CCM 4.0 - "The Pilot Number for the selected partition is already in use"

[jamescork]

Hi all,

I'm converting a number (1234) from a single phone to a hunt group for half a dozen.

I follow what I thought were the normal steps:

1) Remove 1234 from the phone

2) Create a pilot point 1234

3) Create a hunt group assigned to that pilot point

4) Add those phones to the hunt group (including the original phone with new number)

However, upon creating the Pilot Point I am told "The Pilot Number for the selected partition is already in use". However, this is the first and only Pilot point we have used. (This is the first attempt at using them since we upgraded to 4.0)

If I set the partition to none, I can create the pilot point and proceed normally. I am, however, unable to use the number - calls to 1234 regardless of source just receive the standard error tone.

Any idea what the problem could be?

[jasyoung]

Removing 1234 from the phone, under CallManager 4.0 and above, does not fully remove it from the dial plan. It continues to exist as an unassigned DN, which may be assigned to another phone without losing its settings, or flushed permanently from the route plan via the Route Plan Report page.

Go to the Route Plan menu, to the Route Plan Report. Pick "Unassigned DN" from the drop-down list and click Find. You'll see at least 1234 in here, and probably anything else you've deleted. You can delete just 1234 from here to free it up, or there's a handy "Delete All Found Items" button at the bottom. After doing this you should be able to create your pilot point.

[jamescork]

Thanks for this, and yes - removing it as you said from the Route Plan has made it possible to create the hunt group normally. However...

The group still fails to work, calling 1234 internally gives the call failed tone, externally I am told the number is not available.

What am I missing?

[jasyoung]

Based on the exact text of the error message in your first post, it looks like you're trying to use the Attendant Console pilot points and hunt groups. You can do this if you really want to, but unless you're using Attendant Console and you want the online/offline functionality to work, CallManager 4.0+ line groups are usually a better choice. Consult the Line Group and Route Pattern/Hunt Pilot chapters from the CallManager 4.0 Administration Guide.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps556/products_administration_guide_book09186a00801e8ada.html

If you really want to go ahead and use the Attendant Console/TCD based hunt groups, there's more work to be done to get the pilot point to come alive. Copying from one of my recent posts:

Remember that the Telephony Call Dispatcher service uses CTI to register the pilot point and to move calls around. Even though you might not be using the actual Attendant Console software, you still need to be running the TCD service and have its user account in place so that it may authenticate to CTIManager and assert control over the pilot point.

Make sure the TCD service is activated and running. You then need to create a user with username 'ac'. The default password you should use is '12345'. It should have the 'CTI Use Enabled' and 'Call Pickup Allowed' checkboxes checked. When it's created, go to its Device Associations page and find your AC pilot point and give your ac user control over it. You might then go ahead and restart the TCD service just to make sure it tries immediately to register the pilot point.

[jamescork]

First off, apologies for the delayed response - I've been off site for a while.

Thanks for the advice, I have no reason to use the Attendant Console and would much rather prefer to use CM4 to configure groups.

Do I need to take another route to do this? Or is it a case that we have pre-existing AC based groups that need to be moved to CM4 style ones instead?