Bulk Provisioning Overview

Overview

For Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS), you can use any of the following tools to bulk provision Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x):

  • Cisco HCS Intelligent Loader.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) Administration Tools > Bulk Load menu.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) REST API.

The HCS Intelligent Loader (HIL) reads required information from the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) API. The HIL is a service that runs on the Cisco Hosted Communication Mediation Fulfillment node. It takes spreadsheets and mapping templates as input and uses the API to communicate with Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) to provision elements in the spreadsheet.

The information that is provided when the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) APIs read the Schema definitions is used by the following features:
  • Auto Mapper: If the contents match, auto-mapper automatically maps the input source fields to target fields. However, if the target fields change, the source fields are automatically mapped.

  • Smart search: Added to the source and target fields to enable quick search of the field names to be used for mapping.

  • Validation: The HIL tool can prevalidate information before sending it to the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x), providing an online editing capability to correct errors found by validation. Validate and Load operations are disabled or enabled based on the permissions in Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x). Validator allows validation on Add, Edit and the Delete functionality.

  • Intelligent Loading: After source files are validated they can be submitted to the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) for processing. When load starts to Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) file status changes to 'Load in Progress' and a status icon is displayed.

  • Progress Bar: The progress bar is only available for the ADD operation. Click the icon to open the progress indication. The progress status bar shows the percentage of the file that has been loaded and displays how many records have loaded or failed to load.

  • Import from Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x): HIL can download information from Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager for any schema that HIL supports.

  • File management: Allows you to upload files to the HIL system. You can download the Mapper, or use the File Management option to downloaded data from Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) and save it to a file on the administrator's desktop. Files can be downloaded and uploaded in Excel format for easy editing.

The Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) Administration Tools > Bulk Load menu option is available to bulk load information into Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x).

The Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) REST API can be used to feed bulk information one record at a time. This is an effective means to bulk load information from an integrated OSS/BSS system.

For more information about the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) API, refer to the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager, Release 11.5(1) API Reference Guide.

Bulk Loading Tools

HCS Intelligent Loader (HIL)

This Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment multi-user tool adds flexibility of input formats, data validation, and tied to Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) administration and system hierarchy. The tool evolves to include online data collection to eliminate the need for Microsoft Excel based solutions to simplify Cisco HCS operations. Features include:

  • Conforms to Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) Role Based Access (RBAC) for Administrator login, Display Policies, Default Values, and GUI schema

  • Ability to import, modify, and update Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) data

  • Flexible source file mapping

  • Full range of MACD operations

  • Prevalidation of provisioning data

  • Loads one record at a time

  • Accepts Excel formulas in cells, which the tool evaluates before validation and loading to Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x)

Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) Administration Tools Menu

In the Administration Tools > Bulk Load menu item, available in the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) GUI for various hierarchies, the administrator can upload Excel files (Bulk Load Templates) and apply them to the system for bulk provisioning. Service Providers who choose to maintain their existing operations structure can do so using the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) Administration Tool Bulk Loader.


Note

Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) bulk loaders are not equivalent to 8.x bulk loaders. The 10.x system uses different fields and workflows to accomplish provisioning.

Bulk Load Templates

A Bulk Load Template is a single Excel file containing a single spreadsheet. Exported Bulk Load templates contain a single or multiple Provisioning/Data/Relation models like Sites, Devices or Customers. These are a part of the product and can be generated on demand for the corresponding models within the GUI.


Note

Field data is not exported when exporting the bulk loader for a template, and only the field headings (schema) are imported.


Note

For multi-sheet loading, use the Multi-Model Mapper function in the HIL Tool.

Bulk Loader Template Reference Set

A Bulk Loader Template Reference Set is a collection of multiple Bulk Load Template sheets for different models in a single Excel spreadsheet. The Bulk Loader Template Reference Set configures a basic system configuration, including NDL, Customer, Site, and dial plan elements. They provide typical loader templates, but service providers may add or delete templates as necessary based on their needs. The Bulk Loader Template Reference Set provides examples of how to populate the various templates.

There are two Bulk Loader Template References Sets, one is for the Native Bulk loader and another for the HIL tool. The Bulk Loader Template Reference Set applies to both the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) Bulk Loader and the HIL tool, but the formatting of the spreadsheets is not the same.

When to Use Each Tool

For Cisco HCS 10.x, the preferred method to bulk load provisioning information into the system is to use the HCS Intelligent Loader (HIL). The HIL can support bulk and validation before loading operations from the following Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) GUI locations:

  • Customer Management

  • Site Management

  • Device Management

  • LDAP Management

  • User Management

  • Dial Plan Management

  • Subscriber Management

  • Services

  • Entitlement

Using a flexible source-file-mapping feature and mapping templates, HIL allows bulk loading of source data from diverse sources. it supports Excel functions as data and supports multiple sheets in a single Excel file. With the help of the HIL Import from CUCDM option, you can import data from Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) and use it for bulk update or bulk delete operations or edit data to meet your needs and load to Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x). Native bulk loaders can perform load operations in parallel unlike HIL, which loads one, record at a time.

This set of operations covers all the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) operations that typically require bulk operations. For other operations that are not included in HIL, use the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager 10.x/11.5(x) Administration Tools > Bulk Load menu.