Check meetme / conference bridge resource usage

[Difan Zhao]

Hi experts,

Sorry if it is dumb question but I can't find it online and I might not search it the right way...

So I am playing with the conference bridge configuration. I have a built-in one on the CUCM publisher. I also have an IOS one registered. Now when I start a meetme call, how do I check which bridge it is using? How do I find out other information such as how many parties are in the call and how many more parties/conferences can the system support?

Thanks,

Difan

[Jaime Valencia]

How many conferencees a CFB can support is a fixed number, you configure that.

As to usage, you can use the counters in RTMT to see real time usage.

[Difan Zhao]

Thank you Jamie for pointing me to the right direction. So I found a few graphs in the Performance -> Cisco Media Streaming App and I noticed that when I started the meetme, and when each phone joined, it counted as two streams.. Does it make sense? Is it one in and one out for each phone?

And... Why is the total CFBstreamsAvailable was 105 in total? I found on the internet that the cucm supports 48 participants. Is it 96? And my IOS router would count as another 8? 

 Profile ID = 2, Service = CONFERENCING, Resource ID = 2
 Profile Description :
 Profile Service Mode : Non Secure
 Profile Admin State : UP
 Profile Operation State : ACTIVE
 Application : SCCP Status : ASSOCIATED
 Resource Provider : FLEX_DSPRM Status : UP
 Number of Resource Configured : 2
 Number of Resource Available : 2
 Maximum conference participants : 8
 Codec Configuration: num_of_codecs:6
 Codec : g711ulaw, Maximum Packetization Period : 30 , Transcoder: Not Required
 Codec : g711alaw, Maximum Packetization Period : 30 , Transcoder: Not Required
 Codec : g729ar8, Maximum Packetization Period : 60 , Transcoder: Not Required
 Codec : g729abr8, Maximum Packetization Period : 60 , Transcoder: Not Required
 Codec : g729r8, Maximum Packetization Period : 60 , Transcoder: Not Required
 Codec : g729br8, Maximum Packetization Period : 60 , Transcoder: Not Required

Thanks!

[Evgeny Izetov]

You could also try these commands in CUCM (they'll probably give the same info as in RTMT though):

show perf query class "Cisco SW Conference Bridge Device"

show perf query class "Cisco HW Conference Bridge Device"

And this one in a voice gateway that is your hardware conference bridge:

show sccp connections

[Terry Cheema]

Nice one (+5)

[Difan Zhao]

Thanks Evgeny! That's one useful command indeed!

So as to why two streams are counted when one participant joins the meetme, do you know why? Is it normal?

I have disabled the ios CFB and I have confirmed that it is g711 on all the phones.

Thanks,

Difan

[Evgeny Izetov]

Maybe the value you saw is counting streams - one from caller to the conference and one downstream (mixed) to the caller. The resources utilization is consistent with what I'd expect though. For example, when I set up a quick conference with 3 parties I see this:

CCMSUB_CFB -> ResourceActive = 3
CCMSUB_CFB -> ResourceAvailable = 45
CCMSUB_CFB -> ResourceTotal = 48
CCMSUB_CFB -> SWConferenceActive = 1

The 48 total resources is what's default in Service Parameters (under Cisco IP Voice Media Streaming App), so you could have 48 parties joining in a single conference (G.711 only). The description for Call Count reads:

"This parameter specifies the maximum number of conference participants that the conference bridge will support. Increasing this value above the recommended default may cause performance degradation on a Cisco Unified Communications Manager that is running on the same server. If you need to increase this value above the default, you should consider installing the Cisco IP Voice Media Streaming Application on a separate server."

Check what your ResourceTotal value is, then maybe the CFBstreamsAvailable will be double that amount.

[Difan Zhao]

Thank you Evgeny. I ran the same lab and your command gave all correct outputs. I am happy with it. Regarding to the streams, my total streams are 105 (with or without my IOS router registered). I even removed the IOS router from the CFB list and the total is still 105. Anyway I am happy with your way of identifying the usage and I will leave the stream thing for now. 

I am also running into some conference and region configs. I will post another thread and hopefully that you guys can help me out. Thanks!

Difan