Group Number for 46xxsetttings customization in production

[brentlund]

Has anyone used the Group number for customizing settings in the 46xxsettings.txt file?

Such as:
IF $GROUP SEQ 1 goto CALL CENTER
IF $GROUP SEQ 2 goto HOT DESK
# CALL CENTER
{specify settings unique to Group 1}
goto END
# HOT DESK
{specify settings unique to Group 2}
# END
{specify settings common to all Groups}

I'd like to know if anyone is using the Group number feature in production, and what their success level is. I've only been able to find 2 other forum posts, where the usage is explained, but my question is can this feature really be used?
Please give credit to rastogi, for the example above he used in another post.

[aa1]

Group Number for 46xxsetttings customization in production

Yes of course this feature is used :-) I have seen Avaya customers using this feature quite smoothly. This option as you have mentioned may be administered in the 46xxsettings.txt file


Avaya one-X™ Deskphone H.323 Administrator Guide Release 6.0
http://support.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100109253 (Page 78)
The GROUP Parameter
You might have different communities of users, all of which have the same telephone model, but which require different administered settings. For example, you might want to restrict Call Center agents from being able to Logoff, which might be an essential capability for “hot-desking” associates. We provide examples of the group settings for each of these situations later in this section.


Avaya one-X™ Deskphone H.323 Administrator Guide Release 6.0
http://support.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100109253 (Page 47)
Release 1.5 supports the functionality introduced on Avaya Communication Manager Release 4.0 that allows call server administration of the GROUP parameter on a station-by-station basis. As covered in The GROUP Parameter on page 78, the GROUP Identifier can be used in conjunction with the 46xxsettings file to allow administration to apply to specific “groups” of telephones. Before Release 1.5, the Group Identifier had to be administered locally on each applicable telephone. As of Release 1.5, the Group Identifier can be administered centrally,and downloaded to each applicable telephone. The GROUP ID parameter is administered on page 3 of the Change Station Form. Once downloaded, the Group Identifier takes effect starting with the next telephone boot-up.


Group Identifier
Use the following procedure to set or change the Group Identifier
Avaya one-X™ Deskphone H.323 Installation and Maintenance GuideRelease 6.0 for 9608, 9611G, 9621G, and 9641G Deskphones
16-603603 Issue 1 August 2010
http://support.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100109255 (Page 44)


This feature can really be used
Hope these help.
Arbi

[aa1]

Group Number for 46xxsetttings customization in production

The following guide shows a larger example. It's from the "4600 Series IP Telephone LAN Administrator Guide", but it may also be used for 96xx series phones.
555-233-507 Issue 8
The GROUP System Value
http://support.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100013545 (Page 83)


The "GROUP" local craft administrative option sets the group identifier on a per-phone basis. refer to this manual for more info: http://support.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100109253 (Page 112) "Local Administrative Options Using the Telephone Dialpad".
You may also set the GROUP per station (rather than walking around the office or asking users to do it). It can be done on Avaya Aura communication manager SAT interface using the command: "change station xxx", on page 3. It's called "IP Phone Group ID:" After setting this parameter on SAT, the phone needs to be rebooted and it will download the 46xxsettings.txt file and use the proper options.


Let us know if you have questions, concerns or difficulties, or your feedback on how it goes. Hope these info will help you out.


Arbi

[brentlund]

Good post!

The "4600 Series IP Telephone LAN Administrator Guide" you linked has some excellent info. It appears that the Group Number feature can accomplish what is needed in our environment. (as I was beginning to suspect)

I guess to clarify my question, there is an independent team that told me, Avaya won’t support the use of Group Numbers in a production environment. Can anyone speak to that?

After reviewing the documents linked to in the above post, I don’t see any indication that it’s an unsupported feature. (which really should be highlighted in bold, flashing, with lights around it, if you’re not supposed to use it)

[brentlund]

Follow up question

Has anyone ever seen the Group number become unset (defaulted back to ZERO) after a firmware update of the hard phone?

Or the other way around, has anyone had no issues with firmware updates corrupting the Group number set on the hard phone?

[aa1]

Supported

This option is definitly supported.

Arbi

[gwebster]

The Group option is definitely supported. As an example, it is used internally on our test networks to specifically provide different settings to different groups of users in order to allow us to easily emulate a wide variety of customer scenarios.