Jabber Client with CUCM 14 Without DNS Enabled/Domain Name Defined

[Michael Mertens]

I have a new CUCM 14.5 cluster that was setup recently without DNS enabled, nor a domain defined. It is primarily used for down-and-dirty wifi phone calls on campus. Anyway, I now have a need to get Jabber working for softphone functionality. Jabber client wants the userid to contain a domain name: user@acme.com. I was going to set a domain name on CUCM but it's telling me replication would need to stop, etc...which I'll need to go through all sorts of change control. 

My question: Is there anyway to get jabber to login/work WITHOUT having a domain name set on CUCM 14.5?

Thanks!!

Mike

[Roger Kallberg]

AFAIK there is no version 14.5 and would never be as the version scheme changed from v14 and onwards.

On your question, I think that Jabber does not actually care about the domain set in CM. As a standard it looks for a SRV record in the domain of the user who logs in. From what I know this is pretty very documented in the deployment guide for Jabber.

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

Proper DNS resolution (A & PTR at minimum, also SRV with Service Discovery) is required for Jabber to function properly and be supported. The planning guide states this unambiguously:

Cisco Jabber uses domain name system (DNS) servers during startup, DNS servers are mandatory for Cisco Jabber setup.

PS- While the planning and config efforts are very similar, I suggest deploying the Webex app instead of Jabber with IM&P at this point. That’s where Cisco is investing R&D efforts moving forward.

[TechLvr]

@Michael Mertens 

I agree with Roger. Jabber works without DNS or domain defined in your CUCM although it is not best practice.

Here are the steps you need to follow to make it work without DNS reliance.

In CUCM:
Go to System > Server and make sure all servers are added by IP address and not hostnames
Go to System > Enterprise Parameters, then under Phone URL Parameters, replace the URL hostnames with the IP address of your CUCM and save the changes
Go to User Management > User Settings > UC Service, and make sure your CUCM and Unity Connection entries use IP addresses

In your internal DNS server
Create a forward lookup zone with your "acme.com" domain if not already created
Under the "acme.com" domain, add a new srv record as follows

Domain: acme.com
Service: _cisco-uds
Protocol: _tcp
Priority: 10
Weight: 10
Host offering this service: 10.10.20.30 (Replace this IP address with that of your CUCM. Don't use a hostname or FQDN)

Since everything is IP based, you won't need any A records for your CUCM or CUC.

Once the SRV records are configured, go to the command line interface of a PC on your network and run the following command

nslookup -type=srv _cisco-uds._tcp.acme.com

It should come back with the results below

_cisco-uds._tcp.acme.com SRV service location:
priority = 10
weight = 10
port = 8443
svr hostname = 10.10.20.30 (IP address of your CUCM)

Then you should be able to log in to Jabber using UserID@acme.com
You will get certificate warnings upon initial login which you need to accept