There are two configuration files that deal with call parking, features.conf and res_parking.conf. Both files should be located in the /etc/asterisk/ directory.

res_parking.conf

There should be an existing res_parking.conf file. Similar to what I have done with other configuration files, I will rename it to res_parking.conf.sample to use a reference. Then I will create a new file to work from. To rename the file use the command:

sudo mv /etc/asterisk/res_parking.conf /etc/asterisk/res_parking.conf.sample

Now we will want to create a new file to modify. I will use nano to open the text editor for the new file:

sudo nano /etc/asterisk/res_parking.conf

There are two contexts found within the original res_parking.conf file, [general] and [default]. The [general] context has no defined settings. The [default] context sets the default parking lot configuration. The parkext (parking extension) is set to 700. Dialing this would initiate parking. The parking spaces are set with parkpos (parking positions) and are a range of available places. You can modify the range to increase or decrease the necessary parking spots. The default context used with call parking is [parkedcalls]. Asterisk will create this context to manage call parking. In the next lesson this context will be included in the dialplan.

Using the default configuration, add the following information to the res_parking.conf file and save it:

[general]

[default]
parkext => 700
parkpos => 701-720
context => parkedcalls

features.conf

I will plan to keep the original features.conf file because there may be options enabled for other features in Asterisk. There should be a line of code that is commented out for the parkcall option. Using nano, find the line of code below and remove the beginning semicolon to uncomment the line.

parkcall => #72 ; Park call (one step parking) -- Make sure to set the K and/or k option in the Dial() app call!

By uncommenting the parkcall option, a user can dial #72 while on a call to initiate park calling. If you read the commented area above, the “K” or “k” option will have to be used in the Dial() application. This will be covered in the next lesson.