CUBE to Exchange 2013 Unified Messaging Interoperability

As most of you know when Microsoft moved to Exchange 2013 their architecture changed quite a bit. They introduced the Client Access Server as a new role for Unified Messaging and disbanded the UM role altogether putting the processes that ran on the UM server to the Mailbox Server role.

This isn’t a big deal but what happens during an initial call setup is Exchange uses a number of refer and moved temp messages to get the user to the right Mailbox Server running the UM process when a user tries to dial into voicemail via the voicemail pilot number. Now if you’re a larger Exchange customer this may present some issues integrating with CUCM or CUBE or maybe you just haven’t noticed this issue or you just decided its not that important any more. Either way I have a fix for you.

CUCM Issue, workaround and fix

Previous to version 11 of CUCM there is an issue where CUCM can not process the refers correctly and calls into the voicemail pilot number will not connect correctly. The fix is upgrade to version 11. I also discovered the same bug in 2010 when Exchange 2010 would refer back to Exchange 2007.

This does not affect any other functionality if that is a concern. The ability to leave a voicemail, MWI etc. all still work. It is only the ability to retrieve a voicemail via the Vmail pilot number that is affected by this bug. The other functions are using different methods to find and access the correct voicemail box.

If for some reason you would prefer not to upgrade to CUCM 11 there is a work around using CUBE. CUBE has the ability to consume these refer messages coming from Exchange 2013 CAS and UM processes. There is very little information available online for the right configuration of CUBE for use with Exchange 2013 Unified Messaging. I have highlighted below some of the key commands required for at least the ability to have the voicemail pilot connect and be referred to the right Exchange Mailbox server.

You may notice under dialpeer 100 I have highlighted max-redirects 3 specifically in red. This is a very important command that if not implemented will not allow the CUBE to correctly consumer the refer and moved-temp messages and basically cause a never ending loop of invites and moved-temp messages. Thanks to the Cisco TAC for discovering that command.

Does this configuration work for Exchange Online you may ask? I have no idea to be quite honest but it may be worth testing if you are curious. I found basically a void of information in regards to CUBE interop with Exchange Online so this may or may not work with the service.

voice service voip
no ip address trusted authenticate
mode border-element
media flow-around
allow-connections sip to sip
no supplementary-service sip moved-temporarily
no supplementary-service sip refer
supplementary-service media-renegotiate
fax protocol t38 version 0 ls-redundancy 0 hs-redundancy 0 fallback none
sip
  referto-passing
!
dial-peer voice 100 voip
preference 1
 max-redirects 3
destination-pattern <voicemailPilot>
no notify redirect ip2ip
session protocol sipv2
session target ipv4:<ExchangeCASIP>:5060
session transport tcp
dtmf-relay rtp-nte
codec g711ulaw
no vad
 no supplementary-service sip moved-temporarily
!
dial-peer voice 300 voip
preference 1
destination-pattern [2-9].........
session protocol sipv2
session target ipv4:<CUCMIP>
session transport tcp
incoming called-number .
dtmf-relay rtp-nte
codec g711ulaw
no vad
no supplementary-service sip moved-temporarily
!

As always, I hope this helps some hapless sole looking for an answer.

VoIPNorm

VoIPNorm where have you been?

I am still around folks just been busy. Traveling, golf, studying and work all adds up after a while.  I am in the process of writing a new interoperability post for CUBE and Exchange 2013 UM and should have it up by next week. It should be an interesting read if you have ever run into issues with Exchange 2013 UM and the way it does refers to CUCM or CUBE.

Talk to you soon.

VoIPNorm

Collaboration Summit Announcements–IX5000 & Project Squared

You may have noticed last week a bunch of announcements coming from Cisco during our Collaboration Summit.The major ones were the release of Project Squared (which includes the partnership with Box) and also our new immersive system the IX5000. Below is a small collection of a few resources from that event as well as an interesting video of a WebRTC call from Project Squared running in a browser to a DX80 video endpoint transcoding free.

If your interested in trying out Project Squared you can sign up for free and start collaborating right here : https://www.webex.com/projectsquared/ . You can currently get to Project Squared through a Web browser or apps running on iOS, Android and MAC with Windows coming in December (date is public from Project Squared website).

http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/industry-first-h-264-video-endpoint-calls-firefox-via-webrtc-enabled-project-squared

http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/what-is-the-cisco-collaboration-cloud

http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/ix5000-launch

http://developers.blog.box.com/2014/11/17/project-squared-box-view/

VoIPNorm

Updated with QR codes: Creating a TelePresence Background That’s More Than a Pretty Picture

A couple of people have asked about what to use as a background screen for their TelePresence endpoints from my “So you want to deploy UC?” post. It’s a great idea to use this real estate to educate users and give helpful tips. Unfortunately the idea for doing this is one I borrowed from a colleague but I think heard someone say once the best ideas are borrowed/stolen. Anyway.
Below are a couple of different versions of the same thing just updated depending of the version of TC software your using on a Cisco TelePresence endpoint. I actually did this in PowerPoint and then saved them as a JPG. I used the Web UI o the codec to get screenshots of my touch panel. Taking screenshots of your touch panel varies depending on your software version your running so take a look at my blog post on the subject to learn more.


Once you have created your master piece then its just a matter of uploading it to the TelePresence codec. Something I have noticed is that depending on how you create and save the image does affect how it looks once you get it on the screen. Just make sure to keep the image quality good.

As versions change this is something you will want to stay on top of though and make sure your background is still relevant to the version of software your running on your codec.
Update, Adding QR Codes : Again another good idea from a smart friend. I basically don’t think of anything myself any more. Adding a QR code is great way to add a touch of BYOD to your background with a link to internal or external help for video users. Creating a QR code is dead simple and makes it super simple for users walking in with BYOD to get to stuff.
Creating a QR code blog: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29449/How-to-Create-a-QR-Code-in-4-Quick-Steps.aspx
I used http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ to create a QR code because its free for the static service but they have more advance features to track usage if you want to pay for their service. This just links to http://voipnorm.blogspot.com but it can be any website.A great example of using a QR code is linking it to a complimentary application that users can use on their BYOD device with a video endpoint. The one to the right is for Cisco Proximity on iTunes. A really simple idea that users will like. Of curse if you worried about the URL changing you can also make dynamic QR codes where the URL can be updated but the code stays the same.
Here is what it can look like:

If you would like a copy of the background PPT you can get it from here.
VoIPNorm