Release Notes for the Cisco Voice Routing Center, 1.2.1
April 25, 2003
These release notes provide information about the Cisco Voice Routing Center (VRC), software version 1.2.1. These release notes are updated as needed to describe new and changed information, caveats, and documentation updates.
Cisco Voice Routing Center version 1.2.1 adds the following features to existing VRC functionality:
N-tier hierarchical directory gatekeeper (DGK) configurations—N-tier DGK configuration refers to the ability to configure the H.323 network so that there can be several levels of DGKs in the LRQ forwarding path. VRC supports N-tier DGKs by using multiple levels of LRQ transit regions.
Enhanced usability—improvements in usability and responsiveness to the VRC user interface. Improvements include meaningful route descriptions, route reports in text format, automated dial plan cleanup after a delete operation, validation indications for all dial plan entities. Other enhancements include preservation of route names and route scope names after discovery, and the ability to create single dial peer routes.
Data migration for VRC 1.1 to VRC 1.2.1 upgrades—allows VRC users to retain existing dial plan data through a software upgrade.
Gateway applications—support for the configuration of call applications and voice DNIS-maps on gateways and the configuration of dial-peers to utilize voice applications.
Note VRC 1.2.1 can not be used as a stand alone product. It can only be used in integrated mode with the
Cisco Packet Telephony Center - Virtual Switch (PTC) 3.0 application.
Introduction
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 is used as an integrated product 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.
Supported Hardware
The Cisco VRC is based on a server and client architecture and supports the platforms listed in Table 1.
Table 1 Supported Hardware Platforms
Component
Server
Client
Architecture
Sun Ultra SPARC 10 or 60
Sun Blade 150 or 2000
Intel Pentium III, or later
Operating System
Sun Solaris 2.7 or 2.8
Microsoft Windows NT4 or 2000
Web Browsers
—
Microsoft IE version 5.0 or 5.5
Netscape 7.0 with a PC or Sun client
Table 2 lists the Cisco products that VRC supports as gateways and gatekeepers.
Table 2 Supported Cisco Gateways and Gatekeepers
Cisco Gateway
Cisco Gatekeeper
1750 Access Router
3640 Multiservice Platform
Catalyst 2600 Series Switches
3660 Multiservice Platform
3600 Series Routers
7200 Series Routers
AS5300 Series Universal Access Server
—
AS5350 Universal Gateway
—
AS5400 Series Universal Gateways
—
AS5800 Series Universal Access Servers
—
AS5850 Universal Gateway
—
7200 Series Routers
—
Note The Cisco VRC does not manage third-party gatekeepers, however, it does co-exist with them.
Software Compatibility
Table 3 lists the Cisco IOS software releases supported by Cisco VRC version 1.2.1
Table 3 Cisco Platform and Software Specifications
Cisco Platform
Cisco IOS Release
Cisco IOS Gatekeeper Release—Cisco 3640, 3660, and 7200 platforms
12.2(2)XA, 12.2(2)T, 12.2(11)T,
12.2(2)XU (Cisco 3660 and 7200 only)
Cisco IOS Gateway Release—Cisco 1750 and 2600 platforms
12.2.7
Cisco IOS Gateway Release—Cisco 3640, 3660, and 7200 platforms
This section describes important notes about VRC software, version 1.2.1.
VRC can not be used as a stand alone product. It can only be used in integrated mode with the Cisco Packet Telephony Center - Virtual Switch (PTC) 3.0 application.
VRC operation requires a minimum of 64 MB of RAM and an equivalent amount of swap space.
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 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 Generic Dial Plan Manager (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, such as 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.
Feature Notes
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.
Limitations
The following sections list limitations for VRC software, version 1.2.1.
Preconfiguration Limitations
VRC software version 1.2.1 does not configure:
Voice ports (for example, T1/E1, FXS/FXO) signaling, or groups.
Ethernet/IP interfaces (for example, IP address assignment, DNS server, IP routing).
AAA (for example, RADIUS server, passwords).
Hot Standby Routing Protocol (HSRP).
Analog DID using VIC-2DID interface cards.
The following management functions are not supported by VRC software, version 1.2.1:
Management of network elements other than Cisco products.
Fault management and performance monitoring.
Management of FXS/FXO voice ports. VRC requires that ports support DNIS and ANI, and FXS/FXO ports are not required to support these features.
Client/Server Limitations
The VRC user interface supports Internet Explorer versions 5.0 and 5.5 using Windows NT or Windows 2000 operating systems and Netscape 7.0 with a PC or Sun client.
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.
Network Configuration Limitations
VRC does not support:
Alternate endpoints on a gatekeeper.
The dial-peer hunt option from the CLI.
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.
Ordering and Naming Limitations
The following information is not preserved during the discovery process:
Dial peers in the generated CLI
Dial peer order or tags
Remote zone names
Route names or descriptions
Route scope names.
Zone Management Limitations
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.
Problems Fixed in This Release
This section lists the Cisco VRC software, version 1.1 problems fixed in the Cisco VRC software, version 1.2.1.
CSCdx58466—a read-only user is not prohibited from redistributing a baseline dial plan to the network.
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.
CSCdx86315—the VRC install script does not check for user permission when searching for the Perl program defined by the $PERL_EXE_PATH environment variable.
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.
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.
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.
CSCdy60462—VRC does not generate the correct CLI for a zone prefix that has the Default Gateway Priority parameter defined.
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.
CSCdy66549—VRC does not discover HSRP configurations for gatekeepers and directory gatekeepers, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Known Problems in This Release
This section lists the known problems with the Cisco VRC software, version 1.2.1.
1. CSCdz70702: (File prompt quiet mode breaks discovery and should be documented)
Symptom/Condition: If an IOS device is configured with file prompt quiet mode, this causes dial plan discovery in VRC to fail.
Workaround: Do not configure the IOS device with file prompt quiet mode.
2. CSCdz73629: (Cancel not allowed in all cases)
Symptom/Condition: The multi stage operation (MSO) mechanism does not always support the Cancel operation.
Workaround: None
3. CSCdz73779: (Dial Plan negation causes no call success)
Symptom/Condition: The VRC mechanism of dial plan negation when committing a design results in out of service for any new calls during the commit time frame.
Workaround: None
4. CSCea19670: (VRC GUI on Netscape (UNIX) does not take keystrokes)
Symptom/Condition:
a. A user invokes a dialog of VRC (which contains a text field) from the VRC main Applet window. (At this time, the focus is OK. The end user can input info in the text field.)
b. A user moves the focus from the dialog to the VRC main window (activates the main window), and then moves the focus back to the dialog.
c. The focus on the text field is lost. The user can no longer type in information.
Workaround:
a. Move the focus to the VRC main window again (activate it second time).
b. Move the focus back to the dialog a second time. The focus on the text field comes back.
5. CSCea37743: (Add 12.2(7c) device fails in dial plan design)
Symptom/Condition: This problem was observed when VRC tried to add devices with the 12.2(7c) IOS image as gateways to a dial-plan in the design view.
During testing, VRC failed to add an AS5300 element with c5300-is-mz.122-7c.bin to a managed zone, and showed the error message below:
"Failed 807 - Error - Failed to parse running-config for the element. Reason = 818 - Error - Topology IP Address not found in the configuration file. Possibly wrong file read..."
Conditions:
a. The device has the 12.2(7c) IOS image.
b. The gateway command is missing in the running-config of the device.
Workaround: The IP address and running-config actually can be parsed by VRC. Adding the gateway command in the running-config can resolve the problem.
6. CSCuk35599: (Assign a translation profile to an NFAS interface not supported)
Symptom/Condition: VRC does not support the ability to assign a translation profile to an NFAS interface.
Workaround: You may enter the CLI command through the CLI console. Alternatively, you may do it by making sure the gateway is impacted and then do a commit. When VRC is paused, modify the CLI that will be pushed onto the gateway so that is has the CLI needed to assign the translation profile to the NFAS interface.
7. CSCuk35988: (Improve consistency of DP1.0 trunk group treatment)
Symptom/Condition: Trunk group configurations are not supported for all IOS images and may be modified during a VRC dial plan distribution. Trunk groups may be defined and used on gateways running IOS images released prior to 12.2(11)T. VRC only supports trunk groups for IOS images 12.2(11)T and later.
Workaround: Upgrade IOS images to 12.2(11)T or later.
8. CSCuk40861: (Duplicate gateways on discovery if two keywords are present)
Symptom/Condition: The Discovery process gives a duplicated gateway in the resulting design view. This condition is caused by the simultaneous presence of the gw-priority<value><gateway-name> keyword and parameters on the zone prefix command along with the gw ipaddr<gateway-ip-address> keyword and parameter on the gw-type-prefix command when the <gateway-name> and <gateway-ip-address> parameters refer to the same gateway.
Workaround: Remove the gw ipaddr<gateway-ip-address> keyword and parameter from the appropriate gatekeeper and re-run discovery.
9. CSCuk40865: (Regional discovery may break inter-region connections)
Symptom/Condition: Inter-region connections are no longer present. This condition may occur if a regional discovery is performed on a network with inter-connected regions.
Workaround: Use design view to add the missing connections back to the dial plan and commit the design.
Related Documentation
This section lists documentation related to the Cisco Voice Routing Center.
Other VRC documentation:
Cisco Voice Routing Center Online Help, Software Version 1.2.1
Cisco Voice Routing Center Online Help for System Administrators, Software Version 1.2.1
Cisco Voice Routing Center User Guide, Software Version 1.2.1
Cisco Voice Routing Center Installation Procedure, Software Version 1.2.1
Documentation for Cisco Packet Telephony Center - Virtual Switch:
Documentation Guide for Cisco Packet Telephony Center - Virtual Switch, 3.0
Release Notes for Cisco Packet Telephony Center - Virtual Switch, 3.0
Cisco Packet Telephony Center - Virtual Switch Installation and Configuration Guide, 3.0
Cisco Packet Telephony Center - Virtual Switch User Guide, 3.0
Cisco Packet Telephony Center - Virtual Switch API Reference and Programmer Guide, 3.0
The Cisco Packet Telephony Center - Virtual Switch 3.0 documentation can be found at the following URL: www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/rtrmgmt/ptc/3_0.
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