User Management and Subscriber Management

In VOSS-4-UC there are two types of users, each with different properties and purposes, but closely related:

  • VOSS-4-UC Users (found on the Users form - default menu User Management > Users)
  • Subscribers (found on the Subscribers form - default menu Subscriber Management > Subscribers)

It is important to understand how the two types of users operate and how they relate to each other. Both types of users have an impact during user provisioning operations such as LDAP sync, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) sync, or user bulk loading. The major distinction between the two types of users is that VOSS-4-UC Users exist only on VOSS-4-UC, while Subscribers exist on the UC applications (Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unity Connection, and WebEx).

The primary purpose of VOSS-4-UC Users is to provide a way for you to stage users into VOSS-4-UC before you determine which site, and which UC applications to assign to the users. Once a VOSS-4-UC User is sent to a Cisco Unified CM, a corresponding Subscriber comes into existence.

A typical flow of user provisioning is to sync users from LDAP into VOSS-4-UC, move the users to one or more sites, and push the users to UC applications. When the user is synced from LDAP to VOSS-4-UC, a VOSS-4-UC User is created (but not a subscriber). The VOSS-4-UC User is then moved to a site using the Move Users form (default menu User Management > Move Users). The subscriber can be created from either the Subscribers form (default menu Subscriber Management > Subscribers) or the Quick Add Subscriber form (default menu Subscriber Management > Quick Add Subscriber). This is known as the “top-down” approach to user provisioning that progresses from LDAP to VOSS-4-UC User to Subscriber. The VOSS-4-UC User provides a way for you to manage the user before the user is assigned to a specific site and sent to the Cisco Unified CM.

You do not need to send all VOSS-4-UC Users to a Cisco Unified CM and have a corresponding Subscriber created; this is a decision by the administrator based on criteria associated with each user. We recommend that you filter out any users from LDAP that are not eligible for UC services. It is possible that some ineligible users cannot be filtered due to missing attributes and thus get synced into VOSS-4-UC. These users remain as VOSS-4-UC Users and do not have a corresponding Subscriber created.

VOSS-4-UC Users provide more capabilities other than the ability to stage users in VOSS-4-UC prior to sending to Cisco Unified CM:

  • LDAP sync - the workflows to manage syncing users from LDAP
  • LDAP authentication - enabling and disabling LDAP authentication
  • SSO - enabling and disabling SSO authentication
  • Provisioning status - tracking where the user came from (LDAP, Cisco Unified CM, manual configuration) and which hierarchy the user was originally added to
  • Moving users - between hierarchy nodes

All Subscribers have a corresponding VOSS-4-UC User. This allows the user to sign in to VOSS-4-UC using either local authentication, LDAP authentication, or SSO authentication, and to track the provisioning status. You can also create a Subscriber directly: either through the Admin Portal, through bulk load, or using Cisco Unified CM sync. A VOSS-4-UC User instance is created automatically. Therefore, as an administrator, you don’t have to explicitly add a VOSS-4-UC User as a separate step, if staging is not needed, as is the case when configuring Subscriber directly on a site using bulk loading.

Subscribers provide all of the UC application provisioning logic by distributing the user configuration to each of the UC applications. Subscribers combine most of the data associated with a user into one logical entity:

  • Cisco Unified CM users
  • Phones
  • Lines
  • Extension Mobility profiles
  • Remote destinations
  • Voicemail
  • WebEx users

Each subscriber “comes into existence” when the Cisco Unified CM End User is created, and disappears when the Cisco Unified CM End User is deleted. Unlike VOSS-4-UC Users, there is no local data in VOSS-4-UC that defines the Subscriber. It is all based on data in the UC applications themselves. In the Subscribers list view (default menu Subscriber Management > Subscribers), any user that has a Cisco Unified CM End User instance appears in the list, regardless of whether there is any other data associated with the user (for example, phone, line, and so on).

If the Cisco Unified CM End User is deleted, either on Cisco Unified CM directly or from VOSS-4-UC, the Subscriber disappears. The Subscriber disappears even if there are phones, lines, or profiles that remain that were previously associated with that user. This is why you see the phrase “comes into existence”, because the Subscriber is simply a representation of data in the UC applications. When the UC application data is created (in particular, the Cisco Unified CM End User), the Subscriber appears in the list view and can be viewed. When the UC application data is deleted (in particular, the Cisco Unified CM End User), the Subscriber disappears.

Note

Any changes on the Cisco Unified CM, such as adding or deleting end users appear in VOSS-4-UC only after a sync has been performed. Refer to the “Data Sync” section of the Guide for more information on data syncing.

Because Subscribers are simply a representation of the data in the UC applications, you make changes either in VOSS-4-UC or in the UC applications directly. As an administrator, you make changes on the Subscribers form (default menu Subscriber Management > Subscribers) and that updates the data on the UC applications immediately. Alternatively, you can make changes directly in the UC applications. The next time you view a particular subscriber in VOSS-4-UC, the changes appear. Thus, the UC applications provide accurate information about the user configuration and you can use whichever interface is most effective.

In summary, the difference between VOSS-4-UC Users and Subscribers is primarily the distinction between VOSS-4-UC data and UC application data. VOSS-4-UC Users encapsulate all of the VOSS-4-UC local data associated with the user, and Subscribers encapsulate all of the UC application data associated with the user. A VOSS-4-UC User can be created independently of a Subscriber, but a Subscriber always has an associated VOSS-4-UC User.

Refer to the “User Management” section and “Subscriber Management” sections of this document for more details about each type of user.