The Polycom phones have numerous configuration files; they are exhaustively documented at the Polycom support website. There is so much documentation there that it is sometimes hard to find good summary information, so I have summarized the main configuration files in the table below. You can download the current versions of the IP650 files here. Note that many of these files’ names contain Ethernet MAC addresses. These files are only read by phones with the corresponding MAC address. In these examples we program the phone with the MAC address a0b0c0d0e0f0, so substitute your phone’s MAC for this. You can find the MAC address on the bottom of the phone or if the phone is functional by pressing Menu 2, 2, 2. The MAC address 000000000000 is a wildcard address – all the phones read the files with 000000000000 as part of their names.
To get the IP650 working with a boot server, you only need to consider three files:
Of these, 000000000000.cfg comes as a part of the standard software load from the Polycom website; the other two you create yourself. The only change you make to 000000000000.cfg is to add in the two other filenames so that the phone knows to load them. Step 6, Method 3 describes how to do this.
Polycom delivers two generic configuration files, phone1.cfg and sip.cfg. Because these are overwritten when you update your software, you should not keep any changes in them. Instead you create a file that includes your local changes (the file is called local-settings.cfg in this example), and a file for each phone that contains configuration details specific to that phone (the file is called a0b0c0d0e0f0-phone1.cfg in this example). You have to instruct the phone to look for these files by putting their names in the master configuration file, 000000000000.cfg, as described in Step 6, Method 3. When the phone boots it gets your new settings from these files, and then all the generic settings from the original phone1.cfg and sip.cfg.
The order in which the phone reads the files is important; for any given configuration parameter, the value used is the first one the phone reads. The phone only reads a 000000000000 file if there is no corresponding file with its actual MAC address in its name, so values in files with a0b0c0d0e0f0 in their names override values in files with 000000000000 in their names. The following table explains the purpose of each of the main files on the boot server and where it comes from. The order of the table is the order of reading the files:
| File | Origin | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 2345-12600-001.bootrom.ld | Firmware download from Polycom website | 2345-12600-001 is the product number of the IP650 phone. There are several files with similar names in the firmware download, but the phone ignores them. The phone inspects the header of this file, and if its internal flash contains the same version, it terminates the download and ignores the file. If it is a more recent version the phone downloads it and updates its flash memory. |
| a0b0c0d0e0f0.cfg | You create this file, but it is not advised | If this file is present, it is used instead of 000000000000.cfg. This file contains a list of the other configuration files. The phone reads the list and loads the files. Polycom has deprecated the use of this file, so this example does not use one. |
| 000000000000.cfg | Part of standard software load from Polycom website, edited by you | The phone only reads this file if a0b0c0d0e0f0.cfg is not present. In this example we do not have a a0b0c0d0e0f0.cfg file, so the phone uses 000000000000.cfg instead. This file contains a list of the other configuration files. The phone reads the list and loads the files. Here is an example. |
| 2345-12600-001.sip.ld | Firmware download from Polycom website | Behaves the same way as 2345-12600-001.bootrom.ld |
| a0b0c0d0e0f0-phone1.cfg | You create this file | This file contains the registration info for the phone to register with service providers and PBXes. It also contains the flags indicating which features are enabled on the phone. Here is an example. |
| local-settings.cfg | You create this file. | This file contains changes to the default setup that are common to all the phones on a boot server, like time settings. Here is an example. |
| phone1.cfg | Part of standard software load from Polycom website. Do not edit this file. | This file contains the default phone settings, the ones that are modified by the a0b0c0d0e0f0-phone1.cfg file in this example setup. Use the a0b0c0d0e0f0-phone1.cfg and local-settings.cfg files to override settings in phone1.cfg – if you make any changes to phone1.cfg itself they will be lost when you update the Polycom firmware on your boot server. |
| sip.cfg | Part of standard software load from Polycom website. Do not edit this file. | This file contains another slew of default settings – the Polycom phones are highly configurable. Use the a0b0c0d0e0f0-phone1.cfg and local-settings.cfg files to override settings in sip.cfg – if you make any changes to sip.cfg itself they will be lost when you update the Polycom firmware on your boot server. |
| a0b0c0d0e0f0-phone.cfg | Generated automatically by the phone. Do not edit this file, except to clear out junk. | This file contains preferences programmed into the phone by the user. One might think that this file could be used instead of having to specify a0b0c0d0e0f0-phone1.cfg, and if you put the information here instead, the phone does indeed recognize it and function correctly. But when you make any changes to the setup using the phone user interface (for example setting the phone to use a headset by default) the phone overwrites the previous copy of a0b0c0d0e0f0-phone.cfg and all your phone-specific configurations are lost. This file is anomalous in another way, too. Even though it is loaded relatively late in the boot process, the values in it can override values in earlier files.
If one of the phone attributes (like a line button) gets ‘stuck’ with a value you don’t want, and you are unable to clear it by editing the [mac]-phone1.cfg file, you might consider looking in this file to see if it is set here. If so just delete the bad data (or the entire file) and restart the phone. |
| 000000000000-license.cfg | Bought from a Polycom dealer. | This file switches on optional phone features for an entire site. |
| a0b0c0d0e0f0-license.cfg | Bought from a Polycom dealer | This file switches on features (like call recording) for a particular phone. |
| a0b0c0d0e0f0-directory.xml | You create this file. | This is the local directory file – put your address book in it. It’s not in any standard address book format. Polycom provides a template file in the standard software load: 0000000000-directory~.xml. If a0b0c0d0e0f0-directory.xml is present, the phone does not look for 000000000000-directory.xml. |
| 000000000000-directory.xml | You create this file. | The phone loads this file into its local directory if there is no a0b0c0d0e0f0-directory.xml. There is a bug in the phone firmware that means that this file only loads once. Changes to the file are ignored by the phone, no matter how many times you reboot or even restore the factory defaults. You have to reformat the phone’s memory if you want to update this file. A better alternative is to use a0b0c0d0e0f0-directory.xml instead, or a proper LDAP setup. |
| a0b0c0d0e0f0-boot.log | Generated automatically by the phone | This is the file you look at to figure out why the phone is not working properly. |
| a0b0c0d0e0f0-app.log | Generated automatically by the phone | This is another file to look at when your phone is not working properly. |