HowTo Configure the sipX Voicemail Service
From SIPfoundry sipx, The Open Source SIP PBX for Linux - Calivia
The sipX Media Server voicemail application provides voicemail services for users for whom voicemail permission is set to Enabled (default setting). Please refer to How to Configure Users for more information on how to define permissions for users and groups.
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[edit] Administering the Voicemail Service
Setting up the voicemail application involves the following steps. Upon installation of the sipX system reasonable default settings are chosen so that the voicemail service should be operational and available. The following introduces the relevant configurable parameters and provides some explanation on how to customize the system:
- Administrator Configurable System-Wide Parameters
- Message Waiting Indication (MWI)
- Email Notification Feature
The voicemail system inbox and the voicemail system features can be accessed either from the voicemail user Web portal or through the phone top interface (Default: Dial 101).
[edit] Administrator Configurable System-Wide Parameters
The sipX Configuration Server provides for the management of administrator configurable voicemail parameters. Login to the sipX Configuration Server and go to Configuration and then Voicemail.
[edit] Voicemail Expiration
The parameter Voicemail Expiration determines after how many days messages that users put into the Deleted Folder will be removed from the system. Messages in other folders are not affected.
While this does not guarantee that you do not run out of disk space on your sipX system, it puts some policy in place to clean out old messages.
Given the encoding used for voicemail messages, 1 minute of recording will require about 1 MB of disk space. That means that even using a small 40 GB system disk there should be room for about 500 hours of messages, or for a system with 250 voicemail inboxes about 2 hours per user.
[edit] Maximum Internal Extension Length
This number represents the longest internal extension according to the Internal dialing plan. This parameter only affects the auto-attendant. When a user is prompted by the auto-attendant to enter an extension this value is used to determine when the entire extension has been entered. The value of this parameter should be the same as the corresponding parameter in the Internal dialing plan (see below).
If you use several rules of type Internal with different ranges of internal extensions that have a different number of digits, use the longest internal extension for this parameter.
[edit] Identifying and Configuring the Voicemail Service Extension Number
To permit direct calls to the voicemail service a unique extension number is assigned to it. End users retrieve voicemail messages by dialing this extension. By default this extension number is 101, which is a good choice if your internal dialing plan uses 3 digits. This default setting can be changed by editing the Internal Dialing rule. Go to Dial Plans and select Internal (See also How to configure dial plans):
Internal station extension length: This setting defines the length of internal numeric extension numbers. If this setting is changed, the setting Maximum internal extension length under Configuration / Voicemail (see above) should be changed as well. This setting influences the dial plans stored in the phone and allows the phone to automatically initiate a call after a sufficient number of digits was entered without requiring you to press dial.
Voicemail extension: This is the extension number a user has to dial to reach the sipX voicemail system. It should have the same number of digits as defined under Internal station extension length.
Voicemail inbox prefix: Using the voicemail prefix provides a mechanism to directly address a user's voicemail inbox instead of ringing the user's phone first. For instance, you can leave messages directly into a user's inbox if you don't want to call a user on the phone. (E.g. if a user's extension is 210 and you dial 8210, you get the user's voicemail directly).
[edit] Using the sipX Voicemail Service
[edit] Accessing the User Voicemail Management Web Portal
The user voicemail management Web portal can be accessed by pointing your browser to:
http://<sipx.domain.com>
Select Voicemail. You will have to login using your User ID and PIN.
To go to the Voicemail portal directly type:
https://<sipx.domain.com:8091>
Note: The browser will typically cache your credentials so that for returning users you don't have to login again. However, this makes it impossible to login as a different user. Therefore, to login as a different user you have to delete your browser's HTTP Authentication cache. For Firefox go to Tools/Web Developer/Miscellaneous and select Clear HTTP Authentication. There clearly is a logout button missing, which is an issue that has been reported with the sipX developers team.
[edit] Voicemail System IVR Portal
The sipX voicemail system provides a comprehensive Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu system. A graphical representation is available: sipX Voicemail Service Menu Structure.
[edit] Voicemail Folders (Inbox, Saved, Deleted, Personal)
Default folders Inbox, Saved, and Deleted are always provided. Additional folders can be created to organize your messages. These additional folders will be accessible under Personal. Select Manage Folders to create additional personal folders.
[edit] Greetings
Greetings can be managed using the User Web portal. The best way to record greeting is typically to use your phone. Call the voicemail extension (default: 101) and choose option 5 - voicemail options (sipX Voicemail Service Menu Structure).
[edit] Voicemail Message Forwarding
Received messages can be forwarded to other users, either with additional comments or as received. This feature is currently only available using your phone. Call the voicemail extension (default: 101) and choose listen to inbox/saved/deleted messages. An option is then presented that allows you to forward the message you just heard (sipX Voicemail Service Menu Structure).
It would be nice to also add this feature to the voicemail Web portal.
[edit] Voicemail Distribution Lists
The sipX voicemail system also allows the creation of distribution lists. Such distribution lists can be used when forwarding a message received from someone else or when creating a new message that should be sent to a group of people. Each distribution list is given a number, which has to be dialed when prompted to invoke the list.
[edit] Changing the PIN
A user's PIN can be changed in two ways: a) Using the phone, and b) Using the User Web portal of the sipx Configuration Server.
To use the phone, call the voicemail extension (defaul: 101) and select the corresponding option. The user or the group to which the user belongs to has to have the following permission: Change PIN from IVR. Refer to How to configure users for further detauls).
Alternatively you can use the user portal of the sipX Configuration Server. Point your browser at
http://<sipx.domain.com>
Select Configuration and login with your User ID and PIN, then choose the Change PIN option.
[edit] Setting up Email Notification
The following assumes that you already have an email server deployed that you can use for voicemail forwarding. Please refer to Configure sendmail for Email Notification of Voicemail if you would like to use sendmail on the sipX host for email notification of voicemail messages.
Email notification first has to be configured and enabled by the sipX administrator. In a second step every user can define one or several email addresses for voicemail forwarding.
[edit] Administrator: Configure and Enable Voicemail Forwarding to Email
End users have the option to receive notification via email when they receive voicemail messages. To enable this feature system-wide, the sipX administrator supplies the Fully Qualified Host Name (FQHN) or IP address of an outgoing SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) mail server.
- Go to Configuration, then select Voicemail
- Enter the Fully Qualified Host Name (FQHN) or IP address of your mail server into the SMTP Server field. Since message relaying is not allowed for mail servers in order to prevent spam from being sent through that server, the SMTP server entered into this field has to accept messages from your domain.
- Select Apply.
[edit] End User: Configuring Email Notification Addresses
An end user can enable message forwarding and customize the mailto address for email notification messages sent by the sipX Media Server. Go to the user voicemail Web portal (see above) and select Notifications.
[edit] Setting Other Options
You also have the option to customize another option: system-wide, you can configure Voicemail to play message information before each voicemail message plays to its inbox owner. By default, inbox owners hear message information (date and time received and, if available, origin) only if they press 1 after a message plays.
To change this default behavior so that message information automatically plays before each message, you change the value for the <voicemail-info-playback> parameter in the voicemail.xml.in file to ENABLE.
[edit] Enabling MWI Notification
Message Waiting Indication (MWI) automatically alerts end users to changes in the status of their voicemail inbox. MWI turns on the message light on your phone when a new message is received, and turns it off after the messages have been retrieved. Many phones also indicate voicemail status on the phone's screen by displaying either “No Voice Mail” or “New Voice Mail” with the number of new messages.
Message Waiting Indication (MWI) is enabled and configured automatically for plug & play managed phones. The default profile generated for the managed phone includes a parameter that defines the server address (typically the sipX server) where the phone can subscribe to notifications from the Media Server. A second parameter identifies the extension number for message retrieval (default: 101). This allows one button message retrieval from the phone if available.
Please refer to the pages that describes the respective plug & play managed phone for further details: Polycom, Snom, Grandstream, Cisco.
For manually configured phones the two parameters have to be manually configured for your phone. Please consult the phone's manual. Some phone's only require the fully qualified host name of the sipX server (media server) or if DNS SRV is used the domain name. In this case the phone itself will append the User ID for every line registered on the phone to the subscribe / notify request to the server in order to identify the mailbox for which notification is requested. Other phones require the configuration of the full SIP URI of the line for which notification is requested (e.g. 202@sipx.domain.com or with DNS SRV 202@domain.com).
How to get MWI NOTIFY for phones that do not SUBSCRIBE for it
[edit] Call Handling for Users with Voicemail Inboxes
User specific call forwarding can be combined with the sipX voicemail service. A user with voicemail permission can chose to forward all calls to a colleague. The sipX user level call handling settings will forward all calls addressed to that user to the supplied address (or several addresses simultaneously or sequentially), before sending the call to the original user’s voicemail inbox if not picked up elsewhere.
TIP! To allow users to specify external PSTN addresses as destinations for call forwarding, you have to give the user permission to forward calls to the PSTN (enable Forward Calls External; default: Disable). External numbers should be entered beginning with the area code: For example enter 7819385306, rather than 917819385306.
