Content Server not working correctly

[CochiseRon]

Hello,

I am having problems with my Tandberg Content Server. For several years, we have used the Tandberg Content Server (TCS) in combination with our Tandberg Management Server (TMS) to schedule and record video conferences. I schedule 60 video conferences a week to roughly 20 rooms, using the TMS. Of these, about 14 video conferences per week are recorded.

Originally, I only had one recording alias on the TCS set up, and it worked fine. But I recently added a second recording alias, due to the growing number of requests for recordings of the video conferences. It seemed to go okay.

Now, however, the Content Server isn't working quite right. It will record two different video conferences at the same time, but once it's finished encoding them, the link that you get to send to people is messed up: often (but not always) the link merges two seperate video conferences together in one video. Two one-hour video conferences will be merged together in one two-hour recorded conference.

The problem only occurs with video conferences that occur at the same time. Strangely, if I search the Content Server's F drive, under Data/Media, the recordings are all there, and they are seperate. They are only joined together on the Content Server link.

I have made sure that we are indeed recording on seperate recording aliases.

Because the videos in the Data/Media bin are always labled something like O1110292903-0593923929.wmv, I can use guesswork to reconstruct a valid URL to get a working link, but it's a lot of extra work: I want to be able to log in to the Content Server admin interface and be able to send someone a link in a few minutes.

Any ideas on what's going wrong? I created a trouble ticket with Cisco earlier in the week, but have not heard back from Cisco tech support, so I thought I'd open it to the Cisco community.

[Patrick Pettit]

HI Ron.  Can you list the TMS version and TCS version your running as well?  When you book the recordings, do they fall on the same MCU also?

Just trying to picture in my head on what may be happening, so we can try and possibly recreate the issue maybe. 

VR

Patrick

[CochiseRon]

Patrick,

Thanks for the response. The Content Server was originally on version 4.9 or so. I was told that upgrading to the latest version of the software would almost definitely fix the problem. They advised me to upgrade to v5.3. However, I could not do this because the latest version of the software that the hardware supports is v5.1. I upgraded to Cisco TelePresence Content Server v5.1 Build 3121 last week. It did not fix the problem.

On the TMS, I'm on version 12.2. This week, I was told that upgrading the TMS to version 13.2.1 would fix the problem. I'm attempting that install this morning.

On the MCU, yes, we do use the same MCU for both recordings.

[CochiseRon]

Upgrading the TMS did not resolve the problem.

[Patrick Pettit]

Thanks Ron.  Can you list out the steps on how this is being booked etc?  I'm curious to see if the same problem persists between S5.3 versus S5.1.  Are you able to do this?  If your able to do so, let me know the exact steps so i can try and setup a recreate here on ours to see if theres something there.  Also, send me private message with the TAC SR case here if you can also.  If you include this information in the case, i can try and see it there.  The Transcode engine log, OT Log as well may prove useful also. 

VR

Patrick

[CochiseRon]

Hey Patrick,

Here is what we do:

1. In TMS Go to Booking > New Conference

2. Set beginning and end time/date

3. Click "add participants" and add the rooms that will be connected (in this case, room SV-902, room BN-114, room DC-302, room WX-107, and room NG-"ITV").

4. Add the MPS MCU

5. Hit OK

6. Under "Recording", pull the drop-down menu and choose "On Demand - 902" [We only record on the 902 recording alias for connections with room SV-902]

7. Hit "Save Conference"

8. Go to "Monitoring" tab and navigate down to that conference. Double-click on the conference to open it.

9. Right-click and then click on "mute video" of the Content Server so the words "Recording" do not appear on the screen.

10. In TMS Go to Booking > New Conference

11. Set beginning and end time/date

12. Click "add participants" and add the rooms that will be connected (in this case, room SV-901 and room DC-301).

13. Add the MPS MCU

14. Hit OK

15. Under "Recording", pull the drop-down menu and choose "On Demand - 901" [We only record on the 901 recording alias for connections with room SV-901]

16. Hit "Save Conference"

17. Go to "Monitoring" tab and navigate down to that conference. Double-click on the conference to open it.

18. Right-click and then click on "mute video" of the Content Server so the words "Recording" do not appear on the screen.

19. When the conference is over, log in as admin to the TCS.

20. You will see a list of recorded conferences. Click on one of the videos to get a link that can be e-mailed out.

Sometimes Step 20 works; sometimes it does not. We always test the link before we send it out. Sometimes, there are two seperate videos that are recorded. But often, the link that is given merges two video conferences together in one link. This happens only when two seperate video conferences are being recorded at the same time. If Step 20 doesn't work, Step 21 is:

21. Log in to the TCS manually and go to the Data/Media drive. Play all the videos until you find the right one; the right one will not have the correct name in the "Properties" tab. Write down the name of the video (it will be something like O1110222020-11100593.wmv), then, using some guesswork based on previous URLs, construct a valid link, test it, and e-mail it out. This is a very time-consuming step.

[Jens Didriksen]

You don't need steps 17/18, you can mute recording screen after having added all participants by selecting "Connection Settings" then just tick the relevant box and save conference. (At least that's how it can be done with both my MPS800 and Codian).

/jens

[Patrick Pettit]

Hi Ron. Give me some time to set this up and get back to you on this one. By chance, if you dont mute the video, does anything change?

VR

Patrick

Sent from Cisco Technical Support Android App

[Patrick Pettit]

Hi Ron - Good morning.  I've got an old TCS HW running S5.1, but the question I have is that I'm not seeing two different recordings on the main page of the TCS, but I do see the combining of the meetings into one recording, but I don't see the 2 recordings on the page.  I'm trying a few more things at the moment to see whats there, but will let you know in a bit. 

But this would be easier if a GK is involved, cause I couldn't replicate that until I removed all GK registrations on all my devices and went in Directo mode. 

Keep you posted. 

VR

Patrick

[Patrick Pettit · Accepted solution]

HI Ron.  Good morning.  Since our webex the last time, I do believe we can use participant templates in the mean time until we find out whats going on when using TMS this way.  When using the recording drop down and all the systems aren't registered to Gatekeeper seems to be the trigger here, but to get you running, this is what I propose we try and do here. 

You may have to purge the Content Server out of TMS so TMS doesn't "know" about the IP address of the Content Server. 

You will have to examine your routing and preferred MCU in routing here, and make the two changes:

Administrative Tools>Configuration>Conference Settings.  All the way at the bottom you will see:

I had to change this to Always and Preferred MCU type in routing to MPS.  This is logical since this is the only MCU you have and you need the MCU in each booking (from my understanding of what you said during the webex).

So:

1) Jot down all the conferences that have the Content Server involved, and remove the recording from each conference.

2) Purge the Content Server from TMS.

3) Add participant template with just the IP address of the content server: Booking>Participant Templates and build one like shown below.  The number field should be the address of the content server and IP zone should be IP zone for your system. 

Go ahead and save the template. 

Make booking with this template and another endpoint (don't add the MPS since it should automatically).  Check the connection settings and the MPS should be call the IP of the TCS and the other endpoint. 

Click Save conference. 

If the conference saves ok, build another with a different room and same template again, and click save conference. 

The caveat is that when calling the IP of the TCS, the TCS will use what you have configured as the default recording template under Configuration>Site Settings

Just choose which one you want to use all the time if you can. 

The way it shows on the TCS is:

Caveat here is that you would have to go in the TCS, and change the name of the recording to what you want it to be displayed on the TCS.  Navigate in TCS - Management>Recordings>Edit Recordings and change the name at the top to what you named the conference in TMS.

If you can, give this a shot on your TMS.  The important piece is to remove the recordings from your previously scheduled conferences, and then purge the TCS from TMS.  Then add the template.  If you get a routing problem when doing so, book the meeting as you would without the recording alias, and navigate to the MPS and dial the IP address of the TCS to get it recorded. 

If a Gatekeeper was involved here, it would be much better and more likely wouldn't have this problem because TMS will route to the recording alias via gateway prefix (gateway mode on TCS) to the TCS and it wouldn't append each conference together. 

This workaround may work for you, so please let me know if it does or not. 

Thanks in advance.

VR

Patrick

[CochiseRon]

Patrick,

Thanks so much for looking in to this. I started working on this solution today, but I ran out of time: our first video conference recording of the day started at 11 AM. I plan to come in early Monday to finish the project. I will let you know the results at that time.

[Patrick Pettit]

HI Ron.  Just checking in on ya.  How things going with the workaround in place?  Let us know. 

Thanks in advance. 

VR

Patrick

[CochiseRon]

Hi Patrick,

So far, your solution is working beautifully. We've had a few video conferences that have been recorded, and so far, we have been able to record two at the same time perfectly... the only problem being that we have to change the names of the files on the Content Server. This is a workable solution, and I am pleased with the results. My thanks to you and all your team for the work in your lab, the WebEx log-ins, and all the troubleshooting.