What is the VICIdial dialplan number?

The Dial Plan number is the number you dial to make a phone ring. That is the whole job of this field. If you punch that number on another phone or have the system route a call to it, the phone with this dialplan number is the one that rings. It is easy to confuse with the phone extension, but they answer two different questions: the extension is the device's name to Asterisk, and the dialplan number is what you press to reach it.

It is defined in extensions.conf

The Dial Plan number maps to an entry in the extensions.conf file on your Asterisk server. That file is the Dialplan, the routing logic that decides what happens when a number is dialed. When you set a Dial Plan number on a phone, you are telling the system: when this number comes through, ring this device. VICIdial and Asterisk together wire that up so you do not edit the file by hand for a standard phone.

Extension versus dialplan number

This is the distinction that trips people up, so here it is plainly. The extension is how Asterisk names the device internally, like test101 for a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) phone. The dialplan number is the number a human dials to reach that device, like 8368. They are usually different values, and they live in different fields on the phone record. The full breakdown of the name side is in what the VICIdial phone extension is. The diagram below shows the path a dialed number takes.

flowchart LR
  A[Someone dials a number] --> B[Asterisk extensions.conf]
  B --> C{Number matches a dialplan entry}
  C -->|Yes| D[Route to the matching phone]
  D --> E[That phone rings]
  C -->|No| F[Call fails or follows fallback]

Trace it from the top. A number is dialed, Asterisk looks it up in the dialplan, and if it finds a matching entry it routes the call to the phone tied to that number, which then rings. No match means the call cannot land on that phone.

Why the two fields are separate

Keeping the name and the dialed number apart gives you flexibility. The internal device name has to follow Asterisk naming rules, while the dialed number can be whatever short, memorable digits suit your team. You might name a device descriptively for your own clarity, yet have agents reach it with a tidy three or four digit number. Because they are independent fields, you can change one without disturbing the other, and a phone keeps its identity to the server even if you decide to renumber what people dial.

Picking a number

You choose the Dial Plan number when you add or modify the phone. Pick something easy for agents to remember and consistent across your phones, like a simple numbering scheme. There is one catch: VICIdial reserves certain numbers for its own internal features, and if you enter one of those you will see a Reserved Dialplan Number warning. A reserved number cannot be dialed to ring your phone, so you have to choose a different one. The full explanation of that warning, and the exact ranges to avoid, is in fixing the Reserved Dialplan Number warning.

Where it fits on the record

The Dial Plan number is one of the required fields when you create a phone, alongside the extension, the protocol, and the passwords. The VICIdial phones pillar guide shows how every one of those fields fits together so a phone is reachable and can place calls.

If you would rather have dialplan and phone records handled for you, VICIfast provisions a secure VICIdial server in under 40 seconds with everything wired up. See our pricing for what is included.