Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal (CVP) Solution Reference Network Design (SRND) Release 9.0(1) - Managing, monitoring, and reporting functions [Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal]

Contents
Managing, monitoring, and reporting functions
New or changed chapter information
Unified CVP Operations Console Server management
DS0 trunk information for reporting
End-to-end individual call tracking
Formal reporting
New reporting features
Cisco Unified IC templates
Backup and restore
Restore process in CVP
More information
Unified System CLI and Web Services Manager
Analysis Manager versus Unified System CLI
Analysis Manager
Unified System CLI
Unified System CLI modes of operation
Unified System CLI FAQ
Managing, monitoring, and reporting functions

This chapter discusses various types of managing, monitoring, and reporting functions that can be used with Unified CVP. It covers the following areas:

New or changed chapter information
Unified CVP Operations Console Server management
DS0 trunk information for reporting
End-to-end individual call tracking
Formal reporting
Unified System CLI and Web Services Manager

New or changed chapter information

The following table lists the topics that are new in this chapter or that have changed significantly from previous releases of this document.

Table 1 New or Changed Information Since the Previous Release of This Document

New or Revised Topic

Description

Removed content related to Cisco Unified Presence Serve and Content Services Switch.

Unified CVP Operations Console Server management

The Unified CVP Operations Console Server has a web-based interface (the Operations Console) from which you can configure the Unified CVP components in the Unified CVP solution. You can also monitor all components in the Unified CVP solution.

You can manage the following Unified CVP components directly from the Operations Console:

Unified CVP Call Server

Unified CVP VXML Server

Unified CVP Reporting Server

The Operations Console provides web-based interfaces for mapping and summarizing the solution network configuration, setting and displaying configuration information on a batch or per-node basis, and storing local copies of these configurations. The Operations Console also provides the ability to distribute Cisco Unified Call Studio applications to Unified CVP VXML Servers. Finally, the Operations Console provides basic visual indications as to which managed components are functioning properly and which are having problems.

The Operations Console provides access to the following operations:

Health Monitoring You can use any SNMP-standard monitoring tool to get a detailed visual and tabular representation of the health of the solution network. All Unified CVP product components and most Unified CVP solution components also issue SNMP traps and statistics that can be delivered to any standard SNMP management station or monitoring tool.

Statistical Monitoring Unified CVP infrastructure statistics include real-time and interval data on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), threading, and licensing. You can access these statistics by selecting the Control Center from the System menu and then selecting a device. SNMP statistics can also be used.

Direct administration of individual Cisco IOS-based components Administrators can select an individual gateway for direct administration. Secure Shell (SSH) is used for the gateway.

Note

Internally, the Operations Console is occasionally referred to as the OAMP (Operate, Administer, Maintain, Provision). The Operations Console manages individual components through the Unified CVP Resource Manager, which is co-located with each managed Unified CVP component. The Resource Manager is invisible to the end-user.

For more information on the Operations Console, see the Operations Console online help.

For information about the many new features for the Operations Console, see the new Operations Console Guide for Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal, available at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1006/products_user_guide_list.html.

DS0 trunk information for reporting

Unified CVP adds the capability of passing the PSTN gateway trunk and DS0 information on which the SIP call arrived to Unified ICM. This information can be used for routing and for reporting.

See the topic DS0 trunk information and the topic Trunk Utilization routing and reporting.

End-to-end individual call tracking

When a call arrives at a Unified CVP ingress gateway, Cisco IOS assigns that call a 36-digit hexadecimal Global Unique Identifier (GUID) that uniquely identifies the call. Unified CVP carries that GUID through all of the components that the call encounters, as follows:

Ingress gateway — shown in Cisco IOS log files

VoiceXML gateway — shown in Cisco IOS log files

Unified CVP components — shown in Unified CVP log files

Unified Intelligent Contact Management Enterprise (ICME) — shown in the Extended Call Context (ECC) variable user.media.id and stored with all Termination Call Detail (TCD) and Route Call Detail (RCD) records

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) servers — shown in logs as the logging tag

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) — appears in the detailed logs

Thus, with proper levels of logging enabled, a call can be traced through all of the above components.

The Unified CVP logs are located in $CVP_HOME\logs. All of the Unified CVP logs roll over at 12:00 AM every night, with the date as part of the filename. The format of the date is yyyy-mm-dd. All of these logs will also roll over when they reach the predefined size limit of 100 MB and will have a number as part of the filename extension. The number indicates which log it was for that day. When the entire logs directory reaches a predefined size, old files are purged as necessary.

For more information on Unified CVP logging, see the Troubleshooting Guide for Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal, available at:

http://cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1006/tsd_products_support_series_home.html

Note

Although Unified CVP components do not themselves synchronize machine times, customers must provide a cross-component time synchronization mechanism, such as NTP, in order to assure accurate time stamps for logging and reporting.

Formal reporting

The Unified CVP Reporting Server houses the Reporting Service and hosts an IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) database management system.

The Reporting Service provides historical reporting to a distributed self-service deployment in a call center environment. The system is used to assist call center managers with call activity summary information to manage daily operations. It can also provide operational analysis of various IVR applications.

The Reporting Service receives reporting data from the IVR Service, the SIP Service (if used), and the Unified CVP VXML Server. (To capture the data from the Unified CVP VXML Server in the Unified CVP Reporting Server's database, the Unified CVP VXML Server should be added by using the CVP VXML Server device in the Unified CVP Operations Console Server (Operations Console). Selecting the VXML Server Standalone device option will not capture the Unified CVP Reporting data.) As stated, the Reporting Service is deployed together with an Informix database management system, and it transforms and writes this reporting data into that database. The database schema is prescribed by the Unified CVP product, but the schema is fully published so that customers can develop custom reports based on it.

The Reporting Service does not itself perform database administrative and maintenance activities such as backups or purges. However, Unified CVP provides access to such maintenance tasks through the Operations Console.

A single Reporting Server may be used in a deployment. If a single Reporting Server is used, it does not necessary represent a single point of failure, because data safety and security are provided by the database management system, and temporary outages are tolerated due to persistent buffering of information on the source components.

If more than one Reporting Server is used, be aware of the following restrictions:

Each Unified CVP Call Server can be associated with only one Unified CVP Reporting Server.

Reports cannot span multiple Informix databases.

Note
Although Unified CVP components do not themselves synchronize machine times, customers must provide a cross-component time synchronization mechanism, such as NTP, in order to assure accurate time stamps for logging and reporting.

New reporting features
Backup and restore
More information

New reporting features

Note

For reporting requirements related to the Courtesy Callback feature, see Courtesy Callback.

The following is the list of features introduced in Unified CVP for the Unified CVP Reporting server (Reporting Server).

Use the Reporting server to integrate with Cisco Unified Intelligence Center (Unified IC), enabling you can run user friendly custom reports in the Unified IC environment. Unified IC templates are shipped with all Unified CVP installations. These templates provide examples to report against Call, Application, Callback, and Trunk Grout Utilization structures.

The Reporting Server provides increased data retention times by increasing the database space requirements:

Size for Unified CVP Release 8.0(1) and Above

100 GB

200 GB

Note
For Unified CVP Release 9.0 (1), the 2GB option for database size is not supported for production.

All database backup files are compressed and stored on the Reporting Server. The backup file is called cvp_backup_data.gz and is stored on the %INFORMIXBACKUP% drive in a folder named cvp_db_backup.

Using the new System CLI, you can make the request to list log files on the Reporting Server (show log). This request includes the Informix Database Server Engine logs. The show tech-support command also includes these files.

Debug can now be turned on (or off) from within the System CLI with the debug level 3 (or 0) command. When on, this command generates trace files for all administrative procedures, Purge, Statistics and Aggregator. Care should be taken when turning this on because the trace files place an elevated burden on the database.

Log data for administrative procedures are now written on a nightly basis to the %CVP_HOME%\logs folder.

All StartDateTime, EndDateTime and EventDateTime values are stored as UTC in the various Reporting Server tables.

The Reporting Server supports the Analysis Manager tool by allowing Analysis Manager to query the Reporting Server as long as the user is authenticated. This user would typically be the cvp_dbuser login.

Transfer Type data and Transfer Labels for SIP call events are now stored in the call event table.

There is a data aggregator, which aggregates Unified CVP data in fifteen minute increments. Cisco Unified Intelligence Center templates are created to capture this information. Call data is summarized at 15 minute, daily, and weekly intervals. Dominant Path information is summarized at the same intervals. These summaries are stored in the call_15, call_daily, call_weekly, applicationsummary_15, applicationsummary_daily, and applicationsummary_weekly tables. Call data is summarized into the Call_* structure, while an aggregate of each element invoked by each application is stored in the ApplicationSummary_* structures.

Summary purge results are now logged in the log table.

Three new scheduled tasks have been added to the Reporting Server scheduler:
CVPSummary, which builds summary tables.

CVPCallArchive, which archives Callback data to maintain callback database performance.

CVPLogDump, which extracts the administrative logs on a nightly basis.

All metadata for administrative processes has been moved into a new Ciscoadmin database. This removes the tables from normal view of reporting users.

Cisco Unified IC templates

Cisco Unified IC templates

Unified Intelligence Center templates are used by customers who want to generate user friendly reports on call data stored in the database.

See the following guides for more information about the packaged Unified CVP template and for information on how to create additional templates:

Reporting Guide for Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal, available at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1006/products_installation_and_configuration_guides_list.html.

Reporting Guide for Cisco Unified ICM Enterprise & Hosted, available at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1001/products_user_guide_list.html.

Backup and restore

Unified CVP utilizes RAID as protection against failure of a single drive in a mirrored pair. However, RAID 10 does not protect against the loss of a site, loss of a machine, or a loss of both mirrored drives.

Unified CVP allows, by means of the Operations Console, to schedule daily database backups or to run database backups on-demand. This capability enables restore to database manually (if needed) to the last backup time, so that the worst-case scenario is losing about 24 hours worth of data.

Database backups are written to the local database server. However, storing backups only on a local machine does not protect the system against server failures or the loss of a site. Cisco recommends that you copy the backup Unified CVP files to a different machine, preferably at a different location. You must assume all security and backup management responsibilities.

Backups are compressed and stored on disk. During a backup, the oldest of two backups is removed and replaced with the most recent backup while a new backup is made. In the event of a hardware failure during a backup which results in a bad backup image, the older backup image can be used to replace the failed backup image. Retention of older backups is beyond the scope of the Unified CVP Reporting Server and should be managed by the customer.

Restore process in CVP

Restore process in CVP

In Cisco Unified CVP, there is a supported script to perform a database restore.

There are two reasons why you would want to restore a backup image. The first would be in the event that older data on a backup image needs to be recovered. The second reason would be the case of a machine that has been rebuilt after a hardware failure, where you would want to recover as much data as possible.

Note
Although it is possible to restore a backup image from one reporting server to another, such a restoration is not supported with the CVP restore process.

The restore process in CVP is as follows:

Procedure
Command or Action Purpose
Step 1 Stop the CallServer process (Reporting Server).

Step 2 Execute the script: %CVP_Home%\bin\cvprestore.bat

Step 3 Restart the CallServer Process.

More information

For more information on Unified CVP reporting, see the Reporting Guide for Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal, available at:

www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1006/products_installation_and_configuration_guides_list
Unified System CLI and Web Services Manager

Unified CVP infrastructure includes the Web Services Manager, a services layer that supports a Diagnostic Portal API.

The following features are supported by the Unified CVP Infrastructure:

Diagnostic Portal API service support by the WebServices Manager.

Unified System Command Line Interface (Unified System CLI) - A client tool that supports the diagnostic portal API and other APIs for collecting diagnostic data.

Licensing.
Common Licensing for all CVP components (VXML Server, Call Server, Reporting Server, and Call Studio all support FlexLM)

30 ports with 30 day expiration for Call Server and VXML Server evaluation licenses

10,000 database writes for Reporting Server evaluation licenses

Licenses are only valid if the new license feature, CVP_SOFTWARE, is added. This new feature will be used to ensure that you have the right to run the current version of CVP

Serviceability Across Products.
Enhanced Log & Trace messages

The CVP WebServices Manager (WSM) is a new component that is installed automatically on all Unified CVP Servers, including Remote Operations Manager (ROM) only installations. WSM interacts with various subsystems and infrastructure handlers, consolidates the response, and publishes an xml response. WSM supports secure authentication and data encryption on each of the interfaces.

Analysis Manager versus Unified System CLI
Analysis Manager versus Unified System CLI

The Diagnostic Portal API is accessed by the Analysis Manager and the Unified System CLI. The Analysis Manager and the Unified System CLI have similar set of features, but the following differences:

Analysis Manager

The Analysis Manager is a GUI-based client that is part of the Unified CM Real Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT). The Analysis Manager has a user friendly interface due to its GUI based design.

The Analysis Manager is not bundled with CVP and is not installed by CVP installer.

Unified System CLI

Unified System CLI is a command line based tool. The Unified System CLI is more flexible because it can be used in a batch file to perform more complex tasks.

The Unified System CLI is bundled with Unified CVP installer, and is also bundled with the Unified CCE installer.

The following diagram shows how the two interfaces interact with the WSM to provide information about Unified CVP components.

Figure 1. Typical Use of the Web Services Layer

Analysis Manager
Unified System CLI
Unified System CLI modes of operation
Unified System CLI FAQ

Analysis Manager

The Web Service Manager supports all diagnostic (health and status) requests from the new Analysis Manager. Analysis Manager provides end users a common interface for collecting health and status information for all devices in its network topology. If Unified CVP is configured as a part of the solution, you can leverage the WSM through the Analysis Manager to collect diagnostic details like server map, version information, licenses, configuration, components, logs, traces, performance factors, platform information for each CVP Device on a component and sub-component level. Users can set/reset debug levels using the Analysis Manager on a component and sub-component level.

The Analysis Manager is part of UCM RTMT tool.

A new user with username wsmadmin is created during installation with the same password as the Unified CVP Operations Console Server administrator user. Use wsmadmin to control access to the diagnostic portal services.

Note

For a discussion of the Analysis Manager, and a related discussion of the Analysis Call Path tool, see Cisco Unified Analysis Manager available at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/service/8_0_1/rtmt/ch1_overview.html.

Unified System CLI

When an issue arises in Unified CVP operation, you can use the System CLI tool to collect data to be reviewed by Cisco engineers. For example, you can use the System CLI if you suspect a call is not handled correctly. In this case you would use the show tech-support command to collect data and send the data to Cisco support.

Important features of the Unified System CLI:

It is automatically installed on all Unified CVP servers as part of the infrastructure; there is no additional installation required on any Unified CVP server.

Every Unified CVP server is also aware of at least one seed device (the Unified CVP Operations Console server). Your entire solution topology is automatically retrieved from the Operations Console on any Unified CVP box by using System mode. There is no additional configuration needed for System mode.

The Unified System CLI uses a consistent command across multiple products and servers.

The Unified System CLI can be executed as a Windows scheduled job.

Figure 2. High-level commands for Unified System CLI. The following diagram summaries the high-level commands for the Unified System CLI and shows the devices and Unified Cisco products of which it interacts .

Unified System CLI modes of operation

The Unified System CLI can operate interactively in two modes:

Local mode.
In the local mode, the Unified System CLI only interacts with a single device. For example, the show version command shows only the version for a single device.

System mode.
In the System mode, the Unified System CLI automatically detects the Unified CVP Operations Console (which acts as a seed device for the CLI) and then interacts with all of the devices in the device list in the Operations Console to extract the solution topology automatically. In this mode, the show version command shows the version information for all devices in the device list.

All of the commands available in local mode for a single device are available in system mode.

The command syntax remains the same in system mode.

There are additional options to limit the system command option to certain device group, device type, or list of servers.

In addition to the interactive user interface, the Unified System CLI can be used as a batch command. This feature allows the System CLI to be used in scheduled jobs.
Unified System CLI FAQ
Q.
Q1Does Unified System CLI affect the performance of a the device(s) it queries?
A.

Unified System CLI runs at a low priority; it uses idle CPU time on the System. It should not affect call processing even if executed on a system running under load.

The response time from the given CLI command varies depending on the load of the system and the server response time. The response time when there in no running load should be below 5 seconds for each server for simple operations like show version, show license, show debug, and show perf. The response time when there is no running load for show platform should be below 10 seconds for each server.

However, the response time cannot be determined for commands such as show trace, show log, show sessions, show all, and show tech-support. The response for these commands can vary depending on the data being transferred by the server.

Q.
Can I redirect the output of a Unified System CLI command to a network drive?
A.

Yes. Just specify the path to the network drive.

Q.
Can I filter and include multiple components and devices?
A.
Yes. Use the component and subcomponent options to filter components and subcomponents and use the server option to filter devices. You may use" | "symbol to select multiple components or subcomponents or devices. For example:
admin:show debug subcomponent cvp:SIP|cvp:ICM|cvp:IVR
Component: CallServer, subcomponent: SIP
Trace level = 0
Description:
Application data:
Component: CallServer, subcomponent: ICM
Trace level = 0
Description:
Application data:
Component: CallServer, subcomponent: IVR
Trace level = 0
Description:
Application data:
admin:
Q.
Can turning on "debug level 3" affect the performance on a production system?
A.

Yes. Therefore the debug level should be set to 0 for normal production environment. The definition of debug levels are given below for reference:

level 1 --- Low performance impact

level 2 --- Medium performance impact

level 3 --- High performance impact

Q.
How do I set the debug level to its default?
A.

Set the debug level to 0.

Note

For detailed information on using the Unified System CLI, see: Unified System CLI in the Configuration and Administration Guide for Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal, available at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1006/products_installation_and_configuration_guides_list.html.