Cisco Mobile and Remote Access Troubleshooting Basic Connectivity

The Cisco Mobile and Remote Access (MRA) feature is a "client edge" solution that allows external software and hardware clients to register to enterprise Cisco Unified Communication (UC) solutions without requiring a VPN. Like most things, there are a lot of moving parts working together to create a relatively seamless user experience. And, like most things, the first time you deploy MRA there are a few "gotchas" that can eat up a significant amount of troubleshooting time. 

This blog entry captures procedures I use when troubleshooting or validating a MRA deployment. These procedures can be used to validate the initial deployment or they can be used to troubleshoot connectivity problems for an individual user.

Dealing with Apple Gatekeeper Unidentified Developer Error when Launching WebEx from Jabber

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that I was receiving the Apple untrusted developer error message (left) whenever I attempted to use the Meet Now functionality directly from Jabber. 




Clicking OK brings another error message and WebEx never loads. I finally got around to trying to fix the issue. This article provides the procedures I used to resolve this issue on my Mac.

Centrally Refreshing Jabber Contact Photos in MRA Deployments

I have assisted several customers with Jabber deployments lately. Almost all of them driven by the desire to implement Mobile and Remote Access (MRA). Provisioning MRA is not the topic of this article. Instead, I wanted to touch on an operational task that has annoyed me for some time. 

The issue is with caching of Jabber contact photos. Windows and Mac Jabber clients are coded to cache various things. I assume this is an effort to minimize network transactions and optimize client performance. One of the elements cached are contact photos. I have no problem with caching but, in my experience, the issue is that old contact photos tend to be permanently cached and I can't easily (i.e. centrally) force a refresh. 

I played around with some options and found a method that worked in some test environments and my own production environment. Maybe this will work for others. I would be interested in hearing about other options. Please use the comments to enlighten me and others!

Unlocking Jabber Video Sign-In Preferences for Jabber.com

Recently, I was doing some testing with the Jabber Video for TelePresence (Movi) client. I was all set to go. I had my Jabber client loaded on my iPad, my VCS up and humming (loudly, I might add), and the Jabber Video client running on my MBP. I wanted to add another client to the mix, so I figured I would use the Jabber Video client on my iMac. This client was configured to use the free Jabber service (jabber.com) and I found out that I was unable to edit the server configuration. 

I found an easy (albeit unsupported) fix to the problem and I figured it was worth sharing.

Provisioning Cisco Jabber for iPad on the VCS Starter Pack

Cisco just released VCS release X7.2.1, which contains some third-party software updates and a handful of bug fixes. That's great but hardly noteworthy. What is noteworthy is that X7.2.1 adds support for the Cisco Jabber for iPad client on the VCS Starter Pack Express.

A few months ago, I posted a write up on provisioning the Cisco Jabber for iPad client with CUPS/CUCM and another one covering provisioning the client for hosted services like WebEx Connect. I guess the next logical step would have been to discuss provisioning with the VCS+TMS. I'll have to come back to that one. For this blog post, I am going to focus on provisioning the Jabber client with the Cisco VCS Starter Pack Express.

Cisco Jabber for iPad Pt 2 Individual Accounts and Hosted Services

Last month I posted a blog on provisioning Cisco Jabber for iPad to use CUPS and CUCM. For part deux, I wanted to switch gears and provide a walk through for provisioning the Jabber client to use hosted services for Presence and video. 

Namely, I am going to discuss using Cisco WebEx Connect for IM/Presence and Cisco's Jabber Video for TelePresence (or as I like to call it, @jabber.com). It is worth noting that we are going to explore the "Personal Account" provisioning track here. That means discussion of WebEx Connect with CUCM or Cisco VCS won't be front and center. That will come later.

Cisco Jabber for iPad Pt 1 Provisioning CUPS and CUCM

As noted in my blog on Cisco Jabber for iPad Now Has Video, the latest version of Cisco Jabber for iPad was released on July 11, 2012. This version of Jabber not only adds video capabilities that leverage the built-in cameras on the iPad2 and 3rd generation iPad, but it also combines call processing, presence, and IM functionality into a unified client. 

In this series on provisioning, I am going to go through the various provisioning options for the Cisco Jabber for iPad. We'll initially start with the basics of getting the client communicating with various back-end services by using the Cisco Unified Presence Server and Cisco Unified Communications Manager integration options.

Cisco Jabber for iPad Now Has Video

I know there are a fair number of people out there in Cisco land that have been waiting for Cisco to bring video capabilities to the iPad via their Jabber client. Well, the wait is finally over. 

On July 11, 2012 the Cisco Jabber for iPad client appeared in the AppStore. The new Jabber client (yes, it is a 1.0 release) is an application that provides instant messaging (IM), video and voice calling, corporate directory, and presence all in one client.