What the User ID Start field on a Remote Agent does

When you create or edit a Remote agent record in VICIdial, the very first field you encounter is User ID Start. It looks like a simple number box, but it carries more weight than most fields on the form. This post explains exactly what it controls, what VICIdial checks against it, and why picking the wrong value causes silent routing failures.

What User ID Start actually is

User ID Start is the VICIdial user account ID that anchors the remote-agent entry. When VICIdial inserts the remote-agent rows into the system, it uses this ID as the starting point. For a single-line remote agent, one row is created and that user ID is the only one involved. For a multi-line remote agent, VICIdial increments the ID by one for each additional line — so a User ID Start of 111 with three lines produces entries for user IDs 111, 112, and 113.

You only need to create a real VICIdial user record for the starting ID (111 in that example). The incremented IDs (112, 113) are auto-generated by the remote-agent system — you don't manually create them as separate users. For a deeper look at why multi-line remote agents work this way, see our VICIdial Remote Agents overview.

Validation: what VICIdial checks

VICIdial enforces two rules on User ID Start before it will save the record:

1. The value must be digits only. No letters, dashes, or spaces. The form rejects anything that isn't a plain integer.
2. The user ID must match an active user account. VICIdial looks up the ID in its user table. If no active Agent account exists with that ID, the submission fails. This also means the user account must not be disabled or deleted.

There's a third check that's easy to overlook: the full range of IDs from User ID Start through User ID Start + (Number of Lines − 1) must not overlap the range of any other remote agent already in the system. If you already have a remote agent using IDs 110–112 and you try to create one starting at 111 with two lines (111–112), VICIdial will reject it. Overlapping line ranges would confuse the system about which remote-agent record owns a given user slot.

User level and vdremote.php access

If the remote agent is a real person who needs to log into VICIdial's remote agent web page (vdremote.php) — rather than just being a forwarding entry for a phone number — the VICIdial user account for User ID Start must have a user level of 4 or higher. A User group with level 1 or lower won't be able to authenticate through vdremote.php. For comparison, a standard agent using the regular agent screen doesn't need to go through vdremote.php at all, as covered in remote agent vs standard agent.

How User ID Start drives the real-time view

flowchart TD
  A[User ID Start = 111
Number of Lines = 3] --> B[RA goes ACTIVE]
  B --> C[VICIdial inserts line entries]
  C --> D[R/111 appears in real-time report]
  C --> E[R/112 appears in real-time report]
  C --> F[R/113 appears in real-time report]
  D --> G[Calls distributed across all 3 lines]
  E --> G
  F --> G

Once the remote agent is ACTIVE, its lines show up in the Real-time report Campaign screen prefixed with R/ followed by the user ID. The Campaign sees R/111, R/112, and R/113 as available slots. Each slot can take one call at a time. The ra_call_control API can address these slots individually to hang up calls or set Disposition codes. If your use case involves automated outbound broadcast or survey dialing, choosing a User ID Start range that doesn't clash with your live agent IDs is critical — keep remote-agent IDs in a clearly separate numeric block. For managed VICIdial hosting where this is handled for you from day one, see our pricing page.