[FAQ] Clariti Manager RPRM Poly phone Provisioning guide

[A_Gayathri]

Hello all,

The objective of this short overview is to explain briefly how to set up a Poly Clariti Manager formally known as RealPresence ResourceManager 10.1 or later to support Poly Phone provisioning.

Poly has important updates in Clariti Manager (CM) 10.11 and above. We at Poly encourage you and your customers to move forward keeping the Clariti infrastructure within the N and N-1 support policy to ensure you have the latest security updates, bug fixes and feature enhancements for the best experience.

Please see the links below on the Poly Clariti upgrades from our Legacy Licence solution “Flexera” (being deprecated end of June 2023) to the new “Poly Lens” Licencing solution also supported Clariti Manager 10.11 and above:

• For customers with expired support contract
• For customers with a current support contract

You may find the Licensing Migration FAQ helpful. 

For update and migration questions from an "older" RPRM 10.9 please see >here<

Clariti Manager 10.10 or later uses a new Linux System so no direct Update Path is available. Clariti Manager contains 5 Audio and 5 Video Licenses so you can already test this in a lab in order to verify functionality

Download Clariti Manager Trial

In Lens under Manage > Licensing > Clariti > Product Catalog > Clariti Manager virtual Machines files can be found

UPDATING FROM RPRM for valid contract customers

If upgrading from a former RPRM set up please back up RPRM via Admin > Maintenance > Backup System Settings using create and download a backup Archive.

In order to restore the backup in Clariti Manager via Admin > Maintenance > Restore System Settings using the Local Restore

Once this has been done and imported follow the instructions on how to log in to Poly Lens and download the relevant update (rprm-10.11.1_192-192.bin or later version) for Clariti Manager 10.11.1

If you are having trouble activating the Lens license or have activated it under the wrong account please raise a case with Poly support and provide the following details:

• Requested By:
• Company Name:
• Customer Name:

• Phone #
• Email:
• Serial Number:
(Usually can be found under License > Setup > System Identifier)
• License Number/ Activation code:
• Sales Order #

• Lens Tenant ID / UUID:
• Description of issue:

Installation

To start this please check this great older Real Presence Manager video detailing => here <=

Or from a Poly Employee Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

The Poly Clariti Manager former RPRM supports Hyper-V, VMware, AWS, or Azure. The former RPRM supported Hyper-V, VMware, or a physical Dell server.

1. Clariti Manager
   Install the ISO or OVA on your virtual Environment. Once installed access the console to setup the Clariti Manager Network Credentials
   

   Username: poly
   Password: clariti
   
   Once the poly/clariti combination has been used to initially log on the password must be changed to a more secure password
   
   

   
2. RPRM Resource Manager
   
   Install the ISO or OVA on your virtual Environment. Once installed access the console to setup the RPRM Network Credentials
   
   The Username is: polycom
   The Password is: polycom
   
   
3. Enter the network Credentials to match your environment and after this, the RPRM will re-start
   
   
4. Wait about 10 Minutes and then browse to the IP or FQDN of the RPRM
   
   
   The standard initial username is: admin
   The standard initial password is: Polycom12#$
   
   You will get prompted to change this to something more secure
   
   
5. Initially, the admin user does not have the right to audit Poly phones so you either need to create a new user or add this to the admin user.
   
   Browse to User > Users and either select the admin user or create a new user.
   
   
   Now assign the Role of a Device Administrator to the user.
   
   
   
   You can also integrate RPRM into Active Directory but this is outside the scope of this FAQ.
   
   
   
6. Any license would need to be added here:
   
   
   
   
   
   

Clariti Manager comes with 5 Audio and 5 Video Licenses if a customer wants to trial this:

7.The next step would be to assign a site(s) to create separate sites to match the environment.

The above expects a Site Name, a Description, and a Location.

In addition, define the Subnet

If this is not defined the Clariti Manager / RPRM adds everything to the Internet / VPN

8.The Clariti Manager / RPRM uses PlcmSpIp as the standard User Name and Password. This can be changed here:

9.Usually after this initial setup, you can either import new endpoints via Endpoint > Monitor View > More Import/Export Audio Phones and/or automatically add the phones whilst using a DHCP scope as shown => here <= in detail.

The DHCP Option 66/160/161 FQDN or IP for the RPRM is 

http://FQDN or IP Address/ucservice

If the password was changed from the above standard PlcmSpIp the DHCP option can also include the new password.

http://domain\username:password@IP_Address_or_URLphoneservice/ucservice

NOTE: If the password as an example contains an @ please replace this with %40 instead.

Example:

http://Username:%40123$@IP_Address or URL/ucservice

The above would use @123$ as the password or the phone would interpret the @symbol as the separator between the password and the IP Address or URL.

Note: To use HTTPS please add a certificate to the RPRM or disable Common Name Validation on the Phone end. Poly Phones out of the box automatically trust the Certificates listed in the Certificate Updates documents posted regularly => here <=. The phone could initially be provisioned via HTTP and then once it loads its configuration via the RPRM a certificate for HTTPS could be provisioned.

Note: Older versions of RPRM would use HTTP://<IP_or_FQDN/phoneservice/configfiles/ but later versions changed this to HTTP://<IP_or_FQDN/ucservice 

Option 1:

• Importing all phones via a CSV File:
  
  
  The format of the CVS file is defined in the instructions which you can see above. You can in addition simply export a file and use this as a template.
  
  
  
  

  Devices can be imported and re-imported to change associated groups in bulk without changing other configurations.

  
  The advantage of this is all phones would already be setup with their registration details and utilize the DHCP Option.
  
  
  

Option 2:

• Manually providing the RPRM details via the Phones Web Interface
  

Once the phone is connected to the RPRM provisioning Server the Web Interface or Admin Password for the Phone changes to 789.

This can be changed by browsing to Endpoint > Phone Management > Configuration Profile and copying the AdminPassword-ProvisioningDefault.

This would then be required to be assigned to a Global Configuration within Endpoint > Phone Management > Profiles Deployment. 

Added phone(s) can now be found via Endpoint > Monitor View

Selecting an individual phone:

Will provide access and details to configuration used or log files:

• The actual configuration for the phone(s) is split into Global, Endoint Groups, Endpoint Models, Sites or Endpoints
  
  
  
  
  
• Usually the Global section would only be used for a general common configuration like a password (as explained above) or a background Image.
  
  
• Using the Endpoint Groups as an example we can add and Group certain Endpoints together. In the below example we used a VVX500
  
  
  
  We call this new group VVX500 Endpoint Group
  
  
  
  And we associate this:
  
  
  
  This results in a new group
  
  
  
  
• Browsing to Endpoint > Phone Management > Configuration Profiles you can either create a new profile/configuration (blue) or modify an existing one (red) once it is selected
  
  
  
  Either create and define what this profile does or change the name provided if cloned
  
  
  
  The options for editing or changing this vary
  
  
  
  You can simply start typing/searching for a parameter(s)
  
  
  
  or paste from a previous XML file
  
  
  
  

Update the Default UC Configuration Schema

When Poly releases new Software Versions RPRM / Clarity Manager may not be aware of new Parameters. Therefore a user can manually download firmware. With each ZIP/Tar.Gz file come several sub folders.

• For any current Voice Firmware usually the \Config Subfolder contains the polycomConfig.xsd Schema File containing all parameters.
• For any current Video firmware the \Videocodec\Config Subfolder contains the polycomConfig.xsd Schema File containing all parameters.

Simply navigate to Endpoint > UC Management > UC Management Settings > Update the Default UC Configuration Schema and select the file and upload this

Once it has been imported Clarity Manager now "knows" about newly added configuration parameters

Get or Set Configuration Parameters

Via Endpoint > Monitor View > More > Get/Set Parameters a device can be checked to what value a parameter has been set:

Using the above will store the value within the phones <PHONE_LOCAL section. This will appear as made locally on the phone as explained => here <=

Software Updates via RPRM

Via Endpoint > Phone Management > Upload Software Updates Software can be added.

Usually, you would select the Poly hosted Server and create a new configuration profile based on the software version as this allows you to assign this to an existing or new configuration profile via Endpoint > Phone Management > Configuration Profiles

Apply versus OK

Throughout the application you will see Apply and OK appear in regards to Configuration Profiles and Group Memberships.

 Will save the changes and devices that are impacted of the changes will be notified at the next polling period for the affected devices.

Will Save the changes and immediately notify all devices that are reachable that there are changes that need to be applied immediately.A Pop-up notification is provided to confirm this action as it will generally always reboot the phone(s). Always be aware of your context when applying changes

Automatic Updates

As a factory default when provisioning a Poly phone from RPRM the Phone will check daily between 03:00 and 05:00 for any configuration changes.

In order to change this you would copy Provisioning-Polling-Daily-SpecificWindow within Endpoint > Phone Management > Configuration Profiles and change the time to suit your setup and then assign to a profile.

Endpoint Monitor – Device Status

Troubleshooting Tools

Via Admin > Maintenance > Troubleshooting Utilities several Troubleshooting Options are available

• Restart > Restart the RPRM
  
  
• Shutdown > Shut down the RPRM
  
  
• Traces > This enables the user to start a Trace and store this in the System Log File. Please be aware that this is a Network capture as shown => here <=
  
  An example could be host <IP address> aka host 10.252.149.50 would show all traffic to and from the IP provided.
  
  Once a trace is stopped it can be found in Admin > Maintenance > System Log Files as a.pcap file
  
  
  
  
• Resource Manager System Logs > Get the full set of Resource Manager logs and any traces
  
  
• Resource Manager System Report > Generate and download Resource Manager System Report.
  
  
• Test Network Connection > Troubleshoot network issues using the traceroute and ping programs. This includes a PING or Traceroute
  
  
  
  
• View UC Management Log > View UC Management Log
  
  

Advanced Functions – Global/Model/Site

Reboot Phones – All phones within the selected scope will be rebooted as long as they are not isolated behind a NAT’d device.

Gathering Logs in order to supply Poly Support:

Navigate to Endpoint > Monitor View and select an Endpoint and click on "View Details" 

As a result on the left side an overview of all the Device Details are listed and all files can be downloaded:

Or simply individual Log Files:

In addition the amount of log files and the individual size can be modified to cover a longer time period.

Endpoint > UC Management > UC Management Settings

• Log File Rotation Size 512KB to 10240KB
• Number of Retaining Files (per name): 0 - 10
• Days to Retain Phone Files: 0 - 30
  

  Endpoint Monitoring and Alerts

  Start out with setting the Alert > Alert Level Settings

  

  In the above example, we set the Heartbeat Timeout, to critical.

  Set a new Remote Alert Profile

  

  and either enabled in General Info and set all Resource Manager alerts and send the trap assigned

  

  Or instead set this for VVX, SoundStation, SoundPoint and Trio again for Minor, Major and Critical in device type

  

  The next step is to assign this to a specific User > Users as an example:

  

  Ensure the relevant User has a valid Email address within General Info.

  

  and ensure to chose the Associated Alert Profile previously created

  

  The final step is to ensure the SMTP Server is set up correctly via Admin > Server Settings > E-mail:

  

  Note: The SMTP Mail Server must support to send emails without authentication!

  Or set up SNMP via Admin > Server Settings > SNMP Settings instead:

  

  More details can be found => here <=
  
  
  

  Using variables in parameters a bit similar to substitutions explained => here <=

  Using the URL

  http(s)://<FQDN_or_IP_Address>/ucservice

  Instead of the “known” format:

  http(s)://<FQDN_or_IP_Address>/phoneservice/configfiles/

  enables to use for example the Device name using ${device_name}

  

  A Phone Backup will show

  SCEP.csr.commonName="CCX64167ff4eb30"

  The above was added for Studio X and G7500 as follows

  Automatic Provisioning with RealPresence Resource Manager

  By default, the RealPresence Resource Manager system automatically provisions some system settings for you using a special configuration value (for example, voIpProt.SIP.userName=“${sip_alias}”).

  The following parameters support automatic configuration values:

  device.local.deviceName=“${device_name}”
  dir.ldap.server.address=“${ldap_serveraddress}”
  dir.ldap.baseDN=“${ldap_baseDN}”
  dir.ldap.defaultGroupDN=“${ldap_defaultgroupDN}”
  voIpProt.H323.name=“${h323_ID}”
  voIpProt.H323.e164=“${h323_e164}”
  voIpProt.SIP.userName=“${sip_alias}”
  

  These parameters are provisioned by default, so you won’t see them in the profiles provided by the RealPresence Resource Manager system. You can overwrite these parameters with your own values (for example, voIpProt.SIP.userName=“meetingSpace”).

  You also can automatically generate new values by resetting these parameters with a special configuration value (for example, voIpProt.H323.e164=“${h323_e164}”). However, you can’t rename existing endpoints by setting device.local.deviceName=“${device_name}” because that value is applied only to new endpoints.

  For more information, see the >here< or >here< and see the Provisioning, Monitoring, and Upgrading UC Managed Video Endpoints section.
  
  

  Need help or have any questions? Start a new discussion here and get the answers you need.