Can't make calls when voicemail is down

[jasonhilt69]

First off, our servers are old, EoL, EoS.  New servers are planned but wont be here for quite awhile.

Our voicemail server is dying.  It will just shutdown at random times for no reason that we can find.  Normally wouldn't be a problem as we can go without voicemail for awhile while the server reboots.

Problem is that while the voicemail server is down, some outgoing calls can't go through.  You just get the busy signal/call failed beeping.  I could call one outside number, but two others wouldn't work.

Call manager is version: 6.1.2.1000-13 and VM is Version 7.0.1.10000-323.  Once again, I know they are old but I have to deal with a school network and little money.

Any ideas on why calls would not go through when VM is down?  I can't think of any reason why CM would be dependent on VM to make an outside call.

[Jaime Valencia]

They have absolutely nothing to for outgoing calls, unless you have some weird call flow going on that involves the VM server.

Take a look at CUCM traces and GW debugs to find out if the VM server really has anything to do.

[jasonhilt69]

I haven't dealt much with the system at this level...never had to before.  What should I set in the trace filter settings?  Right now I have:

Service Group - CM Services
Service - Cisco CallManager

Or should I just go through "Troubleshooting Trace Settings" and check only CallManager?

Not sure whats needed/not needed to trace the calls. 

[m.batts]

Jaime is right there is no reason for outgoing calls to fail when Voicemail is down.Unless perhaps

you are using some sort of handler in unity to forward the call out??

Before you start trawling through traces, check unity handlers and see if you have anything that sounds like it might be forwarding calls.We're relying on a good description being applied to the handler when it was written though.

Out if interest if you shutdown the vm server gracefully does the issue occur or is it only when it crashes and reboots? 

[jasonhilt69]

We do have call handlers on many of the main lines for the schools but I thought those only handled incoming calls to the schools main line number.  Outgoing calls do get the schools main line number as their caller ID.  It's just weird that only some calls don't go through while others are just fine.  I looked in the call handlers but don't see anything that would be affecting outgoing calls.

I've done an analysis of an outgoing call that didn't work and don't see it hitting any call handlers right now. 

As for shutting it down gracefully, I'll see if I can do that after hours sometime.

Last resort, I'll just turn the server back on as soon as I know it crashed.

[m.batts]

ok , so sounds like we can rule out call handlers as an issue.So my gut feeling is that Voicemail is crashing and then possibly spooking Callmanager or the other way round.

My guess is that the Callmanager is failing calls intermittently so next thing would be to figure out if  its always the same numbers that fail? or whether it's random.

[Brandon Pierce]

Check the RTMT alerts for any CUCM issues as well.  There might be faults you arn't aware of that are happening.  Pull logs for the calls that you know failed within a time frame too.  The SDL/SDI logs will provide you with a plethora of info.

[Charles Hill]

A quick an easy way to determine what path an outbound call should take is by using the dial analyzer, which is under serviceability -> Tools -> Dialed number analyzer.

Enter the phone -> dn -> and the number dialed and it will give you a report and show you exactly where it should be going.

I would definitely follow Jamie's recommendation as far as the gw debug to determine if its hitting the pstn.

If its a pri, debug isdn q931.