Can VCS-E proxy TMS phonebook?

[Yang Xia]

My situation is TMS server is sitting in private IP cloud.   Endpoints registered to VCS-C are getting the proper corporate phonebook display as well as the Movi clients regardless where they're at.   For outside endpoint registered to VCS-E are not getting the TMS phonebook.   Can VCS-E proxy the phonebook entries to outside endpoints?

Thanks.

[Jens Didriksen]

TMS "Corporate Directories" are not being set on systems, nor are these proxied.

The endpoint communcates with TMS and displays the relevant phone books, see the Admin guide how TMS communicates with endpoints depending on how these can be accessed.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/tms/admin_guide/Cisco_TMS_Admin_Guide_13-0.pdf

"Support for remote systems"

You need to specify address reachable by the external systems in TMS under

Admin Tools/Configuration/Network Settings:

Advanced Network Settings for Systems on Public Internet/Behind Firewall

The external endpoints also need to have this public address and directory path set on them;

i.e. http://tms_fqdn-or-ip_address/tms/public/external/phonebook/phonebookservice.asmx and TMS needs to be able to communicate with these systems on port 80 and/or 443.

Hope this helps somewhat

cheers jens

[Yang Xia]

THanks for the reference pointer.   External endpoints are not getting "Corporate Directories" because our TMS is not reachable from Internet.    However Movi users are not having the same issue.   Can it be a future feature request added to VCS-E?

[Jens Didriksen]

Movi users are not getting "Corporate Directories", but the Provisioning Phonebook, which they get because of device provisioning being enabled on the VCS combined with TMS agents.

Provisioning is now also available, as fars as I know, for C-series and EX90 in TC5.0 - again see the VCS Admin Guides, C and EX documentation and Movi provisioning guides for information.

They are all available on the Cisco website, i.e. for the VCS:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11337/products_installation_and_configuration_guides_list.html

MXP endpoints do not support provisioning, and they never will, considering most are now EOS/EOL.

I have a handfull of endpoints registering to our VCS-E, TMS is behind our firewall, and we have allowed TMS to only talk to these particular endpoints as far as external communication goes (apart from automatic software update URL) - and have had no issues so far.

cheers jens

[daleritc]

Just a couple corrections on Jens latest post:

Movi users are not getting "Corporate Directories", but the Provisioning  Phonebook, which they get because of device provisioning being enabled  on the VCS combined with TMS agents.

Movi users..or for that matter any user/device being provisioned by the TMS Agent...can receive any Phonebook from TMS as long as long as they've been given access to it via the Access Control tab on the PB.

Provisioning is now also available, as fars as I know, for C-series and EX90 in TC5.0...

Provisioning...aka TMS Agent...is not available for the C-Series. Systems that can currently be provisioned by the TMS Agent are: Movi (Jabber), E20, EX series and the MX200. Movi and E20 have been supported since the inception of TMS Agent approximately 2 years ago (TMS 12.2 and VCS X4.2), while support for the EX series began in TC4.0 (with caveats) and the MX200 upon it's public release. Each system has it own configuration template which needs to be uploaded to the TMS (Provisioning Directory > Manage Configuration Templates) so has to configure and provision each system appropriately when users log into them.

[Jens Didriksen]

Thanks for the clarifications Dale

I could've sworn I read something about C-series/provisioning and TC5.0, but obviously not.

As for the phonebooks, I plain overlooked the access control, (we only use the provisioning directory for our Movi users), however that doesn't change the fact that these will have to be provisioned, which means the external endpoints are not going to be able to display these unless they can communicate directly with TMS ?

cheers jens

[daleritc]

Maybe it's provisioning using the CUCM your thinking about? For example, the following from the TC5 release notes:

With TC5.0.0 the C/EX/MX-Series supports provisioning and basic call functionality with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) version 8.6 and above.

As far as the PBs, it's 'apples and oranges' when the TMS Agent is in the mix...meaning and depending on how your provisioning your endpoints...will depend on how you will troubleshoot PB issues. For example, if your provisioning any of the systems as discussed above with the TMS Agent, then normally these EPs are not included in the TMS in the 'classic' sense since they are being provisioned by the TMS Agent. And by the 'classic sense', and other than Movi,  I mean 'physically' adding the EP to the TMS as would do if you were not using the TMS Agent to provision the EP.

With that said then, you need to troubleshoot Cisco TMS PB issues to endpoints depending on how your provisioning those EPs. If by the TMS Agent, then you need to ensure of things like:

- As the Phonebook Server URI (and Public PB Server URI, if necessary) been configured in the Provisioning Directory

- As discussed, that the user as the appropriate access to the PB via the access control tab.

- Replication working appropriately between the local TMS Agent (TMS) and the remote TMS agent (VCS)

- Possible indexing issues on the local or remote TMS Agent db

If your not provisioning your EPs with the TMS Agent...meaning your adding your EPs to the TMS  and then possibly setting configuration templates and assigning PBs (corporate) to them...then you need to ensure of things as you historically would of done in the past with TMS and corporate PBs, and this type of troubleshooting can be found in the current Cisco TMS Admin Guide:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/tms/admin_guide/Cisco_TMS_Admin_Guide_13-1.pdf

In this case, his EPs being provisioned by the TMS Agent are working as advertised. However, it's his EPs that are not being provisioned by the TMS Agent (and are also outside his private network) that are not receiving PBs...meaning he should refer to the TMS Admin Guide (in particular the support for remote systems/SoHo systems) on how to properly correct this problem

cheers,

Dale

[Jens Didriksen]

Maybe it's provisioning using the CUCM your thinking about? For example, the following from the TC5 release notes:

With  TC5.0.0 the C/EX/MX-Series supports provisioning and basic call  functionality with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) version  8.6 and above.

That's it - thanks Dale