Monitoring Cisco IPC Express

You might monitor the Cisco IPC Express system with Syslog messages and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Management Information Base (MIB). You also can monitor call activity information through Syslog messages and Call Detail Records (CDRs).

Monitoring IP Phones Using Cisco CME Syslog Messages

Cisco CME 3.0 introduced type 6 Syslog messages, as shown in Example 14-37, for IP phone registration and deregistration events. These Syslog messages are useful for a central NMS to manage Cisco CME systems and IP phones.

Example 14-37. Type 6 Syslog Messages

%IPPHONE-6-REG_ALARM
%IPPHONE-6-REGISTER
%IPPHONE-6-REGISTER_NEW
%IPPHONE-6-UNREGISTER_ABNORMAL
%IPPHONE-6-REGISTER_NORMAL

Example Message:
 %IPPHONE-6-REGISTER_NEW: ephone-3:SEP003094C38724 IP:1.4.170.6 Socket:1
 DeviceType:Phone has registered.

The IPPHONE-6-REGISTER_NEW message shown in Example 14-37 indicates that a phone has registered and that it is not part of the explicit router configuration. In other words, the ephone configuration has not yet been created. Cisco CME allows unconfigured phones to register to make provisioning of the Cisco CME system more convenient. By default, phones designated as new are not assigned phone lines; therefore, they cannot make calls until they are configured into the system.

Enable the Cisco IOS logging capability to log all the Syslog events into the buffer on the Cisco CME router, or send the Syslog messages to a Syslog server for offline management, as shown in Example 14-38.

Example 14-38. Enabling Syslogging

telephony-service#(config)#service timestamps log datetime msec localtime
telephony-service #(config)#aaa new-model
telephony-service #(config)#aaa authentication login default none
telephony-service #(config)#aaa accounting connection H.323 start-stop radius
telephony-service #(config)#gw-accounting syslog
telephony-service #(config)#logging 10.10.10.1
!!! 10.10.10.1 is the ip address of syslog server, multiple servers might also be
 specified

To synchronize your Cisco CME system to an external NTP server, use the following:

 ntp server ip-address
 !!! ip address - IP address of the time server providing the clock
 synchronization

If there is no external NTP time source, use the internal router clock as the time source:

ntp master

To ensure that the time stamps are correct, set the router clock to the correct time:

clock set 15:15:00 might 31 2001

You can specify multiple Syslog servers for redundancy, because Syslog uses UDP as the underlying transport mechanism and data packets are unsequenced and unacknowledged.

In addition to the Syslog messages from Cisco CME, you can also set up Cisco UE for logging to an external Syslog server in addition to logging a message locally to its own storage. Use the following command:

cue(config)#log server 10.10.10.1

 

Monitoring Call Activity

NMS systems can retrieve CDRs and call history information in any of the following ways:

• Cisco CME GUI
• Syslog or RADIUS servers
• SNMP CISCO-DIAL-CONTROL-MIB and CISCO-VOICE-DIAL-CONTROL-MIB
• Voice performance statistics from Cisco CME

The next sections describe how you can monitor call activities, CDR logs, billing records, and voice performance statistics in more detail.

Monitoring Cisco CME Call History

The Cisco CME GUI provides call history information in the Reports > Call History window so that a network administrator can monitor for unknown callers or disallowed calling activities based on calling patterns. Configure the call history log to perform any forensics and accounting to track down fraudulent calling patterns, as shown in Example 14-39.

Example 14-39. Configuring Call History

router#show running-config
dial-control-mib retain-timer 10080
dial-control-mib max-size 500
!
gw-accounting syslog
logging 10.10.10.1

 

Logging CDR to External Servers

You might follow the same method discussed earlier in the section "Monitoring IP Phones Using Cisco CME Syslog Messages" to allow Syslog messages to be logged to an external server and to log CDRs to an external server. Cisco CME allows you to log CDRs for accounting or billing purposes to an external AAA server (RADIUS or TACACS). This provides CDR logging, post call record processing, and a billing report generation facility. You can use a MindCTI (http://www.mindcti.com/) RADIUS server or a Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) to provide billing support and view CDR details.

To configure RADIUS on your Cisco CME router, perform the following tasks:

• Use the aaa new-model global configuration command to enable AAA. You must configure AAA if you plan to use RADIUS.
• Use the aaa authentication global configuration command to define method lists for RADIUS authentication.
• Use the line and interface commands to allow the defined method lists to be used.

Example 14-40 is a sample configuration that allows the Cisco CME router to generate and send VoIP CDRs to an external RADIUS server.

Example 14-40. Logging CDR to a RADIUS Server

router#show running-config
aaa new-model
aaa authentication login default group radius
!! Login Authentication using RADIUS server
aaa authorization config-commands
aaa authorization exec default if-authenticated group radius
aaa authorization network default group radius
!! Authorization for network resources
aaa authorization configuration default group radius
!! Authorization for global config mode
aaa accounting send stop-record authentication failure
!! Start-Stop Accounting services
aaa accounting update periodic 1
aaa accounting network default start-stop group radius
!! For local Authentication
aaa accounting connection default start-stop group radius
!! For local Authentication
aaa accounting connection h323 start-stop group radius
!! For Voice Call Accounting
aaa accounting system default start-stop group radius
aaa accounting resource default start-stop group radius
aaa session-id common
!
gw-accounting h323
!! H.323 gateway Accounting
gw-accounting syslog
!! Optional - for system log information
gw-accounting voip
!! VoIP call Accounting
!
Router RADIUS Server configuration:
radius-server host 11.11.11.1 auth-port 1645 acct-port 1646
!! RADIUS Server host address
radius-server retransmit 30
!! RADIUS messages update interval
radius-server key cisco
!! RADIUS server secure key

 

Using Account Codes for Billing

Cisco CME provides account code support into CDRs, which a RADIUS server or customer billing server then can use for the billing process. The Cisco 7960 and 7940 IP Phones support an acct softkey so that users can enter an account code from an IP phone during the call ringing (alerting) or active (connected) states. This account code is also added to the Cisco-VOICE-DIAL-CONTROL-MIB SNMP MIB.

You can view the Account Code field in the show call active voice log, as shown in Example 14-41.

Example 14-41. Viewing the Account Code

router#show call active voice
Telephony call-legs: 2
SIP call-legs: 0
H.323 call-legs: 0
MGCP call-legs: 0
Total call-legs: 2
!
GENERIC:
SetupTime=97147870 ms
Index=1
PeerAddress=2001
!
TELE:
AccountCode 1234 

Note that this Account Code field can also be added to the Vendor-Specific Attribute (VSA) fields for CDR. For more information on Cisco VSA, go to Cisco.com and search for "Cisco VSA Implementation Guide."

Monitoring Voice Performance Statistics

If you are running Cisco IOS release 12.3(4)T or later, you might take advantage of the Cisco Voice Performance Statistics to collect voice call signaling statistics and VoIP AAA accounting statistics based on user-configured time ranges. The statistics can be displayed on your console or can be formatted and archived to an FTP or Syslog server. This feature can help you diagnose performance problems on the network, and identify impaired voice equipment.

Example 14-42 shows an example of the amount of memory used for accounting and signaling call statistics records (CSRs) by fixed interval and since a reset or reboot. It also shows the estimated memory allocated for future use.

Example 14-42. Call Statistics Record Memory Allocation

router#show voice statistics memory-usage csr
*** Voice Call Statistics Record Memory Usage *** 
 Fixed Interval Option -
 CSR size: 136 bytes
 Number of CSR per interval: 9
 Used memory size (proximate): 0
 Estimated future claimed memory size (proximate): 10
 Since Reset Option -
 CSR size: 136 bytes
 Total count of CSR: 9
 Used memory size (proximate): 1224

*** Voice Call Statistics Accounting Record Memory Usage *** 
 Fixed Interval Option -
 ACCT REC size: 80 bytes
 Number of ACCT REC per interval: 1
 Used memory size (proximate): 0
 Estimated future claimed memory size (proximate): 25
 Since Reset Option -
 ACCT REC size: 80 bytes
 Total count of ACCT REC: 1
 Used memory size (proximate): 80

For more information, you can refer to the Cisco IOS 12.3(4)T documentation and read about "Voice Performance Statistics on Cisco Gateways."

Using Cisco CME Supported SNMP MIBs

You might leverage Cisco SNMP router MIBs for Cisco CME management. The following are examples of supported MIBs:

• CISCO-DIAL-CONTROL-MIB Contains information for CDRs and call history
• CISCO-VOICE-DIAL-CONTROL-MIB Extends call detail information to telephony and VoIP dial peers/call legs
• CISCO-VOICE-IF-MIB Allows access to voice interface parameters such as loss and gain values and echo cancellation status
• CISCO-CDP-MIB Lets you manage CDP
• CISCO-SYSLOG-MIB Allows access to Syslog messages

Managing Cisco IPC Express Systems by Managed Services and Enterprises