Implementing Extension Mobility

So a feature we have decided to implement with our upgrade for all of our phone users is extension mobility. What extension mobility allows a person to do is hit services on the phone entire their username and a pin and then that phone pulls all of their information from the CUCM cluster and becomes their extension. This means they no longer have to take their phones with them when they move desks, merely sit down enter their info and bam the phone is theirs.

There are a few steps to accomplish this task. We must first enable the service. Tweak a setting in the service parameters. Setup the extension mobility service. Create the virtual phone device profiles. In reality they are just device profiles but I find calling them virtual phone device profiles helps with the understanding of what they really are. And finally subscribe physical and virtual phones along with end users to the service and profiles.

With the explanation out of the way let’s get started. Wait, wait, there is one more point to bring up. We have a choice to make or namely you have a choice to make.

There are two ways to implement extension mobility. You can do it on a per user basis so everyone has a normal configured phone. But a few select people say VP, C level people have the mobility feature. This is how we did it at my last employer. The other option the one we are going with here is no one specifically has a phone assigned to them. Everyone will get an extension mobility profile and then log into their phone wherever they are sitting. The advantage for us is with all the office moves changes etc, no one will have to wait for IT to either re-program or move their phone. The configuration however is the same it’s just a matter of will you be making a handful of extension mobility profiles or a lot. And will you be associating physical phones to people or not. (Hint the bulk editor is your friend.)

Enable Extension Mobility
1. Go to Cisco Unified Serviceability.



2. Tools > Service Activation.
3. Put a check in the Cisco Extension Mobility box and click save.

Adjust Service Parameters
1. Go to Cisco Unified CM Administration.
2. System > Service Parameters



3. Select your server from the drop down list. If you have a cluster, select your publisher.
4. Select Cisco Extension Mobility (Active)
5. Under Multiple Login Behavior change this from Multiple Logins Not Allowed to Auto Logout. This way should a user forget to logout and want to login somewhere else they will be automatically logged out on the other phone.
6. Click Save.

Create Extension Mobility Service
1. Go to Device > Device Settings > Phone Services.



2. Click Add New.
3. Service Name = Extension Mobility
4. ASCII Service Name = What you want to display on phone. I used Extension Mobility.
5. Service Description = What you want explaining the service in CUCM. I again used Extension Mobility.
6. Service URL = http://(IP of CallManager):8080/emapp/EMAppServlet?device=#DEVICENAME#
7. Click Save.

Create Device Profile
1. Go to Device > Device Settings > Device Profile.



2. Click Add New.
3. Select the phone model that this user will be using and click next.
You notice this looks like a stripped down version of the phone template.
4. Fill out the fields as applicable. Under device profile name make sure you note the users name or login for future identification as this will be their phone for all extensive purposes.
5. Click Save.



You should now be at a screen remarkably familiar to a phone configuration. This again is why I call them virtual device profiles. We are programming a phone it’s just associated to a user instead of a MAC address.
6. Click on Line one and add your DN as your normally would.
7. Click Save once you are done adding your DN.
We have now created the virtual phone profile AKA Device Profile. Now we need to associate it to our user and subscribe the service to the phone and user.

Subscribe Phones and End Users to Extension Mobility Service
1. Go to Device > Phone.
2. Pick a phone you want to work with.
3. Scroll down to the Extension Information section.
4. Check the Enable Extension Mobility box.



5. Click Save.
6. Go to User Management > End User
7. Pick a user you want to work with.
8. In the Extension Mobility section select the device profile you created for this user. Move it down into the Controlled Profiles.



We have the user now associated to his profile. Now we must subscribe both the physical and virtual phone to the extension mobility service. This may seem confusing as we already enabled it. Correct we enabled the service on the phone and user but we didn’t give an entry point to the user to get to the service. That is what subscribing is for. This will enable the service to show up when the user hits the services button on their phone.
9. Go to Device > Phone.
10. Select your phone you’re working with.
11. In the related links drop down select Subscribe/Unsubscribe Services.



12. In the Select a Service drop down select Extension Mobility. This is the service we created earlier.
13. Click Next.
14. If you wanted to change the display name you could here but the defaults we setup should be fine. Click Subscribe.



15. Close this window.
Now you might think I’m done but you’d be wrong. Sure now you could go over to the phone and login as that user no problem. Now try to log out. What is that you say? You go to services and there aren’t any. Well of course not their virtual phone AKA Device Profile hasn’t been subscribed to the Extension Mobility service. Let’s fix that.
16. Go to Device > Device Settings > Device Profile.
17. Select the Device Profile you’re working with.
18. Under related links select Subscribe/Unsubscribe Services.
19. Run through the process of adding the Extension Mobility service same as we did for the physical phone.

That’s all there is to it. You should now be able to hit services on the phone when it’s in its blank state use your username and PIN. The phone should do a quick reset and bam it’s now that user. Now you just need to make umpteen however many device profiles for people.