Ask the Expert: Installing, Configuring, and Troubleshooting Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

[ciscomoderator]

https://supportforums.cisco.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/102-29498-2-126367/dejan_petrovic_bio.png " rel="nofollow" target="globalCDCpopup">With https://supportforums.cisco.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/102-29498-2-126367/dejan_petrovic_bio.png " rel="nofollow" target="globalCDCpopup">Dejan Petrovic

Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about different MeetingPlace deployment types, what they include and require, and what they are capable of with Cisco expert Dejan Petrovic.  Cisco Unified MeetingPlace is a conferencing solution providing audio and video conferencing, and data sharing experience. It can be fully on premise solution or a hybrid solution integrated with WebEx for data sharing capability. Dejan  will be answering any questions about installation, upgrade, migration and troubleshooting processes.

Dejan Petrovic is a Cisco customer support engineer and team lead in the Conferencing Technical Assistance Center team based in Boxborough. He has been providing support to customers and partners for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace solutions since 2009. He has more than eight years of experience working in the IT industry as system administrator, business manager, and networking consultant. Petrovic holds a bachelor’s degree in computer network and information systems as well as several Cisco certifications, including CCNA, Cisco IPCC Express Specialist,  and MeetingPlace Support Specialist.

Remember to use the rating system to let Dejan know if you have received an adequate response. 

Dejan might not be able to answer each question due to the volume expected during this event. Remember that you can continue the conversation on the Collaboration, Voice and Video sub-community discussion forum shortly after the event.  This event lasts through February 8, 2013. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

[Jonathan Seville]

Hello Dejan, thanks again for your previous answer regarding MP8.5 recordings, it was very helpful. As a follow up question if I decide to purchase the Web Server for MP 8.5 do I:

1. need SAN/NAS storage to store recordings

2. Need additional licenses besides the MP8X-WB-MCS-K9? I already have the L-MP8X-USR-1 for all users.

Thanks for your assistance.

[dpetrovi]

Hi Jonathan,

You don't need SAN/NAS storage to store recordings. Recordings can be stored locally on the MP Web server. You can use a remote storage if you want, but it is not needed.

You also don't need any additional licenses for MP Web server.

One thing I wanted to mention. I can see in your first thread you were talking about MP8.0, but now you have a question about MP8.5. Which version do you currently have.

I am asking because of a major difference in recording retention. In MP8.0 MR1, you can preserve recordings for 730 days, so they stay accessible through MP Web interface, while in MP8.5, this duration has been radically decreased to 38 days.

If you wanted to store your audio recordings for longer, you could copy the mp3/wav/wmf file to a different location and rename the file like any other file. This recording wouldn't be accessible via MP Web interface, but at least you could send a recording file to whoever needed it.

Please, let me know if my answer is clear and if you need me to elaborate more.

Thank you.

-Dejan

[Jonathan Seville]

Thank you Dejan, I was referring to MP 8.5. I appreciate you pointing out the difference and again your answer was very helpful. Thank you.

[dpetrovi]

Thank you for your question, Jonathan. Let me know of any other questions you might have.

Have a nice day.

-Dejan

[wisit_jan]

What is the difference between webex node MCS and ASR in webex site provisioning form?

I will implement Meetingplace 8.5 with webex scheduling. I have one Meetingpalce Application server(EMS) and one Cisco SPA, WebEx Node for ASR 1000 Series(SPA-WMA-K9). when I fill the webex site provisioning form but don't have question about webex node for ASR. have only webex node for MCS(see attached file)

Question

1. How to fill about webex node for ASR in webex site provisioning form?

2. what is difference between https://wmabts.webex.com/wmams/login.do and https://wma.webex.com/wmams in wma-url?

[dpetrovi]

Hello,

Thank you for your questions.

Unfortunately, my colleagues and I don't deal with WebEx Provisioning at all. It is all done by Cisco Account Team and Cisco WebEx Customer Service Manager.

I know that in the provisioning form you have only field for WebEx Node for MCS, so I am not sure what to do if you have WebEx Node for ASR. Especially, that WebEx Node for ASR is supported by Cisco WAN team.

Unfortunately, I don't have the answers to that question.

As for the difference between https://wmabts.webex.com/wmams/login.do and https://wma.webex.com/wmams in wma-url, wmabts is not a production site (bts = beta test site). It is used for lab deployments and tests.

wma is a production site and should be requested for production deployments.

I hope you will be satisfied with this partial answer to your questions.

Thank you.

-Dejan

[wisit_jan]

Thank you Dejan,

one question in meetingplace 8.5, what is difference solution between webex node for MCS and ASR?(audio or video flow)

[dpetrovi]

Hi,

WebEx Node for ASR provides full WebEx service on premise (IP Audio, Web Cam video, and Data Conferencing - you would need to have 1x ASR node for IP Audio/WebCam, and 1x ASR for Data Conferencing).

More details about benefits you can find here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/vpndevc/ps10128/ps10339/ps10353/data_sheet_c78-530577.html

WebEx Node for MCS provides only Data Conferencing, no IP Audio nor Web Cam is not possible.

More details about benefits can be found here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10728/index.html

Also, WebEx Node for MCS is end of sale since September 2012, so if you don't have it, you won't be able to order it.

I hope this helps.

-Dejan

[engoukojnr]

Hi Dejan,

i have a Question about MeetingPlace Servers in the DMZ. I have two WebServers in my DMZ cluster. The se two have PRIVATE Ips which are NAted to some Public IPs. However, when i schedule meetings that even external guys can attend, the correct link is sent but when clicked, as the meeting loads, i see that the Server redirescts traffic to the internal IPs which then timeout showing Flash Time out. When i telnet to the Port 1627 with the Public IP from a public network (Internet) it shows open.

In addition, the internal Servers also redirect traffic to one of the external servers so that even the Internal guys Cannot attend as the page cannot load. However, when i schedule only internal meeting, all is perfect. Help!

I.e What IPS s should i give my DMZ servers? Private or Public? Should my Internal servers have access to Internet or it doesnt matter?

Regards,

OUKO -KE

[dpetrovi]

Hello Joseph,

Thank you for your questions. I will try to answer them to the best of my abilities.

Per your description, I can see you have two external MP Web servers in your DMZ zone. These servers have internal IP addresses configured for their NICs, while they are NATed with public IPs on the Firewall.

First of all, this is totally alright, and your external MP Web servers do not have to have public IP addresses.

However, you have to ensure that in the Web Server Configuration parameters for each of the external MP Web servers (RDP to external MP Web server, open web browser locally on the server, go to the http://localhost:8002/mpweb/admin/ , click on Web server, click on the entry for the local web server), and verify that the values populated for Hostname [Home Page] and Hostname [Web Conferencing] are either publicly resolvable hostnames, or publicly reachable IP addresses. If I had more details about your domain names, etc. I could be more specific.

One more thing to confirm with Hostname [Home Page] and Hostname [Web Conferencing] is that the IP addresses in little parenthesis next to the labels (e.g. Hostname [Home Page] (192.168.1.4)   ) matches the value entries populated for these parameters (either the hostname, or a public IP populated). 

Once you verify this, let me know if you can access the web server normally (the homepage and web conferencing).

Furthermore, when you schedule a meeting that allows external participants, that meeting is being hosted on the external server. Internal participants will go to the internal MP Web server, enter the meeting ID, and then be redirected to the external server. That is the expected behavior.

If you schedule internal only meetings, they are hosted on the internal MP Web server. Internal MP Web servers should not be accessible from the Internet, and that is the main reason why you should have external servers in the DMZ. Internal servers should be able to communicate with the external MP Web servers, but no one from the Internet should be able to access the internal MP Web servers.

Finally, ensure that your Internal DNS server can resolve both internal and external MP Web servers' hostnames/IP addresses, while the public DNS (on the Internet) needs to be able to resolve only external MP Web servers hostnames, and match the external IP addresses that are NATed to the internal ones.

This is the best I could answer you based on the infromation in hand and not reviewing the configuration of the system.

Let me know of any questions you might have.

-Dejan

[engoukojnr]

Hi Dejan,

Thank you for your prompt response. However, as i try to login locally, i am getting this error

ERROR! The following error(s) occurred during the last operation:

• Error:[22711] Database error [91317404]: (
  

Yet i am trying to log in with the exact same profile i use in the internal webservers. Is there a default User and password or wgy is this the case?

[dpetrovi]

Joseph,

Is this an error you see after you log in locally to the machine? Or you cannot even log in locally to the Windows? If you can login to the machine, but cannot access the Admin interface in a local browser, please, check the Services and that Cisco Unified MeetingPlace services are running.

Admin account should be the same as on the internal, but keep in mind that you cannot use predefined admin account to login to web admin GUI. You will have to use a different account with admin privileges to access the web admin GUI. (in MP7.1 and above)

At this point, only so much we can discuss through a forum session. If basic review of services cannot allow you access to the Admin Web interface, I will have to advise you to open a ticket with TAC to troubleshoot this more.

-Dejan

[engoukojnr]

Dejan,

I get this error when i try to use the same admin account i use whenprompted to login. I can login to the Windows but i cannot log into the Webserver. I have also noticed that my DMZ webserver is issueing error logs  about the DB yet from Outside i can load the default page using the Public IP. See below.

Database error [-1]: Could not find server 'NOC-MPDBSV2' in sysservers. Execute sp_addlinkedserver to add the server to sysservers.

[dpetrovi]

Unfortunately, Joseph, at this time, you would need  to open a TAC ticket, so one of our engineers can WebEx into your system, review the logs and status of the machines in order to see what might be happening. It almost looks like access to your SQL server has been an issue, but I cannot tell without looking at your system.

It is impossible to troubleshoot this kind of an issue this way.

Please, open a ticket with Conferencing TAC, and we will work with you in identifying the underlying problem.

Thank you.

-Dejan

[Michael Lee]

Hi Dejan,

We are looking to upgrade our MP 8.0x to MP8.5x to get the benefit of the port licnese changes.

We are using the MCS 7845-I3 servers for MP8.0, as the upgrade is really a full reinstallation.

My manager was wondering (near insisting) if we could install VMWare ESXi on the MCS servers, and then install MP8.5 as host systems on top of the VMWare ESXi.

Firstly I would have though that this was a not supported build and secondly it would the reduced resources avaliable to MP8.5 and impact the number of conferences etc.

Are you able to give me the definitive No, that its not supported.

Regards,

Mike.