Overview of EPM

The PBX End Point Manager (EPM) on your phone system lets you manage external device settings such as phones, gateways, and overhead paging devices. With EPM you can create templates defining the settings you want for a group of devices, and then map extensions to use specific templates.

The following items are the main parts of EPM:

• Global Settings - These are global settings that EPM will use for all templates, such the external and internal IP addresses of your PBX.

• Extension Mapping - This is where you map an extension on the phone system to a specific MAC address of a device and define what template will be used to build the configuration files.

• Brands - This is where you can see which brands have been set up with a template in EPM. Clicking on a brand name will bring up a screen to see all the templates that are created for that brand.

• Add Brand - Here is where you would add a new brand of phones/devices for which you want to create one or more templates.

• Image Management - Here you can manage uploading images that you can use in any template that supports phone side images.

• Basefile Edit - This section is for advanced users and should only be used with guidance from support. This allows you to change hard coded values of any template settings on any brand of phone. Many settings for a template are set to use hard coded default values, but these can be changed in the base file edit on a per template basis. You can also add new config file values that we do not let you define in the Template Management section for each brand.

• Custom Extensions - The premise of EPM is to pull extension information such as SIP passwords and names from within your local PBX. If you want to set up a phone or a line key on a phone for an extension that does not exist on the local PBX, you would first need to define the extension information here for EPM to pull from.

• Firmware Management - The firmware management section is used to install and update firmware for each brand of phone that supports firmware management. You can choose which firmware version should be installed in two different versions: "Slot 1" and "Slot 2." You can then choose on a per template basis which firmware slot to use for that template.

• Network Scan - Network Scan is software that will scan your network for all MAC addresses of all the devices we support. It presents you with all MAC addresses for devices that are currently not mapped in Extension Mapping and lets you automatically map those MAC addresses to any extension and template.
   

Getting Started

When you first log into EPM you will see a menu like this on the right side with the sections as defined above. You can click the menu button  at any time to expand or collapse the menu.

Open

Global Settings

•  First, make sure you have some global settings set correctly, so choose the Global Settings option on the right.
  
  

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• Internal IP - You need to set the Internal IP Address to be whatever the IP Address of the PBX is. You will use this later when creating a template.
  In our example this is set to 192.168.0.1.
  
  

   
   

• External IP - If you are going to have any phones connecting to the PBX from outside your local network, then make sure to define the External IP address or FQDN that will resolve to the External IP Address of your PBX.
  In our example we have set this to 178.891.919.111.
  
  

   
   

• Ports - This section displays which ports are used for the web server, HTTP provisioning, and RESTful Apps. This information is based on what you have set up in the Port Mapping section of the System Admin module. For instructions on how to change the ports, see the System Admin - Port Management wiki.

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  • Web Server Port - This is the port for the PBX Admin GUI for controlling the system.

  • HTTP Provision Port - Set the phone's config to this port number if you are using HTTP provisioning for your phones. All traffic from this port will automatically be directed to the folder that contains your phone configuration and firmware.  

  • RESTful Apps Port - If you are using Phone Apps, this is the port that the applications will use to communicate with the PBX.

• Phone Admin Password - All phones that we support have a Phone Admin Password. You can set this password here, and it will be used by all phones as the Admin password for logging into the phone's web GUI. You are required to use at least 6 characters for your password. You can also use this password when using the Login REST App on the phone to login as a user without knowing the user's password.
  
  

• Phone User Password - Some phones, such as Cisco, have both an Admin User and a Normal User. You need to first log in as a Normal User, then log in as the Admin User. The Phone User Password set here defines the password for the Normal User. You are required to use at least 6 characters for your password. You can also use this password when using the Login REST App on the phone to login as a user who does not have a voicemail password set up.
  
  

• ReSync Time - Most phones will auto sync periodically to see if there are any phone config changes for the phone to apply. You can define this interval here in seconds.
  In our example below, 86400 would tell the phone to check once every 24 hours for new configurations and apply them if found.
  
  

   

• XML-API (RestAPI) Default Login - If you want to allow a phone to use the Phone Apps Login/Logout hot-desking feature, if supported by the phone, then you need to enable this option. This will cause the system to generate a default config that will present a new user with a login button on the phone after the previous user logs out. If this default login option is set to No, then when a user logs a phone out, there will be no login button available to a new user. Be sure to set this to Yes if you need to enable hot-desking. (Dark blue background = selected)
  
  

   

• Extension Mapping IP Address and Phone Status - Choose whether to display these items.

  • IP Address - This will display the IP address that the phone is reporting to your PBX while it is registered to the PBX.

  • Phone Status - This will display the ping time of the phone from the PBX while the phone is registered to the PBX.
     

• Click the Save Global button to save your changes when done.