Accessing the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool

For all product system provisioning activities and most VPT configuration activities, you use a web browser to access the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool website. You can modify how the website is accessed and the behavior that you or other administrators experience when accessing the site. The following sections provide additional details:

•Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Web Address

•Logging In, Changing Your Password, and Logging Out

•Considerations for Using the Graphical User Interface

•Determining the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Version

•Using Online Help

•Accessing Product System Administrative Interfaces from the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool

•Changing the Session Timeout Length

•Modifying the Number of Search Results That the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Returns

•Disabling Administrator Access to the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Website

•Changing the HTTP Port Number After Installation

Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Web Address

The URL that you use to access the tool depends on whether SSL is configured and the HTTP port number that was chosen during installation:

•If SSL is enabled, the URL is https://<server name or IP address>:<port number>/vpt, and the default port is 8443.

•If SSL is not enabled, the URL is http://<server name or IP address>:<port number>/vpt, and the default port is 8080.

Note The Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool website uses popup windows. If you have popup blocker software installed, configure it to enable popups for this site.

Logging In, Changing Your Password, and Logging Out

You can log in to the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool website either by using the desktop shortcut that was added during installation on the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool server or by browsing to the site by using a supported web browser on any computer with a network connection to the VPT server.

When you access the main URL for the website, a prompt tells you to log in with an Admin ID and password.

After you have successfully logged in to the system, if you are logging in for the first time or your password has been changed by another administrator since your last login, you automatically are prompted to change your password.

In addition, you can change your password at any time after logging in by clicking Change Password at the upper right side of the browser window.

You can log yourself out of the VPT interface by clicking Log Out, which also appears at the upper right corner of the window. If you do not request any pages or perform any actions for a period exceeding the session timeout (this period defaults to 15 minutes but is configurable), you automatically are logged out of the system and are prompted to log in again as soon as you request a page or attempt to perform an action.

Considerations for Using the Graphical User Interface

Consider the following information as you perform tasks in the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool. Use the information in conjunction with the descriptions and procedures that this guide discusses.

•The Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool uses popup windows. Ensure that your browser is configured to accept popup windows.

•The Refresh button that displays in your browser does not refresh the contents in the current configuration window in the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool. Instead, clicking the Refresh button in your browser takes you to the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool home page. To refresh the contents in the current window, click the current node in the navigation pane.

•When you want to move to backward or forward in the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool, particularly in a wizard, do not click the browser Forward or Back buttons. In fact, we recommend that you do not use these buttons when you perform any tasks in the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool.

•Clicking the Stop button on your browser does not stop the task that is occurring on the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool server. The Stop button only controls the browser, not the server. Be aware that task results will not display in the browser if you click the Stop button.

•You can navigate to windows via the navigation pane or via the hyperlinks that display in the configuration windows themselves. Likewise, the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool may provide buttons that allow you to navigate throughout the tool.

•If you cannot perform certain tasks because you do not have the appropriate RBAC permissions, you will find that most often, the configuration options that are associated with the tasks—including the buttons, menus, hyperlinks, and so on—do not display in the graphical user interface (GUI). If the option displays for some reason and you do not have the appropriate RBAC permissions, the GUI displays a message that insufficient privileges exist and informs you that the tool does not permit the action. For example, if you have the appropriate RBAC permissions to delete users on one product system and not another system, the delete button displays. However, the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool will only allow you to delete the users for the systems where you have the appropriate RBAC permissions.

•If a single configuration option relies on other configuration options, the single option appears disabled until you configure the related configuration options.

Determining the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Version

To determine the version of VPT software in use, log in to the tool and click About.

Using Online Help

When you navigate to any provisioning or administration window in the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool, a Help menu displays at the top of the window. The Help menu provides links to online versions of the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool User and Phone Management Guide and the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool System Management and Security Guide. These online guides comprise an indexed, searchable help system that was installed with the VPT software.

Note For the most up-to-date version of the information in these guides, refer to the Cisco website. You can access the most current Cisco documentation at this URL: http://www.cisco.com/univercd/home/home.htm

Accessing Product System Administrative Interfaces from the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool

When configuring product systems in the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool, you can optionally specify the URL of the individual product system administrative GUI. This allows any administrator with sufficient permissions to click on a link from within the tool to easily browse to the product system GUI to carry out any additional configuration activities that can only be performed on the native product system administrative interface.

To access the product system administrative interface from the link, the VPT administrator also needs an account with sufficient privileges on the product system itself. In most cases, the administrator will be prompted to enter a user name and password to log in to the product system GUI, unless the GUI is configured for Integrated Windows Authentication, and the user identity can be verified based on the Windows login credentials of the administrator.

Also note that following the link from within the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool will cause the product system GUI to open in another window in the same browser you are using to access the tool; however, the individual product system administrative interfaces may not support all of the web browsers that are supported by VPT.

If the criteria mentioned above are met, and the URL has been configured, you can access the product system administrative interface from VPT by using the following procedure:

Note To launch product system interfaces, your administrator account must belong to a role that has Product Systems Management View permissions for the VPT application. If you do not see the VPT Administration > Product Systems option in the VPT navigation menu, your account does not have the applicable permissions.

To Access Product System Administrative Interfaces from the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool

Step 1 In the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool, choose VPT Administration > Product Systems > Manage Product Systems.

The Manage Product Systems window displays.

Step 2 Click the button in the Product SA URL column of the product system GUI that you want to launch.

Changing the Session Timeout Length

As a security feature, the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool automatically logs any administrator out after 15 minutes of inactivity. After the session timeout is reached, if you attempt to navigate to another window or choose an action on a window (such as Save or Cancel), the tool will indicate that your session has expired, and prompt you to log in again.

The session timeout represents a global value that applies to all administrator accounts. You can change the number of minutes before an idle session times out by using the following procedure.

Note To configure security settings, your administrator account must belong to a role that has VPT Configuration Modify permissions for the VPT application. If you do not see the VPT Administration > Configuration option in the VPT navigation menu, your account does not have the applicable permissions.

To Change the Session Timeout Length

Step 1 In the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool, choose VPT Administration > Configuration.

The Configuration window displays.

Step 2 In the Security section, enter a new value between 5 and 1440 for the Session Timeout.

Step 3 Click Save.

Modifying the Number of Search Results That the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Returns

When it is performing searches on large quantities of provisioning data, the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool automatically limits the number of search results that are returned to ensure that the amount of memory used by the search results does not overburden the system.

By default, up to 500 records are returned per product system for any individual search query; if the result set for a product system is larger than 500, the tool returns an error message.

You can change the search result limit by using the following procedure.

Note To configure search results settings, your administrator account must belong to a role that has VPT Configuration Modify permissions for the VPT application. If you do not see the VPT Administration > Configuration option in the VPT navigation menu, your account does not have the applicable permissions.

To Change the Number of Search Results That the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Returns

Step 1 In the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool, choose VPT Administration > Configuration.

The Configuration window displays.

Step 2 In the Search Results section, enter a new value between 0 and 5000 for the Result Limit.

Step 3 Click Save.

Disabling Administrator Access to the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Website

If your administrator account has sufficient privileges, you can lock out other administrator accounts without removing the accounts from the system. You can re-enable the disabled accounts at a later time.

If the administrator is active at the time his or her account is disabled, any operations that have been submitted and are in progress will complete, but as soon as the administrator attempts to perform an additional action or navigate to a new window, he or she will receive a message that indicates that the session is no longer valid, and the administrator will be logged out.

You can disable one or more administrator accounts at once by using the following procedure:

Note Only the superadmin and other administrators who belong to the predefined Super Admin role can disable administrator accounts. You cannot disable the predefined superadmin account, or the account that you use to perform this procedure.

To Disable Administrator Access to the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool Website

Step 1 In the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool, choose VPT Administration > Administrators > Manage Administrators.

The Manage Administrators window displays a list of configured administrators.

Step 2 Choose Disable in the Status column of each administrator that you want to disable.

Caution The change takes effect immediately. If the administrator that you are disabling is logged in and has entered data on a window but has not yet submitted it, the data may be lost.

Changing the HTTP Port Number After Installation

The Tomcat HTTP port number that is used to access the Cisco Voice Provisioning Tool is specified during installation. If you later need to change the port number to correct an error or to accommodate another service, perform the following procedure.

To Change the HTTP Port Number After Installation

Step 1 Ensure that the VPT Tomcat service is stopped.

a. On the VPT server, on the Windows Start menu, choose Programs > Administrative Tools > Services.

b. In the right pane, locate VPT Tomcat, right-click it, and click Stop.

Step 2 Browse to the <VPT Installation Root>\tomcat\conf directory.

Step 3 Use a text editor to open server.xml.

Step 4 In the text that displays, locate the Coyote HTTP Connector Port.

Step 5 Delete the port number for the Coyote HTTP connector port and enter a port that is not in use.

Step 6 Save the file.

Step 7 Start the VPT Tomcat service.

a. On the Windows Start menu, choose Programs > Administrative Tools > Services.

b. In the right pane, locate VPT Tomcat, right-click it, and click Start.