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.

Installing Cisco RTMT 10.5 on Apple OS X

"Could you re-post the ciscomonkey.net article covering installation of RTMT on OS X?" is a request I receive at least once a month. Well, the short answer to the question is: no, I can't repost the original content. I wasn't the original author and I am not willing to post someone else's content without their explicit consent. I doubt @ciscomonkey would mind but it still isn't cool.

That said, I have an obligation to my readers and there have been enough changes to the RTMT installer to warrant revisiting the whole process. This article provides an updated step-by-step procedure for installing RTMT on Mac OS X. The procedures cover the most recent Cisco UC applications.

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!

Heads Up, Issues with UCM SIP Processing on 10.5(2)SU2 and 11.0

Users that recently downloaded Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) 10.5(2)SU2 [10.5(2.12900-14] or CUCM 11.0 [11.0(1.10000-10)] may have received an email from Cisco alerting them that these versions have been deferred due to some serious defects. If so, then good for you. If you ignored the e-mail then you receive the wag of the finger.

Maybe, you are managing a system affected by the defects we are going to discuss but you weren't the one to download the files. Well, in that case, you wouldn't have been alerted. In all cases, if you have installed 10.5(2)SU2 or 11.0 and are running SIP then you want to heed the warnings and look at applying the appropriate fixes. 

CentOS Recovery Use Case 5: Downloading the Tomcat Certificate Private Key

I recently published a blog entry on how one could use the CentOS distribution and Recovery process to access the Cisco UCOS root file system. As noted in the initial blog, this isn't a new revelation. I originally was going to provide a group of use cases in the "primer" but decided that it was a little too long. 

So, I am breaking the use cases out into individual entries. Who knows, over time this may become another series. For now, let's focus on one of the CentOS recovery use cases: Downloading the Tomcat Certificate Private Key.

CentOS Recovery Use Case 4: Fixing Errors with Custom Announcements

I recently published a blog entry on how one could use the CentOS distribution and Recovery process to access the Cisco UCOS root file system. As noted in the initial blog, this isn't a new revelation. I originally was going to provide a group of use cases in the "primer" but decided that it was a little too long. 

So, I am breaking the use cases out into individual entries. Who knows, over time this may become another series. For now, let's focus on one of the CentOS recovery use cases: Fixing Errors with Custom Announcement Uploads.

CentOS Recovery Use Case 3: Fixing TFTP Custom Ring Tone Issues

I recently published a blog entry on how one could use the CentOS distribution and Recovery process to access the Cisco UCOS root file system. As noted in the initial blog, this isn't a new revelation. I originally was going to provide a group of use cases in the "primer" but decided that it was a little too long. 

So, I am breaking the use cases out into individual entries. Who knows, over time this may become another series. For now, let's focus on one of the CentOS recovery use cases: Fixing the TFTP Custom Ring Tone Issues.

CentOS Recovery Use Case 2: License Expiry Issue

I recently published a blog entry on how one could use the CentOS distribution and Recovery process to access the Cisco UCOS root file system. As noted in the initial blog, this isn't a new revelation. I originally was going to provide a group of use cases in the "primer" but decided that it was a little too long. 

So, I am breaking the use cases out into individual entries. Who knows, over time this may become another series. For now, let's focus on one of the CentOS recovery use cases: Fixing the License Expiry Issue.

CentOS Recovery Use Case 1: Modifying License MAC Addresses

I recently published a blog entry on how one could use the CentOS distribution and Recovery process to access the Cisco UCOS root file system. As noted in the initial blog, this isn't a new revelation. I originally was going to provide a group of use cases in the "primer" but decided that it was a little too long. So, I am breaking the use cases out into individual entries. Who knows, over time this may become another series. For now, let's focus on one of the CentOS recovery use cases: preserving a license MAC in your lab or staging area.

Sometimes You Have to Use the Backdoor: Using CentOS to Access Cisco UCOS

It is the middle of the night and you are in the midst of a change control when you run into a brick wall. The kinda wall that can ruin your entire weekend. At a minimum, you have added at least a few hours to the process and boy you are not happy about that. 

Sometimes you just need more access than "the man" wants to give you and you don't want to wait for some tech support engineer to get on the phone to do something you can damn well handle on your own. Yes, sometimes you have to reach into the unconventional pocket of your tool belt and break off a little somethin'-somethin'. This series provides the necessary tools to get access to the Cisco UCOS root file system so that you can get the job done. 

Software Defect Could Affect Custom IP Phone Service URLs

This is just a quick note on a software defect on Cisco 8800 series IP phones that could break normal operations for custom Cisco IP Phone Service URLs. The issue is documented in Cisco software defect CSCur13256 and may break IP Phone Services running co-resident on a web server (such as Microsoft IIS).

Dealing with Provisional Response and SIP 183 Messages with SDP

A month or so ago, I was deploying a solution integrating SIP trunks from a CLEC with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) and Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE). While running through the ol' validation routine, I came across an issue with SIP provisional response. Normally, we wouldn't have hit this problem because of the way we provision SIP trunks. However, this time around the integration guide for the ITSP had a configuration requirement that hindered our ability to support provisional acknowledgements.

The interesting thing about this particular issue is that if you weren't looking for it, you probably wouldn't catch it. Normal call setup was working fine. But when you called certain numbers you would receive ringing when you are expecting the call to be treated with an IVR.

There are a couple of ways of dealing with provisional SIP responses. The following covers some of the techniques I tested/used.

How Video Kills the Audio Call with Early Offer

This is a quick blurb regarding an issue someone emailed to me a few weeks ago. It is a pretty straightforward example of why one should pay attention to CUCM Region settings and interoperability parameters of your ITSP before you deploy Early Offer (EO).

Installing Cisco RTMT for CUCM 8.6 on Mac OS X

This is a follow up to a blog entry I added a while back covering the installation of Cisco RTMT on Mac OS X. This original blog was just a quick blurb highlighting the work done by @ciscomonkey. The original article is still alive and well. Most of the information provided is still valid. However, I recently discovered that there is an issue when installing the RTMT plugin from a CUCM 8.6 or later system on a Mac OS X (Snow Leopard or Mountain Lion). 

I received a handful of comments from readers that they were running into problems with the installer. Well after some research I think I figured out what has happened and how to fix it. Applying this fix should help people get pass the installer issue that has been reported with RTMT plugin version 8.91. I believe it is likely that this issue exists in CUCM 9.x RTMT installers, too. I have not tested that yet (I need to rebuild my 9.1 VM).

Multi-Step Upgrade: DRS Tip

I am in the process of doing a multi-step upgrade from 6.1 to 8.6 and I figured that while my DRS restore was chugging along I'd take a quick moment to post a tip to the ol' blog. On this particular project we are pulling a DRS backup from the production system and taking it off site to one of our labs. From there, I am doing a restore to a MCS host I have in the lab and stepping the UCM publisher through the upgrade process. 

There is a teeny weeny hurdle you could run into during this process. Particularly when you are creating a DRS backup device to take the newly upgrade image back to the production environment. 

If you are doing something like what I describe above and are seeing an error message on the DRS Backup Device page that says something like <spicolivoice> "Duuude, I'd like to help ya out brah but the Local Agent has bailed on us...." </spicolivoice> then I may have the fix you need.

CCIE-V Understanding Basic MGCP Ingress Call Setup

About two weeks ago I posted an article on Understanding Basic MGCP Egress Call Setup. At the same time I started an outline and collected traces for the "ingress" view of MGCP. Then a "little bird" told me about a blog article that Vik Malhi posted on http://blogs.ipexpert.com that covers dissection of the ingress call. Vik's article breaks it down quite nicely (no big surprise here) and there is no sense in duplicating effort!

Vik's article is entitled: MGCP T-Shoot Call Setup and Tear-down. It is a good read as is his other articles on the ipExpert site. Good job Vik and many thanks for all of your contributions to growing our collective knowledge and understanding.

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CCIE-V Looking at SIP Call Setup from UCM to ITSP

As I mentioned in a previous blog on MGCP Egress Call Setup, I have been studying for the CCIE-V and putting some emphasis on getting cozy with trace files. This is a necessary aspect of the IE voice exam. In what may become a series, I am taking my notes and dumping them in the ol' blog blender. 

In this installment, I want to walk through a SIP call setup scenario.

CCIE-V Understanding Basic MGCP Egress Call Setup

For the past couple of months I have been diligently preparing myself for a successful CCIE-V lab. One of the key factors in successfully navigating this exam is your ability to quickly troubleshoot a problem and, sometimes, provide information to the proctor about how you came to your conclusions. 

Unfortunately, you can't say things like "well, I know the codec is G711 because the phone told me so (double "?")" nor can you use explanations such as: "based on the annunciator message, I conclude that the call is failing because it is Unallocated/Unassigned". You actually need to show definitive proof to back up your conclusion. So, you need to dissect traces or debugs and demonstrate that you understand them fluently. 

I have been collecting notes on trace dissection as I study and I figured that I should try to integrate studying with my blog a little more than I have to date. So, this may be ugly but I am going to start with a basic MGCP call and using "debug mgcp packet" to identify the key phases of call setup, media initiation, and call termination.

Cisco RTMT on Mac OS X

Typically, it isn't my style to post what I call a "cover blog". But I had to make an exception this time around. While I was at Cisco Live 2012 I got into a conversation about switching to the Apple Mac OS X platform and porting applications that are traditionally Windows-based. Specifically, the conversation revolved around applications that end users and administrators of Cisco UC solutions can use. 


Whenever I get into this discussion, the question of running Cisco's Real Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT) application on OS X is a popular talking point, right behind soft phones. In this brief blog spot I wanted to highlight a resource I stumbled across a while ago that was very helpful in getting RTMT running on Mac OS X. 


Of course I am talking about @ciscomonkey's article that is aptly titled "Real Time Monitoring Tool on Mac OS X" (http://www.ciscomonkey.net/rtmt-on-mac/). There isn't much to say except that the article is well written, accurate, and an indispensable book mark. In fact, there was a period of time where I couldn't find the article after I first discovered it. Fortunately, the author was kind enough to re-publish this invaluable resource (and I promplty archived an offline copy). 

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