Table Of Contents
Using SRST Monitoring Management
Getting Started with SRST Monitoring Management
Required and Recommended Deployment of SRST
Before You Import SRST Information
Maintaining SRST Information
How ITM Creates SRST Tests
Importing SRST Information
When SRST Devices Are Unreachable
Formatting an SRST Monitoring Seed File
Viewing SRST Event Details
Using SRST Operations
Suspending and Resuming SRST Tests
Deleting SRST Tests
Using SRST Monitoring Management
Note 
SRST Monitoring Management is available only if you have downloaded and installed Incremental Device Update (IDU) 2 or later from the ITM download site: http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/item-3des.
The following topics describe using SRST Monitoring Management:
•Getting Started with SRST Monitoring Management
•Maintaining SRST Information
•Using SRST Operations
Getting Started with SRST Monitoring Management
Figure 8-1 shows a branch office configured for Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST). The branch office normally relies on a central Cisco CallManager for call processing. If the Cisco CallManager becomes inaccessible, phones can use a Cisco voice router for call processing. Phones go into SRST mode when either of the following happens:
•The WAN link to the Cisco CallManager at the central site goes down
•The connection to the Cisco CallManager is lost
SRST allows phones in branch offices to continue to function until the WAN link comes up or until the phones can register with a Cisco CallManager again.
Figure 8-1 Branch Office Cisco IP Phones Connected to a Remote Central Cisco CallManager
For ITM to display phones in SRST mode and generate related alerts, you must import SRST information, identifying the SRST components for ITM to test. ITM does the following:
•Configures jitter tests on the source router (at the central Cisco CallManager site). Jitter tests run from the source router to detect the reachability of the target SRST router (at the branch office).
•Generates an SRSTEntered event when a jitter test fails, which happens in response to the WAN link being down. See "Events Processed," for information about the SRSTEntered and SRSTSuspected events.
•Displays a list of Cisco IP Phones that are in SRST mode on the SRST Configuration Detail Display. See the "SRST Configuration Detail Display" section.
Before you configure tests, review the recommendations for your deployment of SRST.
Required and Recommended Deployment of SRST
Note This topic does not explain how to configure Cisco CallManager, Cisco routers, or Cisco IP Phones for SRST. See the documentation for these products at http://www.cisco.com.
Table 8-1 lists recommendations and requirements for selecting the source router, near the central Cisco CallManager, and configuring the SRST target router, at the branch office. See Figure 8-1 for an illustration of a sample configuration.
Table 8-1 Choosing and Configuring Source and Target Routers
Source or Target Router
|
Requirements
|
Recommendations
|
Source
|
Choose the source router in such a way that the following paths are the same:
•Path of the IP phone TCP keepalive message to the central site Cisco CallManager
•IP SLA jitter test packet path
|
Select a source router that is as close to the Cisco CallManager as possible.
|
Target
|
Enable Cisco IOS IP SLA (IP SLA) Responder on the SRST target router.
|
Note If you disable IP SLA Responder on the target router, spurious SRSTEntered events might occur. See the SRSTEntered event in "Events Processed."
|
Note ITM creates IP SLA tests on the source routers. These routers must have adequate probe capacity for ITM to successfully create the IP SLA tests.
Before You Import SRST Information
Before you import SRST information, verify the following in ITM:
•The following devices are monitored by ITM:
–Media server that runs the Cisco CallManager at the central site. The phones at the remote site are registered to this Cisco CallManager.
–Switches to which the phones at the remote site are connected.
–Source and target routers where IP SLA study will be configured.
See the "Understanding the Device Summary" section for more information about device states.
•Phones that you will import for SRST tests have been discovered. See the "Viewing IP Phone Discovery Status" section.
Maintaining SRST Information
You add SRST tests to ITM by importing them from a seed file. Each time you import SRST information to ITM, ITM imports the tests, adding new ones and updating existing tests if you have modified them. ITM then creates new tests and updates existing tests on the source routers, as needed.
Note Any time you change the SRST network configuration, including changing MAC addresses and extension numbers for IP phones, you must update the seed file and import SRST information again.
To delete tests, see the "Deleting SRST Tests" section.
How ITM Creates SRST Tests
When you import SRST information, ITM performs a two-step operation:
1. Checks the seed file and imports the tests—ITM determines whether the information in the seed file meets the criteria in the "Formatting an SRST Monitoring Seed File" section. If there are any syntax errors in the seed file, ITM displays an error message; you must correct the seed file and add the information again. If there are no errors in the seed file, ITM imports the tests.
2. Creates tests—For each test successfully processed, ITM creates IP SLA jitter tests on the source routers.
Importing SRST Information
When you import SRST information, ITM adds any new tests from the seed file and updates any existing tests that you modified. To remove existing tests, you must delete them; see the "Deleting SRST Tests" section.
Note Be sure to modify SRST information after you change the SRST configuration in your network. For example, if you change MAC addresses or extension numbers on IP phones, update the seed file and import SRST information again.
Before You Begin
•Verify that your deployment of SRST meets the requirements specified in Table 8-1.
•Verify that your seed file is formatted correctly. For details, see the "Formatting an SRST Monitoring Seed File" section.
•Place the seed file on the server, in the NMSROOT\ImportFiles directory. If you do not have access to the directory, contact a local administrator for the server where ITM is installed.
Note NMSROOT is the directory where IP Telephony Monitor is installed on your system. If you selected the default directory during installation, it is C:\Program Files\CSCOpx.
Step 1 Select IP Telephony Monitor > SRST Monitoring Management > SRST Import Information. The Import SRST Information page appears.
Step 2 Enter the name of the seed file in the Seed File Name field and click OK.
ITM verifies that the data in the seed file is syntactically correct and formatted properly. If there are errors in the seed file, an error dialog box is displayed:
a. Check the srst_import.log file at NMSROOT\logs\itemlogs\srst for details.
b. Correct the problems in the seed file and import the SRST information again.
If the seed file is correct, an information dialog box is displayed.
Step 3 Click OK. ITM verifies that the routers are reachable and then creates the tests on the routers. This may take some time.
Step 4 Check to see if all tests were created successfully, by examining the srst_test_creation_results.log file in NMSROOT\logs\itemlogs\srst.
Note If you do not have access to this directory, contact a local administrator for the ITM server.
Note You can also view the list of SRST tests in ITM. To so do, select IP Telephony Monitor > SRST Monitoring Management > SRST Operations.
Step 5 If not all tests were created successfully, correct any problems you identify with the help of the log files and import SRST information again. Then return to Step 1 of this procedure.
When SRST Devices Are Unreachable
Table 8-2 shows how ITM handles SRST activities for devices that are down or unreachable.
Table 8-2 Creating SRST Tests or Monitoring for SRST when Devices Are Down
Device Down or Unreachable
|
During the following SRST activity
|
Result
|
Source or target router
|
Import SRST information
|
The test will be imported successfully, but will not be created on the routers.
Workaround: Import SRST information again after the routers become reachable.
|
Create SRST test
|
The test will not be created.
Workaround: Import SRST information again after the routers become reachable.
|
Source router
|
SRST monitoring
|
ITM cannot retrieve SRST results. ITM does not detect SRST or generate SRST events.
Note ITM will generate appropriate events for devices that are unreachable.
|
|
Formatting an SRST Monitoring Seed File
To format the seed file correctly, do the following:
•Include up to 256 tests in the seed file, one test per line.
Note If you include more than 256 tests, ITM discards the excess tests.
•Include the following for each test:
–A name
–A unique combination of source and target router
Note For ITM Multi-View users: Source and target router in a test must both be assigned to the same partition in ITM. See the "Assigning Devices to Partitions" section for more information.
–Up to 48 phones
Note If you include more than 48 phones, ITM discards the excess phones.
–Information for all 12 columns listed inTable 8-3, delimited by a comma (",")
Table 8-3 SRST Seed File Format
Column Number
|
Description
|
1
|
SRST test name—Must be unique
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2
|
IP address or DNS name of the source router—source router and target router (column 5) combination must be unique
|
3
|
Read community string of the source router
|
4
|
Write community string of the source router
|
5
|
IP address or DNS name of the SRST target router—source router (column 2) and target router combination must be unique
|
6
|
Read community string of the SRST target router
|
7
|
Write community string of the SRST target router
|
8
|
MAC addresses of IP telephones associated with SRST target router, delimited by a colon( ":")
|
9
|
Phone extension numbers of IP telephones associated with SRST target router (delimited by a colon ":")
Note Phone extensions must be sequenced in corresponding order with the MAC addresses (see column 8).
|
10
|
Sample interval specification—default (!{[NOVALUE]}!) = 30 seconds (minimum value)
|
11
|
Interpacket interval in milliseconds—default (!{[NOVALUE]}!) = 30 milliseconds (minimum value)
|
12
|
Number of packets in each test—default (!{[NOVALUE]}!) = 10 packets (minimum value)
|
Example 8-1 shows a sample seed file.
Example 8-1 Sample SRST Seed File
Test1,10.76.34.194,public,private,10.76.34.218,public,private,0009e8470515:00075079c2da,40
15:1016,30,30,10
Test2,10.76.34.195,public,private,10.76.34.219,public,private,0009e8470515:00075079c2da,98
45191226:4019,30,30,10
Viewing SRST Event Details
When ITM generates an SRSTEntered or SRSTSuspected event, an alert appears on the Alerts and Activities Display. You can drill down through the Alerts and Activities Detail page to view event details. Although multiple phones might be included in an SRST test, only one MAC address and one phone extension are displayed in the Event Properties window.
For more information, see the following topics:
•Viewing Events Associated with an Alert
•Viewing Event Properties
•Events Processed
Using SRST Operations
From the SRST Operations page, you can do the following:
•Suspend tests that are active and resume tests that are suspended. See the "Suspending and Resuming SRST Tests" section.
•Delete tests. See the "Deleting SRST Tests" section.
•View the status of SRST tests.
Step 1 Select IP Telephony Monitor > SRST Monitoring Management > SRST Operations. The SRST Operations page appears with the following information.
Field
|
Description
|
Test Name
|
SRST test name
|
Source Router
|
Router in the central site on which the IP SLA jitter test is created
|
Target Router
|
Router in the branch office
|
Status
|
•Active—Test is running as configured. You can suspend the test if desired.
•Suspended—Test is not running. You can resume it, if the source and target routers are actively monitored by ITM.
•Pending—Test is in a transient state briefly after you click Suspend, Resume, or Delete.
Note If device monitoring is suspended for a source router, any associated SRST test is also suspended. See the "Suspending Device Monitoring" section.
|
Suspending and Resuming SRST Tests
Note You can only suspend active SRST tests or resume suspended SRST tests.
Note If a router itself is suspended, you cannot resume an SRST test for it. If you resume monitoring for the device, SRST testing also resumes. See the "Suspending/Resuming Devices" section for more information.
Step 1 Select IP Telephony Monitor > SRST Monitoring Management > SRST Operations. The SRST Operations page appears.
Step 2 Select any of the following:
•Check box in the table heading—Select this check box to suspend all active SRST tests or to resume all suspended SRST tests.
•One or more check boxes for either of the following:
–Active tests to suspend
–Suspended tests to resume
Step 3 Click either Suspend or Resume as appropriate.
Deleting SRST Tests
This procedure explains how to delete one or more SRST tests.
Note If you delete an IP SLA router from ITM device inventory, any associated SRST tests are automatically deleted; see the "Deleting a Device" section.
Step 1 Select IP Telephony Monitor > SRST Monitoring Management > SRST Operations. The SRST Operations page appears.
Step 2 Select any of the following:
•Check box in the table heading—Select this check box to delete all SRST tests.
•One or more check boxes—Select individual tests that you want to delete.
Step 3 Click Delete. A confirmation dialog box appears, asking if you want to continue with the deletion.
Step 4 Click OK.
