Bridged appearances for multiple coverage answer groups

[mudsnowh2o]

Hey all, I am a long time lurker but first time poster. I am still fairly new to all this so bear with me. Our PBX is an S8510.

Our helpdesk is set up as a virtual extension which goes to a coverage path.

This coverage path goes to 2 coverage answer groups, then to VM.

The first CAG consists of an analog cordless phone and the 2410 desk phone of our helpdesk person.

The second CAG consists of the same as in the first CAG but adds in another 2410 we have hanging in the IT office. Our SysAdmins and NetAdmins then have bridged appearances to this 3rd phone and this is how we get call coverage to our 2nd tier.

This has been working perfectly for the last 4 months but has now stopped and I cannot figure out why. I don't think we have changed anything. The coverage path is still going to the CAG's as expected but for some reason the bridged appearances are no longer ringing. If I call that 3rd phone directly, the bridged appearances will ring.

The reason we are ringing our 2nd tier via bridged appearances is because they often have their EC500 activated and we do not want helpdesk calls going to their mobile phones.

 

[bleebrant]

I didn't think that coverage-answer group calls rang on bridged appearances but I could be wrong.

When you set up EC500 for a user, there is an option to have Bridged Calls extended to the Cell Phone or not. You could add the 2nd tier phones directly into the coverage answer group and change their EC500 settings not to extend bridged calls.
This setting is on page 2 of the 'change off-pbx-telephone station-mapping" command.

 

[mudsnowh2o]

Perhaps it is a new feature because from the forums I have been reading, I would be under the same impression. Quite mysterious why it has been working since I set it up about 4 months ago.

I was not aware of the option for EC500 so I will definitely set that, because for now I have reverted back to the way we used to do it which is just like you said, add all the 2nd tier to the 2nd answer group.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[mudsnowh2o]

Shoot, it looks like I already have the Bridged Calls option set to none. But now that I think about it, if I add all the extensions to the answer group, they are no longer bridged calls anyway.

 

[bleebrant]

You're right - and I guess the coverage answer group calls are going to the cell when ec500 is activated?

 

[mudsnowh2o]

Yep, they are.

 

[bleebrant]

On the coverage path form, there is a field: Terminate to Coverage PTs with Bridged Appearances.
How is this set on the coverage path of the virtual station? Maybe it was working before because this setting was y, and now someone got changed to no?

 

[mudsnowh2o]

That option is set to y.

 

[mudsnowh2o]

After further testing, I should mention that this problem is also present with just 1 answer group. Avaya tier 1 has looked into the issue and says I am configured correctly. I am still waiting to hear from tier 2.

 

[mudsnowh2o]

Very interesting, I just found another user posted almost the exact same issue a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1647535&page=13

 

[mudsnowh2o]

I may have used the wrong link above.

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1647535

 

[mudsnowh2o]

Sorry, I really wish we could edit posts (or maybe we can and I am just not seeing it) but after re-reading the linked post, it is not exactly the same. I was thinking he already had it working and it recently stopped.