The Cruft Of My Brain

It’s been a while since I looked at what was formerly known as the Cisco Attendant Console. Color me unimpressed. I found the new version’s install process to be tedious mainly because it’s java based. Key buttons would disappear repeatedly during the install and I had to reboot several times. The original promise of java creating this coding utopia has been completely corrupted by the large volume of incompatibilities between java versions.

Once I got it installed it seemed to work ok, after yet one more reboot.

The funny thing is that Arc is one of those weird companies that likes to do things differently. They just seem to make things more difficult than it needs to be.

But hey, at the end of the day they’re the only game in town so what can you do. I guess it’s nice to be a monopoly.

Gizmo5 is finally the one to break the Skype barrier.  They have a new service now called OpenSky (har) that is essentially a proxy between Gizmo’s SIP network and the Skype network.  I imagine they’re doing something like the non-free Skype Asterisk channels that have been out for a while.  This is cool but it would have been even more interesting when Skype was offering free out-calling.  Now, I’m not sure how big a deal it is.

Ultimately, the SIP world needs to come together, perhaps with XMPP as the discovery mechanism, in order to support universal and open calling.  I’ve been fiddling with IM on domains for Google and it works great!  More of that is needed!

And yes, I’m aware of ENUM but that doesn’t seem to be making progress in North America.  Someone show me that I’m wrong about that.

Once again, I’ve moved the in house phone system.  I was running into problems with the virtual version I had running for the last couple of months.  It worked pretty well most of the time but the clock was continually out of sync and that caused other problems on occasion.  We had one instance of the server rebooting in the middle of a call.  Not cool.  Good thing it’s just at home.

I’m sure there’s a way to make it work with the proper VMWare tools and a good bit of tweaking but it’s just not worth my “time”!

So, I downloaded the freshest copies of TrixBox CE and chan_sccp_b.  Again, I followed the steps here and had no problem getting everything installed.  Remember to change the IP address for the server in the xml files in the tftpboot directory and also in the sccp.conf file in /etc/asterisk/ and then reboot the whole thing.  Reloading Asterisk didn’t seem to be enough.  Not sure why that is.  Restart your phones and you’re good to go.  Oh yeah, in my case I had to change the SIP related IP’s on my 1760 gateway also.

After all of the struggles in the past with the sccp channel it’s amazing to me how far it’s come.  It really is pretty easy now.  It sure would be nice if they could build a GUI module for the configuration though.  In time perhaps.

Part of my motivation to do this is to fix the clock problem, but I also plan on getting a little more complex by adding some VoIP based connections to the world.  So far I’ve only had the single Verizon analog line.  I think I’m going to start by getting an inbound number from Gizmo5.  They’ve built in integration with Gizmo5 now and it’s pretty easy to set up.  I’ve been testing the outbound calls since they give you $2.00 in free calls at 1.9 cents/minute for signing up.  The quality’s been excellent!  The only problem has been that my parents don’t answer because they don’t recognize the number.    Buying the inbound number should fix that.

What I really need is a small form factor TrixBox CE server.  Something along the lines of what Digium is offering in their Asterisk Power Appliance.  Something cheap that can handle <10 phones would be a real sweet spot.

It’s official, I’m going independent.  I know, I probably could have picked better market timing.  I think we’ll be getting a bump in the next month or so though and this year might turn out ok.  Time will tell.

In the meantime, I need to find some contract work!  I have a number of opportunities lined up but the process of lining up more work needs to start now.

If you haven’t guessed from reading this blog, I’m primarily a Cisco guy focused on Core, Voice and Wireless.  I’ve done projects as large as managing a team of engineers (and being the lead engineer) on a 30+ 6500 switch rollout (both hybrid and native mixed) to installing and fixing single T1 scale routers.  A fair bit of the work I’ve done in the last few years has involved either voice or wireless.  I’ve designed and assisted with the rollout of a number of multisite Cisco Voice solutions.  I’ve performed wireless site surveys and then designed wireless solutions based on the results.  Those wireless solutions have generally been LWAPP based which I also implemented.  In the course of performing these wireless implementations I’ve converted standalone APs to LWAPP, configured Guest access with the portal and installed coverage maps in WCS.

I currently hold a CCNP and CCDA and I’m pursuing a CCVP.  I have a number of partner focused certs such as:

• Express Foundation Design Specialist
• Unity Design Specialist
• Rich Media Communications Specialist.

I previously held the Wireless SE and FE certs but have not renewed them due to role requirements within Cisco’s partner certification process.

So, I’m looking for interesting contract based gigs in the Metro DC area.  Baltimore is great too.

More to come as things develop!

I’ve been hearing this rumor for a while now that Cisco is getting into the blade server business.  I’m having a hard time with this being a smart move but I can see the reasoning.  Om posted about the latest rumors today and I think he hits on some important points.

It’s not like making servers (well, lets be honest and call it rebranding) is new to Cisco.  They’ve been selling CallManager, Unity, ACS and various other servers for years.  They started putting Pico-ITX size (I think) PC’s on NetMods for the ISR routers years ago as well.  The NM PC’s are probably the closest thing they have to blade servers.  In general these devices have done pretty well although I’d argue that Cisco hasn’t maximized their potential.  Still, going from a single NM in a router to a blade chassis with specific cooling, SAN and addressing requirements is a pretty big jump.

What’s Cisco hope to gain?  I think the question should be more like, what do they stand to lose?  Everything I’ve heard about Cisco’s entry into the data center, mostly the Nexus platform, is that it’s been slow going.  They haven’t been able to get the penetration they want.  I don’t think that’s especially surprising as that market was already somewhat mature and had several niche players leading it.  No, my guess is that they expected it to be a slow start, just not as slow as it’s been.  This is the usual problem for Cisco.  They are seen as a networking company, not an “everything to IT” company.  The server guys look at Cisco as “that networking stuff that I have to have.”  They don’t really like dealing with the network jockey.  If Cisco really does come out with a blade server it’ll be derided as Ver. 1 gear and not mature enough for production use.  And that’ll be somewhat true.

Something to remember though is that Cisco did this before.  About 10 years ago they decided to step on the voice guys toes.  It took a while and they had some real pain in the beginning but look at where things are now.  Who’s bankrupt?

Speaking of voice, is it just me or does it seem Cisco has decided on an incremental growth strategy for their voice platform?  There’s a distinct feeling of a lack of attention on the voice product.  I’m excluding the telepresence stuff from that as it’s so damn expensive.

I’ve been graciously receiving CiscoPress books for review for a while now so it’s about time I actually, you know, review one.  First up is the newest CVoice book:

I’m going through a re-cert process right now but I’m also trying to head towards the CCVP.  CVoice is one of my required tests for both of these so it’s the first one I’m tackling.  Earlier this year Cisco changed the requirements for the CCVP and rolled the old Gateway/Gatekeeper (GW/GK) test into CVoice and called it version 6.  Luckily this book was written just for that!

I took the test blind once to see what was on it.  Failed miserably.  I then began reading the book.  I found the book to be very comprehensive in the early sections.  Specific questions that I know I got wrong I was able to track down the general answers to.  This book isn’t some kind of cheat sheet but it does seem to follow the test pretty well.

I felt the sections on protocol characteristics, h.323 Gateways and MGCP configuration were all pretty thorough, as it relates to the test.  The section on Dial Plans was especially good.

The one section I found to be short was CUBE.  The CUBE section explained the general nature of the configuration sufficiently but I thought it stopped short of a really detailed description.  I would have liked more detail in this one section.

Of the “Official” test guides I’ve read in the past I thought this was one of the better ones.  A thorough reading of it will prepare you for the test, as well as deepening your understanding of voice gateways in the Cisco world.

Well, I’ve learned something that should have been painfully obvious.  I had the following configured for that SIP trunk to the Cisco router I mentioned:

context=from-internal
allow=ulaw
disallow=all
dtmfmode=rfc2833
host=192.168.169.2
insecure=very
ipaddr=192.168.169.2
port=5060
type=peer

The codec is defined by the “allow” statement.  If you put a “disallow” after the “allow” it will negate the allowed codec.  Well duh.

Swapping those around fixed the problem and making sure the trunk was in the proper context got me past the 404 error I was seeing also.

I’m now on a virtualized Trixbox and it sounds great compared to the previous install on a dedicated but older laptop!

I went forward with the Server 2003 R2 install and then added VMWare Server 2.0.  Trixbox installed very easily and quickly and I added chan-sccp-b using these instructions.  It all went together very well and once I remembered all the places my old config files had old IP’s (I copied over the sccp configs) I managed to get a phone to connect and call to an IAX2 softphone.

However, I can’t get the trunk to the router to work.  I’m getting a 488 error in the debug which seems to suggest a codec mismatch.  Both sides seem to have correct dialplans as they try to call through but all I get is a reorder tone.  The Cisco router really only supports g711 in the current configuration.  Could it be that the Trixbox isn’t enabled for that?  If that’s not the problem, I’m not sure what is, yet.

Stacey over at GigaOM put up Microsoft’s press release about R2 today.  R2′s bringing some much needed feature depth to OCS including better attendant handling, very basic call queueing, dial in audio conferencing and some SIP trunking improvements.  However, this isn’t the “big one”.  R2 still misses some very critical components.  E911 is still missing.  Advanced call queueing and call center type functions are not there.  The SIP trunking is still incomplete.  And a full OCS implementation just requires too many servers!

The reality of Microsoft’s positioning is that a full implementation of the OCS “platform” is too significant an investment for anything but large customers.  The Response Point product fills a nice niche in the S of SMB space.  Unfortunately there’s no upgrade path for Response Point and it really runs out of steam when you get near 50 phones.  Microsoft doesn’t have a good answer for the M in SMB.

However, R2 does position Microsoft for some very capable trials over the next year, all in anticipation of the next major release due sometime late ’09 or early ’10.  I still believe that will be the real battleground.  In a little more than a year Microsoft will truly have a worthy competitor and will start chipping away at Cisco for the Enterprise customers.  Perhaps sometime after that they can find a way to roll several roles into a single platform so the Mid-Market has an option too.

Seems like a silly thing but I’ve never been sure how to check the exact version of CME running.  “show telephony” will do it.  I’m either overlooking something in the GUI or it’s not there.  On a particular router I’m messing with the “About” screen doesn’t show anything.  Maybe that’s broken.

It’s important to be sure of the version running as there are dependencies for phone models and CUE versions.

Anyway…saved for future reference.