Topic Last Modified: 2010-07-15
Before you deploy common area phones, you can configure call control behavior—for example, you may want to allow call transfers from a common area phone in a conference room but not from a common area phone in a lobby. You can also set up phones to block external usage and compromised accounts and configure hot-desk phones, that is, phones on which users can log on to their own user account and, once logged on, use Microsoft Communicator "14" features and their own user profile settings.
To do this:
- Create a new contact object for each common area phone.
- Create required policies for all common area phone usage
scenarios (this section provides information on creating three most
relevant policies on common area phones, but other policies may be
relevant to your enterprise).
After you configure common area phones, provision them by installing them where they will be used and just sign in. If the phone will be used at a hot desk, the phone must be provisioned according to the process described in Setting Up Authentication on the New IP Phones.
 Note: |
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| For planning considerations for common area phones, see Planning for Devices, in the Planning Guide. |
Step 1: Create and configure a
new contact object.
To create a new instance of a common area phone, use the New-CsCommonAreaPhone command. For example:
New-CSCommonAreaPhone -LineUri "tel:+14255551212"
-RegistrarPool "ocs-w14-se.ocspm-topo.net" -OU "OU=PM
Users,DC=ocspm-topo,DC=net" -description "Room number 30-1000"
-DisplayName "Building 30 Lobby" -DisplayNumber “1 (425)
555-1212”
This cmdlet creates a new contact object in Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services for the specified phone. Like user accounts, these contact objects can be assigned policies and voice plans. As a result, you will be able to maintain control over common area phones even though those phones are not associated with an individual user.
For more on creating contact objects for common area phones run Get-Help New-CsCommonAreaPhone –Full | more from the Communications Server Management Shell.
If you are deploying many common area phones, you may want to write a Windows PowerShell script to create multiple new objects at the same time by using a table as an input for batch processing. Include entries for phone number, location, voice policy, client policy, and any other policy and object settings that you want applied.
| Note: |
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| For more information about the Shell and individual cmdlets,
see the RTCCmdlet.chm. See Planning to Manage and Troubleshoot Devices, in the Planning Guide, for information about monitoring and troubleshooting common area phones. |
Step 2: Create required
policies.
Creating common area phone specific policies is optional, if your enterprise has specific requirements for these phones use the Shell cmdlets to create the client, voice, and conferencing policies (and other policies) that will apply to the common area account being created. Create a policy for each usage scenario. Common area phone accounts can have different policies based on the enterprise needs. For example, all lobby phones can have “lobby”-specific policies, and phones in executive meeting rooms can have a less restrictive set of policies than phones in regular meeting room phones.
Client Policy
To create a new client policy, use the New-CsClientPolicy cmdlet. For example, to create a policy for common area phones that are used as hot-desk phones, run a command such as the following:
New-CsClientPolicy –Identity HotDeskPhonesPolicy
–EnableHotdesking $True –HotdeskingTimeout 1800
This example creates a new client policy with the Identity HotDeskPhonesPolicy. We’ve set the EnableHotdesking parameter to True ($True), which allows users to log onto the common area phone using their Microsoft Communications Server 2010 account. We’ve also set the HotdeskingTimeout parameter to 1800, which means that users who log onto the phone to which this policy is applied will be allowed to remain logged on for a maximum of 1800 minutes.
| Note: |
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| Other properties of a client policy that may be most relevant to common area phones include ShowRecentContact, DisableFreeBusyInfo, and AddressBookAvailability. |
Type Get-Help New-CsClientPolicy –Detailed | more for information on the properties available.
Voice Policy
To create a new voice policy, use the New-CsVoicePolicy cmdlet. For example:
New-CsVoicePolicy -Identity CAPvoicepolicy
–PstnUsages @{add="Internal","Local"} -allowsimulring $False
-Allowcallforwarding $False -Name CAPvoicepolicy -EnableDelegation
$False -EnableTeamCall $FALSE -EnableCallTransfer $FALSE
This example creates a new voice policy with the Identity CAPvoicepolicy. This new policy sets several properties that would most likely apply to common area phones. It turns off simultaneous ring (-AllowSimulRing $False), meaning calls to the phone to which this policy is applied cannot simultaneously ring another phone, such as a cell phone. It also turns off call forwarding (-AllowCallForwarding $False), delegation (-EnableDelegation $False), the ability to transfer calls (-EnableCallTransfer $False), and the ability to set up a team of users whose phones will ring when this phone does (-EnableTeamCall $False).
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As shown in the preceding example, the following voice policy
settings are recommended for Common Area phones:
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To see a list of all available voice policy properties and their descriptions, run Get-Help New-CsVoicePolicy –Full from the Shell.
Conferencing Policy
To create a new conferencing policy, use the New-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet:
new-csconferencingpolicy -identity
CAPconferencingpolicy -allowIPAudio $false -allowIPvideo $False
-EnableFileTransfer $False -EnableP2PFileTransfer $False
-EnableDataCollaboration $False
This is an example of a conferencing policy with settings that could be applicable to a common area phone. This example creates a conferencing policy with an Identity CAPconferencingpolicy. This new policy has the following settings:
- Turns off the ability to use computer audio in a meetings
(-AllowIPAudio $False)
- Turns off the ability to use computer video (-AllowIPVideo
$False)
- Disables the ability to transfer files as part of the
conference (-EnableFileTransfer $False)
- Disables peer-to-peer file transfers during the conference
(-EnableP2PFileTransfer)
- Disables the ability of the user (in this case the phone) to
join the conference over the Internet (-EnableDataCollaboration
$False)
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The following conferencing policy settings are typically set
for common area phones, but these and others can be changed
depending on enterprise needs:
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To see a list of all available voice policy properties and their descriptions, run Get-Help New-CsConferencingPolicy –Full | more from the Shell.
Granting Policies
If you do not create a new policy for a common area phone, the phone will automatically use the policy defined for the site on which the phone contact object is homed. If no site policy exists, the global policy will be used.
If you’ve created a new policy, or want to use an existing per-user policy, you’ll need to grant that policy to any contact objects (phones) to which you want that policy applied. To do that, simply call the Grant- cmdlet of the policy. For example, to grant the client policy we created earlier in this section to the phone create in Step 1, run the following command:
Grant-CsClientPolicy –Identity "Building 30
Lobby" -PolicyName CAPClientPolicy
For more on granting client policies run Get-Help Grant-CsClientPolicy –Full | more from the Shell.