Is this normal? - 'Universal Device Template Button Layout' when used with a UDT for creating phones

[voip7372]

CUCM 10.5.1

From my testing, the only way I can get a Universal Device Template (UDT) to properly assign buttons to a phone is to use an edited version of the factory default 'Universal Device Template Button Layout'.  Basically, I copy the default Universal Device Template Button Layout, give it an appropriate name and then edit the buttons to be how I need them.  For example, Line on the first button, Speed Dials on buttons 2 and 3 and finally the Ext Mobility service on button 4.  

When I create the new user and phone via the 'Quick User/Phone' add (using the FGT, etc that I created) and then activate the phone via Self Provisioning, everything works fine.  The buttons are programmed correctly, phone has all the features and functions I assigned to it via the UDT, etc...but what I noticed is the system creates an individual phone button template for the new phone.  Is this the expected behavior when using universal device templates along with a 'universal device template button layout'???  Apparently, you can't use a normal phone button template with the universal device templates.  From my testing, it seems you must use the Universal Device Template Button Layout (make a copy of it and edit it according to your button needs).  It won't let you select one of the normal phone button templates.  Those button templates are not an option when you try to select a phone button template on the UDT page.

Is it normal for it to create an individual button template for every phone that uses the universal device template?  As you can imagine, there could be thousands of these individual phone button templates created if you have a lot of users/phones.  

I attached a screenshot of a button template that got created when I did the Quick User/Phone add and then activated the phone via Self Provisioning.

[jsteinberg]

I see the same thing, did you get any update on this issue ?

[voip7372]

I asked Cisco about this and they said it's working as expected.  I think it's a limitation of the button templates for now and I hope they can fix it in the future.  The problem as I see it is that you can't (right now anyway) setup a universal device template button layout to match a specific type of phone.  When you copy the default universal device phone button template and edit it, you'll notice that it has 200 buttons associated with it instead of the 1 button in the default template.  If you put the features you want on those buttons (like Line on button 1, Service URL on button 4, etc), the phone will end up with the buttons laid out the way you want, but it creates those individual templates that you'll have to go back and get rid of (after you do a BAT job via the web page to change all the new phones to have the real button template you want to use...one that matches the layout of the features/lines you put on the universal device button template).   I know, confusing :-)  

[jsteinberg]

Ya that is weird.   But the individual templates only occur with Self Provisioning right, so if I just use the Universal Phone Button Templates with traditional BAT or manual programming then it works ok and I don't get the individual templates right?

[voip7372]

Right, I think this is only going to be an issue if you want to use self-provisioning.   

[jsteinberg]

I did some additional testing and it also uses the individual phone button templates for certain phone models when they autoregister (8831 I observed in my case).  I was able to enable the 'legacy autoregistration' feature and it prevented the individual phone button templates from being created.

[voip7372]

I've only tested this with an 8945 SIP phone so far.  My plan for now is to assign the correctly laid out phone button template I want to the Device Defaults (Devices > Device Settings > Device Defaults) so the phone initially gets some features I want when auto registering (like extension mobility and a self-provisioning speed dial).  Those buttons on the auto registered phone could be what you want to use for the users when the phone is really activated with self-provisioning, but in my case I was wanting the buttons the user has to be different than the buttons it gets from auto register.   For example, there wouldn't be able reason to have a speed dial for self-provisioning on a user's phone, but it would make sense to have that on an auto registered phone so you don't have to remember the number for self-provisioning. 

EDIT:

To make life easier, I think I will forget about adding the self-provisioning speed dial to the auto registered phones so I can use the Device Defaults template to assign the button template that will be in use for the bulk of the users.  That way, I don't have to worry about as much cleanup.  The phones will keep end up with the correct button template even after self-provisioning and I won't have to go back and remove all the individual templates.  

[Roger Jin]

I know it is 2019 and I am on version 12.0
But I tried auto-register with UDT selected, it still creates individual phone button template.
Is there a way to avoid this ?

[Maren Mahoney]

No. CUCM still creates an Individual Phone Button Template any time you base a phone on the Universal one. I don't think Cisco has gotten the message that this makes for a very messy system.

Maren

[voip7372]

When you say you enabled 'legacy autoregistration', are you talking about going to Server > Cisco Unified CM and setting the universal device template to 'none' on that page (so it doesn't use universal device template)?