Posts Tagged ‘CME’

Forwarding calls back across a SIP trunk between CUCM and CME

Informational, Tips & Tricks | Posted by admin
Aug 25 2010

So lets say you have a Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) system with Unity or Unity Connection. You also have a remote site running on Callmanager Express (CME) with a SIP trunk to the CUCM as the primary gateway. To keep costs down, you decided to use your centralized unity system as the VM provider rather than purchase the Unity Express module for the router.
Here’s the problem: When you call an extension on the CME box and it rolls to voicemail, you get a fast busy.

If you do a debug, you will see the following messages:

Router# debug ccsip messages


SIP/2.0 302 Moved Temporarily
Via: SIP/2.0/UDP 192.168.1.10:5060;branch=4gsi4lsi84o57osh7j6ps
From: <sip:1000@192.168.1.10>;tag=91837ae4-cf98-d1ae-7f23-95fe870ab193-d4875345
To: <sip:5000@192.168.2.1>;tag=92FE84D7-CB6
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:00:00 GMT
Call-ID: fe1edf80-c7519084-a9be7-5ff1bac@192.168.1.10
CSeq: 101 INVITE
Allow-Events: telephone-event
Server: Cisco-SIPGateway/IOS-12.x
Content-Length: 0

This SIP message tells the CUCM that the number has been forwarded. By default, the CUCM will not know what to do with this and so will return a reorder tone.

This is an easy problem to fix, though probably hard to describe in a few words.
You could disable this SIP feature in IOS, but that would route all voice traffic for those users (to voicemail) out to the remote site and then back to the VM server. It works if your system doesn’t support this feature… but it’s not the best solution.

Instead we can just configure CUCM to reroute calls when it receives these messages.

Start by adding a new SIP profile if you use the Standard SIP Profile.
Go to : Device -> Device Settings -> SIP Profile
Click on Find and select the Standard SIP Profile
Click the Copy button to create a copy, then give the copy a new name. Something like Custom SIP Profile or Enhanced SIP Profile is fine or use your own naming standard.
Then before you save it, check the box that says Redirect by Application… this allows the CUCM system to process redirect messages on SIP devices using this profile.
Then click Save.

Next we go configure our SIP Trunk
Device -> Trunk
Click the Find button and click on your Trunk name.
Scroll all the way down. The second to the last line is your SIP profile. Change this to the custom profile we just created.
Lastly we need to tell the trunk where to reroute calls to… look a few lines farther up and you’ll see a Rerouting Calling Search Space field. Set that to your outgoing CSS. (Or a CSS that provides access to your VM or other required services)
Save the changes and Reset the trunk.

That’s it! The CUCM system will now process the SIP redirection messages and reroute the caller accordingly.

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ArcExpress

Third-Party Software | Posted by admin
Apr 03 2009

If you’ve worked with Cisco IP Telephony products, you’re probably familiar with their Attendant Console software.  The software allows receptionists to manage incoming calls from their PC.  This allows them to transfer calls with simple drag and drop functions.  It also provides a quick list of user line status, whether they are on the phone or available.  There are a number of additional features in this software but it is outside the scope of my rant.  Using standard Cisco software, this software doesn’t exist for Callmanager Express (CME) patforms.  The reccomended replacement is to use an expansion module which gives a phone “switchboard like” functionality.

ArcSolutions provides software that has similar functionality to Cisco’s Attendant console.  This software is, in my opinion, one of the worst add-on technologies I have ever seen.  I’ll explain and let you make up your own mind though.

ArcExpress requires that a “server” installation be configured on a single PC.  That PC houses a SQL database for all other clients to attatch to.  This PC has to remain on at all times, or the ArcExpress users all lose functionality.  The “server” software is configured using the CME Configuration utility.  This utility logs into the CME system and reads the configuration.  At this point it attempts to make several configuration changes.  Some of  these changes include :

  • Adding virtual phone configurations
  • Adding virtual extension numbers for ArcExpress feature support

This was my first issue.  In order to complete the CME Configuration, you must have at least 2 free phone licenses available.  It also requires several available directory numbers for feature support.  If your licensing does not allow for the recommended changes, the configuration will not continue.

At least the configuration utility gave me a list of the changes it was going to make.  From that list I was able to adjust the changes to fit within the licensing constraints of the system.

At this point however, even though the ArcExpress virtual phone showed registered in the CME system, it did not function.  Attempting to call Tech Support resulted in sitting on hold for an eternity.  But I understand that problem.  When you have a product as shoddy as this, one must expect a lot of tech-support calls.  Their techs were probably all just very busy.

After many hours of work trying to get ArcExpress to function I have decided that it is not worth the effort.  I will never work on another project using this software if I can at all help it.

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