This request is enable the Polycom SoundPoint IP capability to store/retrieve its logs, contact list, and user preferences to/from an FTP server.

See http://list.sipfoundry.org/archive/sipx-dev/msg12912.html for the background discussion, and the Polycom firmware Administration Guide for configuration details.

The [MAC].cfg (or 00000000000.cfg) file is used to configure this capability, through the CONTACTS_DIRECTORY and LOG_FILE_DIRECTORY attributes. The value can be a URL with an alternate directory, server, username and password. The FTP server must allow creation and modification of files, so the existing FTP directory and "PlcmSpIp" username are not an option.

My preference is to continue to use the sipXecs FTP server, but simply use an alternate username and path. This is easiest for administrators, but there is a risk in allowing filesystem write access to the call server with a trivial username and password. (Perhaps this risk could be mitigated by a separate partition, or disk quotas?)

Alternately a remote FTP server could be used, which would remove the risk. But this adds complexity for the installer to set-up, and also would require additional configuration work.

This functionality should handle the case where the Phone's "Serial number" (MAC address) is changed in sipXconfig. (This happens when phones are swapped or replaced.) The contact list and user preferences files contain the MAC address of the phone. If the user is given a new phone, the administrator will update the "Serial number" in sipXconfig. When this happen the names of the files should also be changes so that the new phone picks up the user's contact list and user preferences. (This should be done regardless of whether the FTP server is local or remote.)