Configuration Guide for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Release 6.x - Monitoring and Maintaining Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing [Cisco Unified MeetingPlace]

Table Of Contents

Monitoring and Maintaining Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing

How to Monitor Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Activities

Configuring the Lumberjack Logging Utility

How to Check Web Conferencing Utilization

About Flex Fields

Adjusting the Clock on the Web Conferencing Server

Monitoring and Maintaining Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing

We recommend that you monitor heavily used systems at short intervals, such as bi-weekly or weekly. Monitor systems with lighter use less frequently, such as once a month.

See the following sections:

•How to Monitor Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Activities

•How to Check Web Conferencing Utilization

•About Flex Fields

•Adjusting the Clock on the Web Conferencing Server

How to Monitor Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Activities

The Windows Event Viewer application and the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Eventlog application both log all web server activities. You can use these logs to monitor or troubleshoot Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing.

The following procedures provide instructions for the four tools that you can use to monitor activities on the web server:

•To Use the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Eventlog

•To Access the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Alarm Table

•To Run the Windows Performance Monitoring Tool

•To View an Event with the Windows Event Viewer

Also see the procedures in the "Configuring the Lumberjack Logging Utility" section.

To Use the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Eventlog

The Eventlog application logs all activities specific to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing services.

Step 1 To access an eventlog, right-click the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace icon in the system tray and choose Eventlog.

Step 2 To capture an eventlog, pull it from the Gateway SIM through the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server system.

To Access the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Alarm Table

The Alarm Table reports abnormal events that occur in the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system. In addition to providing alarm information about Cisco Unified MeetingPlace servers, you can also use the Alarm Table to determine if Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing is running or responding. For more information on this functionality, see the "About the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Gateway Systems Integrity Manager" section on page 2-3.

MeetingTime is the administrative client for the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server system. You must install it if you want to access the alarm table. For instructions, see the applicable Administration Guide for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server, at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/ps5664/ps5669/prod_maintenance_guides_list.html.

Step 1 Log in to MeetingTime.

Step 2 From the MeetingTime Administration menu, choose System. The Register Book appears.

Step 3 Click Alarm Tables, then Execute.

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing provides a performance object called Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing that you can monitor in the Windows performance monitoring tool. Table 7-1 lists the counters available in the Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing performance object. For more information about how to save or record performance graphs, see the Microsoft website.

Table 7-1 Counter List

Counter

Description

MPAgent: Total client connections in MPAgent

The number of client connections in the Cisco MeetingPlace Agent Service.

MPAudio: Total audio attachments converted by the audio service

The number of audio attachments converted by the audio service.

MPAudio: Total MP3 files converted by the audio service

The number of MP3 files converted by the audio service.

MPAudio: Total windows media files converted by the audio service

The number of Windows Media files converted by the audio service.

MPDatSvc: Total users pulled by the replication service

The number of users replicated to the SQL database.

MPDatSvc: Total groups pulled by the replication service

The number of user groups replicated to the SQL database.

MPDatSvc: Total meetings pulled by the replication service

The number of meetings replicated to the SQL database.

MPDatSvc: Total attachments pulled by the replication service

The number of attachments replicated to the SQL database.

MPDatSvc: Total confparts pulled by the replication service

The number of conference attendees replicated to the SQL database.

MPDatSvc: Total meeting categories pulled by the replication service

The number of meeting categories replicated to the SQL database.

MPDatSvc: Total size of attachments (KB) pulled by the replication service

The total size of attachments in KB replicated to the SQL database.

MPX: Active MPX Threads

The number of active threads in MPX, the ISAPI entry point.

MPX: Total queries to MPX

The total number of queries processed by MPX.

MPX: Total schedules

The total number of scheduling attempts made through MPX.

MPX: Total successful schedules

The total number of successful scheduling attempts made through MPX.

MPX: Total attends

The total number of attend attempts made through MPX.

MPX: Total successful attends

The total number of successful attends made through MPX.

MPX: Total 1st MtgStatusGetQS queries

The total number of times the meeting console loaded successfully.

MPX: Total rollover schedules

The total number of meeting rollover attempts.

MPX: Total successful rollover schedules

The total number of successful meeting rollovers.

MPX: Total server busy messages

The total number of server busy messages MPX returned to users.

Various FormType counters

FormType counters are web service API calls that facilitate internal tracking.

To Run the Windows Performance Monitoring Tool

Step 1 From the Start menu, choose Run. The Run window appears.

Step 2 Enter Perfmon to open the Performance window and click the Add (+) button. The Add Counters window appears.

Step 3 From the Performance object field, choose Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing. A list of counters appears.

Step 4 (Optional) For more information about a specific counter, click it from the list and then click Explain.

Step 5 To enable a specific counter, click it from the list and then click Add.

The Performance window adds the specific counters and presents a real-time graph.

To View an Event with the Windows Event Viewer

The application log provides detailed information about Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing services. For more information about the Windows Event Viewer, see your Windows documentation.

Step 1 Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer.

Step 2 From the Tree menu, choose Application Log.

Step 3 From the Application Log window, double-click the event.

Configuring the Lumberjack Logging Utility

Lumberjack is a logging utility that runs as a background thread. Lumberjack periodically dumps several logs at 24 hour intervals and stores those logs, as well as a specified number of older logs, in a configurable location. All the configuration settings are stored in the registry and worked in to the current registry setting structure of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace. Performance monitor logging configuration settings are stored in definition INI file, so counter list and logging interval can be easily changed.

Upon startup of the master service, a new thread for Lumberjack begins. Lumberjack reads the configuration values from the registry and INI file to determine behavior. If a performance monitor definition INI file does not exist, Lumberjack automatically creates a file with a predefined Counter list and logging interval by using the Lumberjack default values.

Every 24 hours, Lumberjack creates a new Gateway SIM event log for a 24 hour window. If the eventlog terminates before midnight, Lumberjack restarts it. If the event log runs past midnight of the day that the first call was made, Lumberjack terminates that process. During routing log gathering, Lumberjack also acquires the following information:

•Performance monitor (24 hour window)

•NT Application and System eventlog

•Registry snapshots (Latitude)

•IIS Log

When the master service is running and Lumberjack is enabled, it detects stopped (crashed) services. and collects the following information in a temp folder in the windows temp directory:

•GWSIM eventlog (24 hour window)

•NT Application and System eventlog

•Registry snapshots (Latitude)

•IIS log

•DrWtsn.log and User.dmp

•.exe, .map, and .pdb of downed services

•binaries for authfilt.dll (if downed IIS)

After the information is collected, Lumberjack bundles the files by using pkzipc.exe. This executable file is distributed with MPWEB and located in the DataSvc folder.

The naming convention for the file is lumberjack_timestamp.zip for routine logs and lumberjackCrash_timestamp.zip for crash logs, where timestamp is the time the log gathering started for routine logs and the time of the detected crash for crash logs.

If the master service is simply stopped, the temp directory that is created for routine logs is not deleted so that the logs for one day are bundled together if there is a restart of the master service. This functionality enables the logs that are captured to be reviewed without having to open a zip file and allows for a quicker shutdown and restart of master service because the service does not have to wait to zip files and remove the directory.

To configure the Lumberjack Logging Utility, complete the following procedures, as applicable:

•To Configure Lumberjack on a Cisco MCS Server

•To Configure Lumberjack on a Non-Cisco MCS Server

•To Manually Generate a Lumberjack Snapshot

To Configure Lumberjack on a Cisco MCS Server

Step 1 Choose Start > Run and enter regedit.

Step 2 To configure Lumberjack, change your registry settings for key HKLM\Software\Latitude\MeetingPlace WebPublisher\General\ and for key HKLM\Software\Latitude\MeetingPlace Gateway SIM\General\ as shown in Table 7-2.

Table 7-2 Registry Settings

Name (Type)

Description

Data and Default

Key: HKLM\Software\Latitude\MeetingPlace WebPublisher\General\

Server Logging (DWORD)

Enables and disables Lumberjack.

0 - Disabled

1 - Enabled

Default is 1.

Log Crash History (DWORD)

Specifies the number of old crash logs to store.

Default is 10.

Log History (DWORD)

Specifies the number of old routine logs to store.

Default is 15.

Log Location (String)

Specifies where to store the .zip files containing logs.

Default is install-location\Cisco Systems\LogFiles.

InstallLocation (String)

Used for gathering .dll, .exe, .map, and .pdb files.

Default is set by Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing.

Key: HKLM\Software\Latitude\MeetingPlace Gateway SIM\General\

InstallLocation (String)

Used for running GWSIM eventlog.

Default is set by GWSIM.

To Configure Lumberjack on a Non-Cisco MCS Server

If you want to run Lumberjack on a non-Cisco MCS server or a server with custom locations for log directories, you must use additional keys in the registry to allow custom locations of log files that are typically fixed on Cisco MCS servers.

Caution This procedure applies only to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace customers with a legacy third-party Windows server with system specifications comparable to Cisco MCS specifications.

When specifying file location, you must include the full path including drive letter and must not include the final '\'. For example, if your IIS logs are stored in the C:\temp\ directory, the location is c:\temp for the Lumberjack Custom IIS key.

Step 1 In the registry, create Log Custom IIS (String), where you enter the location of IIS log storage.

Step 2 Create Log Custom DrWatson (String), where you enter the location of Dr Watson log/user.dmp storage.

Step 3 Create Log Custom NTEventlog (String), where you enter the location of NT Eventlog storage.

To Manually Generate a Lumberjack Snapshot

Logs gathered because of a manual snapshot request have the format lumberjackSnapshot__timestamp.zip.

You can locate these logs either in the default LogFiles folder or in the folder that you specified when you completed the applicable procedure in the "Configuring the Lumberjack Logging Utility" section.

Step 1 On the web server, right-click the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace orange door icon.

Step 2 Choose Capture Logs. The snapshot log gathering process begins.

How to Check Web Conferencing Utilization

System administrators can view scheduled and actual peak web conferencing usage that occurs across several days by using the Summary Web Port Utilization Tool. This tool generates a Summary Web Port Usage chart.

The information displayed is a combination of data you request to include and available data that was retrieved from the server. Usage data includes only those ports that use a web conferencing license to provide the full web conferencing console. For more information on web conferencing licenses, see the "About Web Conferencing Licenses" section on page 8-3.

To Use the Summary Web Port Usage Tool

Step 1 Log in to MeetingTime.

Step 2 Click Administration > Capacity Mgmt.

Step 3 In the Capacity Mgmt tab, for Capacity Management Tools, click Summary Port Utilization.

Step 4 Click Execute. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace generates and displays a Summary Port Utilization chart.

About Flex Fields

Flex fields are customized profile and meeting fields that you can configure in MeetingTime. They permit you to include unique business information, such as your company name or a user department number, in reports.

As a system administrator, you can create up to three profile and three meeting flex fields on your Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system. You can configure each field to be editable by users, read-only, or invisible to users. If you choose to display a flex field to other users, the field will appear in the scheduling and profile management sections of MeetingTime and the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing administrative interfaces.

For information on creating and configuring flex fields, see the applicable Administration Guide for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server, at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/ps5664/ps5669/prod_maintenance_guides_list.html.

Adjusting the Clock on the Web Conferencing Server

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing automatically sets up the Windows server to synchronize its clock with the Audio Server by using the Windows Time Service. You cannot adjust the clock on the computer while Web Conferencing is running on the system. You must shutdown the Web Conferencing services to adjust the clock time on the system or to perform an NTP sync.