I’ve found it extremely helpful to give a detailed read of the Search History Details on both successful and unsuccessful calls in order to fully understand the incremental steps taken by the VCS in the process of connecting a call. When attempting to connect a call, a VCS will execute its search process in exactly the same way every time: It will first apply any Transforms, in order of priority, and see if any of its registered endpoints match the search. If not, it then applies Admin policies, then User (Find Me) Policies, and finally each of the Search Rules. If you are already familiar with the policies and search rules configured on the VCS, you can see them being applied step by step through the search process.  In the process of watching each step of the successful searches, one can learn to quickly analyze the failed searches and possible corrective actions.

For more information, you can refer to the VCS Admin Guide, in the Dial Plan and Call Processing section.

Using the VCS Search History for Troubleshooting Call Failures

VCS Troubleshooting Tools

TheCompassDirection2012-05

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The Compass Direction – May 2012

Then using one of the commands, to receive more help, type the command followed by a “?”. For example, “xconfiguration ?”  You can keep doing this until you have the whole command line.

An easier way to get a list of all the commands available AND the allow paramaters within each command is by using “??”. For example, “xconfiguration systemunit ??” provides the following result.

In addition if you know you are looking for an certain command but can’t remember which family of commands it is you can utilize “//”. For example, to list items beginning with “Gate” type in “xconfiguration // gate” and get the following result.

It is also possible to use multiple “//”. For example to know the status of all connected participants involve Video and resolution and width,  type in “xstatus //vid//res//wid” and get the following result.

Help when using the Command Line Interface (CLI)

 Terminal = PuTTY

Terminal is a powerful CLI software that comes pre-installed on every Mac. However it has no start-up connection screen where you plug in info into boxes, it’s entirely typing based. So to connect to a specific device, remember to begin with one of these handy command lines (after which you will be prompted for a password):

For a TELNET connection, type the following string (please note the lowercase “L” is not a numeral one):

telnet -l {username} {deviceIP}
 

For an SSH connection, type the following string:

ssh -l {username} {deviceIP}
 

Also, the PING command will work in Terminal, but you must add “-c” followed by the number of times you would like to ping an IP, otherwise it won’t stop! Example: ping -c 4 {deviceIP} would ping the supplied IP address four times and then stop.

Where Terminal is an app that speaks to other programs, ZTerm is an app that only speaks to serial ports; making it the perfect Mac app for making direct serial connections to a device. It works with driver based USB to Serial adapter cords too. ZTerm is donation-supported shareware. Download it here http://homepage.mac.com/dalverson/zterm/ZTerm1.2.dmg

CLI Tips For Mac Users

Multiway is a feature that allows endpoints to be escalated to the MCU that will host the multipoint conference.

If a C-Series endpoint has the Multiway parameter configured, then Multisite will not work.

In order to allow Multisite to work, the parameter Multiway has to be removed from the configuration.

The parameter can be removed by going to Configuration> Advance Configuration> Network Services> Multiway, Address. The address will be multiway@domain (domain being the Domain your company uses). This parameter should be removed from the Address configuration.

Enjoy your Multipoint conferencing however you use it.

Multisite vs Multiway

TheCompassDirection2012-04

Please enjoy our monthly newsletter containing information on upcoming events, a message from our company president, quotes about our fabulous instructors, and articles about Telepresence!

The Compass Direction – April 2012

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Compass-Business-Solutions/299021816810586

or make a comment by joining the conversation.

Vote on the value of certifications

Go ahead and input the information and then give the system a reboot!  When all else fails (on your endpoint), reboot!

Endpoint Configurations Not Updating

Now in AD an (A) (or Address) record is created so that when an IP address is queried, it’s routed to its associated FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name, i.e. machine name. domain). In laymens terms, when I type compass1 (machine name).local (domain name), send me to 192.168.0.1. It’s IPv6 counterpart is the (AAAA) record.

A Service (SRV) record by contrast defines a hostname and a port name for specific services to be routed to. For instance, If there is SIP traffic coming through the network, route it to compass1.local on port 80 (yes I know 80 is for http). SRV records are typically used for LDAP, SIP, XMPP, and DNS as well as other protocols.

an SRV record of "_sip._tcp.compass.local. 86400 IN SRV 0 5 5060 compass1.local." is interpreted as:

_service._ protocol. domain name      TTL    class SRV   priority weight port hostname of target machine
_sip._      tcp.     compass.local.  86400   IN    SRV     0        5    80   compass1.local.

LET’S BRING IT ALL TOGETHER NOW!!!

You’re in an organization that has ppl login through compass1.local to access documents, and your server decides to go to Silicon Heaven (bye-bye old friend). Just go into AD and change the IP address in the (A) records to the backup server that houses the same files and no one is the wiser.
Or if you want to do load balancing with your SRV records.

_sip._tcp.compass.com. 86400 IN SRV 10 20 80 Compass1.local.
_sip._tcp.compass.com. 86400 IN SRV 10 10 80 Compass2.local.
_sip._tcp.compass.com. 86400 IN SRV 10 10 80 Compass3.local.

The sip service for compass.com is being balanced on 3 servers that share the same priority. If one server goes does, the traffic by default would be balanced on the other 2…. Cool huh!

The preceding tip was brought to you by Tony Hart.

Active Directory Tip on Routing A and SRV Records