Where to go to learn

[captstent]

For the past 15 years I have been plugging names and numbers and checking boxes by rote. In short I don't know what I'm doing except what I have been told. Put this hear and don't check that box but do check this one. Is there a place where I can go look up why and what I'm doing when I am configuring phones? When I started, we had 6945 and 7965 6 and 8 button phones. Now we are starting to replace the 6945 with 8861's. I don't even know what CP-8861-3PW-NA-K9 means when requesting to purchase more phones other that "that's what we've always do it" Would be nice if I had a reference to consult to understand the what and why I do things.

Thank you

 

 

[TomMar1 · Accepted solution]

Do you have access to LinkedIn learning?  There are some good basic courses you can take on there.  If not I suggest you find a Cisco learning partner like Sunset Learning or Global Knowledge and enroll in a basic CUCM/Collaboration course.

You could always poke around here, YouTube and Reddit, but most of those posts are going to be responding to a specific question not a general let's get started course.

Why not ask the people who are telling you what to check and what not to check, why?  If they cannot answer the question they probably do not know either and your organization has some issues.  Can you request training through your organization?

[captstent · Accepted solution]

Thank you TomMar1 for your help.

[djl · Accepted solution]

Kevin Wallace has some pretty good videos on collaboration as well as other topics.

Keep in mind, CUCM is extremely flexible and there may be several valid solutions to the same problem.  As TomMar1 said, a training partner may be good for the fundamentals and asking questions of the engineering team.  Hopefully one or more of them are willing to take you under their wing and mentor you. 

Google is also your friend, but I get that it can be difficult to craft the question to ask.

You can also look at the Configuration and Administration guide(s) for the version you're on.

DJ

[captstent]

Thank you djl for your suggestions.