TM 3.0 synch to Nortel's CND for company directory

[jasidija]

Anybody used Nortel's Common Network Directory (CND) in conjunction with Telephony Manager 3.0?

CND came with, and we installed it on, the TM 3.0 server.

I've been able to successfully configure CND to synch with our corporate Active Directory via an LDAP server. So I've got things like user names, windows login ID's and passwords in the CND database.

Now, I'm trying to synch up TM 3.0 with CND - so that end users can browse to our internal CS1000 Telephony Manager webpage, and login with their Windows login credentials (EmployeeID). This would work in theory because TM 3.0 is configured to pass User Authentication (under Navigator==>Security)on to the CND databse - which is technically authenticating against users' Active Directory profiles.

But in TM 3.0, I don't know how to configure the CND 'server setup' (under Navigator==>Utilities==>Common Network Directory).

Has anybody ever successfully used CND? If so, how did you get TM 3.0 to synch with CND?

 

[jasidija]

btw... I'm a telephone guy... Really!

 

[Jaccodo]

First why do you want enduser to login to TM?

They have nothing to look for there.

If You mean that user need to be able to use the numbers in the active directory to call to I think you need to setup corperate directory for the phones.

Jacco.

 

[jasidija]

Why do I want endusers able to login to TM?? Isn't that one of the purposes of TM - to allow end users to login and orient themselves with their phone?

Depending on the profile class, you can even let endusers configure certain feature keys on their phone - kind of like a graphical user interface for autodials and call forward settings...

Actually, in my opinion, the most useful component of TM for the enduser is their ability to access the corporate directory.
If you configure CND successfully, endusers can login, do a search on, say, somebody's first name, and it will pull down all users with that first name, as well as their full name, extension, department, mail-stop, etc. Basically whatever you choose to populate within the CND database.

I've been able to synch most of it up, but I'm still working on synching up the TM enduser login with their Windows login credentials.

If you login to the TM server, launch Telephony Manager Navigator, and then go to Security==>User Authentication, a window comes up where you can define the priority of how a user logs in via the web client - whether it's through the variables in CND, or a Windows Domain Account, or a local server account.

Has anybody successfully synched up a TM user account with either CND or a Windows Domain account?

 

[jadexing]

I'm trying to do the same thing. I have not been able to use Active Directory (one of the authentication options) to get a user in. I have been able to use CND to populate the "Add a telephone" option in the web portion. My Active Directory guru and I dug through the NTP, but it doesn't seem to work as advertised.

So far, all I have been able to accomplish is that you have to add a user as a local account (which is not an Enterprise - or real solution) in order to get them access.

-jadexing

 

[jadexing]

Jasidija,

Ok- I think I have an answer to your orgional questions:

jasidija Question 1)
But in TM 3.0, I don't know how to configure the CND 'server setup' (under Navigator==>Utilities==>Common Network Directory).

*Within navigator leave this at default. This is what connects to the Nortel PBX. Do not change it. You need to only change the porperties in: START-> NORTEL -> COMMON NETWORK DIRECTORY

jasidija Question 2)
Has anybody ever successfully used CND? If so, how did you get TM 3.0 to synch with CND?

*I Will make this work. When you use the web login, search on your users, there is something referred to as a "Common Name" or CN. This common name, if CND is not coming from Active directory is the CPND from the PBX. This name apparently must match what is in active directory. It takes the last name, and first name (case sensitive) and smooshes them together to form the CN.

--So, in my case, what I have to do is get the unique user name from AD, which is our login, and re-program the PBX to match. Example: Patti Shoup -> unique name in AD = Shoupp Name to put into PBX firstname P lastname Shoup. CPND to be displayed Shoup p or p Shoup. CN= Shoupp

This should help you, if anyone has other sugestion on what I should do/shouldn't do I am much obliged and would love that info.

Cheers-
Jadexing

 

[jadexing]

Ok- new things leaned. CND 2.0 Doc NN-10300-028 page 185 states that you must match up on Active Directory CN; or common name. This is a unique field in AD, which is a good thing. This should be programmed into CPND.

Doc also states that items come from CND. Not true. It's an empty database. You pull from the PBX into CND from Utilites, and you pull from AD and and TBS billing into CND and match everything up magically (because I haven't totally figured this par out yet) within CND to display in TM.

I would love to see a database pull or spreadsheet from CND to see how things match and come together. The docs infer that everything matches and comes together based on matching user name (CN from AD) and then using that same name as a key in the PBX and TM.

Anyone have some sage advice or info on how this all works?

dammit- I will make this all work-
and thanks in advance,
Jadexing

 

[jasidija]

jadexing...
I appreciate your dog-on-a-bone approach! I was there a month ago or so - I'm sidelined right now with our CCMS 6.0 upgrade project.

I knew that CND was an empty database, and that once you populate it with AD and the TM databases (pulled from the PBX), you're supposed to have one kick-butt corporate directory. I was all happy about delivering this solution, but like you mentioned, I can't 'see' the database that was pulled down from AD, so I'm not sure what data I'm really working with.

When you login to the TM web interface, there are some links on the left, under 'Directory'. I'm assuming these are referencing the CND database. I can search for (and find) my first name, but I'm positive this is pulling from the TM/PBX side of the database, and not AD.

I'm not sure how to 'match' the two databases. Ultimately, we're supposed to be able to pull not only the info stored in AD for the corporate directory, but we should also be able to pull the info stored in AD for the TM user database. In other words, I'm thinking I should be able to login to TM with my AD (Windows) login credentials.

 

[jadexing]

Thanks jasidija!!
sometimes just regonition is great! So- at least we are seeing the same things.

About Windows logon credentials; I have been able to authenticate my windows password to my domain, but I have not been able to toggle the user names. From what I've seen, you can't authenticate the user from AD, but maybe you can authenticate to CND if it's acutally flush with info.

I am working on my admins to get a list of what they have in CN. I guess it's really a hugely conveluded string with a short hame of first and last name.

For me, it means a bit of re-programming of CND every where... but for the future I feel like I know where I need to be consistent. I am hoping that I could use other fields, like 4 digit calling numbers to manipulate data, as I did have some foresight into what could happen in the future and populated an AD field with the 4 digits.

Seems to me a person should have the ability to choose database keys or unique information with an Enterprise solution, but I am not finding this to be the case.

Cheers-
Jadexing

 

[jadexing]

Ok, to quote my phone vendor "baby-steps" and I just took another. Actually I took a nice big leap.

1)CND has a limit of 1000 entries. I don't know why. Ask Nortel- as this is not a useful feature. Mine was puking and I had to carve down my search tree at Base DN- we have more than 1,000 users.

2)Under the Common Network Directory --> Tools --> Subscriber synchronization

!be sure that after you do the update in CND, you go to Utilites under the Navigation windown and synchorize as well!

Within a Synchronization Job;

I matched all the obvious,like givenName to givenName and any other field that I had populated in AD and wanted to bring over to CND. I would populate everything you can, because you never know who you will have work on your boxes or where the information will appear (like on reports) and if you take it form AD, it should be easy.

Here is what I did which makes me a little smarty-pants:
cn = cpndName

that will take cn, which is a users name in AD, and will make that the diplay for CPND. Now, in my case, my PBX currently has CPND name in CAPS. What I have to do is click on a user within a search, and pull up their telephone details.

Under Directory Options, leave the default of "Assign to Employee" Hit the Magnifying glass to open the Search Employee Window. Search for the user. Once the name appears, hit the radio button to the left of their name, hit "Assign" Button. You will be taken back to the telephone details page. Notice the corrected name under Common name. You must now hit "Save."

Now this is corrected under TM, but not as the CPND (remeber my name on the PBX is in caps and I want it to match what is in AD). Open the Telephone Details page for the user.

Go to the "Keys" scetion. Because we brought the name from AD to CND, and then corrected it in TM, when we hit the "Copy Name From Directory" - name should appear. Hit "Save" on the page.

You are bought to the "Basic Search Telephones" page. Check the box to the left, and hit transmit to start the job that will push this name to the PBX.

---

Now there is something else I hightly recommend.

In my location we use a 4 digit dialing scheme, and the PBX likes to identify people/extensions with these 4 digits.

We populated a field in AD called "otherTelephone" to match up with CND's "telephoneNumber" which is the 4 digit extension in the PBX. Now, I can do a pull from AD on the persons number as well. Not totally sure how useful this is, yet... female intuition tells me this is a good thing. What I am thinking is that it will give you another field to match on in a possible spreadsheet pull if names are foobared (they don't match in AD with what you have in your PBX).

---

Now my question is- I have figured out how to push the Active Directory name to CND, and pull that name to the PBX through the update pages, one at a time. This doesn't sound like fun to me.

How do I update them all at once?

Anyone? I'll send you cookies for the trick-

Cheers-
jadexing

 

[jadexing]

PS- I bet you now we can use windows names (because I have already been able to authenicate the passwords) to the AD user name because now they will be in the system!!