Product Overview
CUxAC is a replacement product for the now defunct Attendant Console plug-in application that was embedded into pre-8.x releases of CUCM. The CUxAC product options are Cisco OEM versions of a 3rd-party application offered by Arc Solutions. Unlike the legacy plug-in AC application, CUxAC must be deployed on a separate server and there are three versions available to meet different requirements.
- Cisco Unified Department Attendant Console (CUDAC) supports up to 5 queues (1 per department), up to 10 operators (2 per department), and 750 contacts.
- Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console (CUBAC) supports up to 3 queues, up to 6 operators, and 500 contacts.
- Cisco Unified Enterprise Attendant Console (CUEAC) supports up to 50 queues, up to 25 operators, and unlimited contacts.
Note: This list only provides basic product limitations. Other considerations may apply based on specific requirements.
Installation Details
Some details pertinent to my experience with this issue:
- CUCM 8.5(1) SU3
- CUBAC 8.6(2)
- Flat address (10-digit) dial plan
- Modular, flexible, highly scalable
- Directory numbers are configured as 10-digit numbers
- Supports abbreviated dialing (e.g. 4-digits)
- CUCM is integrated with LDAP for directory synchronization
- The ipPhone attribute contains an abbreviated 4-digit extension and is used to populate the Telephone Number field for CUCM End Users
- Supports abbreviated dialing display and functionality for Corporate Directory
Exceptions
After installing and logging into the Operator Console, the following issues were observed:
- BLF status for contacts does not display (i.e., status icon displays a red X)
- The device name details for contacts is not populated
Root Cause
The telephone number for a contact in CUxAC must EXACTLY match a directory number in CUCM.
Note: CUxAC pulls directory information from CUCM via AXL. In my specific configuration, the contact telephone numbers in CUxAC are pulled from CUCM as 4-digit extensions but the directory numbers assigned to IP phones are configured as 10-digit numbers in CUCM. Since the contact telephone numbers do not match directory numbers in CUCM, BLF does not work.
There are other scenarios where this could be problematic. A very simple, but likely common, scenario would be one where telephone numbers are formatted for display purposes (e.g., XXX-XXX-XXXX). In this case, the contact telephone numbers in CUxAC would be formatted with a dash so they would not match directory numbers in CUCM. After researching this issue, I should also point out that this appears to be applicable to the application in general. In other words, it is not specific to the Cisco OEM versions.
Options / Workarounds
A quick list of options/workarounds and considerations includes:
- Don’t use BLF
- It may not be ideal but, for some customers, this may be a valid option.
- Manually enter the device name (i.e., for IP phone) for each contact in the Operator Console
- This works but it lacks scalability.
- In my scenario, there were two separate console installations and several hundred contacts in the directory. So, you have to enter this data manually for each console installation. In addition, you also have to consider how regular maintenance tasks such as moves, adds, and changes impact the viability of this option.
- Ensure that contact telephone numbers match directory numbers in CUCM
- This directly addresses the issue; however, it may have additional impact.
- In my scenario, this would directly impact Corporate Directory functionality and introduces a need for implementing a custom directory application.
- Do you need to update telephone numbers to remove formatting?