SRST Test plan

[jeffreyheeman]

Hi everyone,

I am now working at a consulting job, and trying to figure out best practices or strategies on testing SRST.  Wondering if anyone can chime in on things you test when working with customers.  Currently i have this in place, but i'm not as experienced as some, so would love any tips.  I thought this was a decent plan, but i'm sure there is more to look for, any help is much appreciated.

1.     Phone registers to gateway

2.     Place call to main number

3.     Place outbound local call

4.     Place outbound long distance call

5.     Place outbound international call

6.     Place 911 call

7.     Place call to onsite internal number via 4-digit

8.     Place call to offsite internal number via 4-digit

9.     Place call on hold

10.   Transfer call internally

11.   Dial inbound to another DID directly

12.   Transfer call to another site via 4-digit

13.   Transfer call to another site via full 9 + 7 or 10-digit

14.   Conference 3 participants (if possible)

15.   Access voicemail Thanks, Jeff

[Dennis Mink]

That list looks very comprehensive to me.

Now the way I have tested some of this in the past in the least intrusive way, is to put an access list on a L3 device between the phones and CUCM's  that prevent the phone(s) from connecting to the CUCM, causing fail over to SRST. This way you can test at least SRST on a select set of phones with out bringing all down, this will allow you basic testing, then once done, just remove the ACL and phones will fail back.

Please rate of useful

[jeffreyheeman]

Thanks Dennis, would you test all of the things i listed above though?  I want to make sure that when i do testing that we thoroughly go through every scenario in an SRST situation, i deal with a lot of hospitals and healthcare.  I do like the ACL route though, that would be nice because we might be able to actually test during the day instead of 1am when we did test failover.  If you can let me know when you get the chance, appreciate the help!

thanks,

Jeff

[john michael marie rodriguez]

I agree with Dennis. Just remember to take care setting up ACL and don't forget the implicit deny ip any any.

Also regarding the test, not sure if its implied in your list but I commonly do the call features (e.g. hold, transfer conference) twice. I test them on an internal call and another set on external (either outbound or inbound) just to test all possible scenarios and not be surprised on an actual outage and users will report the issue