Users and Subscribers#

Overview#

Users become subscribers in Automate when they’re provisioned with services.

The Automate “user” concept allows you to stage users into Automate before assigning a site and UC applications. As part of the process of assigning users with phones and/or services and configuring these in the downstream UC app, the system creates a subscriber entry for the user. For example, once an Automate user is sent to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), a corresponding subscriber is created in the system.

The table summarizes the main differences between Automate users and subscribers:

Automate user

  • Exists only on Automate.

  • Represents Automate local data associated with a user.

  • Includes the user’s details.

  • Can exist on different hierarchy levels.

  • Can be created independently of a user (can exist on its own).

  • Can be created on Automate directly or imported from an external source, such as LDAP.

  • Becomes a subscriber when it is assigned with phones and/or services.

  • Managed via the Users page (default menu: User Management > Users).

Subscriber

  • Exists on the UC applications, such as CUCM, Cisco Unity Connection (CUC), Microsoft, Avaya, WebEx.

  • Represents UC application data associated with a user.

  • Is always associated with a user since it is created once the corresponding Automate user is sent to a downstream UC app.

  • Exists only at site level on Automate. Therefor, before a user is provisioned with phones and/or services, it must be placed in the relevant site.

  • Managed via the Subscribers page (default menu: Subscriber Management > Subscribers).

Users, Subscribers, and the User Provisioning Workflow#

Both users and subscribers are impacted during user provisioning operations, such as LDAP sync, CUCM sync, or user bulk loading.

A typical “top-down” approach to user provisioning progresses from LDAP, to Automate user, to subscriber.

  1. Sync user from LDAP into Automate. An Automate user is created.

  2. Move the Automate user to a site (default menu: User Management > Move Users)

  3. Push the user to the UC applications. The corresponding subscriber can be created from either of the following:

    • Subscribers page (default menu: Subscriber Management > Subscribers)

    • Quick Add Subscriber page (default menu: Subscriber Management > Quick Add Subscriber).

Note

You don’t need to send all Automate users to a UC application, such as CUCM, and have a corresponding subscriber created; this is the administrator’s decision, based on criteria associated with each user. It is recommended that you filter out any users from LDAP that are not eligible for UC services. It is possible that some ineligible users can’t be filtered due to missing attributes and thus get synced into Automate. These users remain as Automate users (a corresponding subscriber is not created).

Additional Functionality of Automate User

Automate users also allow:

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 comes from (LDAP, CUCM, manual configuration), and the hierarchy the user was originally added to.

Moving users

Between hierarchy nodes.

Automate User and Corresponding Subscriber#

All subscribers have a corresponding Automate user. This allows the user to sign in to Automate (using either local authentication, LDAP authentication, or SSO authentication), and to track the provisioning status.

You can create a subscriber directly, via:

  • The Admin portal

  • Bulk load

  • CUCM sync

An Automate user instance is created automatically. If staging is not required (such as when configuring a subscriber directly on a site, using bulk loading), the admin doesn’t need to add an Automate user explicitly (as a separate step).

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

  • CUCM users

  • Phones

  • Lines

  • Extension Mobility profiles

  • Remote destinations

  • Voicemail

  • WebEx users

A subscriber is simply a representation of data in the UC applications. Each subscriber “comes into existence” when the UC application end user is created, and disappears when the UC application end user is deleted (either on the UC application, such as CUCM directly or from Automate). The subscriber is removed even if there are phones, lines, or profiles remaining that were previously associated with the corresponding user.

When the UC application data is created (such as the CUCM end user), you can view the subscriber in the summary list view. When the UC application data is deleted (such as the CUCM end user), the subscriber disappears.

Unlike Automate users, there is no local data in Automate 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 UC applications end user instance appears in the list, regardless of whether there is any other data associated with the user (such as phone or line).

Note

Any changes on the UC application, such as adding or deleting end users, appear in Automate only after syncing. Refer to the “Data Sync” section of the Guide for more information on data syncing.

Since subscribers are a representation of the data in the UC applications, they may be updated either in Automate or in the UC applications directly.

  • When updating a subscriber on the Subscribers page (default menu: Subscriber Management > Subscribers), the data on the UC application is updated immediately.

  • When updating a subscriber directly in the UC applications, the changes are visible in Automate the next time you view the subscriber.

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