Practical VoIP Using VOCAL

Chapter 4. Provisioning Users

Provisioning is a term used to describe the processes and procedures used for entering data into a phone system. The make allinone script that you read about, and perhaps ran, in Chapter 2 provisions system configuration data to the VOCAL servers. We are currently working on an automated process to add users to the system; at this time, however, they have to be entered by hand, one-by-one.

VOCAL was built with ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and ASPs (Application Service Providers) in mind as the installing customers. These organizations have on-site staff trained in managing user accounts and IP networks. Normally, personnel with different skill sets handle each of these responsibilities; therefore, the provisioning screens are organized into two major divisions, one for the administrators and the other for the technicians. This chapter covers the administrators’ screens. Chapters 5 and 6 cover the technicians’ screens.

While administrators can enter usernames and data into the system, individual users may also manage certain aspects of the accounts, such as blocking calls to specific phone numbers and telling the system where to send forwarded calls. These users could be individual subscribers or employees of subscriber organizations. This chapter provides a tour of the administrator screens and includes a description of the screen that end users see when they look up their account configuration through their web browsers.

The focus of this chapter ...