Cisco® Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 provides a reliable and scalable Web-based solution to manage a company's critical next-generation communications services. Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 manages IP communications services in an integrated IP telephony, voicemail, and unified messaging environment that includes Cisco Unified CallManager, Cisco Unified CallManager Express, Cisco Unity®, Cisco Unity Express, and Cisco Unity Connection systems.
Product Overview
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 provides provisioning for Cisco Unified Communications initial deployments and implementations, and then remains employed to provide ongoing operational provisioning and activation services for individual subscriber changes. Provisioning Manager 1.0 provides a single, consolidated view of subscribers across the organization. It provides a set of business-level management abstractions, which are policy-driven through the use of automation, for managing subscriber services across the Cisco Unified Communications infrastructure.
Through these features, Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager lowers the initial cost of deployments. A powerful template capability permits defining standard configurations that can be reused for new sites or location deployments. Batch provisioning permits the rollout of large numbers of subscribers at once.
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager also significantly reduces the ongoing costs and expertise required to manage the changes that occur once the network is in operational status. A knowledgeable administrator is able to configure policy at various levels that will enforce who is able to do delegated management; for whom that delegation applies; how business-level services apply to Cisco Unified Communications voice and messaging applications; and which types of end users (subscribers) are permitted to order which standard services.
Through the use of this policy and standard configuration approach, provisioning and activating subscriber services is greatly simplified, while retaining the overall ability to manage and provide services that make use of the underlying Cisco Unified Communications applications. Costs are reduced, time to dial-tone is reduced, and errors are practically eliminated. Subscribers are more satisfied, and your IP communications professionals have more time to focus on higher-value activities than repetitive operational issues.
Features and Benefits
Business-Oriented Approach with Workflow Automation
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager permits standard services (phone, line, and voicemail, for example) to be ordered for subscribers (the owner of the individual phone, voicemail, etc). Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager processes all changes to the underlying Cisco Unified Communications applications as a service request or an order. An order may be created to make a subscriber-level change (to a phone or line, for example), or an IP communications-level infrastructure change (such as provisioning a new calling search space or route pattern). All orders in the system are tracked and viewable, both across orders, and by subscriber name or ID. The order records show who initiated the order, the times of various process steps, and what the order contained (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Subscriber Screens
A simple wizard-driven approach is used for ordering services. Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager permits delegation of the order management capability so that requests for service additions, changes, or cancellations can be done without requiring an underlying knowledge of the voice applications that are delivering those services. Provisioning Manager provides the same ordering experience regardless of the technology delivering the Cisco Unified Communications services.
Domain-Level Delegation
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager introduces the concept of IP telephony domains and service areas (Figure 2). Domains are groupings of subscribers. For each grouping, one or more system users can be authorized to manage services for subscribers within that domain. In addition, rules or policies may be set on a domain; those rules and policies will apply to services for subscribers in that domain. Common policies can also be applied on operations within a domain.
Figure 2. Domains and Service Areas
Service Area Model
Service areas are groupings within an IP telephony domain that are used to structure and manage IP telephony and messaging services. The service area typically acts as a service offering location and provides a template mechanism that determines provisioning attribute values used during order processing. Administrative users may configure service areas; this helps ensure that service orders follow company policies and best practices for configuring subscribers. A service area also handles Cisco Unified CallManager partitioning and class of service by directing which location, voice device group, calling search space, and route partition assignments to use for any user provisioned into that service area.
Provisioning Attributes
Provisioning attributes are configuration settings that will be applied to the services on an order during activation. The system administrator has the ability to assign and configure provisioning attributes throughout different levels within the system (at the domain, service area, or subscriber type levels, or on an individual order basis). Figure 3 shows how provisioning attributes are managed.
Figure 3. Provisioning Attribute Management
At order time the system will take into account the configured provisioning attribute assignments in addition to the service area settings to determine the final product configuration to be provisioned. The combination of service area settings and provisioning attributes gives administrators the flexibility to customize the provisioning policies for subscriber services.
Infrastructure Templates
Configuration templates provide the ability to auto-configure the Cisco Unified Communications voice infrastructure in a consistent way. In Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager, templates can be created to initially configure or re-configure Cisco Unified CallManager, Cisco Unified CallManager Express, and Cisco Unity Express. Templates can contain an unlimited number of objects, subject only to the time required to execute (push to a device) the template. Templates are constructed and executed entirely through the Web browser interface.
Cisco Unified CallManager templates can contain up to 20 different types of objects, such as voice device groups, route partitions, calling search spaces, route lists, route groups, or route patterns. Objects placed in a template may have embedded keywords within their attributes. When pushing a template to a device, an optional keyword list may be specified, which defines the values of the keywords to be used (replaced) during the provisioning operation. Templates may contain sub-templates as well, permitting reuse of common types of configuration information across higher-level templates.
Cisco Unified CallManager Express and Cisco Unity Express templates may contain Cisco IOS® Software text or CLI text with keywords as well. Keyword replacement and nesting of templates is also permitted.
The Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager template capability permits the definition of standard configurations that can be used in situations such as rolling out new offices, locations, remote sites, or organizational overlays.
Batch Provisioning
Subscriber services may be ordered using the Web interface on an individual basis for a single subscriber. However, when deploying a large number of services, it is often desirable to combine these together into a single batch, which can be scheduled to run at a later time.
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager permits a single batch to contain multiple types of orders: add, change, or cancel. It also permits multiple types of services to be specified in a single batch operation; for example, a batch can contain a combination of phone and voicemail additions or changes.
Batches can be run immediately upon uploading to Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager, or may be scheduled for execution at a later time.
Role-Based Access
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager provides two dimensions to roles, depending upon if the person is a user of the system or a subscriber of services. User roles define access to certain functions exposed via the Web interface to the user of the system. The subscriber role refers to the role that a subscriber will have within an organization; this is used to dictate the services for which they are entitled. User roles are pre-defined in the system. Subscriber roles are configurable by the administrator.
Inventory Tracking
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager tracks the information about all services and subscribers in an internal asset management or inventory system. This information can be viewed by an administrator, and advanced searches may be created and saved that permit producing report templates in HTML or Microsoft Excel format. Sample reports for configuration and phone information are provided with Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Inventory Manager View
Product Architecture
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager is a Web-based application based on the J2EE architecture. It resides on a separate Windows-based computer and uses various interfaces to connect with the Cisco Unified Communications applications it manages (Figure 5). It does not need to deploy any agent software onto those applications platforms. Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager uses open interfaces such as HTTP, HTTPS, AVVID XML Layer (AXL)-Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), SSH, and Telnet to remotely configure or query the applications being managed. Different levels of user access can be configured by the administrator.
NOTE: see the Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager Supported Devices Table for specific versions that have been certified in testing
Software compatibility
Windows 2003 Server. The user interface can be accessed by Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and Mozilla 1.7.x on Windows 2003 and Windows XP platforms.
Protocols used to communicate with other Cisco Unified Communications applications
HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, Telnet, XML/SOAP, JDBC, CLI
System Capacity
Table 2 lists the system capacity for each instance of Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0.
Table 2. System Capacity per Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager Instance
Item
Maximum Supported Number
Users/subscribers
30,000
Phones
30,000
Lines
60,000
Directory Numbers
60,000
Device profiles
60,000
Cisco Unified CallManager
No limit
Cisco Unified CallManager Express
No limit
Cisco Unity
No limit
Cisco Unity Connection
No limit
Cisco Unity Express
No limit
Features
Features of Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 include:
• Web-based processing of subscriber service requests
• Pre-built configurations of subscriber products
• Tracking and reporting on subscriber assets
• Management of line numbers, phone sets (including Cisco IP Communicator), subscriber , and related unified messaging components
• Definition and enforcement of configurable business policies for processing of subscriber requests
• Helpdesk assistance or end-subscriber self-care
• Wizards that simplify the request interface
• Automated interaction with Cisco Unified CallManager, Cisco Unity, Cisco Unified CallManager Express, Cisco Unity Express, and Cisco Unity Connection for subscriber, phone, and line creations, modifications, or deletions
• Consolidated view and management of multiple Cisco Unified CallManager, Cisco Unity, Cisco Unified CallManager Express, Cisco Unity Express, and Cisco Unity Connection systems
• Auto population and ongoing synchronization of data from Cisco Unified CallManager, Cisco Unity, Cisco Unified CallManager Express, Cisco Unity Express, and Cisco Unity Connection for both system configuration and subscriber information
• Template-based provisioning of infrastructure configuration components within Cisco Unified CallManager, Cisco Unified CallManager Express, and Cisco Unity Express
• Batch order processing for any add, change, or delete supported manually
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 includes an extensive inventory model that provides the capability to manage:
• Subscribers
• Call processors
• Voice features
• Messaging features
• Voice-specific hardware and software
• Messaging-specific hardware and software
• Phone number management policy
• Phone set management policy
System Requirements
Table 3 lists the system requirements of Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0.
Table 3. System Requirements
Server Requirements
Up to 1000 Phones
Up to 10,000 Phones
Up to 30,000 Phones
CPU
Single 3.0-GHz Intel P4 processor
Single 3.0-GHz Intel P4 processor
2-machine deployment with both:
• 1 single 3.0-GHz Intel P4 processor for Web and application servers
• 1 single 3.0-GHz Intel P4 processor for database
Memory
2 GB RAM
4 GB RAM
4 GB RAM on each machine
Disk space
1 x 30-GB hard disk
1 x 60-GB hard disk
1 x 30-GB hard disk on machine for Web and application servers, and
1 x 80-GB hard disk on machine for database
Network
100 Mbps NIC
100 Mbps NIC
100 Mbps NIC
Ordering Information
Table 4 lists ordering information for the Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager. To place an order, visit the Cisco Ordering Home Page.
Table 4. Ordering Information
Product Name
Part Number
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 (maximum of 1000 phones)
CUPM-1.0-1K-K9
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 (maximum of 2000 phones)
CUPM-1.0-2K-K9
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 (maximum of 5000 phones)
CUPM-1.0-5K-K9
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 (maximum of 10,000 phones)
CUPM-1.0-10K-K9
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 (maximum of 20,000 phones)
CUPM-1.0-20K-K9
Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager 1.0 (maximum of 30,000 phones)
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For More Information
For more information about the Cisco Unified Provisioning Manager, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/cupm, contact your local account representative, or send an email to the product marketing group at ask-ipc-management@cisco.com.
