IP Office Initial Startup

When powering up an IP Office for the first time a number of things are configured automatically. It is important to remember to power up all expansion cabinets first as the IP Office will reach out to all connected modules to identify them. Without power these devices can't be identified and the IP Office will not configure them.

The IP Office will automatically build extensions and users for each extension port. This does not require the phones to be connected, simply that the port is installed and has power. The numbering starts at 201 and goes up sequentially, going from left to right across each port on the main unit and then sequentially up through the expansion modules. A default hunt group is created called MAIN with the number 200. The first ten users are added to this hunt group. By default all voice calls are directed to this hunt group. Data calls are routed to the RAS Access DialIn.

All lines are assigned to Line Group 0 by default. A Short code of 9 is created to provide access to this line group.

Embedded voicemail is configured by default. Every user will be assigned a mailbox and they will be active by default.

The IP Office will configure IP Networking. LAN 1 will have the IP Address of 192.168.42.1 and LAN 2 will be 192.168.43.1. Both networks will have the Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0 and will have the DHCP server configured with a 200 address range. When connecting to the network the IP Office will check to see if there is another DHCP server on the network. If another DHCP server is active the IP Office will disable the DHCP server for that interface.

The IP Office System Name is configured using the MAC address of the IP Office control unit.

IP Office 8 Licensing

IP Office licensing is rather complicated. I’m not going to spend too much time on it but I would like to point out a few rather important details.

The IP Office Basic Edition is a starter-edition of IP Office that only supports one PRI (Up to 64 total trunks with analog and SIP) and up to 9 Auto Attendants. It does not support any applications or IP telephones.  It can be configured through a web interface or phone-based administration. Up to 100 telephones are supported on IP Office Basic Edition. Six concurrent connections to embedded voicemail are supported with approximately 25 hours of storage.

IP Office Essential Edition offers more flexibility over the Basic Edition. It supports up to 40 Auto Attendants and 8 PRIs. This version offers the benefit of IP telephony, including One-X Communicator, mobile twinning, and remote worker support. The Essential Edition comes with 2 concurrent voicemail connections and 15 hours of storage. This can be upgraded to 4/20 or 6/25. There is a built-in conference bridge that supports up to 128 simultaneous connections. Up to 64 connections are supported in a single conference call.

An IP Office Preferred license requires the Essential license and adds some additional functionality. Instead of the embedded voicemail Preferred Edition allows the use of Voicemail Pro. This can be on a standalone server or on a Unified Communications Module (UCM). Voicemail Pro adds significant functionality to the IP Office, including unlimited multi-level auto attendants and up to 40 simultaneous VM connections. The amount of storage available for VM Pro depends on the size of the hard drive on the VM server. A good benchmark is that each minute of voice stored will take up about one MB of hard drive space. VM Pro also includes call recording and an enhanced conference bridge. A single IP Office Preferred License can supply VM Pro to multiple sites in a Small Community Network configuration. VM Pro also adds support for web-based voicemail retrieval. The VM Pro server can be installed on a Linux-based or Windows-based server. The UC Module is Linux-based. When installing on a Windows server all Microsoft licensing requirements must be met for the server platform.

IP Office Advanced Edition provides all of the features of the Preferred license and adds a number of contact center features. Advanced Edition supports up to 150 agents and 30 supervisors in a contact center environment. The Advanced Edition can provide access to real-time and historical reporting to manage efficiency. Recording of all calls can be configured with sufficient storage on your server.  You can configure your menus to interact with an SQL database to provide a better interactive customer experience or to offer self-serve options. Visual Basic scripting is supported with a Windows-based Advanced Edition server.

In addition to platform licensing you must also have a license for all your IP endpoints and trunks.  A basic user (Digital or analog station) does not require a license. Any IP set requires an IP Endpoint License. There are two types of IP endpoint licenses: Avaya or third party. The appropriate license must be purchased for each endpoint. Additional licenses must be purchased for PRI B-channels above the eight that are included with the PRI daughterboard.

Currently license files are provided through http://adi.avaya.com/ but this will eventually be transitioned over to https://plds.avaya.com/

IP Office Startup and default passwords

When the IP Office is powered on it will look for any attached hardware. This means that any attached hardware should be powered on prior to connecting power to the IP Office. When started up for the first time the IP Office will automatically build extensions and users for any recognized extension port, starting with extension/user 201. The IP Office will number extension from left to right on the IP Office then left to right on any attached modules, starting at Module 1 and working up. A hunt group (number 200) will be created with the first ten users as members. All detected lines are included in Line Group 0 and a short code on 9 is created to provide access to the default routing table. Embedded voicemail is also configured on startup. Every user on the IP Office receives a mailbox. This is also true when Voicemail Pro is enabled.

The system name for the IP Office will be the MAC Address of the LAN1 port. As I previously mentioned the default IP addresses are 192.168.42.1 and 192.168.43.1 for LAN1 and LAN2, with a netmask of 255.255.255.0. A DHCP Server is built into the IP Office that is automatically configured to assign up to 200 IP addresses. The range is 192.168.42.2-201 and 192.168.43.2-201 for LAN1 and LAN2 respectively. If the IP Office detects that there is another DHCP server on the network it will disable the internal DHCP server.

The IP Office also builds a few default usernames and passwords. They are as follows:

IP Office Administration: Administrator / Administrator

IP Office Security Settings: security / securitypwd

Remote Access Dialin: RemoteManager / password

System Password (for upgrades): password (no username)

A number of other defaults are created as well. These include usernames that are used by the system for various functions as well as a few different levels of administration access. You can see the full list of users in the Security Settings. For obvious reasons you should consider changing some of these passwords. Do not change any of the passwords for system-level users (EnhTcpaService, SCN_Admin, IPDECTService, and SMGRB5800Admin). To change these passwords you need to open Manager and click File -> Advanced -> Security Settings. Log in using the Security Settings information. You can change the default passwords and create new users with various permissions from this screen.  In the event that you do not have any passwords for your IP Office you can use a physical connection to the RS-232 port on the back of the IP Office control unit. You can connect to the RS-232 port by configuring a terminal to connect at 38,400/8/N/1, Flow Control Off, TTY or VT100. The command type to use is at, followed by the type at-securityresetall. The IP Office will prompt for a complex response after which all passwords will be defaulted.

IP Office Telephones

The IP Office supports analog, digital, and IP sets. Avaya uses the second digit of the phone model to indicate the phone type. A phone with the numbering scheme x4xx or x5xx is a digital set and a numbering scheme of x6xx is an IP set. Avaya uses the same sets for the IP Office as they do for Avaya Call Manager.

Avaya offers expansion modules known as Button Modules for some of their digital and IP sets.

1400 series sets are digital sets using the Avaya Digital Control Protocol. Sets in this series include the 1403, 1408, and 1416 sets.  The 1416 set supports up to three DBM32 expansion modules with external power. The 1400 series sets have a red light that shows up next to the first line appearance on the phone. These sets do not have self-labeling buttons and require a paper label for the buttons. Labels can be printed from within IP Office Manager using the DESI software available for free download from http://www.desi.com/

9500 series sets are digital sets that have soft-labels. The button labels that are programmed into the IP Office are passed through using the Digital Control Protocol to the phones. Available sets are the 9504 and 9508.

1600 Series sets use the H.323 protocol and are visually similar to the 1400 series sets. They also require the use of DESI labels for button labeling. In addition to the 1600 sets there are 1600i sets that have a larger screen that support non-English lettering.

9600 series sets include the 9620, 9630, 9640, and 9650 IP telephones. There are letters after the model number to indicate functionality. C indicates a colour display, L indicates low power consumption (PoE Class 1), G indicates Gigabit Ethernet. These sets support the SBM32 expansion module and require Professional Edition licensing. 9608, 9611, 9621, and 9641 sets are newer IP phones that are also supported. The 9600 series sets have displays that support soft labels so no DESI strips are required.

The IP Office supports Nortel (now Avaya) 1120 and 1140 sets, as well as the newer 1220 and 1240 sets.

Avaya has three conference phone offerings. The B149 is an analog conference phone. The B159 is an analog conference phone with a USB connector for attaching to a PC or cell phone. The B179 is a SIP-enabled PoE conference phone that supports the G.722 Codec for HD voice quality. The B179 requires an Avaya IP Endpoint license to function and is supported on IP Office 7.0 and higher.

Avaya supports DECT R4 sets with the IP Office. Each base station can support up to eight simultaneous calls. DECT sets use the x7xx numbering scheme.

Avaya Video phones (1010, 1020, 1030, 1040, and 1050) are available. These video phones support internal video calls only (no, your customers won’t be able to see you). The Avaya softphone also supports video calls. The softphone can be installed on a Windows or MAC computer. The installer is located on the Admin CD.

Legacy IP Office phones include the 4600, 5600, 4400, and 5400 series sets that are also supported. These sets are not available for new sales. 

IP Office Hardware

The IP Office 500 v2 is the base system for all new IP Office installations. It supports up to 384 extensions (ports) and up to 1000 subscribers (users).

The IPO500v2 has a LAN and WAN port, however in the IPO programming these are referred to as LAN1 and LAN2 respectively. The default IP addresses for these ports are 192.168.42.1 and 192.168.43.1 respectively, with a netmask of 255.255.255.0.

Up to four base cards can be installed in the system. Each base card can be fitted with a trunk daughterboard, with the exception of the 4-port expansion module.

A Digital Station card supports up to   eight digital stations. Up to three DS card can be included in the IP Office.

A TCM8DS Module supports up to eight Nortel 7000-series digital stations on the IP Office.

Voice Compression Module (VCM) provides resources for use with IP transcoding (same as DSP resources in the Nortel world). There are two VCM base cards – 32- or 64-VCM cards.

A Combo Card supports six digital stations, 2 analog stations, four analog trunks, and 10 VCMs. You can have up to two combo cards in an IP Office. Port 8 on a combo card can also be configured as a powerfail line.

A P-2 or P-8 base card supports 2 or 8 phone sets. The P2 is often used if a trunk module is required without any other functionality as it is the least expensive card available for the IP Office.

The 4-port expansion module allows for additional expansion modules to be connected. It must be plugged into Slot 4 of the IP Office.

The Unified Communications Module is an embedded Linux server that can host Voicemail Pro (up to 200 users and 40 ports) and the One-X Portal. It is managed separately from the IP Office through a web interface on Port 7070. The UCM is not supported with IP Office Basic Edition.

The IP Office supports up to twelve expansion modules. The IPO500v2 has eight ports built into the back for expansion and an optional 4-port expansion module can be installed into slot 4 of the IP Office to add the extra four expansion modules.

Expansion Modules for the IP Office include 16-Port Analog Trunk, BRI So8, 16- or 30-port Analog Station, 16- or 30-port Digital Station, and 16- or 30-port Amphenol Digital Station for Nortel 7000 series phones.

Daughterboards are connected to the IPO Base Cards to allow for trunking. The possible options are 4-port analog trunk, BRI (not usually used in North America), or PRI (1- or 2-port PRI). By default the IPO PRI module only comes licensed for eight B-Channels. Additional licenses will be required to open channels 9-23.

The IP Office has two slots for SD Cards in the back of the unit. The System SD card contains a feature key that is tied to licensing. The IP Office will run for up to two hours with the System SD Card removed in unlicensed mode. IP Office voicemail is hosted on the SD card so voicemail will not function while the card is removed. A secondary SD Card can be used to back up data and host voicemail. The secondary slot supports SDHC Cards 4GB and greater.