TC7.3.0 websnapshots broken even further (by design)

[Wayne DeNardi]

Just a heads-up warning to anyone considering upgrading to TC7.3.0 - the websnapshots now include a "privacy feature" where the snapshot of the camera(s) no longer displays on the web interface screen until you specifially click to activate the video source (see attached image).  The websnapshot only shows around 5 seconds once clicked before requiring another activation.  A large message also appears on the display of the endpoint stating that the video is being monitored by an administrator.

This warning message shrinks after a short period of time to just an icon, but the icon stays on the screen for approximately 10 minutes (even after disconnecting any browser session to the endpoint).

This is in addition to the previous issue where websnpshots were disabled while the unit was in standby (no-websnapshots-when-system-standby-tc71x).

Update: TC7.3.3 returned some of the functionality, and the removal of the large message, but you need to obtain a "Remote Monitoring" option key for each endpoint.  However, this has introduced a range of other bugs which Cisco have not fully addressed yet.

[Michael Souders]

Thanks!

[Michael Souders]

Just created a page for my systems.  Works great. Is there a way to script it so the endpoint login is automatically entered rather than having to do it for every system?

Thanks.

Mike

[Patrick Sparkman]

You can add the username/password to the address, and it will be passed to the endpoint, something like:

http://username:password@ip_address/websnapshot/get

[Michael Souders]

Didn't work.  What if no password?  This is what I tried -

http://admin@10.10.10.10/websnapshot/get

[Michael Souders]

Works in Firefox.  Microsoft disabled that feature in IE last year.

[Tom Kalikajaros]

A nice little note in the release doc for 7.3.3..

"The Remote Monitoring option key is free of charge for existing endpoints and new endpoints ordered before 1st January 2016."

[Dave Bohn]

Make sure if your just copying and pasting the key in that you don't have a blank space at the beginning or the end.  I had the same problem and had to manually go in and delete the spaces.  Once I did that everything worked fine and asked to reboot.

[Tom Kalikajaros]

Hi Dave,

I normally type in and they didn't work. Copy/paste didn't work either. There is a thread going about 7.3.3 in general where someone had same issue. Suspect it is a back-end thing with Cisco.

[Wayne DeNardi]

Check that your key is in a "1S000-1-AAAAAAAA" format.  I had a couple produced in the early days that were generated by someone incorrectly that were in the wrong format, and therefore didn't work.

Note: You must also be already running TC7.3.3 on the endppint before it will accept the key as valid.

Wayne
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[Tom Kalikajaros]

Thanks Wayne,

Original keys they sent were starting with 1TC007-1. I queried and was told they were all good and that TAC would be in touch. TAC finally got in touch with keys that started with 1S000-1. These are working :)

[Wayne DeNardi]

The 1TC007 keys would be the "Release Key" for the TC software for your endpoints rather than the 1S000 key which is the "Option Key" for the remote monitoring.  It's likely that whoever you spoke to got them mixed up. 

The different option key types are discussed in document tc-option-keys.

Wayne
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[Aaron Wilson]

Now that I have my remote monitoring keys, starting to use 7.3.x for the first time. Good grief, they made the snapshots even worse. No more mouse-over to refresh the snapshot. I either have to have constant refresh turned on or pop-up the control window, which is also silly.

[Wayne DeNardi]

Yes, and, if the refresh button is not selected, when you change the camera (on an endpoint that has multiple cameras) the screenshot doesn't refresh to show the newly selected camera.

Also - none of the snapshots are there for the far end - you have to go in to the Far End Camera Control to be able to see them.

I've also had issues with some of the snapshots also stopping working after a period of time on some of my C60s - and the only way to get them to return to being functional is to reboot the endpoint.

Wayne
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[Wayne DeNardi]

A quick update for those that are interested - I've logged a bunch of calls with TAC for issues with the new "improved" snapshot functionality:

• Bug CSCuv32679 - The snapshot doesn't refresh when you change the Main Camera source (unless you have the auto-refresh selected, or refresh your browser window).
• Can't easily see Far End Camera snapshots - I was told by TAC that this was "normal", but the change isn't mentioned anywhere in the documentation - but has now been logged as a bug against the documentation rather than the functionality of the endpoint (CSCuv70134)  - The Far End Camera Snapshots don't appear on the screen until you select the Far End Camera Control, but, even then, you are only able to view one at a time, not the multiple that may be connected (if your endpoint has the MultiSite Option Key).
• Bug CSCuv39364 - Related to the above issue - if the far end endpoint doesn't support FECC, there is no way to view the far end snapshot at all.  Update: doesn't affect all non-FECC endpoints - but one it does is the Cisco/Tandberg 1000 MXP.
• Bug CSCuv45623 - Websnapshots go grey and will not work again until the endpoint is rebooted - they continue to work for a period of time and then stop again.  Update: can cause this by viewing the endpoint via TMS Call Status screen.
• And there's still the old Bug CSCuo40784 - Websnapshots not available on a unit in Standby with TC7.1 onwards.

Also, while not specifically websnapshot related - all our C60s, with only a DVI connected screen complain that the OSD is set to the wrong monitor and they don't see any screen connected to the DVI - but otherwise work fine - but if we downgrade them back to TC7.1.x, no such error appears.  This is now Bug CSCuv71596.

Wayne
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Edit: Updated Bug numbers for those that have been logged as defects.

Edit2: Added Bug reference numbers for all the rest of the issues above that didn't have bug references before that have now been logged as defects.

Edit3: Updated with some more information.

[Jens Didriksen]

Upgraded a few different systems and applied keys; only systems giving me issues are C60 and EX90, where the snapshot appears as a "broken image" after a short while with a reboot required to fix it...for a while....rolled back the C60 to TC7.2.1 as this is unworkable. :( - also breaks in C20 - and stays broken even after rebooting.

/jens