These release notes provide information about the Cisco Voice Routing Center (VRC), software Version 1.1. These release notes are updated as needed to describe new and changed information, caveats, and documentation updates.
The Cisco Voice Routing Center is a network management tool for dial plans in a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network (for example, an H.323-based network). VRC can be used as a standalone application that provides basic provisioning of dial plans and configuration of the elements in a network, or integrated with the Cisco Packet Telephony Center (PTC) Solution.
With VRC, you can archive and restore dial plans and validate a configuration before you download it to the network elements. You can deploy VRC in a network with an existing dial plan or use it to create new dial plans.
This section describes important notes about VRC software, Version 1.1.
When you execute a Distribution or Commit for a dial plan design, VRC writes the dial plan to the running configuration, but not to the startup configuration. You must use the Persist operation to write to the startup configuration.
We recommend that you execute all discoveries of the dial plan at the Administrative Domain (AD) level.
Debugging is turned off by default for better performance. If the Cisco TAC team directs you to turn debugging on, use the console.
If an element does not appear in the list of hardware supported by VRC, it has not been tested with VRC. However, you might be able to use the element in VRC if it is running a Cisco IOS release that is compatible with a VRC-supported configuration. Refer to Table 3 for more information.
To reuse an LRQ password without having to keep track of the encrypted password, you can add the clear text password again.
VRC might display Socket Exception errors on a console during the login. This does not affect the operation of the VRC application.
The Cisco Voice Routing Center (VRC) was previously named GDPM. The directory structure and installation scripts still reflect the old product name.
During dial plan generation, VRC might add spurious remote zone statements to a directory gatekeeper in a carrier sensitive routing configuration. These remote zones do not affect the Discovery process but they might allow LRQs that should fail at the directory gatekeeper to reach the gatekeepers before being rejected.
The validation status for network elements is overwritten during certain VRC operations, like Activation, which causes you to lose previous validation status information.
You must be running Cisco IOS Release 12.2(11)T2, or later to configure gatekeeper security features (Greencard and Passport) with VRC.
This section describes general notes about VRC features.
You must choose a CSR routing type at the AD level. The CSR routing type defines how VRC manages carrier sensitive routing (CSR) related dial plan features.
The Discovery operation implicitly opens a design session rather than directly updating the existing baseline dial plan. This allows you to correct any discrepancies found by Discovery before you commit the dial plan design.
The baseline dial plan does not reflect the discovered network until you commit the dial plan design.
Foreign regions, whether added to the dial plan from a design session or by Discovery, no longer appear in the topology.
The VRC Topology View is not available when you use VRC integrated with PTC.
VRC can distribute CLI using the Cisco IE2100. When you use VRC integrated with PTC, you can only distribute CLI to the network elements through the Cisco IE2100.
You can execute the distribution process at the element level.
Do not Disable—Allows you to remove an element from the dial plan without removing the dial plan-related configuration that is on the element.
Persist element configuration—Allows you to copy the running configuration to the startup configuration. Persist can be applied to a single element or to an entire region.
When you commit a dial plan design and the new CLI is generated, VRC displays a list of elements that are targeted to receive a new dial plan configuration. This impacted element list is displayed before VRC distributes the new configuration.
Reactivate—Allows you to rediscover the dial plan-related configuration for a network element without rediscovering the dial plan for a whole region or AD.
Network security—LRQ passwords for incoming calls between gatekeepers and directory gatekeepers, and between gatekeepers and gateways.
The VRC user interface supports Internet Explorer Versions 5.0 and 5.5 using Windows NT or Windows 2000 operating systems.
If one user is executing a batch import, either from the console or from the user interface, a second user is blocked from executing certain operations until the batch import operation is complete.
VRC cannot assign a translation profile to an NFAS interface. To assign a translation profile, open a CLI session with the gateway and add the appropriate Cisco IOS command on the gateway.
Regions are structured in either a hierarchical or a meshed topology.
Hierarchical—The region contains a directory gatekeeper, all gatekeepers in the region are supported by the directory gatekeeper, and there is no direct gatekeeper-to-gatekeeper LRQ forwarding.
Meshed—The region does not contain a directory gatekeeper and all gatekeepers are fully connected.
A zone can be configured with only one cost and one priority.
VRC supports only sequential LRQ forwarding. Do not set the blast keyword with the zone prefix command to change the order of LRQ forwarding.
If a gatekeeper is connected to a remote zone, VRC identifies all prefixes in that zone in the network. You cannot specify a subset of the prefixes for your configuration. You can only specify which prefixes to send to the foreign region.
A read-only user is not prohibited from redistributing a baseline dial plan to the network.
Workaround: To maintain network security, do not configure users with read-only privileges.
CSCdx85950
If you change the description of a trunk group on a gateway, this does not set the impacted gateway flag and the change is not reflected in the new CLI that VRC generates for the gateway.
Workaround 1: Make a description change to a trunk group at the same time as another gateway parameter change so that VRC recognizes that new CLI should be sent to the gateway.
Workaround 2: Execute an element distribution to the affected gateway from the baseline dial plan. Note that this method causes VRC to shut down the gateway.
CSCdx86315
The VRC install script does not check for user permission when searching for the Perl program defined by the $PERL_EXE_PATH.
Workaround: If your system restricts the use of Perl, run the install script as a user with the privilege to execute Perl.
CSCdy33444
When you configure an answer address (ANI parameter) for an egress route, and the ANI does not begin with a number, the gateway rejects the ANI parameter when VRC distributes the configuration. During the next discovery, the trunk group label source is lost because the ANI parameter is missing from the gateway. Subsequent discoveries might also cause changes in other routes because the VRC-generated CLI does not contain the trunk group label source.
Workaround: The ANI parameter for an egress route must begin with a number to be recognized by a Cisco IOS device.
CSCdy41607
VRC cannot discover a zone circuit if the remote zone is named "remote".
Workaround: When you add a zone circuit to a gatekeeper group or a directory gatekeeper group, assign the remote zone a name other than "remote".
CSCdy42911
During the Distribution operation, you might receive an error message, which states that CLI cannot be generated for an element, even though the element passed the VRC Validation process. Under this condition, VRC might create illegal database entries which cause the Distribution process to fail because one or more elements have invalid dial plan information.
Workaround:
a. Manually exit the discovered dial plan.
b. Check the dial plan configuration for each element.
c. Open a CLI session with each element that has an invalid dial plan and make corrections to the configuration.
d. Execute the Discovery operation again before you distribute the dial plan.
CSCdy60445
If VRC discovers that a call enters and exits the same gateway, it tries to create a hairpin ingress route. This occurs because the VRC logic assumes that outbound POTS calls have a voice port defined, but this might not be true in all cases.
Workaround: From the discovery design session, delete the route scopes with the description of Hairpin Destination, delete route scope entries with the resource ID of N/A, and delete the associated ingress routes with the ARA type of hairpin.
CSCdy60462
VRC does not generate the correct CLI for a zone prefix that has the Default Gateway Priority parameter defined.
Workaround: Use the command line interface to specify a gw-priority of 0 for each gateway in the zone that should not route the call.
CSCdy60480
VRC does not create an ingress route for a POTS dial peer that has an application (such as prepaid) defined. This occurs because the application processes two-stage dialing and VRC might not create the matching VOIP dial peer for the outbound leg of the call.
Workaround: After the initial discovery, open a VRC design session to manually create the ingress route and add the inbound application parameter to the route. This creates the POTS-VOIP combination for the route and maintains the application parameter for any subsequent discovery.
CSCdy65832
The VRC server does not stop when you issue the vnm --kill script. This occurs when you are using VRC integrated with PTC, and the DemoSysAdmin1 user password is changed.
Workaround: Do not change the DemoSysAdmin1 user password. If it changes, you must stop the server by issuing the following command:
VRC does not discover HSRP configurations for gatekeepers and directory gatekeeper, but it does support them. VRC relies on PTC to configure gatekeeper and directory gatekeeper pairs for HSRP. If you change the role of the gatekeepers (primary or backup) using VRC, and that role is different from the PTC-configured gatekeeper role, you are not notified of the discrepancy.
Workaround: Manually verify that the gatekeeper and directory gatekeeper roles are correctly assigned in VRC and in PTC.
CSCdy69309, CSCuk37245
The VRC discovery operation fails and you receive the message "Error:210 - Error - Error executing the SQL." This occurs because VRC cannot read the Cisco IOS version, which is used to populate the feature set field in the MySQL database. This type of error also causes a forced discovery to stop.
Workaround: If you cannot correct the element connectivity problem, remove it from the topology.
CSCuk34123
VRC Discovery does not retain the port attribute for matching inbound dial peers. This occurs because VRC splits the bidirectional dial peers into unidirectional dial peers which provides for matching inbound dial peers only at the gateway level.
Workaround 1: Identify another characteristic to use for matching inbound dial-peers. For example, use the answer-address on the calling number or destination pattern on the called number.
Workaround 2: Reconfigure the network so that calls are accepted at the gateway level instead of the port level.
CSCuk35988
VRC allows you to define and configure trunk groups for gateways running Cisco IOS versions prior to Release 12.2(11)T. However, VRC only supports trunk groups for gateways running Cisco IOS Release 12.2(11)T and later.
Workaround: To manage trunk groups with VRC 1.1, upgrade the Cisco IOS version on the gateways to Release 12.2(11)T.
CSCuk36994
When you delete an object from the user interface and a reference to this object still exists in the dial plan, the user interface displays 'object deleted' in the value field for that reference. This causes a 'bogus reference' error during Validation.
Workaround: When you delete an object from the user interface, you must change the value field from object deleted to a blank value for any references to that object.
CSCuk37047
If you execute the Discovery operation on a directory gatekeeper hierarchical network, while a directory gatekeeper is in the shutdown mode, the Discovery process might stop and you receive the following error message:
Reason 807 - Error - Failed to parse running-config for the element. Element Name =
w.x.y.z is not active.
where w.x.y.z is the IP address of a directory gatekeeper.
Workaround: Execute a Forced Discovery, manually add the directory gatekeeper that was in shutdown mode to the dial plan, and commit the design.
CSCuk37059
The Discovery operation populates LRQ passwords for incoming connections even if the region is not configured for security. This occurs if a connecting region is configured for security.
Workaround: After the Discovery process has completed, remove the LRQ password and the Incoming connection for the region that does not have security configured.
CSCuk37189
After a VRC distribution, you receive the following message from a gateway "Can not set abatement value greater than onset." This message also appears in the user log. This occurs because the High Resource Threshold value has been set lower than the Low Resource Threshold on the VRC user interface.
Workaround: Make sure that the High Resource Threshold value on the gateway is greater than or equal to the Low Resource Threshold value, and perform another distribution.
CSCuk37300
During the discovery of a network configured for gatekeeper or directory gatekeeper redundancy, you receive error messages for the gatekeepers, directory gatekeepers, or the associated GK and DGK groups. This might occur because a gatekeeper is directly referencing the zone of another gatekeeper in a hierarchical region, rather than referencing the directory gatekeeper.
Workaround: From a VRC design session, set the appropriate redundancy type (None, HSRP, Overlap, Both, Cluster) for the directory gatekeeper group or gatekeeper group, and run the validation process to determine if the problem is corrected.
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