Devices

Devices

Nova PBX auto-provisions popular IP phone brands. Register a phone once by MAC address and the platform handles the rest: when the phone contacts the SIPSTACK provisioning server it receives a configuration file that sets its SIP account, extension, key layout, and phone features — no manual SIP credential entry required.

Navigate to Nova PBX → Devices → Devices. Viewing this page requires View Devices or Manage Devices (or View PBX settings / Manage PBX settings and devices); registering and editing phones requires Manage Devices or Manage PBX settings and devices.

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Supported brands and models

The model catalog covers 60+ phones across three vendors. Picking a model unlocks the on-screen key-layout preview and accurate provisioning templates.

Brand	Auto-provisioning	Models
Yealink	Full (SIP NOTIFY push)	T3x / T4x / T5x desk series, W5x / W7x DECT, CP conference, EXP50 expansion
Grandstream	Polling-based	GXP and GRP desk series, GBX20, DP DECT, GAC conference
Poly	Full (SIP NOTIFY push)	VVX series, Edge E series, CCX series
Other	Generic	Registers without catalog metadata; may need manual phone-side config

Note

Grandstream phones do not support SIP NOTIFY check-config messages. They poll the provisioning server on a schedule (typically every 1–4 hours) instead of receiving an immediate push when configuration changes. Yealink and Poly phones receive an immediate push.

Firmware is not distributed by SIPSTACK — keep phones on the vendor’s recommended release yourself; each setup guide shows how.

How auto-provisioning works

Your whole organization shares one provisioning URL and one provisioning PIN:

https://<slug>:<PIN>@cfg.sipstack.com/<slug>/

<slug> is your tenant slug (also the HTTP Basic Auth username) and <PIN> is your provisioning PIN. Both live in Nova PBX → System → PBX Settings → Provisioning Access — not on this page. There are no per-device passwords: the provisioning server tells your phones apart by the MAC address you register here.

1. Generate the PIN once in Provisioning Access and put the URL in DHCP option 160 on the network your phones use (steps per DHCP server). Phones that cannot use DHCP take the same values typed into their own provisioning settings — the register page shows the fields per manufacturer.
2. You register the device in Switchboard (MAC address + brand, optionally model and a starting template).
3. You assign an extension to line 1 and click Apply Changes. Applying publishes the device’s configuration file to the provisioning server — until you apply, the server has nothing to hand the phone.
4. The phone boots, picks up the URL, authenticates with the slug and PIN, and downloads its configuration: SIP server, account credentials, extension number, key layout, and phone features (time zone, codecs, BLF keys).

Rotating the PIN keeps the old one valid for a 24-hour grace window — update DHCP option 160 at every site inside it.

Registration needs a PIN first

Until someone generates the PIN, the register page blocks with Generate your provisioning PIN first — phones would get 401 from the provisioning server, so there is nothing useful to register yet. If you do not have the Manage PBX settings and devices permission, ask a PBX admin to generate it.

Registering a device

1. Navigate to Nova PBX → Devices → Devices and click Register device.

   

2. Enter the MAC address (format AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF; the sticker is on the back of the phone). The manufacturer is auto-detected from the MAC prefix where possible.

3. Pick the Manufacturer and (optionally) the Model — choosing a model shows a live preview of the phone’s physical key layout. For a DECT system, register the base station, never a handset.

4. Optionally add a Description (“Reception desk”) and pick a Device Template to pre-fill the programmable keys (see Device Templates).

5. Click Register device.

You land in the key editor: assign an extension to line 1, drag extensions onto BLF / speed-dial slots, and follow the on-screen setup steps for your manufacturer. Finally, click Apply Changes in the banner to push the staged configuration live.

Assigning extensions

Extension assignment happens at the line level, in the device editor (device page → Open editor, or the Keys & Lines tab):

• Line 1 is the device’s primary extension — what it rings as and dials out from.
• Multi-line phones can carry additional extensions on lines 2+, or span one line across several physical keys (shared-line appearance).
• One extension can run on multiple devices simultaneously (desk phone + softphone); one device line carries exactly one extension.

DECT base stations use a Handsets tab instead — assign one extension per handset slot, then pair each handset to the base over the air. See DECT Cordless Phones.

Device detail

Click any row to open the device.

Tab	What’s there
Keys & Lines	SIP line assignments, programmable-key table, live phone-layout preview, link to the drag-and-drop editor
Handsets (DECT only)	One slot per handset — assign or clear extensions
Settings	Per-device overrides: time zone, NTP, codec preset, admin password
Status	Provisioning state, last-provisioned time / IP, firmware, quick actions

Quick actions (Status tab)

• Reprovision — sends a SIP NOTIFY check-sync so the phone re-downloads its config within seconds, without a reboot. Use after changing keys or settings. (Grandstream phones poll instead.)
• Reboot phone — full restart via SIP NOTIFY (briefly drops in-progress calls). Try Reprovision first.
• Preview config — renders the exact config file the phone will fetch, for troubleshooting. SIP and admin passwords are masked in the preview.

If a phone’s provisioning credentials are the problem, the fix is organization-wide, not per device: rotate the PIN in Provisioning Access and update DHCP option 160.

Provisioning status

Status	Meaning
Registered	Configuration published to the provisioning server for this device.
Pending	A push was attempted but has not succeeded — apply again to retry.
Not Connected	Never pushed: the device has no published configuration yet.

What these do not tell you

These statuses describe what SIPSTACK has published, not what the phone has fetched — the provisioning server does not report back per-phone downloads. To confirm a specific phone is really pulling its file, check the phone’s own status screen, or fetch its config yourself with curl -I -u <slug>:<PIN> https://cfg.sipstack.com/<slug>/<MAC>.cfg.

A device with no extension on any line cannot be provisioned at all: nothing is ever published for it, so it sits at Not Connected indefinitely. Assign an extension to line 1 and apply.

Tip

Bulk rollout: register every phone first with descriptive labels, then boot them one-by-one.

Replacing or re-provisioning a phone

• Replacing hardware: register the new MAC, assign the same extension to line 1, unplug the old phone and delete its entry. The new phone fetches the extension’s config on boot.
• Re-provisioning after factory reset: the device entry stays valid — the phone re-fetches its config on next boot as soon as it has the provisioning URL again (from DHCP option 160, or re-entered on the phone). Nothing needs to be reset in Switchboard.

Common questions

Phone says “registration failed” / “no service”. The device likely hasn’t fetched its config. Check that (1) your organization’s PIN has been generated, (2) the phone has the provisioning URL (DHCP option 160 or the per-manufacturer fields on the register page), (3) the MAC matches what you registered, (4) line 1 has an extension assigned, and (5) you clicked Apply Changes after configuring. Step-by-step: A new phone won’t pull its configuration.

Can phones show our shared phonebook? Not yet — see Phonebook.

“This MAC is already registered.” Each MAC is unique on the platform. If you bought a used phone, the previous owner’s registration may still exist — contact support to release it.

Can I register a softphone here? No — softphones (Pulse mobile/desktop) self-register through the user’s login. This page is for SIP hardware only; the two converge at the extension level.

Devices vs Extensions? Extensions are user-side (number, voicemail, forwarding rules). Devices are hardware-side (physical phones). See Extensions.