CM power save options & remote access

[schwabcm]

CM 11.5, our set up is PC's piggyback into 8851 phones in our campus environment.  We have users who remote desktop into their machines remotely and complain that their access is a problem an issue out of hours.  They claim it is our Energy saving settings that are causing the issue.

Our default settings are:

Display On Time:  7:30am

Display On Duration:  10:30

Display Idle Timeout:  01:00

Enable Power Save Plus:  Sunday - Saturday

Phone On Time  00:00

Phone Off Time:  24:00

Phone Off Idle Timeout:  60

Questions are:

1. Should these settings disable to PC port or even not allow remote access into the PC connected via the back of the phone?

2. If we check the boxes to override any of these settings, which one would I check to remove the access issue?

We've tried working with a TAC engineer and got nowhere, so I'm reaching out for tips and if anyone else has had to deal with this.

thanks!

[Maren Mahoney]

It is the "Power Save Plus" setting that is powering down the phones. And the PC Port does go down when Power Save Plus is active. As far as I know there is no "Power Save Plus Except for the PC Port" work-around - but that would be a good setting to have.

You can disable Power Save Plus on a per-phone basis for those folks who are remoting into their PCs, but leave the Display On/Off active. That will save some power and will extend the life of the screen on the phones. This can be done via BAT or by hand depending on how many folks you're talking about.

A better idea, though, would be to use group settings to accomplish this. (And forgive me if I'm telling you things you already know...)

• The Enterprise Phone Parameters set enterprise-wide defaults for your phones.
• You can override the Enterprise Phone Parameters on a per-group basis using Common Phone Profiles.
• Then, if need be, you can override both of those by configuring a specific setting on the phone itself.

So you could set the Enterprise Phone Parameter for Power Save Plus, then create a Common Phone Profile with Power Save Plus not active and assign that profile to the users who need to remote into their PCs. Or, of course, you can configure the phones directly either manually or via BAT.

I hope this helps clarify. If you have any additional questions, please let us know.

Maren

[schwabcm]

Thank you Maren for the reply!  So if I understand this correctly, the power save plus goes into affect outside of 7:30am to 5:30pm (which is the 10:30 duration)?  By checking the override on Enable Power Save Plus, I've eliminated the shutdown of the PC port between 5:30pm and 7:30am the following morning?  Correct or am I missing something?

[Maren Mahoney]

It's this set of parameters that work together:

• Enable Power Save Plus: Sunday - Saturday (I'm presuming you have these selected)
• Phone On Time 00:00
• Phone Off Time: 24:00
• Phone Off Idle Timeout: 60

With these settings, you have Power Save Plus enabled 24/7 with the phones powering down after 60 minutes of idle time.

The Display On/Off (the other three parameters you listed) have the display "On" from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm (and off outside of those hours unless the phone is active), but the Display Idle Timeout is also turning the display off off after an hour of idle time. Turning off the display does not does not power down the phone. But, because you have the display turn off after an hour of idle time and you also have the Power Save Plus kicking in after an hour of idle time, the two things are happening together.

To prevent the phones powering down for this group of people, set the Phone Off Idle Timeout to 1440 minutes in the Common Phone Configuration (or on the phone), or deselect all of the days under Enable Power Save Plus. (Or both....)

FYI: At the top of the Enterprise Phone Configuration page (and other places in CUCM) you see a gold-colored question-mark icon. Clicking that icon gives you field help for that page. The other way to get page-specific help is to go up to the main menu and click Help > For this page.

Maren

[schwabcm]

Thank you for the additional information Maren!  This has been verify helpful.  I've select the override for Enable Power Save Plus for now and asked the users to test.