Other Cisco IP Telephony Solutions for the Enterprise Branch and Small and Medium Offices

Troubleshooting Voice Mail VPIM Networking

Chapter 10, "Cisco IPC Express Integrated Voice Mail," explained Cisco UE support for voice mail networking using Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM). It interworks with other Cisco UE systems and Cisco Unity systems in a network. This section discusses some common problems faced in deploying this feature and how to troubleshoot and fix them.

Cannot Send and Receive Network Messages from a Location

If you notice that you cannot send or receive any messages from a particular location, a probable cause is that the local location ID is not configured in the system. Until you configure this on a Cisco UE system, voice mail networking is not enabled. If you are trying to send a network message from a system where a local location ID is not configured, the system plays the prompt "Sorry. The extension you requested is not available." You can verify whether you have configured a local location by using the Cisco UE CLI shown in Example 21-57.

Example 21-57. Displaying Network Locations

cue#show network locations
ID NAME ABBREV DOMAIN
303 'Boston' BOS cueunity.cisco.com
401 'Bangalore' BAN bang.cue.cisco.com
201 'Los Angeles' LAX lax.cue.cisco.com

Local location id: 

In Example 21-57. the local location ID is empty, which indicates that voice mail networking is disabled. You can configure this parameter using the following CLI to set the local location ID to 401:

cue(config)#network local location id 401

 

Cannot Send Messages to Cisco Unity

Assume that you have a network with a centralized Cisco Unity at the main campus site, smaller offices with Cisco UEs, and voice mail networking configured between all the sites. You may be able to send messages between the Cisco UE sites and send a message from Cisco Unity to Cisco UE, but you are unable to send a message from Cisco UE to Cisco Unity.

The reason for this problem may be that the sending Cisco UE site is configured in the same domain as that of the Cisco Unity system. The Microsoft Exchange server used by Cisco Unity does not allow other VPIM locations to be in the same domain as itself. For example, the network location configuration shown in Example 21-58.does not work if iptel.cisco.com points to a Cisco Unity server.

Example 21-58. Erroneous DNS Configuration for Cisco Unity

cue#show network locations
ID NAME ABBREV DOMAIN
303 'Boston' BOS iptel.cisco.com
401 'Bangalore' BAN bang.iptel.cisco.com
201 'Los Angeles' LAX lax.iptel.cisco.com

Separating the domains for the Cisco UE and Cisco Unity systems fixes the problem, as shown in Example 21-59.

Example 21-59. Correct DNS Configuration for Cisco Unity

cue#show network locations
ID NAME ABBREV DOMAIN
303 'Boston' BOS bos.iptel.cisco.com
401 'Bangalore' BAN bang.cue.cisco.com
201 'Los Angeles' LAX lax.cue.cisco.com

When deploying Cisco UE and Cisco Unity voice mail networking, remember that DNS is mandatory in such a network. Cisco Unity is not supported in a network where DNS service is unavailable. It is important that all the network locations on Cisco UE and Cisco Unity be configured using host names and domain names, not explicit IP addresses. If you have a network of Cisco UEs only, you can use explicit IP addresses or DNS host names in network location configurations. This alternative configuration eliminates the dependency on DNS service or DNS cache consistency for voice mail networking.

Unable to Address Messages to Network Locations

There may be occasions when users are unable to address messages to network locations. The Cisco UE system plays a message informing the user that the extension he or she dialed is unavailable. The probable reason for this issue is a misconfiguration in the network location setting with respect to extension lengths. For example, if you have accidentally configured an extension length of 3 for a location where the actual extension length is 4, the system responds with this message when a user addresses a message with a four digit extension. You can verify the configuration as shown in Example 21-60.

Example 21-60. Displaying Location Details

BANG#show network detail location id 201
Name: Los Angeles
Abbreviation: LAX
Email domain: lax.cue.cisco.com
Minimum extension length: 4
Maximum extension length: 4
Phone prefix:
VPIM encoding: G711ulaw
Send spoken name: enabled
Sent msg count: 1
Received msg count: 0

 

Troubleshooting Nondelivery Receipts

When you send voice mail messages to different networked locations, you might receive nondelivery receipts (NDRs) for many reasons. When you listen to the NDR, it describes why that particular message could not be delivered.

The following sections discuss the most common reasons why a message cannot be delivered. It also covers how to identify the underlying problem and correct it.

Invalid Extension at the Receiving System

The invalid extension error at the receiving system occurs when a message is sent to an extension that does not exist on the destination system's configuration. You can verify whether the extension the message is addressed to is available on the destination system by checking the extension in the mailbox page of the Cisco UE GUI.

Another reason you might run into this situation is that in your network location configuration for the recipient location, you might have configured voicemail extension-length min and voicemail extension-length max. If this is the configuration, and the user dials the wrong length for a location and extension when addressing the message, Cisco UE cannot detect that until the message reaches the destination system. So the message is sent anyway, resulting in an invalid extension NDR from the destination system. For example, assume that you have a location called Boston where all the extensions are four digits in length. At another location in the network, such as Los Angeles, you have a configuration for the Boston location, as shown in Example 21-61.

Example 21-61. Extension Length Configuration for Boston Location

cue#show running-config
network location id 303
 abbreviation "BOS"
 email domain cueunity.cisco.com
 name "Boston"
 voicemail extension-length min 3 max 10 
end location

This configuration allows users to address a network message to location 303 (Boston) with any strings of digits between three and ten digits in length, even though all the extensions in Boston are four digits long. So if a user makes a mistake in addressing the message, the sending system cannot detect it. You should use the minimum and maximum extension length configuration if you have mixed-length extensions. Otherwise, it is recommended that you use a fixed-extension-length value to minimize addressing errors.

Remote Location Is Unavailable

The destination location may be unavailable for a few reasons, including the following:

• The Cisco UE system is offline for an extended period of time.
• The network link serving the location may be down.

A simple IP ping test can confirm the network status.

DNS Service Is Unavailable and Local DNS Cache Is Inconsistent

If you are using host and domain names in your network location configurations, the availability of DNS service is compulsory to send messages across the network. Cisco UE has a DNS cache, so even if the DNS server on the network is unavailable for a brief period, Cisco UE should still be able to send messages to remote locations as long as the cache is consistent and has entries for the location the message is addressed to.

You can verify the availability of a DNS server using IP ping. Cisco UE checks the Mail Exchange (MX) DNS record for a remote location, so it is important that an MX record and a normal DNS record are available for the remote location. You can check Cisco UE's DNS cache by using the show ip dns cache command, shown in Example 21-62. to check the consistency of the entries.

Example 21-62. Displaying DNS Cache

BANG#show ip dns cache
BANG.localdomain. 2147483647 IN A 1.4.13.90
1.0.0.127.in-addr.arpa. 2147483647 IN PTR localhost.
localhost. 2147483647 IN A 127.0.0.1
90.13.4.1.in-addr.arpa. 2147483647 IN PTR BANG.localdomain.
lax.cue.cisco.com. 3600 IN MX 10 lax.cue.cisco.com.
lax.cue.cisco.com. 3600 IN A 1.4.14.134

If the IP address of the remote Cisco UE has changed since this cache was last updated, voice mail messages cannot be sent to this location. As soon as the DNS server is again available, you can use the clear ip dns cache command to clear the cache, and build a new one with updated values.

Recipient Mailbox at the Remote Location Is Full or Disabled

If the recipient's mailbox is full or disabled, an NDR is generated by the destination Cisco UE system. You can check mailbox usage by using the CLI discussed in the section "Common Voice Mail show Commands."

Recipient Location Has No Configuration for the Sending Location

For successful operation of Cisco UE voice mail networking, it is important that each location know about every other location in the network. For security reasons, Cisco UE does not accept any incoming messages from an IP address or host name that is not present in its network location configuration. You can verify the location configuration by using the show network locations command.

Tracing Voice Mail Networking

The preceding sections discussed common problems and their solutions. This section demonstrates how to debug voice mail networking with tracing. Voice mail networking is implemented using VPIM, which in turn uses Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) for message transfer.

When you troubleshoot, a basic understanding of SMTP is helpful. Example 21-63 shows the output of a networking trace in which a message was sent to a nonexistent mailbox and an NDR was received by the sending system. The first half of the trace shows a voice mail message being sent from extension 5501 at the sending location to extension 9008 at the receiving side. The second half of the trace shows an NDR coming back from the remote location to 5501 with a mailbox full reason. The important information to look for while troubleshooting is as follows (also highlighted in the trace output):

• The EHLO SMTP message sent and received by the systems.
• The MAIL FROM and RCPT TO headers, which identify the sender and recipient's information.
• The From and To VPIM headers.
• The VPIM message ID. This is a globally unique message ID that can be useful in troubleshooting on the receiving side.
• The vCard information sent and received. This is useful in Cisco UE release 2.1 and later when the vCard information is cached on the receiving system to identify remote users.
• The encoding format for the audio message. This can be G.711 or G.726 (32-KB Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation [ADPCM]).
• In the NDR message delivery, the NDR status that gives the reason why the message could not be delivered.

Example 21-63. Tracing Voice Mail Networking

cue#trace networking smtp all
cue#trace networking vpim send
cue#trace networking vpim receive
cue#show trace buffer tail
Press  to exit...
6018 12/26 22:56:50.091 netw smtp 3 192.168.0.200
6018 12/26 22:56:50.106 netw smtp 4
6018 12/26 22:56:50.129 netw smtp 6 220 192.168.0.200 Simple Mail Transfer Service
 Ready
6018 12/26 22:56:50.129 netw smtp 5 EHLO 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.137 netw smtp 6 250-192.168.0.200 (Cisco Unity Express)
6018 12/26 22:56:50.137 netw smtp 6 250-X-VPIM-Wave
6018 12/26 22:56:50.139 netw smtp 6 250-DSN NOTIFY
6018 12/26 22:56:50.141 netw smtp 6 250 SIZE
6018 12/26 22:56:50.714 netw smtp 5 MAIL FROM 5501@192.168.0.100 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.729 netw smtp 6 250 ok 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.730 netw smtp 5 RCPT TO 9008@192.168.0.200 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.736 netw smtp 6 250 ok
6018 12/26 22:56:50.737 netw smtp 5 DATA
6018 12/26 22:56:50.743 netw smtp 6 354 Start mail input; end with .
6018 12/26 22:56:50.750 netw vpim 3 VPIM
6018 12/26 22:56:50.793 netw vpim 3 VPIM: To: <9008@192.168.0.200>
6018 12/26 22:56:50.811 netw vpim 3 VPIM: From: Auto SubOne<5501@192.168.0.100>
6018 12/26 22:56:50.867 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 22:56:49 -0800
 (PST)
6018 12/26 22:56:50.867 netw vpim 3 VPIM: MIME-Version: 1.0 (Voice 2.0)
6018 12/26 22:56:50.867 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-Type: Multipart/Voice-Message;
 Version=2.0;
6018 12/26 22:56:50.867 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Boundary="==VpimMsg==1104130610745"
6018 12/26 22:56:50.868 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
6018 12/26 22:56:50.868 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Message-ID: 
  
6018 12/26 22:56:50.869 netw vpim 3 VPIM:
6018 12/26 22:56:50.872 netw vpim 3 VPIM: --==VpimMsg==1104130610745
6018 12/26 22:56:50.872 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-Type: text/directory;
 charset=us-ascii; profile=vCard
6018 12/26 22:56:50.872 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
6018 12/26 22:56:50.873 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename="Auto SubOne.vcf"
6018 12/26 22:56:50.873 netw vpim 3 VPIM:
6018 12/26 22:56:50.873 netw vpim 3 VPIM: BEGIN:vCard 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.873 netw vpim 3 VPIM: FN:Auto SubOne 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.874 netw vpim 3 VPIM: EMAIL;TYPE=INTERNET; 
 TYPE=VPIM:5501@192.168.0.100 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.874 netw vpim 3 VPIM: TEL:5501 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.874 netw vpim 3 VPIM: VERSION: 3.0 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.874 netw vpim 3 VPIM: END:vCard 
6018 12/26 22:56:50.874 netw vpim 3 VPIM:
6018 12/26 22:56:50.909 netw vpim 3 VPIM: --==VpimMsg==1104130610745
6018 12/26 22:56:50.909 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-Type: Audio/x-wav
6018 12/26 22:56:50.909 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-Transfer-Encoding: Base64
6018 12/26 22:56:50.910 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-Description: VPIM Message
6018 12/26 22:56:50.910 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-Disposition: inline;
 voice=Voice-Message
6018 12/26 22:56:50.910 netw vpim 3 VPIM: Content-ID:
 JAB054980L7-NM-JAD06390I66-1104130214514
6018 12/26 22:56:50.910 netw vpim 3 VPIM:
6018 12/26 22:56:51.124 netw vpim 3 VPIM:
6018 12/26 22:56:51.125 netw vpim 3 VPIM: --==VpimMsg==1104130610745--
6018 12/26 22:56:51.143 netw smtp 5 End of DATA
6018 12/26 22:56:54.230 netw smtp 6 250 2.6.0 Message queued for delivery
5762 12/26 22:56:55.242 netw smtp 2
5762 12/26 22:56:55.247 netw smtp 3 socket hostName: 192.168.0.200,
 hostAddress: 192.168.0.200
5762 12/26 22:56:55.248 netw smtp 3 hostname: 192.168.0.200 found in good address
 cache
5762 12/26 22:56:55.255 netw smtp 1
6023 12/26 22:56:55.257 netw smtp 5 Initial connection message
6023 12/26 22:56:55.269 netw smtp 6 UNKNOWN: EHLO 192.168.0.200 
6023 12/26 22:56:55.269 netw smtp 5 250-192.168.0.100
6023 12/26 22:56:55.774 netw smtp 6 EHLO : MAIL FROM: <9008@192.168.0.200> 
6023 12/26 22:56:55.777 netw smtp 5 250 ok 
6023 12/26 22:56:55.791 netw smtp 6 MAIL FROM:: RCPT TO: <5501@192.168.0.100> 
6023 12/26 22:56:55.792 netw smtp 5 250 ok 

6023 12/26 22:56:55.797 netw smtp 6 RCPT TO:: DATA
6023 12/26 22:56:55.797 netw smtp 5 354 Start data
6023 12/26 22:56:55.895 netw vpim 4 VPIM: To: <5501@192.168.0.100> 
6023 12/26 22:56:55.896 netw vpim 4 VPIM: From: <9008@192.168.0.200> 

6023 12/26 22:56:55.897 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 22:56:49 -0800 (PST)
6023 12/26 22:56:55.900 netw vpim 4 VPIM: MIME-Version: 1.0 (Voice 2.0)
6023 12/26 22:56:55.902 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Content-Type: Multipart/report;
 report-type=delivery-status;Boundary="==VpimNdrMsg==1104187978982"
6023 12/26 22:56:55.906 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Message-ID: 
  

6023 12/26 22:56:55.907 netw vpim 4 VPIM:
6023 12/26 22:56:55.910 netw vpim 4 VPIM: --==VpimNdrMsg==1104187978982
6023 12/26 22:56:55.919 netw vpim 4 NDR: Content-Type: text/plain
6023 12/26 22:56:55.920 netw vpim 4 NDR:
6023 12/26 22:56:55.921 netw vpim 4 NDR: Your message could not be delivered 
6023 12/26 22:56:55.922 netw vpim 4 NDR:
6023 12/26 22:56:55.924 netw vpim 4 NDR: --==VpimNdrMsg==1104187978982
6023 12/26 22:56:55.925 netw vpim 4 NDR: Content-Type: message/delivery-status
6023 12/26 22:56:56.029 netw vpim 4 NDR:
6023 12/26 22:56:56.031 netw vpim 4 NDR: Reporting-MTA: dns; CUE
6023 12/26 22:56:56.033 netw vpim 4 NDR: Original-Recipient: rfc822; 9008@192.168.0.200
6023 12/26 22:56:56.034 netw vpim 4 NDR: Final-Recipient: rfc822; 9008@192.168.0.200
6023 12/26 22:56:56.036 netw vpim 4 NDR: Action: failed 
6023 12/26 22:56:56.038 netw vpim 4 NDR: Status: 5.1.1 (Mailbox does not exist) 
6023 12/26 22:56:56.043 netw vpim 4 NDR: Last-Attempt-Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004
 22:56:49 -0800 (PST)
6023 12/26 22:56:56.044 netw vpim 4 NDR:
6023 12/26 22:56:56.046 netw vpim 4 NDR: --==VpimNdrMsg==1104187978982
6023 12/26 22:56:56.047 netw vpim 4 NDR: Content-type: Message/RFC822
6023 12/26 22:56:56.048 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
6023 12/26 22:56:56.050 netw vpim 4 VPIM:
6023 12/26 22:56:56.051 netw vpim 4 VPIM: To: <9008@192.168.0.200>
6023 12/26 22:56:56.053 netw vpim 4 VPIM: From: <5501@192.168.0.100>
6023 12/26 22:56:56.054 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 22:56:49 -0800
 (PST)
6023 12/26 22:56:56.058 netw vpim 4 VPIM: MIME-Version: 1.0 (Voice 2.0)
6023 12/26 22:56:56.059 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Content-Type: Multipart/Voice-Message;
 Version=2.0;Boundary="==VpimMsg==1104187979064"
6023 12/26 22:56:56.061 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
6023 12/26 22:56:56.063 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Message-ID:
 
6023 12/26 22:56:56.064 netw vpim 4 VPIM:
6023 12/26 22:56:56.066 netw vpim 4 VPIM: --==VpimMsg==1104187979064
6023 12/26 22:56:56.070 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Content-Type: Audio/32KADPCM
6023 12/26 22:56:56.071 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Content-Transfer-Encoding: Base64
6023 12/26 22:56:56.073 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Content-Description: VPIM Message
6023 12/26 22:56:56.084 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Content-Disposition: inline;
 voice=Voice-Message
6023 12/26 22:56:56.085 netw vpim 4 VPIM: Content-ID:
 JAB054980L7-NM-JAD06390I66-1104130214514
6023 12/26 22:56:56.144 netw vpim 5 83787
6023 12/26 22:56:56.144 netw vpim 8
6023 12/26 22:56:56.496 netw vpim 6 16074
6023 12/26 22:56:57.228 netw vpim 6 15446
6023 12/26 22:56:57.457 netw vpim 10
6023 12/26 22:56:57.602 netw vpim 4 VPIM: --==VpimMsg==1104187979064--
6023 12/26 22:56:57.603 netw vpim 4 VPIM: --==VpimNdrMsg==1104187978982--
6023 12/26 22:56:57.621 netw vpim 4 NDR: .
6023 12/26 22:56:58.000 netw smtp 5 260 Message queued
6023 12/26 22:56:58.016 netw smtp 6 DATA: RSET
6023 12/26 22:56:58.017 netw smtp 6 RSET: QUIT
6023 12/26 22:56:58.017 netw smtp 5 221 closing channel

Summary