Conference Port Sharing between Switches

[Gymratz]

I am having issues properly configuring Conference Ports on our multiple ShoreTel switches.

Our setup:
(2) SG90 at our HQ (9 Conference Ports, 4 on one, 5 on the other)
(1) SG90V at Child Site (6 Conference Ports)
(1) SG50V at a Child site. (No conference Ports)

My understanding of how it worked:
Either child site could use conference lines from the HQ, but not each other.
The parent site can NOT use a conference line from a child site.

This would mean that our users on the SG50V can still do make-me conferences using the 9 we have at HQ.

I also was under the impression that the 9 could be broken up in any manner. For example there could be two 4 person calls, a 5 and a 4, or a 6 and a 3. The ports could come from either switch, it doesn't matter.

Things that I have noticed; however, seem to point in another way...
It *seems* that the switch that a person is assigned to who initiates the call is the switch that they are "stuck on." If that switch has only 4 conference ports, they can ONLY do Me + 3. I have received multiple e-mail alerts from ST regarding people trying to conference in too many people. Investigating, I found they only had Me + 3, (on a switch with only 4 conference ports). The 5 on the other switch were unused....

One possible solution on my end would be to get another switch and free up so there are 6 ports on each switch for conferencing. But now we still have the problem - what if one user on that switch already has me+4 - why can't another person still do a me+6 if there are ports available in the site...

Can anyone please clarify how the conferencing works AND if there is any way around the "design flaw" that I have noticed?

[Gymratz]

Does anyone have the knowledge to at least confirm/deny how they DO work? Even if not any advice etc... I'd like to find out if my understanding of how it DOES work is even close...

[southeasternMI]

The make me conference doesn't cross sites, but users at the same site can use the ports no matter what switch has the resources.

[Gymratz]

I have had multiple occasions (almost daily) where someone had a 4 person call (Them + 3) and received errors that they could not conference more.
I have it set to e-mail me on errors, the moment it happend I could refresh the "Conference Ports" view in ShoreTel and see that our HQ site had 4/9 ports used (4/4 on one switch 0/5 on the other).

If what you say is true, then we have a major bug as it isn't working that way for us.

Anyone experienced this before?

[southeasternMI]

Have you look at the user group to see how many make me conference parties are allowed.

[Gymratz]

It is properly set to 6.
This did not used to be a problem when both switches had 6 ports available.
Once we went down to 4 on one 5 on the other to make room for a bunch of analog lines, now we have the problem.
Every single time there has been an issue with no more conference ports available, there has only been one switch tapped out - the other one has been completely free.

[blanning]

Shoretel TAC

I would put in a call to TAC, after checking your documentation carefully, but it sounds to me like a single conference call cannot use resources from two switches.This makes a certain amount of sense based on how the conference ability is set up to start with.

Let me know what you find out if you call TAC.

[Gymratz]

We don't have access to TAC as far as I know - and I don't like spending mucho $$$ with our Vendor for them to call on issues like this. Was hoping for some expert responses on the forum instead .

[luminiferous]

Hello folks, you are on the right track, and no need to spend $$$ on support.
MakeMe conference calls cannot span across Sites or switches., As you have done, you can have conference ports on two different switches, though they do not aggregate. If switch A has 4 MakeMe conference ports enabled and switch B has 6 MakeMe conference ports enabled, switch A would be able to handle a four person conference call, while switch B would be able to handle a 6 person conference call.
Take care.