers or common phone line settings that are typically assigned to a directory number.

For many organizations, groups of end-users will use common settings. Rather than applying these settings by hand and managing each device individually, admins can create universal templates and assign users or user groups to them. This gives admins a way of managing a group of telephony devices in aggregate.

Though this might be a crude example, think of universal line templates like a group policy for user groups in Active Directory. IT admins can create policies that control various aspects of user profiles. Instead of managing individual users, employees are added to these group policies instead. That way if an IT admin needs to change, for example, the password complexity for user accounts, they can do that for all accounts assigned to a specific GPO. Likewise, if admins need to change the entrance tone for all the phones in a group, they can simply edit the universal line template.

Universal Line Templates can be utilized with Cisco's Unified Communications Manager for self-provisioning. This provides a plug and play method of phone deployment that simplifies the process.