TMS - TCS booking bug?

[Bob Fitzgerald]

Hello!

A customer of ours brought something to our attention that I have not been able to find documentaiton for.  When a conference is booked in TMS and you include a Content Server, the e.164 alias that TMS will use to connect to the Content server gets changed after the conference is saved.  Please refer to the attached picture for an example.

This has been seen on the following combinations;

TMS 13.2, TCS S5.0

TMS 14.3, TCS S5.3

In each instance the TCS is registered to the VCS as a Gateway.  The standard Booking>New Conference page was used.  It didn't matter if a personal recording alias was used, or a generic System recording alias. 

One thing of note:  If an H323 ID was used instead of the e.164 alias, the resulting address was not changed.

Has anyone else seen this?  Is there some bug that I've missed?

Thanks!

[daleritc]

I notice in the screenshot that a Conductor is in the mix? Meaning Conductor is definitely not supported in TMS 13.2

So taking into account it is supported in TMS 14.3 and using TCS S5.3, what version of Conductor are you running?

It could be some difference in the setup of the TCS maybe, do your aliases have the same information filled in for H323 as for E164?

Does the call actually connect?

And I assume this is a single TCS, i.e. not clustered?


rgds,
Dale

[Bob Fitzgerald]

Hi Dale,

Thanks for the reply.  The screenshot is from the TMS14.3/TCS5.3 combination.  In the scenario where TMS13.2/TCS5.0 is used, there is no Conductor but identical results.  Also in the TMS13.2/TCS5.0 combo, the issue happened on a PtP call between the Content Server and an endpoint as well as when a MCU was in the mix.

For the H323 ID/E164 alias question, the values are different.  The call connects, but that's because the Gateway prefix routes to the TCS.

Thanks!

[daleritc]

If no conductor, then can you clarify what "conductor1" is then?

In any case, are both h.323 and e.164 required? And the e.164 number that is appearing in the confirmation, is that familiar to you? Meaning the numbers are so drastically different.

Are the h.323 and e.164 gateway prefixes also different? If so, is the number appearing in the confirmation, one or the other?

I guess i'm trying to understand the dial plan and if TMS is understanding that correctly...which from an e.164 POV, it doesn't since u say h.323 works ok.

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[Bob Fitzgerald]

Hi Dale,

My apologies, I'll try to clarify;

--- If no conductor, then can you clarify what "conductor1" is then? ---

The screen shot I supplied is from the TMS14.3/TCS5.3 combo, which is the KBZ production setup.  In that instance, there is a Conductor.

Our customer has the TMS13.2/TCS5.0 combo.  They do not have a Conductor.  However, it is on their setup that the issue was first noticed.

--- In any case, are both h.323 and e.164 required? ---

I can't find any documentation that says you have to have both.  I think you only have to have the prefix for the setting you

configured for the Recording Aliases, either H323 IDs or E164 aliases.

--- And the e.164 number that is appearing in the confirmation, is that familiar to you? ---

Nope, completely random as far as I can tell.  The number does not repeat on subsequent conferences.  I have tried to match up parts of the generated number against other configured settings, but nothing has matched so far.  The only part of the number that makes sense and is consistent is the gateway prefix for the TCS at the beginning of the number.

Thanks!

[daleritc]

In the site settings on the TCS, and since the TCS is set up in Gateway mode, are the h323 and e164 prefixes different or the same? I'm assuming the prefix is 067. What are h323 and e164 ids in site settings? Do any of the recording aliases equate to this unknown number?

And I don't believe you need to use both.

And this is a single TCS, not a cluster...correct? I'm assuming single. Have you done a force refresh on the TCS after making any config changes on the TCS?





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[Justin Ferello]

Dale,

I am familiar with both systems as Bob & I work together.  In both scenarios the E164 & H323 are different.  None of the recording aliases correlate to the number, in fact the generated number changes with every conference booked.

In both cases these are standalone TCS boxes.  Also, the TCS has been refreshed many times within TMS.

Thank you,

Justin Ferello
Technical Support Specialist
KBZ, a Cisco Authorized Distributor
http://www.kbz.com
e/v: justin.ferello@kbz.com

[Jens Didriksen · Accepted solution]

It's not a bug, I do remember reading the documentation for this, but I cannot remember where...

According to the doc, TMS will create an individual alias for each scheduled recording so, should the TCS drop out for any reason, or the conference being disconnected, it will, when reconnected, continue recoding to the original file, instead of creating a new recording. So, you will end up with just the one file instead of two, or more, separate files from the one session.

If my memory serves me right; this only happens when the TCS is configured as Gateway and not as Terminal (not a 100% sure of that though.)

In the graphic below you can see the difference, however, all is well as, in this case, the two first digits in the two aliases are the Gateway prefix.

/jens

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[Justin Ferello]

Jens,

Not sure I understand the logic there, if TMS can re-connect a randomly generated recording, then why can't it re-connect a predefined alias recording?  Secondly, what would be the point of the "recording alias" drop down box if you can only ever use random aliases?

Thank you,

Justin Ferello
Technical Support Specialist
KBZ, a Cisco Authorized Distributor
http://www.kbz.com
e/v: justin.ferello@kbz.com

[daleritc]

I think i found what Jens was referring to. Read the following thread from VTCTalk:

http://vtctalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42630

It's talking 12.6.x but the logic is probably the same in 13.x and 14.x when it comes to the TCS in Gateway mode.

I've been looking for hours through later documentation but haven't found anything regarding this behavior.

I must admit i'm a bit rusty when it comes to TMS and TCS ;)

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[Jens Didriksen]

He-he-he, the worst part of that VTC link is that it is a thread I created....

/jens

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[Jens Didriksen]

You still use the recording aliases in the drop down menu, see the explanation in the VTCTalk Forum link Dale referred to - which happens to be, embarrassing enough, a thread I created....

I'm stil pretty sure I've seen something about this in a release note or admin guide somewhere, but since I didn't even remember the thread Dale refers to, well, who knows, my brain might need a re-boot.

/jens

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[Justin Ferello]

Guys,

Ok, so that logic makes sense, however in reading the thread, it looks like Jens was not able to get it to work with another template, correct?  If it only works with one template, then that would be a bug   By the way, thanks for finding the thread and explaining.  I will have to see if I can find official doucmentation to provide to customers.

Thanks,

Justin

[Jens Didriksen]

Nah, that was an user error as I was not very familiar with the Gateway mode at that stage - I now have all three TCS in Gateway mode, and haven't had any problems once I fixed my initial config.

/jens

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[daleritc]

Well this is definitely worthy of a documentation bug unless you can find it. I've looked everywhere with no luck and I'm normally proficient in finding this stuff :) at least I can sleep now :)

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