In order to perform a provision to Cisco Webex, there are several pre-requisites that must be considered before attempting an automated provisioning task.
You have the necessary login details for the account
The account has adaquate licenses for users, devices etc.
You know the email domain for the account
UCentric SPA Options
When using Webex Calling provisioning, you will need to ensure the following information is available:-
You will required either;
The Administrator Account details for the tenant (administrator username and password),
or
Webex wholesales credentials AND the Organisation Id for the tenant you are trying to provision to.
Direct Provisioning to a customer account | Wholesale Provisioning |
|---|---|
Admin Credentials for the Webex account | Wholesale Credentials |
Organisation ID for the customer e.g. something like this:
|
Pre-flight checklist (LLD)
Before provisioning to Webex Calling, you must ensure that the data is properly prepared and suitable for provisioning. Here is a simple checklist to follow:
☑️ Email addresses
📧 Ensure that all accounts have a valid email address, and that the domain matches the customer account
☑️ Phone types
☎️ Ensure that supported phone types are defined in the primaryModel column of both the Devices and Profiles tabs of the spreadsheet. You will also need a valid, maching primaryMAC address for the device - Note: simple numbers will suffice; 8865 will match DMS Cisco 8865
☑️ Numbers
☎️ Ensure that all the users you want to have Webex Calling facilities have a valid number in the line1DDI column, and an extension number in the line1DN column
☑️ Primary Model / MAC Address
☎️ If you have both the Model and MAC defined, then the device will be allocated to the user. If you just have the Model, then an ‘Activation code’ will be requested and provided in the provisioning results report
Pre-flight checklist (Webex calling)
Before provisioning to Webex Calling, you must ensure that the tentant has a PSTN Connection configured to a primary location - Cisco do not expose this functionality through their APIs, so it is a required manual step.
⚠️ If you don’t perform these steps, then you cannot provision any devices
☑️ Wholesale Customer
🧑💼 You must create your ‘Customer' on the Wholesale portal and get the orgId in order to provision to Wholesale
☑️ Licenses
🧑💼 You must make sure you have allocated licenses to the organisation
An example below is from a ‘Sandbox’ account
☑️ PSTN
☎️ You MUST create the primary location listed in your LLD sheet, and enable ‘Calling’ by setting up the PSTN connection. If the PSTN cannot be fully configured, then set as “Premise-based PSTN” and “None” for the “Trunk group” as this will allow the provisioning to take place.
It is advisable to add all the E.164 numbers to each location if you are able to as you will be informed if any of the numbers are assigned to another tenant (the API doesn’t expose this)
☑️ Valid numbers + MAC addresses
☎️ Regardless of using a real customer or a Sandbox, all numbers must be unique (and valid in the ‘location’) - e.g. UK locations will only accept UK numbers. You cannot re-use dummy MAC addresses or telephone numbers. See the bottom of this article for dummy ranges you can use in the UK.
\uD83D\uDCD8 Instructions
First create a Webex LLD export of the required Audit. Note, select the Webex LLD version will automatically highlight mandatory columns in the bulk-loader to assist you with provisioning.
There are some mandatory pieces of information that must be present in the Profiles tab for a successful provision to Webex Calling. Some of these will be populated automatically, but this is very much dependant on the ‘source’ audit (e.g. If you are coming from a legacy analog PABX, you are unlikely to see device types, DDIs or email addresses)
LLD Field Name | What you need to put here | Example and comments |
|---|---|---|
line1DN | The Extension number | 7890 |
line1DDI | The DDI or PSTN number | +441234567890 (full E164 number) Add additional DDI’s to the additionalDDIs column (comma delimited if there are more than 1) |
firstName | The user’s first or given name | Fred |
lastName | The user’s last or family name | Bloggs |
Email address for user | fred@xyz.com NOTE: This must match the customer account DNS domain. This is shown in the Administration Account details as “Host Account” under “Licenses”  Note: If this is empty, but the UserServicePacks is set to
and there is a “Department” defined, then a “Workspace” phone will be created. | |
regionName | The Location of the user/device | Headquarters Note: This needs to match a entry in the “Locations” tab. If there is only a single location, use Default as the regionName |
primaryModel | A Webex calling compatible handset name | Cisco 8875 Note: This must match the names of Webex accepted types, although it will match partial values, e.g. “8875” will map to “Cisco 8875” automatically Note: See supported device list below |
primaryMAC | MAC address of device to be assigned to the user | Valid MAC address in one of these formats:
NOTE: You cannot use the same MAC address in different tenants/customers If this is left ‘blank’, but a ‘primaryModel’ is provided, then an Activation Code will be requested and provided in the provisioning report. |
UserServicePacks | Licenses to assign to the user (comma delimited) Note the use of Subscription below when multiple license pools are available | One or more of the following (comma delimited)
NOTE: If you have a DDI defined, then “Webex Calling - Professional” will be assumed. |
Subscription | (Optional) Subscription id of Webex Calling License | This is used to apply specific Webex licenses to particular users, and is used where there are differing pools of licenses available. |
department | Workspace name to use / create | Only actioned if UserServicePacks is set to
|
SoftKey1 → SoftKey16 | speedial;number;label (e.g. speeddial;08442478881;MIT) | This will set up custom key templates for the user and apply the speedial buttons Avoid Keys 1 and 2 as they are used for normal line appearances on Webex calling. If you place values in these keys, it will not provision any of the keys for the device. |
hoteling | Yes / No | This is used to indicated that the user can use the Hoteling function of Webex Calling. It’s optional and will be assumed to be “No” if not present. |
overrideDDIs | Yes / No | Use with caution! This will remove all DDI-style numbers from the user and add the DDI number in the LLD in replacement. |
callWaiting | Yes / No | This will enable or disable “Call Waiting” - Default is “No” if the column is missing. |
Hunt Groups and Queues
Hunt groups are created automatically from the Hunt, Work, ACD, Ring etc. tab in the Excel LLD spreadsheet. In order to create a Queue instead, the orchestrator looks for certain key group types or characteristics and then adapts them to Queues automatically. The highlighted values below show all the types that are automatically transformed from a ‘Hunt group’ to a ‘Queue’
Shared Lines
Shared lines are added by including information on the Bridged Extensions tab of the LLD. If this is missing, just add a new tab with this exact name, and exsure that you have User DN, Name and Shared Call Appearance columns as the headers (the rest won’t matter)
The User DN is the user’s device on which you want to show the shared appearance, and the Shared Call Appearance is what will becomea Shared Line button on the phone.
🔢 Workspaces
It is possible to add a ‘Workspace’ device to Webex Calling, providing the following settings are adhered to for the entry in the LLD
No email address
Has a valid 'Cisco' device (with MAC address)
Has a line1DN (and line1DDI if needed)
Has a "Department" name
Has "Webex Calling - Workspaces" in UserServicePacks
The ‘Department’ name will become the ‘Workspace’, so please ensure that these are unique. UCentric can only provision a single device to each workspace.
If you fail to give them unique department names, they will be given a sequential suffix, e.g. “Huddle Room_1”, “Huddle Room_2” etc.
🔢 Unallocated numbers
It is possible to add ‘unallocated' numbers to the tenant by simple adding them in the ‘Unallocated numbers’ tab in the LLD as shown below.
These will be created and be visible in the Calling section, but remain unassigned to any device or user
Webex Calling - Sandboxes
You can setup temporary Sandboxes for testing using this link on the Cisco webex website:
https://developer.webex.com/docs/developer-sandbox-guide
Webex Calling Supported Devices (as of Jan 2024)
AudioCodes MP-124E (TLS 17FXS)
AudioCodes MP-1288
Cisco 191
Cisco 192
Cisco 6821
Cisco 6841
Cisco 6851
Cisco 6861
Cisco 6871
Cisco 7811
Cisco 7821
Cisco 7832
Cisco 7841
Cisco 7861
Cisco 840
Cisco 860
Cisco 8811
Cisco 8832
Cisco 8841
Cisco 8845
Cisco 8851
Cisco 8861
Cisco 8865
Cisco 8875
Cisco VG400 ATA
Cisco VG420 ATA
Fake Numbers / MAC Addresses
If you are setting up a Sandbox account, the numbers and MAC addresses still need to appear “Valid” to the WebEx APIs, so please note the following:-
The numbers and MACs you use cannot appear on any other instance in WebEx!
The numbers must be valid numbers for the target country (see below for ‘fake’ ranges that are reserved for testing in the UK)
Geographic Numbers
Geographic area | Geographic area code | Telephone number range (1000 numbers in each range) |
Leeds | 0113 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Sheffield | 0114 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Nottingham | 0115 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Leicester | 0116 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Bristol | 0117 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Reading | 0118 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Birmingham | 0121 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Edinburgh | 0131 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Glasgow | 0141 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Liverpool | 0151 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
Manchester | 0161 | 496 0000 to 496 0999 |
London | 020 | 7946 0000 to 7946 0999 |
Tyneside/Durham/Sunderland | 0191 | 498 0000 to 498 0999 |
Northern Ireland | 028 | 9649 6000 to 9649 6999 |
Cardiff | 029 | 2018 0000 to 2018 0999 |
No area | 01632 | 960000 to 960999 |
Non-geographic numbers
Ofcom’s published list of recommended dummy numbers includes a thousand mobile numbers (07700 900000 to 900999), a thousand Freephone numbers (08081 570000 to 570999), a thousand premium rate service numbers (0909 8790000 to 8790999), and one thousand UK-wide numbers (03069 990000 to 990999).
Note: Don’t use premium rate numbers for devices - they are shown solely for information purposes
Telephone number type | Telephone number range (1000 numbers in each range) |
Mobile | 07700 900000 to 900999 |
Freephone | 08081 570000 to 570999 |
Premium rate services | 0909 8790000 to 8790999 |
UK-wide | 03069 990000 to 990999 |