LDAP integration.

[RedTech443]

I have been asked to use Active Directory / LDAP and sync it with our CM.

We are running Avaya Aura CM 6.3.5. - With this I cannot find the options to enable LDAP directory or anything of that nature on the SMI page, I have read the avaya docs and everything seems to point to using system manager, which I have installed but I would rather keep it as simple as possible and use CM to sync with AD. I have seen 3rd party software that does integration and other means to do this but there must be a way in avaya CM that can handle this sync.. Where would be a good place to look or start with this?

 

[guycable2]

I have been investigating how to do this myself. Using System Manager it works but your credentials don't follow to the CM if you want to use ASA or Putty.

I found this document a while back but haven't tried it yet. It's on my to do list.

https://downloads.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100060122

 

[RedTech443]

I forgot to mention, that I am trying to sync with the phone directory. I want to be able to update a contacts phone number in AD and have it sync over to CM.

 

[kyle555]

Elaborate. Do you want to add a user with a phone number in AD and have that just create a phone in CM? Or, do you want to have that AD integration more simply just let people type "emswanson" and click to dial?

The latter is easy in One-X Communicator. The former is doable but a monumental pain in the arse. You can build an LDAP sync from AD to Aura System Manager, and in System Manager build out provisioning rules and templates such that adding "John Doe Extn 1234" would build the set and the mailboxes and all that stuff, but I've not seen it live in a complicated environment, and to be honest, I don't know if I'd trust how people manage CORs, Network Regions, locations, key programming, etc to make an automagic machine that takes an extension and just goes.

 

[RedTech443]

I already use one-x attendant which works nice with LDAP. My problem is a lot of people use the directory option on the physical 9608/9604 phones, also my operators use one-x attendant consoles. Their phone book data pulls from CM.

What I am looking for is a way to have both my physical Avaya phones directory and my one-x attendant operator consoles sync with AD. Right now when I get a user name change, I have to change it in AD, and again in Avaya . I am not sure what is the best way to go about this. I suppose making the user in AD then having it auto-magically make it in CM would be the best way. I am open to suggestions.

 

[kyle555]

Yeah, that's going to be tough to make AD update CM. If you were open to deleting the user in AD, having that sync to System Manager, having that then cascade down to deleting the user in CM and making a new user in AD and starting over, that could be viable. The problem lies in System Manager having a unique GUID from LDAP for the "user" so it doesn't suffice to just change John's name to James in AD and watching it fly down to CM.

That said,

http://downloads.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100090563

... There might be a way to manage that directory the way you want with the Utility Server.

 

[RedTech443]

I run duplicate CM servers, I have no utility server

I have been reading this document, I thing this is what I am going to have to do.

https://downloads.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100178349

I just have to do some more research to figure out what will best suit my needs for this project.

 

[kyle555]

Try the Utility Server if you can. Its done through the WML browser, so that means IP phones only.
You can do the LDAP sync white paper, but I think it will complicate your life for the following reasons:
-It forces an association to the created user with ObjectGUID as a source user key
-When you sync, Mr John Jones will get a GUID and be built in CM, extn 1234
-When you fire John Jones and hire Jim Jackson to user 1234, you'll need to delete and sync John, then create and sync Jim to delete the phone from CM and re-add it. It won't just update on its own.


Unless your use case is to do boatloads of users that change regularly, I think it'd be a real pain. You'd also have the next inevitable issue of how to populate SMGR with all your CM users associated to AD already and bring everyone under that construct.

 

[RedTech443]

I do not have a utility server due to HA-Duplication Call managers. I was told you can not have a utility server when you have duplicate server. So it was never installed. Unless I am wrong, and there is a way. Which would be nice, because then I can remotely change IP phone information without going there.

 

[kyle555]

If you have access to the support site and software downloads, you can just download an OVA for VMWare to use a Utility Server - or if you have a simplex ESS or an LSP in your network, there would be one in there too. You can have a Utility Server with a Duplex CM, just not as part of the installation template on that particular physical server. That, and depending how many phones you have, you wouldn't want to necessarily bombard it with 10000 requests for firmware at once either.