Moving All Stations to New Number Range - Easiest Way w/ ASA? 1

[jessejdavis]

We are getting ready to move all of our DID extensions to a new range (long story on why... but basically changing from an old tie-line based service provider in a different geographical location to a local provider).

Specifically, we are moving the 3000-3299 DID block to 4000-4299. Is there an easy way to do this with ASA? I have looked at export/import, but unless we want to duplicate first and then update the ports later, we would have to delete existing stations before adding the new ones. That would be ok, but export/import doesn't seem to capture all of the station's settings (like softkeys and other button settings). I realize that I could simply add the new stations (no settings) and then swap them with the wizard, but I wanted to see if anyone out there knew of a more straightforward method.

Any thoughts? We are using ASA 2.1.11U3.1 to manage a Definity G3, R011i.01.2.065.3. Keep in mind that I'm an IT guy that has inherited the phones (i.e. newb)

Thanks,

Jesse

 

[avayafreakje]

Jesse,

You could consider to hire a businesspartner for this job. They use an application called provision. With this application you can do changes within minutes. Maybe it will cost you so much time that costs are lower when you hire someone.

 

[EA6BMECH]

Don't know what Audix system you have, but we have Definity Audix and you can change the range of numbers in one shot...sort of. Remember the COV paths and hunt groups ect that will have to be changed on the switch.

 

[jessejdavis]

We do have someone helping us (they actually handle our Avaya maintenance agreement), but they're not cheap either and I do not know how long it will take them to do this (as far as I know, they're not using Provision). As for voicemail, we have an Octel Aria 250.

 

[sjforcum]

Export the stations with ASA to a .CSV file.

Remove the old stations using the Find and Replace option in ASA.

Modify the station's in Excel, then upload the new table with the import feature of ASA. If you leave the port assignments alone, you should be all set.

 

[jessejdavis]

That should work. I was looking into some sort of combination of export/import, find/replace, etc, but I couldn't figure out how to put it all together.

Thanks!

Jesse

 

[mikeydidit]

You will have to do your homework on this Jesse. Remember all your hunt groups, attendant consoles, coverage paths, abbreviated dial list, call park phantom numbers, and then on to your audix. This is a lot for someone to take on without having a blowback done.

"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something."
(Plato)

 

[jessejdavis]

We will definitely proceed with caution! Everything gets checked and double-checked. Thanks.

 

[KenMeans]

How are you going to handle the renumbering of the Octel ?

Ken Means

http://www.tel-is.com

 

[jessejdavis]

We are still working through the planning stages and thus far we've focused on the Definity side of things, but I would imagine that we will use the brute force method. In other words, we'll step through "Change Mailbox Number" for all of the mailboxes.

I was thinking... We may actually do that with the Definity too, and that would help with our overall migration strategy. We intend on keeping the old numbers available for 1 months after the switch. When someone calls the old number they will be dumped to an announcement on the Octel that will explain the number change and allow the caller to transfer to the new extension. To make this all work, we could simply create the 4000 to 4299 stations with X ports and send them all to a new coverage path (that goes to the Octel announcement). Then on "go live" day, we could use the "Swap Stations" wizard in ASA for each 3xxx/4xxx pair. Yes, it's 300 stations, but at least we'd have the wizard. At the same time, we could use the change number function on the Octel side of things.

Thoughts???

Thanks again,
Jesse

 

[lopes1211]

You wont be able to export the station's button assignments via asa. You're going to have to use the pbx to "dup stat 3001 start 4001 board x". You can use scripting in terranova or procomm to automate some of it. If it was me, I would use excel and procomm scripting to dup all 3000-3299 to 4000-4299 and just let the unused stations bomb out. It will make it far less of a manual process. On the other hand, 300 stations isn't that many to just hire a temp and have them input the dup station command by hand if you are not already familiar with procomm scripting.

-CL

 

[lopes1211]

And don't forget, you'll need to change all of the busy lamps and bridged appearances along with the stuff already mentioned (vdn's, cov path, hunt groups, etc).

-CL

 

[KenMeans]

In the Octel you can just add the new number as the alias and it will work fine on both numbers and then over time change the mailbox numbers to the new one.

Ken Means

http://www.tel-is.com

 

[jessejdavis]

Ok, I see what you mean... All swap station does is change the ports, so not much help there.

 

[jessejdavis]

Hmmm, I like the alias idea (for Octel). Thanks.

 

[KenMeans]

I am not super good on the PBX side but i think you can add an alias for the ext numbers also

Ken Means

http://www.tel-is.com

 

[avayafreakje]

also be aware that if you use x ports they will count towards your RTU

 

[jessejdavis]

We're ok on the RTU. We have about 250 available and I will be duplicating less ports than that. The old ones will get blown away if I can figure out how to route any incoming calls to 3xxx (old) to a single extension. I was going to use Incoming Call Handling to look for 3xxx and replace digits, but the trunk "Group Type" doesn't allow that (group type is tie). If I can't work that out, my other option is to simply change the name/decription for all of the old extensions to whatever the Octel mailbox is that I am using for the general announcement (the description is how Octel knows what mailbox to route to).

As for all of the other things that we need to look at (as mikey mentioned, hunt groups, dial lists, etc), our config isn't too complex, but we are starting to consider just going with the blowback (I just learned what that is today). Our vendor actually mentioned it as well. Anyone had any trouble going that route before? Is it extremely costly?

Thanks for all the advice (this newb appreciates it)!!!

 

[mikeydidit]

A while back I went from a 4 digit dialplan to a 5 and Avaya did one for me. I dont think it was that exspensive compaired to the amount of labor/headaches that would have to go into something like this. I do applaude your efforts as you are new to the Definity world. It seems that you have taken off running with it which is good. You are also doing your homework on projects before leaping which is even better. Keep up what you are doing and you will be a good tech for your company and save yourself from a lot of greif at the same time.



"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something."
(Plato)

 

[jessejdavis]

Thanks again for all of the advice. In the end, we have decided to use ASA's "Change User Extension" wizard. It turns out that this not only changes the extension, but any references to that extension, including hunt groups, coverage paths, pickup groups, message lamps, etc. We're not using any vectoring, so there's no problem there. It'll take some time to enter each extension, but we only have around 280 extensions, so it won't be too tough.

I'll let you know how things work out. Thanks again!

Jesse