Microsoft License Segmentation#

Automate 24.2-PB2 introduces a comprehensive Microsoft license management feature designed to help you control and reduce licensing costs. This powerful tool allows you to segment your global license pool into subsets within your tenant, enabling granular license controls essential for cost savings and efficient administration.

Key features:

• Hierarchical License Allocation: Define and enforce Microsoft license email alerts via email groups, and allocation limits at specified hierarchy levels within your organization, such as local government agencies.

• License Enforcement: Enable or disable license enforcement via Global Settings. Configure thresholds and receive email alerts via email groups when license limits are reached.

• User-Friendly Display: View friendly names for Licenses (SKU Part Numbers) and Service Plans in lists and forms, simplifying license management.

• Customizable Alerts: Set up and manage license alerting configurations, ensuring you stay informed about your license usage.

Microsoft Offboard Subscriber and Leave User at Site#

Previously, when offboarding a Microsoft user, the user was, by default, moved back to the customer level in the Automate hierarchy. This latest maintenance release for Automate now allows you, when offboarding a Microsoft user, to choose to leave the user at the site level. This is done via an Automate Global Setting, “Retain User at Site after MS Offboard Subscriber”. It’s important to note that the default behavior is still to move an offboarded Microsoft user back to the customer, so you’ll need to ensure you configure the behavior you require, via the Global Settings.

Microsoft Auto Attendant and Call Queues, Redirect to Resource Account#

Microsoft customers can now configure call flows to redirect to a resource account from within the Automate Admin Portal on Auto Attendant and Call Queues.

Small Enhancements and Bug Fixes#

In addition to the new features and enhancements in this release, we’ve added several small enhancements and performance improvements, included several bug fixes, and implemented a number of usability improvements in the Admin Portal. You can find further details, including links to the relevant topics, at What’s New by Feature.

Important Information#

Before upgrading:

• Inspect the Release and Upgrade Notes of all releases in your upgrade path. These documents may contain additional upgrade information. All documentation for previous releases, including Release and Upgrade Notes, are available from the VOSS Automate Documentation website.

• If upgrading from Automate 24.2 to 24.2-PB2, note that when installing 24.2.PB2-Delta-Bundle-patch.script, database index migration on large scale systems may take a significant amount of time. For details, refer to the Method of Procedure (MOP) for 24.2-PB1 Installation.

Upgrade Notes#

There are a number of changes in a new release that could relate to exposing new features or capabilities in the system. The default, out-of-the box system would expose these. However, on a system where the configuration around the user experience has been applied, this might mean some changes to configured menus, display policies, and so on to expose the new features in your setup.

Where relevant, we have included this information with the feature information to assist in planning for configuration changes as part of the upgrades. This setup could vary.

Issues containing upgrade notes in this release:

• VOSS-1453: Support for Voice Application Policy.

• VOSS-1493: Microsoft License Segmentation.

Automate Admin GUI#

• EKB-23670: Support dashboard names in Admin portal URLs.

Automate Core#

• EKB-23669: Deploy VOSS Central App Auth Certificate during fresh install and upgrade.

• EKB-23520: Remove data sync migration that disables “Delete” operation.

• EKB-23427: Implement product usage data collection.

• EKB-23312: Add option for Microsoft Quick Offboard Subscriber to leave user at site level.

Automate Templates#

• VOSS-1493: Microsoft License Segmentation.

• VOSS-1453: Support for Voice Application Policy.

• EKB-23837: Add new menus and dashboards.

• EKB-23672: Microsoft: Auto Attendant and Call Queue, add options for redirecting to Resource Account.

• EKB-23613: Microsoft auto attendant - show voicemail groups in addition to users when choosing to redirect to voicemail.

• EKB-22402: For Quick Add Subscriber, add retry step logic to import phone activation code for slow CUCMs.

• EKB-21828: Add E.164 number to PWF context for AddQuickSubscriberEmail.

Automate Admin GUI#

• EKB-23670: Support dashboard names in Admin portal URLs. Added support for dashboard links with only name parameter.

Automate Core#

• EKB-23669: Deploy VOSS Central App Auth Certificate during fresh install and upgrade. Ensures that a default application registration certificate exists on all deployments. The certificate is used for authentication for Microsoft Graph, Microsoft Teams PowerShell, and Microsoft Exchange PowerShell.

• EKB-23520: Remove data sync migration that disables “Delete” operation. This enhancement removes the data sync migration that was used to disable the remove operation on data syncs with a model instance filter (MIF) configured. The system has been updated so that this migration is no longer required.

• EKB-23427: Implement product usage data collection. This enhancement introduces a new mechanism to collect anonymous product usage data from the portal. This includes tracking user login/logout, transactions, page navigation, browser errors, and other key usage events. This data will be used to improve services and provide a better user experience.

• EKB-23312: Add option for Microsoft Quick Offboard Subscriber to leave user at site level. Adds a new Global Setting, “Retain User at Site after MS Offboard Subscriber”, to opt into leaving the Microsoft Subscriber at Site level when offboarding the Subscriber with Quick Offboard Subscriber. The default behavior is to move the the Subscriber back up to Customer level when they are offboarded.

Automate Templates#

• VOSS-1493: Microsoft License Segmentation. Introduces the capability to allocate and enforce license limits at specific hierarchy levels when provisioning Microsoft subscribers. Provides configuration of license alert thresholds and email recipients/groups, as well as statistical license consumption. Enables management and display of friendly names for licenses and service plans.

  Upgrade Notes - VOSS-1493

  Introduction

  This feature provides customers with the ability to segment and define Microsoft license allocation limits at a specified hierarchy level which can then be enforced via Global Settings. The feature allows customers to enable and setup alerting via email groups if license enforcement is enabled and license limit thresholds are reached. Additionally, the feature allows customers to view related user friendly names for licenses (SKU Part Numbers) and service plans, which are now displayed in list and form views as well and can also be managed in separate mapping models.

  Global Settings

  A new configuration option, “Enable Microsoft User License Enforcement” has been added under the User section in Global Settings to allow an admin user to either enable or disable License Enforcement at the specified hierarchy level. By default, license enforcement is disabled.

  A new “Microsoft Licensing Alerting” section has been added to Global Settings, allowing customers to enable and configure thresholds and email recipients via email groups for license alerts.

  Access Profiles

  Review the MVS-EnhancedProviderAdminAP for permission examples for the following model types:

  • Model Type: relation/MsLicenses

  • Operation: Create, Read, Update, Delete

  • Model Type: data/MsolSkuPartNumberNameMapping

  • Operation: Create, Read, Update, Delete

  • Model Type: data/MsolServicePlanNumberNameMapping

  • Operation: Create, Read, Update, Delete

  Dashboard

  Review the following dashboards for configuration examples for the following items, which now include the following new items:

  MVS-MSAppsManagement-Dashboard

  • Microsoft License Management

    • Microsoft License Allocation

    • Microsoft License Names

    • Microsoft Service Plan Names

    • Microsoft Schedules

    • Microsoft License Model Type Lists

    • Microsoft License Data Syncs

  • Microsoft License Summary

  Field Display Policy (FDP)

  The following model’s FDP has been added or modified. Review the FDPs for changes that may need to be incorporated into the customized versions if the default versions have been cloned down and modified. The FDPs may need to be applied to menu items as per the Menu Layout section.

  • view/GlobalSettings

• VOSS-1453: Support for Voice Application Policy. It is now possible to manage Microsoft Teams Voice Application policies using VOSS Automate. User onboarding and offboarding can also be streamlined by updating this policy to users as part of Quick Subscriber and Subscriber from Profile.

  Upgrade Notes - VOSS-1453

  Introduction

  This enhancement requires that you review your access profiles, menu layouts, and field display policies (FDP) when upgrading to Automate 24.2-PB2:

  Access Profiles

  Review the default ProviderAdminAP for permission examples for the following model types:

  • device/msteamsonline/*

  • relation/MicrosoftSubscriber

  Menu Layout

  Review the default ProviderMenu for configuration examples for the following items:

  • MS Teams Policies

  Field Display Policy (FDP)

  A number of default FDPs have been added or modified. Please review the FDPs for changes that may need to be incorporated into the customized versions if the default versions have been cloned down and modified. The FDPs may need to be applied to Menu item as per the Menu Layout section:

  • DefaultFDP

• EKB-23837: Add new Menus and Dashboards to 24.2 PB2. Committed new Dashboards and Menu to Automate.

• EKB-23672: Microsoft: Auto Attendant and Call Queue, add options for redirecting to Resource Account. Adds new options to Microsoft Auto Attendants and Call Queues to redirect to Resource Accounts.

• EKB-23613: Microsoft auto attendant - show voicemail groups in addition to users when choosing to redirect to voicemail. This enhancement updates Microsoft Auto Attendant so that the drop-down for the “redirect to voicemail” functionality now displays both groups and teams.

• EKB-22402: For Quick Add Subscriber, add retry step logic to import phone activation code for slow CUCMs. This enhancement updates the system to resolve an issue where phone activation codes were not appearing immediately after using Quick Add Subscriber on CUCM version 14.

• EKB-21828: Add E.164 number to PWF context for AddQuickSubscriberEmail. This enhancement delivers a variable for including the E.164 numbers in the email for Quick Add Subscriber.

Automate Admin GUI#

• EKB-23662: Logging out when on transaction page causes infinite API request loop. Fixes any issue where an API request continues to execute in the web browser when logging out of the Admin GUI when on the transaction page. This caused the next login attempt to run very slowly.

• EKB-23429: Remote Destination field on a multi vendor subscriber should support hash (#) character. This fix removes the regex pattern from the Mobile Number field on the Single Number Reach (SNR) modal form to allow input of any characters.

• EKB-23412: Setting scheduling time and date for processes. Fixes an issue where time formatting across different time zones, especially UTC+2, resulted in the incorrect time being saved in the schedule.

• EKB-22076: Accessibility: Logo. Fixes an issue where JAWS was announcing the logo as “Logo”, which was not meaningful. The logo element is now flagged as decorative so that screen readers will ignore it.

Automate Core#

• EKB-23671: MS Auto Attendant: Update transaction gets stuck in processing when no Redirect option is set for a Dial key. “Resolves an issue where missing information causes the PowerShell session to become unresponsive causing the transaction to hang.

• EKB-23465: Add Network Device List fails if the customer name ends with “u” character. Fixes an issue where adding a Network Device List fails if the customer name ends with a lowercase “u” character.

• EKB-23450: Intermittent inefficient query for list view without filter. Improves the list performance for Microsoft and Webex related models when not using a filter.

• EKB-23379: Improve logging for Cisco CUCM AXL errors. Fixes an issue where the real AXL error was not being returned to Automate when running a CUCM import.

• EKB-23254: Users can remove their own credential policy. This fix prevents users from updating their own credential policy.

• EKB-23242: Credential policy, incorrect feedback given on password length. Fixes an issue by enforcing the minimum password length specified in the credential policy during validation.

• EKB-23074: Update CSF phone fails with “Failed to save device/cucm/Phone. [modify] not supported”. Fixes an issue that was preventing modifications to a Cisco Unified Client Services Framework when the Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) Vendor Config had been set.

• EKB-22333: Issues with SSO login to Self-service when users have authorized admin hierarchy set. Fixes an issue to allow dual user to log into Self-service when following the generic SSO login URL.

Automate Dashboard#

• EKB-23252: Insights transaction data not recording the correct hierarchy of the transaction. Transactions will now be tagged with the hierarchy of the object instead of the hierarchy of the user performing the transaction.

Automate Templates#

• EKB-7409: Number range management, add number range fails to skip existing numbers and rolls-back for SLC dial plans. Fixes an issue where adding a number range for a customer using an SLC-based dial plan failed to skip existing numbers and rolled back.

• EKB-23620: Webex- Failure when adding UCM Calling to users with existing Cisco line. Fixes an issue where QAS fails when used to add a Webex App user with UCM Calling, if a CUCM subscriber pre-exists with subscriber services and a line.

• EKB-23499: Credential policy - wrong policy being applied on add of user. Fixes an issue where when creating a user from relation/User, the password field was validating against the Hierarchy Default Credential Policy and not against the credential policy selected.

• EKB-23432: Microsoft PowerShell connections fail intermittently with WinRM connection failure: “Access Denied.” “RestException`1”. Fixes an issue where Microsoft PowerShell connections were failing intermittently with WinRM connection failure: “Access Denied.” and “RestException`1”.

• EKB-23372: Renaming SCCP gateway name fails if there is an end point configured. Fixes an issue where modifying the name of an SCCP analog gateway was failing when analog end points are configured.

• EKB-23272: Webex - update WebexBulkAction GUI rule to filter on required Schedule CFTs. Fixes an issue where Webex Bulk Actions failed to locate the required CFT for Webex Schedules by updating the lookup rule.

• EKB-23170: CUC auto attendant, user that exists at child site can’t be selected as owner of a call handler that exists at parent site. Fixes an issue where users at child sites could not be selected as owners of call handlers at parent sites.

• EKB-23050: Microsoft PowerShell connections fail intermittently: Error while copying content to a stream. Enhanced the error message when getting the error “Error while copying content to a stream” to facilitate a better investigation into the real error.

• EKB-21251: Add Subscriber from Profile, regex on Mobile Number field prevents form submission for imported Microsoft users. This fix removes the regex from the Mobile Number field on Add Subscriber from Profile.