As they deploy a new IP telephony system, system administrators and network administrators must complete several initial configuration tasks to prepare the network for IP telephony service. For information and a checklist for setting up and configuring a Cisco IP telephony network, see the documentation for your particular Cisco Unified Communications Manager release.

For the phone to operate successfully as an endpoint in your network, your network must meet specific requirements. One requirement is the appropriate bandwidth. The phones require more bandwidth than the recommended 32 kbps when they register to Cisco Unified Communications Manager. Consider this higher bandwidth requirement when you configure your QoS bandwidth. For more information, refer to Cisco Collaboration System 12.x Solution Reference Network Designs (SRND) or later ( https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/srnd/collab12/collab12.html ).

Note	The phone displays the date and time from Cisco Unified Communications Manager. The time displayed on the phone can differ from the Cisco Unified Communications Manager time by up to 10 seconds.

The Cisco IP Phone requires Cisco Unified Communications Manager to handle call processing. See the documentation for your particular Cisco Unified Communications Manager release or the context-sensitive help in the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration to ensure that Cisco Unified Communications Manager is set up properly to manage the phone and to properly route and process calls.

Before you install the Cisco IP Phone, you must choose a method for adding phones to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager database.

By enabling autoregistration before you install the phones, you can:

• Add phones without first gathering MAC addresses from the phones.

• Automatically add a Cisco IP Phone to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager database when you physically connect the phone to your IP telephony network. During autoregistration, Cisco Unified Communications Manager assigns the next available sequential directory number to the phone.

• Quickly enter phones into the Cisco Unified Communications Manager database and modify any settings, such as the directory numbers, from Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

• Move autoregistered phones to new locations and assign them to different device pools without affecting their directory numbers.

Autoregistration is disabled by default. In some cases, you might not want to use autoregistration; for example, if you want to assign a specific directory number to the phone, or if you want to use a secure connection with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. For information about enabling autoregistration, see the documentation for your particular Cisco Unified Communications Manager release. When you configure the cluster for mixed mode through the Cisco CTL client, autoregistration is automatically disabled, however you can enable it. When you configure the cluster for nonsecure mode through the Cisco CTL client, autoregistration is not enabled automatically.

You can add phones with autoregistration and TAPS, the Tool for AutoRegistered Phones Support, without first gathering MAC addresses from phones.

TAPS works with the Bulk Administration Tool (BAT) to update a batch of phones that were already added to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager database with dummy MAC addresses. Use TAPS to update MAC addresses and to download predefined configurations for phones.

Cisco recommends that you use autoregistration and TAPS to add fewer than 100 phones to your network. To add more than 100 phones to your network, use the Bulk Administration Tool (BAT).

To implement TAPS, you or the end user dials a TAPS directory number and follows voice prompts. After the process is complete, the phone contains the directory number and other settings, and the phone is updated in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration with the correct MAC address.

Verify that autoregistration is enabled and is properly configured in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration before you connect any Cisco IP Phone to the network. For information about enabling and configuring autoregistration, see the documentation for your particular Cisco Unified Communications Manager release.

Autoregistration must be enabled in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration for TAPS to function.

After the phone connects to the network, the phone startup process begins, and the phone registers with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. You need to configure the network settings on the phone if you disable the DHCP service.

If you used autoregistration, you need to update the specific configuration information for the phone such as associating the phone with a user, changing the button table, or directory number.

After the phone connects, it determines if a new firmware load should be installed on the phone.

The phone includes many configurable network settings that you may need to modify before the phone is functional for your users. You can access these settings, and change some of them, through menus on the phone.

The phone includes the following setup menus:

• Network Setup: Provides options for viewing and configuring a variety of network settings.

  • IPv4 Setup: This submenu provides additional network options.

  • IPv6 Setup: This submenu provides additional network options.

• Security Setup: Provides options for viewing and configuring a variety of security settings.

Note

You can control whether a phone has access to the Settings menu or to options on this menu. Use the Settings Access field in the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration Phone Configuration window to control access. The Settings Access field accepts these values: Enabled: Allows access to the Settings menu. Disabled: Prevents access to most entries in the Settings menu. The user can still access Settings > Status. Restricted: Allows access to the User Preferences and Status menu items and allows volume changes to be saved. Prevents access to other options on the Settings menu. If you cannot access an option on the Admin Settings menu, check the Settings Access field.

You configure settings that are display-only on the phone in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration.

After the phone has power connected to it, it automatically cycles through a startup diagnostic process.

You or your user can change a user's phone model. The change can be required for a number of reasons, for example:

• You have updated your Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) to a software version that doesn't support the phone model.

• The user wants a different phone model from their current model.

• The phone requires repair or replacement.

The Unified CM identifies the old phone and uses the old phone's MAC address to identify the old phone configuration. The Unified CM copies the old phone configuration into the entry for the new phone. The new phone then has the same configuration as the old phone.

Limitation: If the old phone has more lines or line buttons than the new phone, the new phone doesn't have the extra lines or line buttons configured.

The phone reboots when the configuration is complete.