Internal Number Inventory

Functionality is available to add, delete or modify a single directory number (DN) or range of DNs for your site. The directory numbers can be selected when adding new lines.

The Lines concept maps to device/cucm/Line and the Lines menu item under Subscriber Management. A sync of device/cucm/Line from the UUnified CM will result in various line types being brought in - including lines assigned to devices, CTI devices, etc. - essentially anything that would be seen under Directory Numbers in Unified CM.

The number inventory can exist at a different level to the lines for users and devices that consume the numbers. For example, Lines (device/cucm/Line) are typically at the site level with the user, service or device they are on. However, the inventory can exist at the customer level.

If the Internal Number Inventory (INI) feature has been enabled by an administrator, lines are no longer added in the conventional sense of the word. They are instead selected from an existing drop-down list of available numbers - from the INI.

The Internal Number Inventory is used to manage ranges of internal numbers that are available for use at a hierarchy level. Additional fields are available to provide further information on a range when listing the numbers. Administrators are responsible for manually updating these fields.

It is recommended to run an Overbuild before adding numbers and ranges, so that numbers in Unified CM are imported and marked as used.

Ranges can be created from a Start Number to an End Number and can be set to be available or in use. When a range is created, the list of numbers is shown on the list view. Individual numbers can also be set to be Used or Available.

When a range is added that includes existing numbers, these will not be modified. The new unused numbers would be added only to complete the range. In other words, the range will show up as complete, with unused numbers in between numbers imported from Unified CM.

When a line is added and selected from the drop-down list of available numbers, it is marked as Used. If the line is used by a device or service that does not allow a shared line (for example, a Hunt Pilot), then it is marked as not Available.

Number ranges can also be deleted. Numbers in the range that are in use or are unavailable will be ignored and will not be deleted. If these are modified to be available and not in use, they can also be deleted. The Used and Available status of directory numbers can also be modified manually once they are added.

Deleted numbers, e.g. as a result of a subscriber or phone delete are automatically placed into a cooling period for a predetermined amount of time as specified in the Global Settings. During this period the number is unavailable and cannot be used, i.e. assigned to a subscriber, phone, device, etc.

The Cooling End Date (yyyy-mm-dd) displays the date on which the cooling period elapses, at which time the number becomes available in the list of available numbers.

Numbers in the cooling period can also be manually removed from the cooling period, and reintroduced into the list of available numbers. See also Number Cooling.

Note

  • A number cooling auto expiry schedule runs daily. This schedule polls the Cooling End Date field on the number inventory list view to determine which numbers have completed their cooling period. These numbers are then returned to the list of available numbers at the specific hierarchy level.

  • Number inventory is not partition or cluster aware. If the same numbers are used multiple times but in different partitions, then these all map to the same inventory number. This should be taken into account when thinking about the hierarchy level that the number inventory exists.

    Also, not being cluster aware, if the same number exists on different clusters, this again will map back to the same inventory value unless numbers are assigned to the site level.

  • Since the inventory is not partition aware, if the same directory number is used on a cluster but in different partitions, then VOSS-4-UC workflows will update the inventory when any of those instances are changed - for instance, if there is a directory number 1111 in Cluster X partition and a directory number 1111 in Cluster Y partition, and the inventory entry is marked used.

    If one of those instances are deleted, we check to see if there are other instances of that line based on the number only (not partition), before clearing the “used” flag. In this case, the other instance will be found and the inventory will stay marked as “used”.

    To summarize: an INI update will check all line numbers that match the INI value in different partitions. The update check therefore does not only check whether the INI value matches the Site Default Partition value. In other words, if the INI lookup finds any other instances that match the INI value (regardless of partition), it will not update the INI entry to be used=false, and will keep it in a used=true state.

The INI number range create procedure initially only creates the DN database in VOSS-4-UC. In other words, the range of numbers are not passed on to Unified CM until they are used.