Provisioning P-Series Phones With FreePBX/PBXact

Navigating to the EndPoint Manager Module in your PBX

Sangoma phones are set up and managed from the End Point Manager (EPM) module in your PBX GUI.

• Log into your PBX GUI.

• Under the Settings section, pick EndPoint Manager.

Open

Global Settings

• Navigate to the Global Settings section of EPM from the right nav bar.

Open

• Define the Internal IP Address or FQDN that phones will connect to when local to the PBX.

• Define the External IP Address or FQDN that phones will connect to when not local to the PBX.

• If necessary, enable DPMA: DPMA may be disabled by default for some versions of Endpoint Manager. +

"Endpoint Manager → Global Settings → Use DPMA"  option needs to be set to YES

Once the confirmation button is clicked, the PBX will check the installation/licensing status of the "DPMA" module, install the necessary OS services , then display the status.

• Once this process is finished, Close the popup

• Press the Save Global button to commit the above changes

Configuring DPMA

From the Global settings screen, you can access the DPMA settings by clicking the "DPMA Management" button. You can also select DPMA Management from the EPM right nav menu.

The DPMA Management page will look similar to this

Generally you can accept the default settings here. Take note of the Global PIN which is generated at random on module install. It is this numeric string that's used when setting up DPMA phones (Sangoma D and P series) without first having entries for them in EPM Extension Mapping. You can also note the DPMA port and Transport, which you will need for pointing devices to the DPMA service. The DPMA service port and transport must share a SIP signaling transport previously configured in Settings → Asterisk SIP Settings.

Set Up One or More Templates for your Phone to Use

• In the right nav menu, under Brands, click on Sangoma.

   

• Click on the D & P series phones link and then either choose an existing template to edit, or click on the "New Template" button to create a new one.

• The leftmost tab is the 'General' tab. If needed, give the template a Template Name. For the Destination Address, pick either the Internal or External option. This will pull in the IP address that you entered in the Global Settings section earlier.

   

• Select the Provisioning Server Protocol, the Provisioning Server Address and the PhoneApps Protocol. Most of the P-series phone configuration will be downloaded via DPMA but some provisioning config will be downloaded using the protocol specified here. Provisioning ports are configured in System Admin → Ports. 

   

• For Force Firmware Version, usually you want to keep this at the default "Recommended" setting, this will allow Endpoint Manager to automatically manage the phone firmware for you. If you would like to choose a specific firmware for phones using this template, see Firmware Management for more information on updating firmware for your phones.

• On the regional tab, define the Time Zone and the phone display language

On the Options tab, for a better user experience ensure that Voicemail Key Type is set to Voicemail Application and that Use DPMA Apps is enabled.

• Press the Apply button when done.
   

Configuring Buttons on your Phone

Once you have created one or more Sangoma Phone templates, you can now edit it to define the buttons each phone model should use. Click on the Models tab of the template, and select the model of phone you want to change. In this example, we'll configure keys on a P330.

Line Keys

When Setting up Line Keys, the label is entered exactly as you want it displayed on the phone and the value corresponds to the actual dialed digits. The following example shows BLFs crated for local extensions 1005 and 1006, as well as a Speed Dial button.

Horizontal Soft Keys

The horizontal Soft Keys are used to configure the DPMA Phone Apps. The Horizontal Soft Keys are context sensitive so their usage and labels will change depending on the state of the phone. If you select the Horizontal Soft Keys button you will see the various states where the button arrangement can be configured.

By clicking "Idle", you can view and edit the default arrangement of Soft Keys that show when the phone is idle.

Mapping Extensions to your Template

• Now that you have set up one or more templates, the next step is to map a physical device to an extension on the PBX and a template in EPM so the system knows what settings to apply to the phone.

• Navigate to the Extension Mapping section of EPM in the right nav bar.

• Click on the Add Extension button at the top.

• This will add a new row to the Extension Mapping page. Select the Extension from the drop-down menu, pick the "Sangoma D &P Series" fro the brand, populate the MAC address for the device then choose the template and phone model.

• When finished, click the Use Selected button. (Note: This menu only appears if the checkbox for at least one extension is checked. The checkbox for your new extension should be checked by default)

Setting the "Configured By" Column

With DPMA is enabled on the PBX, an extra column appears in the Extension mapping table labeled "Configured By". By default, a newly added P-series phone in Extension Mapping will have their Configured By column set to Phone. If this is set to 'None' or 'Phone', when provisioning a device for the first time, it will prompt the user for a PIN and an extension. If this is set to Server, when provisioning a P phone, it will immediately download it's config without any user input at the phone. 

• Click the cog on the right hand side to change None to Server and toggle between Server and Phone.

• When clicked, the page will reload and toggle the value.

Point the Phone to the PBX to Receive its Configuration Settings

You will now need to tell your phone how to reach the PBX for its configuration file. There are a few methods available:

Provision the phone using mDNS with DPMA.

If phone and PBX on the same network then the phone the can be provisioned using mDNS with DPMA.

          Using mDNS with DPMA#PhoneProvisioning

Manually

When an unconfigured phone boots, you will be presented with a settings screen. Choosing "Sangoma Configuration Server" from the options presented will provide fields the phone user can populate with the DPMA server settings. Enter the DPMA host, port and protocol as they are set in the DPMA Management Settings. 

• Power up the P phone

• After a brief moment a countdown will be shown in the screen of the phone, interrupt the countdown by pressing any key of the phone

• Press Settings

• Press 2 - Sangoma Configuration Server

• In the Server field enter the IP address of PBX or the host name

• Enter the DPMA port (default is 5060)

• Enter the DPMA protocol (default is UDP)

• Press Submit

Using Sangoma Zero Touch Provisioning Redirect Service

The Sangoma P series phones can be configured to discover the PBX DPMA service automatically on boot without any site specific DPMA config or user interaction. See the the Redirect Services page for more info.

Using DHCP Option 66

If your network is capable of option 66, you can set up your DHCP service to provide the IP address of your PBX for any phone that is looking for a configuration server