How to create a VICIdial Extension Group

When you set up a Remote agent in VICIdial, by default it rings one specific Extension. That works fine for a single agent on a fixed line. But what if you want the system to try several different Dialplan extensions — maybe because the agent has a desk phone, a softphone, and a backup number? That is exactly what Extension Groups are for.

Extension Groups let you define a set of dialplan extensions and attach them to a Remote Agent record. When a call comes in for that agent, VICIdial works through the group instead of a single hard-coded extension. The setup is a two-step process: create the group first, then add extensions to it.

Step 1 — Create the Extension Group record

Log in to your VICIdial admin panel and navigate to the Remote Agents section. You will find an Extension Groups link near the top of the page. Click it, then click to add a new group. Give the group a clear name — something like "sales-desk-group" or "support-mobile-fallback" — and save it. The group itself is just a container at this point; it has no extensions in it yet.

Step 2 — Add extensions to the group

Once the group exists, go back into it and add your first extension entry. Each entry has two required fields: the extension number itself (a Dialplan extension in Asterisk — for example "1001" or "SIP/mytrunk") and a Rank value. The Rank controls which extension the system tries first. Lower rank numbers are tried before higher ones.

Add as many extension entries as you need. A typical setup might have three entries — rank 1 for the agent's desk phone, rank 2 for their softphone, rank 3 for a mobile fallback. Save each entry before adding the next.

How the group is wired to a call flow

After the group is built, open the Remote Agent record you want it to affect. There is an "Extension Group" dropdown field on that record. Select your new group there. Once you do that, VICIdial ignores the plain "External Extension" field on the agent and routes calls through the group instead. For background on how Remote Agents work in general, see our VICIdial Remote Agents guide.

flowchart LR
  A[Inbound Call] --> B[Remote Agent Record]
  B --> C{Extension Group set?}
  C -- No --> D[Use External Extension field]
  C -- Yes --> E[Extension Group]
  E --> F[Rank 1 Extension]
  E --> G[Rank 2 Extension]
  E --> H[Rank 3 Extension]

Also worth reading: How to add a Remote Agent in VICIdial walks through setting up the agent record itself before you wire in a group.

If you are running a fully managed VICIdial stack where Extension Groups and Ingroup routing are already configured for you, take a look at our VICIfast plans to see what comes included out of the box.