Problems with scheduled conferences in TMS 14.3

[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

I've recently upgraded TMS from 14.2.1 to 14.3.

Since the upgrade, I've been having issues booking internal point to point automatic connect conferences.

We have our "Use MCU type in routing" set to "Always, except point to point".

When we schedule a conference with two internal endpoints (all these ones are edge/MXP's using H323 and latest software) TMS seems to schedule the conference OK.  The connection settings show that whichever endpoint is the video conference master will auto-dial the other endpoint at the conference start time.

When the conference starts however, the endpoint fails to dial and conference control centre shows a message on the endpoint saying "Not allocated".

TMS is still able to manage the endpoints and we can manually dial them both locally and from the Systems > Navigator > call status interface on TMS, so I don't think there are any issues with TMS commuication to the endpoints.

I can also schedule calls on the MCU fine, which dials out and connects the relevant endpoints OK.

I haven't made any changes other than the upgrade.

Any ideas?

[Paulo Souza]

Hi Nick,

When you schedule the conference in TMS, in the "connection" tab, is the number to be dialed correct? When the conference starts, can you check the logs in VCS to see if the endpoints really attempts to dial? What is the dialed number? Is it correct?

If the endpoints doesn't even attempt to dial the other endpoint, can you check if TMS is raising some ticket for the endpoint? Can you use wireshark to see if there is any communication problem between TMS and the endpoint?

Also, what is the version of your MXP device? Can you try to use the latest one?

Regards

Paulo Souza

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[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

Hi Paulo,

Thanks for the quick response.  To answer your questions:

The connection tab shows the right number and the search history in VCS does NOT show a call.  It seems that TMS isn't even trying (I would expect it to say "failed to connect" and/or "there is a communication problem between TMS and the system" if this was the case).

There are no tickets for the endpoints in TMS.  Everything is using the latest version of software.

The one thing I haven't tried yet is a C-series (none availible at the moment) - everything I've tested on is running F9.XX software.

Wireshark may prove useful but I'm trying to avoid it if I can - the TMS server isn't exactly conviniently located

EDIT: Tried on a C60 running TC5.1.7/H323 and the same problem occurs

Seond EDIT: Not sure if it's relevant, but TMS is using E164's rather than full H323 ID to route conferences (it's always been this way).

[Paulo Souza]

Hi Nick,

After conference starts and fails, in the conference control center, if you try to reconnect the endpoint, does it work or at least shows a different error message? Can you try to completly remove the endpoint from the conference using CCC and then add it again to this active conference? Does anything change?

Also, can you try to schedule SIP instead of H323?

I know that my suggestion may look strange, but I think that there is some kind of bug going on here, I am just trying to try another scenarios to see where is the failure.

Paulo Souza

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[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

Thanks Paulo, I'll try all that stuff although I don't have any SIP endpoints on this particular network.

[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

I rebooted TMS and it's all working again, thanks for your help though

[Paulo Souza]

Well, at least it is working now.  =)

Thanks for your feedback.

Paulo Souza

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[Joseph Burkitt]

Nick,

I too have concerns about this which is why I halted my upgrade to 14.3. Below is the Bug I found in the realease notes. It seems this is the Bug you are running into. Unfortunately there isn't a work around yet. I'm waiting for a reply myself.

CSCuc50556 TMS allocates the wrong dial in number for allocated port on the MCU

Regards,

Joe B.

[Paulo Souza]

Hi Joe,

According to the description that Nick has posted, there is no MCU involved in the scheduling, only point to point call between MXP endpoint, furthermore, in his case, the number defined by TMS is totally correct, the problem is, TMS shows a strange error message and it doesn't even set the endpoint to call the other, there is no call attempt in the history of VCS.

It seems to be a different problem. As a reboot solved the problem, maybe it was some temporary issue, I guess. I have read all the open bugs for TMS 14.3 and there is nothing related to Nick's problem.

regards

Paulo Souza

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[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

Paulo is correct, although subsequent testing showed it wasn't just MXPs, it happened with a C-Series too.  The allocated number was correct, it just didn't try to dial at all (although i could still manually dial from the System > Navigator > Call status interface).

In fact when I was experiencing these issues, the MCU actually worked fine, it was just point to point dialling that had problems.

Thanks anyway though

I might be waiting a little while before I upgrade my other environments to 14.3 - luckily the one that had the issue was pretty small so we were able to manage the issue while it was occuring.