Keep it simple? No, keep it simpler!

IPMA never been my favorite topic.  I hated it from the beginning when it comes to PT/CSS, voicemail and AAR related issues – I really didn’t like it. I always consider it to be left alone and didn’t try it until my 3rd attempt.

One day, I let my ego down and agreed to have a look and nail it.  Before doing this, I took a long breathe but wasn’t confident enough to put my hands on the lab gears. I decided to gain some confidence and went to a pub [benefit of living in the City, bloody pubs are at your doorstep] and had a few drinks.  Came back to home and I was on high thinking that I am going to fight with my enemy [mrs. IPMA].

A friend of mine told me that there is a video on IPEXPERT.com from Vik Malhi. I really liked his approach. He mentioned a few time during the video lecture that you don’t have to use 2 partition’s [not directly though]. but I thot make it simple and stupid.

After watching the vedio for 3 times, I started labbing it and on first go, it worked as expected [smile] worked straight away. Re-setted my CCM vmware image again and did it for a few times.
guess what? – after doing it a few time, I thot it was the easiest topic I ever studied. Its on top of my head now.

You can just create ‘pt_manager’ and ‘css_manager’ only. Assuming your all phones are in NULL partion.
[end of the day why would u want to assign any phone any partion, wanna to kill your time?]

ManagerDN= 5001
AssistantDN=5002
proxy line = 5003
manager-intercom = 5555
assistant-inteercom=5556

Here are the steps:

Step#1- start tomcat service on both pub+sub
Step#2- create a pt-manager
Step#3- create a css-manager and put pt-manager in it
Step#3- modify the phone button template according to the requirement for manager and Assistant
Step#4- create an IP Phone service for manager (just create at this stage but don’t not to assign yet).
TIPS: to get ip phone service URL, just search on CCM help for “IPMA checklist”.
Step#4- configure the manager phone now {think if u configuring your boss’s phone, put a sniffer on it lol}

1. assign phone button-temp
2. softkey template (standard ipma manager or modified according to your need)
3. put 5001 to pt_manager
4. add 2nd line and put a dn of 5555, tick on auto speakerphone
5. add speed dial , name it appropriately e.g. to-assistant and put a dn of 5556
6. subscribe IPMA service to manager phone only [don't subscriber to assistant phone]

STEP#5- configuring  Assistant’s phone

1. assign phone button template [remember in previous step u created modified the template?]
2. assign phone softkey template [according to your need]
3. add 2nd line as a  proxyline, assign dn 5003 and assign css_manager to it.
4. add 3rd line as an intercom line, assign dn 5556, speaker phone ticked.
5. add speed dial dn-5555, name it appropriately e.g. to-manager  dn 5555
6. don’t assign ipma service to this phone. restart the phone.

Step#6-  configure CTI route point to intercept the call form 5001.

1. add cti route point, stick to your standard practice regarding assigning
   other  parameters e.g. device-pool, EPNM, aar etc.
2. add dn 5001 to it [it must be a manager's number] to cti-rp, the partion must be same as all phones
   bcoz all phone need to dial this number.  Assign CSS_manager to this as well.
3. Tick on only on Forward No Answer Internal/external put 5001, select – CSS_manager. This is for
   when assistant phone line is down or she is logged out or tomcat is down call will routed to manager phone.
4. When assistant is logged in and not picking up phone it shud go to vm of manager. just tick       on vm for Forward Busy/noan Internal/ext( 4 of thse ticks)

STEP#7 Adding users etc… the left over;
- Add the assistant user
-device association
- Add as ipma assistant
- Add the Manager user
-device association
-add an ipma manager
-add assistant

STEP#8 At the last, Configure IPMA service parameter (only need to configure first 5 options, leave everythign else as they are default)
- CTI manager – 192.168.1.21, 192.168.1.22
- Route point -select it whaever you named routepoint
- IPMA server – 192.168.1.2,1 192.168.1.22

Restart your tomcat services on both – pub and sub, restart the ccm services as well. U shud see the strange ICONs on the manager’s phone.
Download the ipma console and install it on your laptop/pub/sub whereever u wanna it. login as a assistant and verify that interceipt, and calldivert all and other function are still working. Also logout from ipma and dial 5001 and see if it rings to 5001’s VM. If 5001 is busy/noan, it shud go to his VM. if it doesn’t then check the 5001’s phone [the manager-pt one, not the cti-rp's dn.]

Real Goachas with IPMA and how to solve them;

Issue#1  Voicemail issue,
configure MWI css ( to take care of IPMA voicemail issue)
create a new css_mwi with pt_manager+ pt_local + ld+local and assign it to Unity MWI ports
Issue#2  AAR related issue;
- assign aar-group hq_aar to proxy-line 5003
- make sure mwi, rp, proxyline has access to PT_manager. Put them into a correct css.
- make sure 5001, 5001-rp, proxy-line have the epnm and appropriate location hq/mainsite on them.

Finally Restart Tomcat service

Issue#3: IPCC and Tomcat port conflict issue – when u press service button on phone1 it doesn’t work or your IPCC doesn’t work.
-  go to c;\program files\wfavvid\tomcat\conf\server.mcvd.xml ,
search for string ‘8009′ and change it to 8010 – tomcat service port conflicts

More to come…… … Any QoS scenario in 10 minutes…. stay tuned!

please feel free to leave your comments, if time permits I will answer them ASAP.

Pushkar Bhatkoti
CCIE# 21569