Howto: Configure iSip for iPhone to integrate with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Callmanager)

iSip (formerly sipphone) from VNET is a SIP client for the Apple iPhone. It can be downloaded from the app store.

iSip - app store

REQUIREMENTS:
You must have Callmanager version 5 or greater. I’m using Callmanager 6.1(2) for this howto.
Your iPhone must be able to connect to your Callmanager server – I’ve successfully used the iSip client via wifi as well as over a 3G connection via VPN connection from the iPhone

First, let’s configure a new Phone Security Profile for the SIP phone.
01) Go to SYSTEM | SECURITY PROFILE | PHONE SECURITY PROFILE
02) Simply hit FIND and scroll down to the bottom of the list (you may need to click to a second page) and locate “Third-party SIP Device Basic – Standard SIP Non-Secure Profile” and click on it
03) Once you see it’s properties, simply hit COPY to create a new copy of it. Give the new phone security profile a name, I’m using “Third-party SIP Device Basic – Digest
04) Check the check box next to ENABLE DIGEST AUTHENTICATION and hit SAVE

Now let’s build a user to authenticate the SIP device
01) GO to USER MANAGEMENT | END USER and click ADD NEW
02) Enter in your USER ID, PASSWORD, PIN, and LAST NAME
03) You must also enter in a password in the DIGEST CREDENTIALS and CONFIRM DIGEST CREDENTIALS field – this is the password that the SIP client will use to authenticate

***UPDATE NOTE: If you are Active Directory Integrated, you still set the DIGEST CREDENTIALS in UCM and use these credentials on the isip client.***

04) Click SAVE

Next let’s build the SIP phone in Callmanager
01) Go to DEVICE | PHONE and click ADD NEW
02) Select THIRD-PARTY SIP DEVICE (BASIC) and click NEXT
03) Enter in a 12 digit MAC address (this does not have to be a valid MAC address but it must be unique from anything else in your Callmanager)
04) Enter the pertinent information for the SIP DEVICE settings – it should mostly be configured the same as a standard phone on your system except for the following settings
a) in the OWNER USER ID field select the user you created above
b) in the DEVICE SECURITY PROFILE field select the security profile you created above
c) in the DIGEST USER field select the user you created above
05) click SAVE
06) Configure the line settings for the SIP device – the line settings should match the line settings of your standard user’s Cisco IP phones – there are no special attributes that we need to worry about on the line configuration.



Now let’s go back to the user configuration and associate this device
01) Go to USER MANAGEMENT | END USER and search for the SIP user you created above, once you find it, click on it
02) scroll down to DEVICE ASSOCIATIONS and click on the DEVICE ASSOCIATION button
03) locate and select the SIP device you created above
04) Check the check box next to this device and click SAVE SELECTED/CHANGES
05) Click GO next to the BACK TO USER related link near the upper right-hand corner
06) Click SAVE one more time on the END USER CONFIGURATION screen

You have completed the steps to configure the SIP device in Callmanager

Now lets configure the iSip client on the iPhone

01) Select the ACCOUNTS button at the bottom of the client
02) Select ADD A NEW SIP ACCOUNT
03) Select OTHER SIP PROVIDER
04) In the DISPLAY NAME field enter in whatever display name you wish to use
05) In the DOMAIN field enter the IP Address of your Callmanager
06) In the USERNAME field enter the extension you assigned to the SIP phone in Callmanager
07) In the PASSWORD field enter in the password you entered into the DIGEST CREDENTIALS of the user entered above – this is case sensitive

08) Select ADVANCE
09) In the AUTH USERNAME field enter in the user ID you created in Callmanager above – this is case sensitive

10) Select SIP ACCOUNTS in the upper left-hand corner
11) Select SAVE
12) Select ACCOUNT MANAGER
13) Select DONE

You should now see your account listed under SIP ACCOUNTS

Assuming you have connectivity to your callmanager you should be able to select ON on your newly created SIP account and it will authenticate.

You can now select the DIALER and make a call!

You can simply dial the extension or number and select the SIP button to dial out using your Callmanager system. You must dial the call exactly as you would from a Cisco IP phone. Notice that your contacts are also available. If your Callmanager system requires a prefix digit to make calls out to the PSTN there is an option in iSip to add the prefix digit when dialing contacts – simply select the SETTINGS button and scroll down until you see PREFIX FOR CONTACTS. Tap the PREFIX field and enter in your outside access code. In my case I simply enter a 9.

Thats it!

-Go0se

13 comments to Howto: Configure iSip for iPhone to integrate with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Callmanager)

  • Rob

    Once I have gone through your steps. I receive the forbidden error while trying to connect to CUCM. Any ideas?

    Thanks.

    Rob

  • admin

    As far as I can tell everything is case sensitive so check your user ID, etc. Also, in UCM on the device settings of the SIP phone you created be sure that both the “owner user ID” and “digest user” are set to the user you created for this account. Also, double check the settings in the isip client. It wanted to set my “auth username” to the same as the username on the first configuration page.

    -Go0se

  • Keith

    I’ve also received the “Forbidden” message after setting it up as per your instructions. Possibly a little bit different in our setup, as our UCM is tied to AD to pull usernames/passowrd info – so I would assume the digest info is actually the AD password for the user, correct?

  • Leurch

    I have done all this and got the iPhone to register to callmanager. My problem is that I can’t call other phones on the network. I have two other phones on the network, 4500 and 4501. My sip phone is 4550. all these devices are in the same partition and css. I don’t know why this don’t work…

    Thanks

  • admin

    I have not configured it with an AD integrated system. You could skip the first step of configuring a security profile and leave it non-secure, then I don’t believe you’ll need the digest creds. I have not tried it that way either, however.

    -Go0se

  • admin

    You might try using DNA to simulate the call and see what you get. Can you call either direction, or does it not work both directions?

    -Go0se

  • Ste

    But if I’m using Safari, I can not receive a phone call?

  • Adam

    Go0se Admin: Nice job. The Advanced Setting of the SIP client configuration is a crucial step in registering the phone. Tested successfully on the LAN using my iPhone WiFi connection, and on AT&T 3G through a VPN tunnel. Thanks again for the detailed screen shots!

  • Keith

    Got it to work an AD integrated system. The digest credentials apparently have nothing to do with AD – those still need to be set (password anyways). Also, the phone will then need to be associated to the user.

    Only issue now is that for some reason it doesn’t want to work over the VPN. I’ve tried over the carrier’s network and my home WiFi (putting it in airplane mode) – VPN seems to be a no-go. It just times out. Let me clarify – the phone itself will connect to the VPN just fine, but the app cannot connect to our UCM server once the tunnel has been established. Any idea?

  • admin

    My first guess would be connectivity… have you verified routing from the VPN connection? I.e., when VPN’d in can you reach the callmanager? I’m not AD integrated but mine works fine across 3G via the built in iPhone Cisco VPN client.

    -Go0se

  • admin

    You must have the client open. I believe this is because the iPhone can’t multitask. I’m curious to see if it works in the iPhone 4 OS.

    -Go0se

  • Gary

    With IPhone 4 and IOS 4, I still need the client open in order to receive calls. Any ideas?

  • admin

    I am not sure but I believe the application will need to be re-written to take advantage of the iPhone 4 OS’s multitasking ability. After I upgraded to the iPhone 4 OS, my Pandora app did not multitask until I downloaded the latest version of the Pandora app.

    -Go0se

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