Configure Kerio Operator
Good day to all. In this article I want to share with you the experience of installing and configuring paid IP-PBX, called Kerio Operator from Kerio Technologies, Inc.
Installation and configuration took about a business day, given the fact that I had to periodically switch to other matters and amendments to previously unfamiliar software.
Kerio Operator is built on the basis of IP-PBX Asterisk with SIP support and you will not find any unique solutions there, however, what is implemented is done in good faith and you will not know any problems with configuration and operation. I want to say right away that if you have experience with Kerio Control (Winroute Firewall) or Kerio Connect (MailServer), then you can figure out the management interface quickly.
Stage One - Installation
To install, you need to download the ISO-image (242 MB) from the official Kerio website and burn it to disk. The entire installation process is graphical and no more difficult than installing Windows 7. After the installation is complete and the computer restarts, an address bar appears, of the form https: //: 4021 / admin / login /
A web interface will be available at this address with which you can fully configure Kerio Operator. Installation completed.
Note : to avoid unnecessary complexity, make sure your DHCP server is up and running.
Stage Two - Initial Setup
When you click the link for the first time, the setup wizard will offer you to select the language (Russian available), agree to the license agreement, specify the Kerio Operator administrator password (this password will automatically become the password for root), and also select the time zone.
Stage Three - Creating Users, Extension Numbers, Registering Phones
Setup begins with creating users. When creating a user, you will also create and bind an extension number. It will appear in the Extension Number section.
Note : we will not consider the detailed settings, since they are optional and are not required to start Kerio Operator.
Note : Kerio Operator allows mapping user accounts from a directory service.
By default, Kerio Operator includes support for various telephones (Cisco, Polycom, Linksys, snom). But in this article we will use the X-Lite soft background. It does not require special firmware, it is easily installed on Windows, it has a free version.
On the “Auto-tuned Phones” tab, when adding a phone, specify the MAC address of the computer on which X-Lite is installed, and bind the user to it (click the "Add" button and select the previously created user with the extension number attached to it).
After adding the phone, it will appear in the list, as shown in the figure below. The status “Not registered” indicates that the phone has not yet logged into Kerio Operator.
Stage Four - Configuring X-Lite
X-Lite -> SIP Account Settings -> Add
The minimum necessary configuration is done on the “Account” tab.
Display Name - here you can specify anything;
User name- you will find this name in Kerio Operator: “Extension numbers” -> “Edit” of the extension number -> “SIP usernames”;
Password is the password for the user account;
Domain - The IP address or DNS name where Kerio Operator is installed.
The rest of the settings should be as in the figure above. After adding a SIP account, the phone will be registered and in Kerio Operator on the “Autotuned Phones” tab, the status will change from “Not Registered” to the IP address of the connected phone.
At this stage, we already have: several users, several additional (internal) numbers, several registered phones, and as a result, several soft-backgrounds configured and ready to work. Now you can check the operation of the internal connection by dialing the internal number of another user on the soft background and talking to him. Time spent on 4 stages - 20 minutes.
Note : on the official Kerio website you can find a section that helps set up softphones from other manufacturers.
Step Five - Configuring Incoming / Outgoing Calls, Call
Queues Go to the Call Queues tab and add a new queue.
We assign a new number to a new queue, select one of the available strategies for dialing to queue agents, set the queue length, music, priority and indicate whether to record incoming calls or not.
The agents that we add to the created queue are a group of numbers to which an incoming call will be made according to the selected dialer strategy. Accordingly, on the “Agents” tab, it is necessary to add previously created numbers. Although these are the minimum necessary settings for creating a queue, I also recommend that you pay attention to the “Advertisements” and “Backup Switching” tabs. Queue created.
Go to the “Call Routing” tab, add the SIP interface. The data that must be specified at this stage is issued by the SIP provider. To understand the screenshots, the number 3833933129 is the landline phone number. The SIP interface is configured in three simple steps.
Host name or IP address - refers to the IP address of the provider's SIP server;
Username - as a rule, it matches the issued phone number (with the area code).
SIP interface created.
Additional options
In the framework of this article, to the additional options I refer everything that we have not considered, but that I would like to mention. Namely, the simple (read intuitive) creation of conferences, dial-up groups, IVR (virtual secretary), setting up and managing voice mail, changing music on hold, setting voice greetings, setting periodic announcements on a call, notifying the client of the queue, notifying about approximate waiting in line and much more.
A bit about finance
As I wrote at the beginning of the article, Kerio Operator is a paid product. Its cost depends on the number of users. On average, the cost of Kerio Operator for 25 users will be 708 euros, that is, approximately 28,000 rubles. This cost is comparable to the cost of installing and configuring Asterisk, but with Kerio Operator you can independently, without special technical knowledge, support its work and make small changes (maintain a user base, change the dial plan, listen to recordings of conversations, etc.).
Summary
In general, the product was very high quality, stable, easy to use. You can not compare with the free builds of Asterisk, completely different levels. It is necessary to use such a product in small organizations up to 500 people, since all Kerio products are designed primarily for medium and small businesses.
Links
1. Bootable CD - Kerio Operator 1.2.2 ISO image www.kerio.ru/en/operator/download
2. Kerio Operator - Step-by-step configuration manuals.kerio.com/operator/stepbystep/en
3. Kerio Operator - Administrator Guide - manuals.kerio.com/operator/adminguide/en
4. RC1 Kerio Operator 2.0 - www.kerio.ru/node/5551
5. X-Lite - www.counterpath.com/x-lite-download.html
Installation and configuration took about a business day, given the fact that I had to periodically switch to other matters and amendments to previously unfamiliar software.
Kerio Operator is built on the basis of IP-PBX Asterisk with SIP support and you will not find any unique solutions there, however, what is implemented is done in good faith and you will not know any problems with configuration and operation. I want to say right away that if you have experience with Kerio Control (Winroute Firewall) or Kerio Connect (MailServer), then you can figure out the management interface quickly.
Stage One - Installation
To install, you need to download the ISO-image (242 MB) from the official Kerio website and burn it to disk. The entire installation process is graphical and no more difficult than installing Windows 7. After the installation is complete and the computer restarts, an address bar appears, of the form https: //
A web interface will be available at this address with which you can fully configure Kerio Operator. Installation completed.
Note : to avoid unnecessary complexity, make sure your DHCP server is up and running.
Stage Two - Initial Setup
When you click the link for the first time, the setup wizard will offer you to select the language (Russian available), agree to the license agreement, specify the Kerio Operator administrator password (this password will automatically become the password for root), and also select the time zone.
Stage Three - Creating Users, Extension Numbers, Registering Phones
Setup begins with creating users. When creating a user, you will also create and bind an extension number. It will appear in the Extension Number section.
Note : we will not consider the detailed settings, since they are optional and are not required to start Kerio Operator.
Note : Kerio Operator allows mapping user accounts from a directory service.
By default, Kerio Operator includes support for various telephones (Cisco, Polycom, Linksys, snom). But in this article we will use the X-Lite soft background. It does not require special firmware, it is easily installed on Windows, it has a free version.
On the “Auto-tuned Phones” tab, when adding a phone, specify the MAC address of the computer on which X-Lite is installed, and bind the user to it (click the "Add" button and select the previously created user with the extension number attached to it).
After adding the phone, it will appear in the list, as shown in the figure below. The status “Not registered” indicates that the phone has not yet logged into Kerio Operator.
Stage Four - Configuring X-Lite
X-Lite -> SIP Account Settings -> Add
The minimum necessary configuration is done on the “Account” tab.
Display Name - here you can specify anything;
User name- you will find this name in Kerio Operator: “Extension numbers” -> “Edit” of the extension number -> “SIP usernames”;
Password is the password for the user account;
Domain - The IP address or DNS name where Kerio Operator is installed.
The rest of the settings should be as in the figure above. After adding a SIP account, the phone will be registered and in Kerio Operator on the “Autotuned Phones” tab, the status will change from “Not Registered” to the IP address of the connected phone.
At this stage, we already have: several users, several additional (internal) numbers, several registered phones, and as a result, several soft-backgrounds configured and ready to work. Now you can check the operation of the internal connection by dialing the internal number of another user on the soft background and talking to him. Time spent on 4 stages - 20 minutes.
Note : on the official Kerio website you can find a section that helps set up softphones from other manufacturers.
Step Five - Configuring Incoming / Outgoing Calls, Call
Queues Go to the Call Queues tab and add a new queue.
We assign a new number to a new queue, select one of the available strategies for dialing to queue agents, set the queue length, music, priority and indicate whether to record incoming calls or not.
The agents that we add to the created queue are a group of numbers to which an incoming call will be made according to the selected dialer strategy. Accordingly, on the “Agents” tab, it is necessary to add previously created numbers. Although these are the minimum necessary settings for creating a queue, I also recommend that you pay attention to the “Advertisements” and “Backup Switching” tabs. Queue created.
Go to the “Call Routing” tab, add the SIP interface. The data that must be specified at this stage is issued by the SIP provider. To understand the screenshots, the number 3833933129 is the landline phone number. The SIP interface is configured in three simple steps.
Host name or IP address - refers to the IP address of the provider's SIP server;
Username - as a rule, it matches the issued phone number (with the area code).
SIP interface created.
Additional options
In the framework of this article, to the additional options I refer everything that we have not considered, but that I would like to mention. Namely, the simple (read intuitive) creation of conferences, dial-up groups, IVR (virtual secretary), setting up and managing voice mail, changing music on hold, setting voice greetings, setting periodic announcements on a call, notifying the client of the queue, notifying about approximate waiting in line and much more.
A bit about finance
As I wrote at the beginning of the article, Kerio Operator is a paid product. Its cost depends on the number of users. On average, the cost of Kerio Operator for 25 users will be 708 euros, that is, approximately 28,000 rubles. This cost is comparable to the cost of installing and configuring Asterisk, but with Kerio Operator you can independently, without special technical knowledge, support its work and make small changes (maintain a user base, change the dial plan, listen to recordings of conversations, etc.).
Summary
In general, the product was very high quality, stable, easy to use. You can not compare with the free builds of Asterisk, completely different levels. It is necessary to use such a product in small organizations up to 500 people, since all Kerio products are designed primarily for medium and small businesses.
Links
1. Bootable CD - Kerio Operator 1.2.2 ISO image www.kerio.ru/en/operator/download
2. Kerio Operator - Step-by-step configuration manuals.kerio.com/operator/stepbystep/en
3. Kerio Operator - Administrator Guide - manuals.kerio.com/operator/adminguide/en
4. RC1 Kerio Operator 2.0 - www.kerio.ru/node/5551
5. X-Lite - www.counterpath.com/x-lite-download.html