Conductor XC2.2 and TMS 14.3 Automatic Connect

[Paul Woelfel]

Hi,

I also saw a topic about the current beta versions Conductor XC2.2 and TMS 14.3, so I'll post my question here.

I'm using conductor with VCS, CUCM, MCU 4505 and TS. I'm able to create AdHoc conferences via CUCM and VCS and scheduled calls via TMS.

If I create a conference with automatic connect and the conductor in the call I can see that the MCU or TS tries to reach a participant, but not with the correct URI. It should use my email address (findme ID) to call me, but instead it uses some strange URI: 009a8bb3-ac2c-4bc1-8b02-4e4b52c171e2@1.1.1.1:5073

1.1.1.1 is the IP of the conductor. About the part before @ I do not know where it comes from, but it looks like an internal ID.

This are the logs from the MCU for an test conference with one participant to be connected automatically:

13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: "Videokonferenz 101" erstellt

13307          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: Konferenz [Videokonferenz 101], numerische ID gesetzt auf "88800010"

13308          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: Konferenz [Videokonferenz 101], PIN gesetzt auf "114"

13309          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: Konferenz [Videokonferenz 101], Gast-PIN gesetzt auf "114"

13310          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: Konferenz [Videokonferenz 101], Sichtbarkeit "öffentlich"

13311          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Conferences: conference [Videokonferenz 101] content mode set to "Transcoded"

13312          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: Konferenz [Videokonferenz 101] Stummschaltung bei Teilnahme [Audio=deaktiviert]

13313          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: Konferenz [Videokonferenz 101] Stummschaltung bei Teilnahme [Video=deaktiviert]

13314          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: Konferenz [Videokonferenz 101], Layoutsteuerung über FECC/DTMF "Use FECC and fallback to DTMF"

13315          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: Konferenz [Videokonferenz 101], Maximale Dauer gesetzt auf "permanent"

13316          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Konferenzen: Konferenz [Videokonferenz 101], Ende gesetzt auf "kein Enddatum"

13317          13:38:05          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          Conferences: conference [Videokonferenz 101] auto delete timeout set to "600 seconds"

13318          13:38:06          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          API-Endpunkt-Einstellungen: Endpunkt [e922d880ee1854c242ba94e69b113af :: 00e98127-6564-4136-b0d7-bcca3c5076a4@1.1.1.1:5073] via API zu Konferenz "Videokonferenz 101" hinzugefügt

13319          13:38:06          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38141          Info          API-Endpunkt-Einstellungen: Endpunkt [3805 :: 009a8bb3-ac2c-4bc1-8b02-4e4b52c171e2@1.1.1.1:5073] via API zu Konferenz "Videokonferenz 101" hinzugefügt

13320          13:38:36          API          admin          /HTTP/TCP/1.1.1.1:38149          Info          API-Endpunkt-Einstellungen: Endpunkt [3806 :: 77e51d22-2239-483a-9e6d-2c8baa1ee1ae@1.1.1.1:5073] via API zu Konferenz "Videokonferenz 101" hinzugefügt

Unfortunatetly the logs are in german, but I think you can see that there is some strange URI added.

If I create a conference without conductor the log shows the correct URI:

13386           14:07:14           API           admin           /HTTP/TCP/172.21.10.12:52001           Info           API-Endpunkt-Einstellungen: Endpunkt [Paul Woelfel :: paul.woelfel@nts.eu] via API zu Konferenz "1234 - Videokonferenz 8/7/2013 " hinzugefügt

1.1.1.1 is the conductor IP (of course not the real IP ;-))

Has anyone testing the latest versions also expirenced that issue?

[gubadman]

yes, Conductor and VCS have the same base, and the B2BUAs also share some common components (and developers). But the Conductor B2BUA is signalling only. Where as the VCS B2BUA could take media - for force encryption value of the sip media encryption setting on zones or subzones on the VCS for example.

Thanks,

Guy

[Paul Woelfel]

Ok thanks Guy and Paulo for that good discussion and detailed info!

[Paulo Souza]

Hi Paul,

Just to advise you, when using TMS 14.3 and Conductor XC 2.2, the recommended deployment model is the new B2BUA. Take a look at the release notes of the TMS 14.3:

Page 2 - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/tms/release_note/Cisco_TMS_release_notes_14-3.pdf

Furthermore, as I stated before, according to the Conductor's deployment guides, the CPL deployment model will be discontinued in a future release, then, as you are migrating your environment to Conductor now, I strongly recommend you to use the new B2BUA deployment model, so that you can avoid an effort in the future to migrate from the old deployment to the new one.

Of course, that's just my suggestion. I guess that is something worth to investigate.

Regards

Paulo Souza

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[Paul Woelfel]

Hi Paulo,

now that I know, that only signaling will be sent to conductor, but not media traffic I like that deployment a lot, because it makes the config a lot easier. You only have the SIP trunk to Conductor and configure the conference handling all in one on Conductor.

[Paulo Souza]

Yeah! B2BUA deployment is the best! All of my customers are using that deployment.

Paulo Souza

Please rate useful replies and remember to mark any solved questions as "answered".

[ma.romero]

Hi,

I have in lab enviroment a TMS 14.3, VCS X7.2, Conductor XC2.2 and TS7010 (3.1(1.80))

I have configured the two deployments methods of Conductor: Policy Service and B2BUA and in my point of view the best deployments is B2BUA. The main decision is due to the Policy Services will be discontinued and other services that isn't working fine in tht Policy Service method.

Tha Scheduled Conferences go in this way: TMS-->Conductor-->TS7010-->VCS--> Endpoints. The conductor update the information in TMS and he is manage everything.

Ad hoc conferences is working fine.

I found some issues with the B2BUA deployment when I schedules conferences from TMS:

- Add IP directly from TMS Booking isn't working. To work around this issue you have to Add IP@DNS for example.

- The call from TS7010 or MCU are all SIP and my endpoints are all H.323 and VCS consumes Traversal Calls.

- The Preview in TMS isn't working. Monitoring>Conference Control center, enter into the conference and I can't see the Preview of the Endpoints. I have to enter directly into the MCU or TS to see if the enpoint is sending video...

If you have your endpoints deployed in H.323 E.164 Alias, I recommend you to migrate to SIP.

The best thing I could see is the port optimization.

Regards.

[Alok Jaiswal]

Hi Romero,

I will give a try in my lab what you mentioned.

Rgds

Alok

[Paulo Souza]

Hi Romero,

Most issues that you have pointed are expetected behavior when using B2BUA deployment model. Such as:

- Add IP directly from TMS Booking isn't working. To work around this issue you have to Add IP@DNS for example.

When scheduling Conductor via TMS, you can only set Conductor do dial out using SIP, as IP address is H323, TMS will probably not allow you to dial out IP address.

ma.romero escreveu:
- The call from TS7010 or MCU are all SIP and my endpoints are all H.323 and VCS consumes Traversal Calls.

That's an expected behavior, because B2BUA only allow SIP in the Conductor's side. As a matter of fact, the deployment guide states clearly that you have to use interworking in VCS in order to join H323 endpoints. For me, it is not a problem, once the default bundle of VCS Control comes with 100 traversall call licenses.

- The Preview in TMS isn't working. Monitoring>Conference Control center, enter into the conference and I can't see the Preview of the Endpoints. I have to enter directly into the MCU or TS to see if the enpoint is sending video...

I think this is really a strange behavior. I will try this in my lab to see what I get.

Well, in general, TMS+Conductor has some blind points yet, that's why the release notes of TMS 14.3 states that you have to consider the known limitations before implementing Conductor with TMS. See:

Starting on page 36 - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/tms/release_note/Cisco_TMS_release_notes_14-3.pdf

Regards

Paulo Souza

Please rate useful replies and remember to mark any solved questions as "answered".

[ma.romero]

Hi Paulo,

Yes, I know that this issues were expected in these versions of TMS and Conductor. But I hope to resolve as soon as possible.

Too, I found another issue: in conference control center when the endpoint is connected to the meeting I can't check the Video/Audio features or the connection protocol (appears as unknown) negotiated in the call.

Regards.

[Kjetil Ree]

[...] in conference control center when the endpoint is connected to the meeting I can't check the Video/Audio features or the connection protocol (appears as unknown) negotiated in the call. [...]

Hi,

This sounds like Conductor limiation CSCuj04565.

Regards,

Kjetil

[ma.romero]

Yes. Thanks.

Regards.

[rasimyigit]

Hi All,

It is from this answer not clear whether the auto reconnect now works with the tms server and conductor. I have the same problem that a 5679e2bdf-245bf-23453-ba46-efddvfvrcc1@1.1.1.1 addresse: 5073 is chosen does not find about the VCS Control . It all works well until the auto  connect with the TMS server. The endpoints are not automatically connected, if i scheduled a conference with couple of endpoint with the conductor and external dial out participants.

Thanks for your feedback

P.s i have also configuraed the B2BUA

[Paul Woelfel]

Hi,

it works fine for me now. I configured a new installation with B2BUA and a SIP trunk from VCS to Conductor. The MCU/TS are not configured to use VCS but to use direct calling.

If you follow the Conductor B2BUA Deployment guide it should work fine. All necessary settings are shown there.

BR Paul

[rasimyigit]

Hi Paul,

I have kept even after the manual. It works well so far everything except the auto connect from the TMS server. The invitation comes on the endpoint but not the call comes about because the VCS C try the string

reconnect now works with the tms server and conductor. I have the same  problem that a 5679e2bdf-245bf-23453-ba46-efddvfvrcc1@1.1.1.1 addresse:  5073 .. can not be found.

I deployed like the B2BU2 deployment guide

[Alok Jaiswal]

Hi Rasim,

It works for me too. There is a problem with external dial out participant though. 

Rgds

Alok