Important:
If you want to deploy Exchange Server Unified Messaging for call answering and other services, go to Step 1. Configure Unified Messaging on Microsoft Exchange to Work with Office Communications Server. Otherwise, skip Step 1 and begin your Enterprise Voice deployment here.

Location profiles specify how Communications Server is to interpret and route phone numbers that are dialed from various locations (or from individual users if you are using per-user location profiles). You need to create a separate location profile for each geographic location where your organization maintains an office. If you maintain a single dial plan for your organization, you may also need a separate location profile for users who are enabled for Enterprise Voice.

A location profile is essentially a named set of normalization rules. Normalization rules translate dialed numbers in various formats into a standard (that is, E.164) format. You need to create one or more normalization rules for each location profile. You can copy an existing normalization rule in one location profile to a new location profile.

If you plan to support dial-in conferencing in your organization, when you create or modify a location profile, verify that at least one normalization rule in the location profile converts telephone extensions into complete phone numbers in E.164 format. Users of dial-in conferencing join conferences as authenticated enterprise users by entering their personal identification number (PIN) and their phone number. Because user authentication cannot be performed with only a telephone extension, dial-in conferencing requires a normalization rule to convert extensions into complete phone numbers in E.164 format.

Recommendations

Before you begin, you should understand location profiles, phone number normalization rules, and the roles they play in Enterprise Voice. For details, see Step 10. Configure Per-User Location Profiles, as well as Location Profilesin the Planning and Architecture documentation.

Note:
Enterprise Voice Route Helper provides an alternative to the Office Communications Server 2007 administrative tools for viewing and modifying Enterprise Voice number normalization rules, location profiles, voice policy, and routes. Route Helper is available in the Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit.

If you are configuring Exchange Unified Messaging to work with Enterprise Voice, it is recommended that you perform that step before you create location profiles. For details, see Choosing Your Enterprise Voice Deployment Path.

If you are deploying Communications Server in Private Branch Exchange (PBX) integration mode, then you will not use Exchange Server Unified Messaging to provide voice mail.

Overview

Creating a location profile consists of the following tasks:

  • Assigning a name to a new location profile.

  • Providing a description that will describe the location profile to users.

  • Creating one or more normalization rules.

To create a location profile

  1. Open the Office Communications Server 2007 snap-in.

  2. In the console pane, right-click the Forestnode, point to Properties, and click Voice Properties.

  3. On the Location Profilestab, click Addto create a new location profile.

    Note:
    Repeat this step as needed to create all of the location profiles that your organization requires.

  4. In the Namebox, type a useful descriptive name.

    Important:
    If you are planning to configure Exchange Server Unified Messaging for Enterprise Voice but have not yet done so, stop now and perform Step 1. Configure Unified Messaging on Microsoft Exchange to Work with Office Communications Serverbefore you continue creating location profiles.
    Note:
    If you have configured Exchange Unified Messaging for Enterprise Voice and have completed Step 1. Configure Unified Messaging on Microsoft Exchange to Work with Office Communications Server, type the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the corresponding Exchange Unified Messaging dial plan.
    Note:
    This name must be unique and cannot exceed 256 Unicode characters, each of which can be an alphabetic or numeric character, a hyphen (-), a period (.), a plus sign (+), an underscore ( _ ), or either left or right parenthesis: ) or (.

  5. In the Descriptionbox, type the common, recognizable name of the geographic location to which the location profile applies.

    Note:
    For example, if the location profile name is London.Contoso.com, then the recommended Descriptionwould be London. If you have deployed Conferencing Attendant, this description is included as part of the region information in the conferencing e-mail invitation.

  6. If you want to add an external access prefix, check Optimize device dialing, and then, in the External access prefixtext entry box when it becomes active, type up to four characters (that is, #, *, and 0-9) in this box.

  7. Click Addto open the Add Phone Number Normalization Ruledialog box.

  8. In the Namebox, type a name that describes the number pattern being normalized (for example, 5DigitExtensionor 7 digit calling Toronto).

  9. Do one of the following:

    • If you want to create a new normalization rule, skip this step and the following step.

    • If you want to copy the phone pattern and translation pattern of an existing normalization rule, click Copy rule.

  10. In the Copy Phone Number Normalization Ruledialog box, select the normalization rule that you want to copy, and then click OK.

    Note:
    If you want to view a normalization rule before copying it, select the rule, and then click View.

  11. In the Descriptionbox, type a brief description of the normalization rule (for example, "Translates 5-digit extensions" or "Translates 7-digit numbers to Toronto local number").

  12. In the Phone pattern regular expressionbox, use .NET Framework regular expressions to describe a phone number pattern (for example, ^9(\d{7})$, which describes a phone number pattern consisting of the number 9 followed by any seven digits).

    Note:
    For details about using .NET Framework regular expressions, see the.NET Framework Regular Expressions Web site at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=140927 .

  13. In the Translation pattern regular expressionbox, use .NET Framework regular expressions to describe the E.164 phone number corresponding to the number entered in the Phone pattern regular expressionbox.

  14. If the normalization rule results in a phone number that is internal to the enterprise, click Internal enterprise extension.

  15. If you do not want the rule to be applied when dialing from a device, clear Use translation when dialing from device.

  16. If you require assistance in formulating regular expressions for phone number normalization rules, click Launch guide.

  17. In the Sample dialed numberbox, type a phone number to test whether the number translation works properly.

    Note:
    If the number matches the phone pattern, the translation is shown in the Translated numberbox.

  18. If the translation matches the phone pattern, click OK.

  19. Create as many normalization rules as your location profile requires.

  20. When you are done, click OK.

See Also