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Release Notes for Cisco Personal Assistant Release 1.3(1)

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Table Of Contents

Release Notes for Cisco Personal Assistant Release 1.3(1)

Contents

What's New in Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

Required Hardware and Software

Hardware

Software

Important Notes

Estimating Simultaneous Sessions and User Capacity for Personal Assistant Servers

Installation Notes

Issues

Configuring Personal Assistant with Multiple Cisco CallManager Clusters

Configuring Personal Assistant Interceptor Route Points

Upgrading to Cisco CallManager 3.2 After You Have Installed Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

Netscape Directory Issues

Active Directory Issues

Personal Assistant and Cisco Unity

Rule-Based Routing to Voice Mail

Canceling a Call When Dialing by Name

Increasing the Call Pickup Timeout for a Cell Phone

Adding and Removing Supported Locales

Preventing Toll Fraud

Installing Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

Installing Personal Assistant 1.3(1) On a New System

Upgrading from Personal Assistant 1.2 to Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

Caveats

Open Caveats—Release 1.3(1)

Documentation Updates

Errors

Adding Media Ports: Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide

Troubleshooting Personal Assistant: Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide

Browsing Voice Mail: Cisco Personal Assistant User's Guide

Synchronizing Your Personal Address Book: Cisco Personal Assistant User's Guide

Omissions

Troubleshooting Information: Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide

Related Documentation

Obtaining Documentation

World Wide Web

Documentation CD-ROM

Ordering Documentation

Documentation Feedback

Obtaining Technical Assistance

Cisco.com

Technical Assistance Center

Cisco TAC Web Site

Cisco TAC Escalation Center


Release Notes for Cisco Personal Assistant Release 1.3(1)

Published March 5, 2002

These release notes contain requirements, important notes, installation and upgrade instructions, caveat and workaround information, and documentation updates for Cisco Personal Assistant Release 1.3(1).

Contents

This document contains the following sections:

•What's New in Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

•Required Hardware and Software

•Important Notes

•Installing Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

•Caveats

•Documentation Updates

•Related Documentation

•Obtaining Documentation

•Obtaining Technical Assistance

What's New in Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

Personal Assistant version 1.3(1) includes the following major change:

Support for Multiple Locales

Personal Assistant 1.3(1) supports users and outside callers who speak different languages. For users, Personal Assistant uses the language they select through the user web interface. When you create a Personal Assistant automated attendant, outside callers can switch between languages that are included in the supported locales.

Required Hardware and Software

Hardware

Personal Assistant version 1.3(1) is supported on the following Cisco Media Convergence platforms:

•Cisco Media Convergence Server (MCS) 7835-1266—Features a 1.26-GHz Intel Pentium III CPU, 1 GB of 133-MHz registered SDRAM, and dual 18.2-GB Ultra3 SCSI hot-plug hard disks with RAID support.

•Cisco Media Convergence Server (MCS) 7825-1133—Features a 1133-MHz Intel Pentium III CPU, 1 GB of SDRAM, and a single 20-GB Ultra ATA hard disk.

The Cisco MCS series is a high-availability server platform for Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data) and the supported platform for a variety of Cisco AVVID applications. Cisco MCS series servers provide customers with a Cisco end-to-end solution and single point of contact for server and software support issues.

Additionally, Personal Assistant 1.3(1) is supported on the following Cisco-certified platforms:

•Compaq ProLiant DL3802G

•Compaq ProLiant DL320

You can find descriptions of these platforms on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/go/swonly.

Software

Personal Assistant version 1.3(1) works with the following software:

•Cisco CallManager version 3.1 and 3.2.

Caution Personal Assistant 1.3(1) is not compatible with versions of Cisco CallManager earlier than 3.1. Use Personal Assistant 1.3(1) only in conjunction with Cisco CallManager 3.1 or 3.2.

•Cisco Unity versions 2.4(6), 3.0, and 3.1

•Microsoft Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000 (for calendar scheduling and for Cisco Unity)

•Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x

•Netscape 4.7x (Netscape 6.0 is not supported)

Note If you have a CiscoWorks 2000 server in your network, Personal Assistant error messages can be sent to Syslog for collection and analysis. The supported version for Personal Assistant is CiscoWorks 2000 RME 3.3.

Important Notes

The following sections provide important information about using Personal Assistant version 1.3(1):

•Estimating Simultaneous Sessions and User Capacity for Personal Assistant Servers

•Installation Notes

•Upgrading to Cisco CallManager 3.2 After You Have Installed Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

•Active Directory Issues

•Personal Assistant and Cisco Unity

•Rule-Based Routing to Voice Mail

•Canceling a Call When Dialing by Name

•Increasing the Call Pickup Timeout for a Cell Phone

•Adding and Removing Supported Locales

•Preventing Toll Fraud

Estimating Simultaneous Sessions and User Capacity for Personal Assistant Servers

The Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide includes information on estimating the number of simultaneous sessions a server can support for Personal Assistant, and on how to use the estimates to determine the number of servers you need. This section includes the most current estimates and changes in how to estimate usage based on call interception (interceptor ports). Use the numbers in this section instead of the examples in the administration guide.

Note The number of media ports you can configure is determined by the speech-recognition license you purchase for Personal Assistant. If you purchase a 20-session license, you can configure only up to 20 media ports, even if a server platform supports more than 20 ports.

The Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide describes how to estimate simultaneous-session support for two types of Personal Assistant usage:

•Call-interception session—Personal Assistant intercepts an incoming call and applies call-routing rules. (Based on interceptor ports.)

•Speech-recognition session—A user calls Personal Assistant, for example, to dial a user by name or to set up a conference call. (Based on media ports.)

The administration guide explains how to calculate the number of required simultaneous sessions for each of these usage types to help you estimate the number of users you can support on a single server.

Cisco is changing the recommendations on calculating these estimates:

•Call-interception session—The calculation method described in the administration guide is no longer used. Instead, Cisco recommends that you calculate the number of users per server based on the number of busy hour call attempts (BHCA) for the server platform. This figure estimates the number of calls that can be processed during an hour in the busy part of the day (that is, during regular business hours). To calculate the number of users, divide the BHCA by the expected average number of calls made to a person per hour. Cisco recommends that you estimate 6 calls per person per hour. Thus, if a server supports 15,000 BHCA, 15,000/6 is 2,500 users.

When you determine the number of users per server that you can support for call interception, configure the interceptor ports based on that number. Assign each Personal Assistant server a collection of interceptor port patterns that matches the number of users. For example, interceptor port 1XXX applies to 1,000 possible interceptor ports (1000 to 1999). Thus, if you want to support 2,500 users on a server, configuring these three interceptor ports would accomplish the task (assuming the underlying phone numbers are all assigned to users): 1XXX, 2XXX, 35XX.

•Speech-recognition session—No changes. Continue to multiply the media port figures shown in Table 1 or Table 2 by the number of simultaneous calls to Personal Assistant that you want to support. Cisco recommends that you estimate 50 sessions per media port. For example, on an MCS-7835-1266 server where the Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server are both installed, and the corporate directory has approximately 20,000 names or fewer, multiply 48 media ports by 50 sessions for a total of 2,400 users.

Or, in a reverse calculation, if you need to support 4,500 users, you need a total of 90 media ports. Because no single-server configuration can support as many as 90 media ports, you would require at least two servers, depending on the server platform you select.

Table 1 and Table 2 show the estimated number of sessions and users based on server type, speech-recognition package version, and the size of your corporate directory. Personal Assistant determines the best speech-recognition package to use during installation based on the server. Although not recommended, you can change this setting by modifying the \program files\cisco systems\personal assistant\etc\PABootstrap.properties file. The file includes instructions for updating the SPEECH_PACKAGE property.

The default speech packages are:

•English.America.1—For MCS-7825 servers. This package works well for phones on wires, but not for wireless phones or speaker phones. It also supports smaller corporate directories (up to 20,000 names). It requires significantly less processing power than English.America.3. You can also use this package on MCS-7835 servers. See Table 1.

•English.America.3—For MCS-7835 servers. This package offers the best speech recognition, and it supports large corporate directories (up to 45,000 names). However, it requires significant processing power. You cannot use this package on MCS-7825 servers. See Table 2.

For acoustic models other than American English, expect a performance capacity range of the following:

•Approximately the same performance capacity for other locales with a similar acoustic model (plus or minus 5%).

•Approximately 5-10% reduced performance capacity for each additional locale running on the same Personal Assistant speech server.

Table 1 Server System Capacity Using Acoustic Model English.America.1 (10,000 Names in Corporate Directory) 

Server Installation
MCS-7825-1133
MCS-7835-1266
Personal Assistant Users (Interceptor Port Load)1
Simultaneous Speech Sessions (Media Ports)2
Personal Assistant Users (Interceptor Port Load)1
Simultaneous Speech Sessions (Media Ports)2

Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server installed on different systems of the same type

15,000
BHCA

60

15,000
BHCA

88

Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server installed on the same system

15,000
BHCA

48

15,000
BHCA

52

1 Divide the busy hour call attempts (BHCA) by the expected number of calls per person per hour to arrive at the number of users a Personal Assistant server will support for call interception. Cisco suggests that you estimate 6 calls per person per hour.

2 Cisco suggests that you estimate approximately 50 users per media port.


Table 2 Server System Capacity Using Acoustic Model English.America.3 

Server Installation
Approximately 20,000 Names in Corporate Directory
Approximately 45,000 Names in Corporate Directory
Personal Assistant Users (Interceptor Port Load)1
Simultaneous Speech Sessions (Media Ports)2
Personal Assistant Users (Interceptor Port Load)1
Simultaneous Speech Sessions (Media Ports)2

Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server installed on different MCS-7835-1266 systems

15,000
BHCA

88

15,000
BHCA

72

Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server installed on the same MCS-7835-1266 system

15,000
BHCA

48

15,000
BHCA

40

1 Divide the busy hour call attempts (BHCA) by the expected number of calls per person per hour to arrive at the number of users a Personal Assistant server will support will support for call interception. Cisco suggests that you estimate 6 calls per person per hour.

2 Cisco suggests that you estimate approximately 50 users per media port.


Installation Notes

Issues

•When you install Personal Assistant, you must select the languages you want to support.

•Personal Assistant and Cisco IP Phone Productivity Services should not be installed on the same system.

•Personal Assistant cannot be installed on a system that is a domain controller. A domain controller system will not let you log on as a local administrator.

•If the Personal Assistant server belongs to a domain that has no administrator password, the Personal Assistant System Administration interface allows the administrator to log on by using any password.

Configuring Personal Assistant with Multiple Cisco CallManager Clusters

When you install a Personal Assistant server or a Personal Assistant speech-recognition server, you associate that server with a specified Cisco CallManager server database. The Cisco CallManager server that you specify must be a publisher. There is only one Cisco CallManager publisher for each Cisco CallManager cluster. The other Cisco CallManager servers in the cluster are subscribers.

Note The Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide uses the term "primary CallManager" instead of "publisher" in the section about how to install Personal Assistant.

If you did not associate each Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server in the Personal Assistant cluster with the same Cisco CallManager publisher database, your Personal Assistant servers in that cluster do not point to the same Cisco CallManager cluster. We refer to this setup as "multiple Cisco CallManager clusters."

To install Personal Assistant 1.3(1) with multiple Cisco CallManager clusters, you must do some additional configuration steps for speech recognition to work correctly. These steps ensure that the ODBC data sources on all server systems in a Personal Assistant cluster point to the same publisher database.

Do the following procedure on each Personal Assistant server and each speech-recognition server in a Personal Assistant cluster.

To configure Personal Assistant with multiple Cisco CallManager clusters

Step 1 On the Windows Start menu, click Settings  > Control Panel >  Administrative Tools >  Data Sources (ODBC).

Step 2 Click the System DSN tab.

Step 3 Double-click PACCMDB.

Step 4 In the Which SQL Server Do You Want to Connect To field, enter the IP address or hostname of the Cisco CallManager publisher database to which you want all of your Personal Assistant servers in the cluster to point. Personal Assistant will store all dynamic grammars (such as rule-set names) there.

Note The ODBC sources on all systems in the Personal Assistant cluster must use the same publisher database hostname.

Step 5 Click Next.

Step 6 Click Client Configuration, and in the Network Libraries section, select TCP/IP.

Step 7 Click Next until you get to the last page, then Click Finish. In the dialog box that appears, click Test Data Source. Confirm that you see "TESTS COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY!" on the results page.

Step 8 Click OK to complete the configuration.

Configuring Personal Assistant Interceptor Route Points

When you configure the Personal Assistant interceptor route point, set the line Calling Search Space to the device Calling Search Space. Do not leave the line Calling Search Space as <None>.

Upgrading to Cisco CallManager 3.2 After You Have Installed Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

If you upgrade to Cisco CallManager version 3.2 after you have installed Personal Assistant version 1.3(1), you must update the JTAPI files on each Personal Assistant server for that Cisco CallManager.

To update the JTAPI files, run the pa-ccm32.bat script from the \program files\cisco systems\personal assistant\lib folder.

Note Running pa-ccm32.bat stops and restarts the Personal Assistant services, so you should plan to run it when the suspension of these services will have the least impact.

Alternatively, you can reinstall Personal Assistant 1.3(1) on each server. The installation process checks your Cisco CallManager version and installs the appropriate JTAPI files.

Netscape Directory Issues

To use the Netscape Directory for your corporate directory, you must have the directory plug-in that ships with Cisco CallManager 3.1(2c).

If you use the Netscape Directory for your corporate directory, on the Corporate Directory Settings page of the Personal Assistant System Administration interface, change the entry in the Directory Search Filter field from "(objectclass=person)" to "(objectclass=inetorgperson)".

To allow users to log on to Personal Assistant by using their uid rather than their full name, change the Unique User Attribute Name from "cn" to "uid" on the Corporate Directory Settings page.

Whenever you change the corporate directory information  on the Corporate Directory Settings page, go to the Speech Services page and click Refresh.

Active Directory Issues

To use Active Directory for your corporate directory, you must have the directory plug-in that ships with Cisco CallManager 3.1(2c).

If you use Active Directory for your corporate directory, manually change the Full Name field to user ID when you create users. Or you can select a different unique field for Personal Assistant. When you create new users with Active Directory, the Full Name field is auto-generated when you fill the user Firstname and Lastname fields. If you do not change the Full Name field to user ID, Personal Assistant uses the auto-generated Firstname-Lastname pair as the unique ID. This requires the user to use his first and last name to log on to the Personal Assistant user web interface rather than using a shorter user ID.

Whenever you change the corporate directory information on the Corporate Directory Settings page, go to the Speech Services page and click Refresh.

Personal Assistant and Cisco Unity

Before you use Cisco Unity for voice-message browsing with Personal Assistant, make sure that the Personal Assistant server has been added to the Cisco Unity server's domain.

When you configure Cisco Unity on the Messaging Configuration page of the Personal Assistant System Administration interface, the Name field in the Voicemail Server Attributes section says "Unity Messaging" by default. The online documentation incorrectly says "Unity Messaging System." If you have only one Cisco Unity server, use the default mailbox name, "Unity Messaging."

If you have multiple Cisco Unity servers with Exchange, there will be multiple accounts called "Unity Messaging" with the server name as the suffix. In this case, Personal Assistant is not able to disambiguate the mailbox name, and logon to Cisco Unity fails.

To work around the problem, use one of the following solutions to fill in the Cisco Unity mailbox name field:

•"Unity Messaging System - unity_server1" where unity_server1 is the Cisco Unity server's host name.

•Specify the e-mail address of the Cisco Unity mailbox with the prefix SMTP (for example, SMTP:unity_server1@unitydomainname.companyname.com).

•Specify the alias name of the Unity Messaging account (for example, unity_server1@unitydomainname.companyname.com).

For browsing voice messages by using Personal Assistant, a user's corporate directory e-mail address should be the same as the user's Exchange alias in Cisco Unity.

To use Personal Assistant 1.3(1) with Cisco Unity 3.0 and Exchange 2000, you must configure Exchange so that the administrator can access all of the Exchange user mailboxes. Otherwise, Personal Assistant will not be able to access the Exchange user mailboxes.

To configure Exchange to allow the administrator access to all Exchange user mailboxes

Step 1 On the Windows Start menu, click Programs  >  Microsoft Exchange >  System Manager to bring up the Exchange System Manager window.

Step 2 On the Exchange System Manager form, under <Your organization>, select Servers. <Your Exchange Server> displays.

Step 3 Right-click <Your Exchange Server>.

Step 4 On the Properties form, click the Security tab. The Form displays Name and Permissions boxes.

Step 5 In the Name box, select the Administrator user (domain-name\Administrator).

Step 6 In the Permissions box, enable the Allow field for Receive As and Send As fields.

Step 7 Click OK.

Rule-Based Routing to Voice Mail

When you use rule-based routing to voice mail, the messages you receive from callers in your corporate directory may be marked from an "outside caller." To ensure that they are marked with the sender's name, use the Cisco CallManager Administration interface to set the Voice Message box to blank for all Personal Assistant media ports and route points. To blank the media ports, go to Media Port > Phone Configuration > Line 1 > Voice Message box. To blank the route points, go to Route Point > CTI Route Point Configuration > Line 1> Voice Message box.

If you have multiple Cisco Unity servers, your users should set their voice-mail destination to the pilot number of the Cisco Unity server to which they are homed.

Note Make sure that you do not have any special handlers for the mailboxes on your voice messaging system. If you have set up special handlers, a caller may not be able to leave you a message after Personal Assistant has redirected the call to your voice-mail box.

When you use Personal Assistant with Cisco CallManager 3.2, set the Voice Mail Profile to NoVoiceMail on Line 1 of the Interceptor Route Point and the media ports configured for Personal Assistant.

Canceling a Call When Dialing by Name

When a Personal Assistant user places a call using dial-by-name, Personal Assistant says the name of the called party just before placing the call, for example, "Calling John Doe." To stop the call to this party, the user can say, "Cancel" right after the party's name is said.

Increasing the Call Pickup Timeout for a Cell Phone

The call pickup timeout feature controls how many seconds Personal Assistant rings each destination in a destination group before moving on to the next destination.

The default setting for the timeout feature is 8 seconds. Because each ring takes about 3 seconds, the 8-second default setting means that Personal Assistant allows approximately two to three rings at each destination before trying the next destination in the group.

A cell phone company's call setup time may take longer than Personal Assistant's default timeout of 8 seconds. If you have a call-forwarding rule with a destination group that includes a cell phone, you may want to increase your call pickup timeout value.

Adding and Removing Supported Locales

When you install Personal Assistant, you select the locales you want to load onto your system. When you configure Personal Assistant, you select the locales you want to enable for users.

Later, you can change the locales that are available to users by adding or removing installed locales from the Speech Service page in the Personal Assistant System Administration interface. Newly added locales are available to users after the next system refresh.

Users whose preferred locale has been removed by the Personal Assistant system administrator must reset their preferred locale to another supported locale from their Settings page.

Preventing Toll Fraud

To prevent or limit name-dialing transfers from Personal Assistant to external numbers, use one of the following solutions:

•Configure your Cisco CallManager route plans, partitions, and calling search spaces to disable Personal Assistant from making long-distance calls.

•Configure Personal Assistant to operate in speech-enabled Auto Attendant mode so that callers and employees can access names in the corporate directory only from an external or internal route point.

•Configure an internal (non-DID) route point for Personal Assistant so that employees can access all Personal Assistant functionality only from the office.

Installing Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

This section includes the most current procedures for installing and upgrading to Personal Assistant version 1.3(1). Use the following procedures instead of the procedures in the Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide:

•Installing—See the "Installing Personal Assistant 1.3(1) On a New System" section.

•Upgrading—See the "Upgrading from Personal Assistant 1.2 to Personal Assistant 1.3(1)" section.

For information about hardware and software requirements for Personal Assistant 1.3(1), see the "Required Hardware and Software" section.

Installing Personal Assistant 1.3(1) On a New System

This procedure describes how to install Personal Assistant on a system that is not running a previous version of Personal Assistant.

Before You Begin

You cannot install Personal Assistant on the same system as any other Cisco IP Telephony application, such as Cisco CallManager, Cisco Interactive Voice Response (IVR), or Cisco Auto Attendant. The installation program will terminate if it detects any of these applications on the system.

You cannot install Personal Assistant on a Windows domain controller.

You must log on to the system from which you are running the Personal Assistant Installation program as the local administrator.

If you are integrating Personal Assistant with Cisco Unity or Exchange in a Windows 2000 domain, you cannot use the same product code to install both Windows 2000 and Personal Assistant. You must first install Windows 2000, restart the system, and join the domain before proceeding with the Personal Assistant installation.

To install Personal Assistant 1.3(1) on a new system

Step 1 Log on to the computer from which you are running the Personal Assistant Installation program as a local administrator.

Step 2 Insert the Personal Assistant Installation compact disc in the CD-ROM drive. The Personal Assistant installation program automatically launches.

Step 3 If prompted, enter the product key.

Step 4 Click OK. The welcome window appears.

Step 5 Click Next. The End-User License Agreement window appears.

Step 6 Read the agreement, and click I Agree to accept the terms and continue. Or click Exit to cancel the installation.

Step 7 In the Cisco Personal Assistant Components window, choose the Personal Assistant components to install:

Cisco Personal Assistant Server

Manages the interaction between the user and Personal Assistant, processes call routing and dial rules, and manages the overall configuration of the Personal Assistant system.

Cisco Personal Assistant Speech
Recognition Server

Processes speech commands.

Cisco Personal Assistant Web
Administration

Used to administer and access Personal Assistant by using a web browser.


During installation, the selected components install on the same system. If you want to install components on different systems, choose only those components you want installed together at this time. You must do subsequent installations to install the remaining components on different systems.

Step 8 If you are installing Personal Assistant in a Windows 2000 domain, click Use a Domain Account and enter values for the following fields:

Account

The domain administrator account.

Password

The password for the domain administrator account.

Domain

The domain in which you are installing Personal Assistant.


If you are installing multiple Personal Assistant servers, you must install them in the same Windows 2000 domain.

Step 9 Click Next.

Step 10 In the Cisco Personal Assistant Locales window, choose the locales to install.

The locales you choose during installation are the ones from which you choose to enable for users when you configure Personal Assistant.

If you chose to install only the Cisco Personal Assistant Speech-Recognition Server, skip to Step 14. Otherwise, continue with the next step.

Step 11 Click Next.

Step 12 In the Cisco CallManager Database Location window, enter values from the Cisco CallManager publisher database in the following fields:

Host name

The DNS name or IP address of the server running Cisco CallManager.

Windows2000 username
and password

The settings on the server running Cisco CallManager.

SQL Server username
and password

The SQL server used by Cisco CallManager.


The settings must match those on the server running Cisco CallManager. For example, if on that server you do not have passwords set for Windows2000 and SQL Server, do not enter them here. User names, however, are required.

Note You must be able to access the Cisco CallManager server from the computer on which you are installing Personal Assistant. When you click Next, the installer verifies connectivity to the Cisco CallManager server. If it cannot reach Cisco CallManager, it generates an error and installation cannot continue.

Step 13 Click Next. The Ready to Install Cisco Personal Assistant window appears.

Step 14 Click Next. The Personal Assistant components you selected are installed. Installation takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Once complete, the Cisco Product Activation window appears.

Step 15 Click Yes to restart the computer. Click No to continue installing other applications.

You must restart the computer before using Personal Assistant.

Step 16 Configure Cisco CallManager. Refer to the "Configuring Cisco CallManager for Personal Assistant" chapter of the Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide, available on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/assist/assist3/index.htm.

Step 17 Configure Personal Assistant. Refer to the "Configuring Personal Assistant" chapter of the Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide, available on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/assist/assist3/index.htm.

Upgrading from Personal Assistant 1.2 to Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

This section describes how to upgrade to Personal Assistant version 1.3(1) on a system that is currently running any version of Personal Assistant 1.2. The procedure assumes that the currently installed Personal Assistant component was installed correctly and is functioning.

Upgrading from Personal Assistant 1.1 to Personal Assistant 1.3(1) is not supported.

Before You Begin

To upgrade Personal Assistant cleanly, you must disable the product on your telephony network. Plan to upgrade the product on a day and time when the elimination of the Personal Assistant service will have the least impact.

When you install Personal Assistant 1.3(1), the installation process checks your Cisco CallManager version and installs the appropriate JTAPI files. If you install Personal Assistant 1.3(1) before upgrading to Cisco CallManager 3.2, see the "Upgrading to Cisco CallManager 3.2 After You Have Installed Personal Assistant 1.3(1)" section.

Caution It is better to upgrade existing servers than to install a new server cluster. During upgrade, Personal Assistant preserves user and system settings, such as dialing rules, call routing rules, personal address books, and destinations. If you install a new server cluster to replace an existing cluster, these settings are not preserved, and users will have to recreate their configurations.

You cannot mix different versions of Personal Assistant components in the same cluster.

To upgrade from Personal Assistant 1.2 to Personal Assistant 1.3(1)

Step 1 To stop the Personal Assistant components and remove Personal Assistant services from the telephony network, in the Personal Assistant System Administration interface, click System  > Control Center.

Step 2 On the Control Center page, click Stop All in each of the three sections of the page to stop all Personal Assistant servers, license managers, and speech-recognition servers.

Step 3 Upgrade the Personal Assistant components by doing Steps 1 through 15 of the "To install Personal Assistant 1.3(1) on a new system" section.

Step 4 Click System  >  Speech Services, and click Refresh on the Speech Services Configuration page.

Personal Assistant refreshes the server configuration and reloads directory and speech-recognition grammars. After the refresh is finished, Personal Assistant should be running correctly and available for use.

Caveats

Caveats are both expected behaviors and defects in software releases for a product.

If you have an account with Cisco.com, you can use Bug Toolkit to find caveats of any severity for any release. Bug Toolkit is available at the website http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/Support/Bugtool/launch_bugtool.pl.

Open Caveats—Release 1.3(1)

Table 3 Cisco Personal Assistant Release 1.3(1) Open Caveats 

Caveat Number
Symptom
Explanation

CSCds82898

Placing a call with directory dialing results in Personal Assistant calling an out-of-service or incorrect number.

This can occur when user information changes in the corporate directory database and when such changes are not reflected in the cache.

User information is cached by Personal Assistant every time a user makes a call via Personal Assistant. For example, if the phone number 1-2-3 for User X is modified in the corporate directory to 4-5-6, and a call is placed to User X via Personal Assistant before the cache is refreshed, Personal Assistant calls the original number for User X (1-2-3), and not the modified number (4-5-6).

The problem is resolved upon the next system refresh. By default, a system refresh is scheduled to occur daily at 2:00 a.m. However, a system administrator can modify the refresh schedule.

CSCdt03273

Personal Assistant does not notify users when a conference-call participant exits the conference.

This is normal behavior. Once a conference call is successfully set up, Personal Assistant ends its own participation in the call. Therefore, Personal Assistant is not available to notify users when one caller in the conference hangs up.

CSCdt56899

Personal Assistant sends or forwards silent messages (messages that have no audio content) without alerting the user.

Personal Assistant does not distinguish between a silent message and a successfully recorded message when sending (or forwarding) messages from one user to another. Therefore, if a user provides no spoken message or if the mute feature on a user's phone is engaged, a silent message is apparently "recorded." Personal Assistant does not alert the user that the message contains no audio content before sending or forwarding the silent message.

CSCdt58084

The Personal Assistant user web interface does not copy some selected entries from the corporate directory into the personal address book.

The Personal Assistant user web interface will not copy some selected entries from the corporate directory into the personal address book if the selected entries span more than one page.

A list of users that results from a search could span several interface pages, depending on the search string that is specified. If the user selects entries in several pages and adds them to the personal address book, only those entries selected from the last interface page are added.

Workaround

Narrow the search string used to generate relevant entries from the corporate directory. If the generated entries span more than one page, select entries from one page only before initiating another search.

CSCdt60817

Initiating a search of the corporate directory with either blank search fields or with only a wildcard symbol (*) in the search fields prompts an error message.

Personal Assistant prompts the user to provide a more specific search pattern in order to narrow the pool of names in which Personal Assistant conducts its search.

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There is no prompt for an incoming caller to record his or her name when the calling party's call-screening feature is active.

Personal Assistant does not prompt the calling party to record his or her name in cases where:

•Caller ID is available and the caller is not a corporate user.

•The caller is a corporate user but has not established a recorded name with Personal Assistant (required upon initial logon).

Personal Assistant prompts a caller to record his or her name if caller ID is not available and the caller is not a corporate user.

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The user receives an error message when attempting to log on to the user web interface.

When a Personal Assistant user web interface session times out, the next logon attempt fails.

This means that if a user logs on to the user web interface and remains inactive for 30 minutes, the session automatically expires, or times out. The next time the user tries to log on, the logon attempt will fail. However, subsequent logon attempts will succeed.

Workaround

Log on twice following an automatic timeout.

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Personal Assistant appears to fail to delete voice messages.

Personal Assistant will continue to list recently deleted voice messages among current message headers if the user has not logged out of voice mail or said, "Cancel" to return to the main menu after giving the deletion command.

Personal Assistant marks messages for deletion and then deletes them when the user logs off voice mail or exits the current menu.

Workaround

Say "Cancel" to exit the list-read menu and return to the main voice-mail menu. Then return to the list-read menu by saying, "List messages." The messages marked for deletion are not listed.

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An inadvertent message from Personal Assistant is recorded in a user's voice mail. The message content might indicate that Personal Assistant is attempting to reach the user for call-screening purposes.

Both the Personal Assistant call pickup timeout value (specified on the Settings page of the Personal Assistant user web interface) and the JTAPI call pickup timeout value (specified on the Miscellaneous Settings page in the Personal Assistant System Administration interface) must be shorter than the Cisco CallManager CFNA timeout setting. Otherwise, an inadvertent Personal Assistant message may get recorded in the user's voice mail when Personal Assistant attempts to transfer the call to multiple destinations.

Workaround

Set the values for both the user's call pickup timeout and the administrator's call pickup timeout to be shorter than the CFNA setting in Cisco CallManager.

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When you do a refresh, your logs report Nuance errors while compiling Dynamic Grammars.

After it restarts the speech services, Personal Assistant waits 75 seconds per locale before it compiles the dynamic grammars. If the speech packages are not ready to process requests, compilation fails.

Workaround

In the \program files\cisco systems\personal assistant\etc\PABootstrap.properties file, increase the REFRESH_WAIT_PERIOD property from 75 seconds to 120 seconds or higher.

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Calls forwarded from an extension not managed by Personal Assistant to an extension that is managed by Personal Assistant get a fast-busy tone.

Extension A, which is not managed by Personal Assistant, is set up to forward all calls to Extension B, which is managed by Personal Assistant.

A call to Extension A is not intercepted by Personal Assistant but forwarded by Cisco CallManager to Personal Assistant for Extension B. Cisco CallManager tells Personal Assistant that the call is for Extension A. Because Personal Assistant does not manage Extension A, it sends the call back to Extension A. Cisco CallManager again tries to forward the call to Extension B via Personal Assistant, etc.

The caller hears a fast-busy tone as the call is stuck in this loop.

There is no workaround.


Documentation Updates

Errors

This section lists errors in the current Personal Assistant documentation. The correct information will be incorporated in a future documentation release, or as otherwise noted.

Adding Media Ports: Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide

In Chapter 3, "Configuring Cisco CallManager for Personal Assistant," in the procedure for adding media ports for Personal Assistant, Step 7 should read, "Enter the extension, such as 5001, assigned to this port in the Directory Number field."

Troubleshooting Personal Assistant: Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide

•In Chapter 6, "Troubleshooting Personal Assistant," in the problems to check for when callers hear "We are experiencing technical difficulties, please call back later" under "Resolving Problems Using Personal Assistant," the path for speech packages should read, "\speech\grammar\static\pa\ <locale>."

•In Chapter 6, "Troubleshooting Personal Assistant," in the "Users Cannot Log Into Voice Mail" section under "Resolving Problems Using Personal Assistant," the last paragraph should read, "If it is not there, and you are running the Personal Assistant server, create it by using PA/bin/PAUnity.prf."

Browsing Voice Mail: Cisco Personal Assistant User's Guide

In Appendix A, "Common Questions About Using Personal Assistant," the question "Why is Personal Assistant telling my callers that I am unavailable?" under "Browsing Voice Mail" should read:

Why do callers hear a fast-busy tone when they try to call me?

Q.) My callers hear a fast-busy tone when they try to call me, even though I am available. What's going on?

A.) Make sure your personal and corporate destinations are correct. If Personal Assistant tries to forward an incoming phone call to you at an invalid number, your caller hears a fast-busy tone. For help with destinations, see the "What Are Destinations" section on Page 3-1.

Synchronizing Your Personal Address Book: Cisco Personal Assistant User's Guide

In Chapter 4, "Setting Up Your Personal Address Book," in the "Synchronizing the Address Book with Your Exchange Contacts List" section, the tip for the procedure should read: "A conflict occurs when you have an entry with the same first and last names in both your personal address book and your Microsoft Exchange Contacts list. To resolve this, Personal Assistant then looks at the e-mail address and phone number to determine if they are really the same record."

Omissions

This section lists new and additional information that is not included in the current Personal Assistant documentation. The new and additional information will be incorporated in a future documentation release, or as otherwise noted.

Troubleshooting Information: Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide

Table 4 lists some problems you might encounter, and provides ways to resolve them. For more troubleshooting information, refer to the Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide, available on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/assist/assist3/index.htm.

.

Table 4 Personal Assistant 1.3(1) Troubleshooting 

Problem
Possible Cause
Corrective Action

Personal Assistant's response is too slow after speech input, with 10 to 20 seconds of delay after commands such as, "Voicemail" and "Send message."

•Your DNS might not be configured properly.

•Personal Assistant is having problems connecting to the Cisco CallManager, Cisco Unity, and Exchange servers.

Check that the Personal Assistant server's DNS configuration is valid. Or disable the DNS services and add the hostname<->IP Address mapping in the \WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file for the Cisco CallManager, Cisco Unity, and Exchange servers.

Check that the Personal Assistant server can connect with the Cisco CallManager, Cisco Unity, and Exchange servers by pinging them using just the hostname as well as hostname.domainname.com.

Some users cannot dial Personal Assistant from their phones. They hear, "I am sorry, you have entered an invalid extension." Also, rules associated with these users do not work.

On the Cisco CallManager User Configuration page, the phone number field is empty for those users.

On the Cisco CallManager User Configuration page, enter the phone number for the users having the problem.

Personal Assistant route points register on the Cisco CallManager server, but Personal Assistant interceptor route points do not.

Interceptor route point devices are not associated with the Personal Assistant JTAPI Admin user in the Cisco CallManager server configuration.

Associate both the Personal Assistant route points and interceptor route points with the Personal Assistant Admin JTAPI user on the Cisco CallManager server.

When you call Personal Assistant from a phone in a common room such as a conference room, a user's spoken name plays before you hear the Personal Assistant welcome prompt.

A user has set the phone in that common room as a personal destination or as a Follow-Me destination.

Have the user update his or her personal destination or Follow-Me rule to remove the association.

As a last resort, use the Personal Assistant System Administration interface to delete that user.

When a user activates a rule-set with a rule forwarding calls to the Octel voice messaging system, calls are not forwarded to the user's mailbox.

The voice-mail destination is not configured correctly.

When a user adds his or her voice-mail destination to a destination group, he or she must select the predefined destination "Voicemail."

For a Cisco Unity messaging system with multiple Cisco Unity servers, the user should set his or her Voicemail destination to the pilot number of the Cisco Unity server to which the user is homed.

Voice-mail redirection works for internal callers but not for external callers, or vice versa.

The redirection DTMF sequence for external and internal callers might be different and might not be configured properly.

The Personal Assistant system administrator should set appropriate DTMF sequences and delay values on the PA Sysadmin > Messaging page.

Personal Assistant announces a user by saying their name or extension instead of by playing their recorded name.

The user has not recorded his or her spoken name yet.

The user must call Personal Assistant and record a spoken name. Personal Assistant prompts the user to record a spoken name when the user calls Personal Assistant for the first time or after the user has reset his spoken name through the Personal Assistant user web interface.


Related Documentation

These are the other documents available for Personal Assistant:

•Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide—Covers planning and administering Personal Assistant. Designed for system administrators. Available only in English:

–In the box—A copy of the manual ships with the product.

–In the software—The System Administration interface online Help is based on the manual.

–On Cisco.com—At http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/assist/assist3/index.htm.

•Cisco Personal Assistant User's Guide—Covers using the Personal Assistant user web interface, as well as how to talk to Personal Assistant over the phone to dial users by name, access voice mail, and accomplish other phone-enabled tasks. Designed for end users. Available in English, French, and German:

–In the software—The user web interface online Help is based on the manual.

–On Cisco.com—At http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/assist/assist3/index.htm.

You can also access documentation for Cisco IP Phone Productivity Services at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/assist/assist3/index.htm. Available only in English.

Obtaining Documentation

The following sections explain how to obtain documentation from Cisco Systems.

World Wide Web

You can access the most current Cisco documentation on the World Wide Web at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com

Translated documentation is available at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/public/countries_languages.shtml

Documentation CD-ROM

Cisco documentation and additional literature are available in a Cisco Documentation CD-ROM package, which is shipped with your product. The Documentation CD-ROM is updated monthly and may be more current than printed documentation. The CD-ROM package is available as a single unit or through an annual subscription.

Ordering Documentation

Cisco documentation is available in the following ways:

•Registered Cisco Direct Customers can order Cisco product documentation from the Networking Products MarketPlace:

http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/order/order_root.pl

•Registered Cisco.com users can order the Documentation CD-ROM through the online Subscription Store:

http://www.cisco.com/go/subscription

•Nonregistered Cisco.com users can order documentation through a local account representative by calling Cisco corporate headquarters (California, USA) at 408 526-7208 or, elsewhere in North America, by calling 800 553-NETS (6387).

Documentation Feedback

If you are reading Cisco product documentation on Cisco.com, you can submit technical comments electronically. Click Leave Feedback at the bottom of the Cisco Documentation home page. After you complete the form, print it out and fax it to Cisco at 408 527-0730.

You can e-mail your comments to bug-doc@cisco.com.

To submit your comments write to the following address:

Cisco Systems
Attn: Document Resource Connection
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134-9883

We appreciate your comments.

Obtaining Technical Assistance

Cisco provides Cisco.com as a starting point for all technical assistance. Customers and partners can obtain documentation, troubleshooting tips, and sample configurations from online tools by using the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) Web Site. Cisco.com registered users have complete access to the technical support resources on the Cisco TAC Web Site.

Cisco.com

Cisco.com is the foundation of a suite of interactive, networked services that provides immediate, open access to Cisco information, networking solutions, services, programs, and resources at any time, from anywhere in the world.

Cisco.com is a highly integrated Internet application and a powerful, easy-to-use tool that provides a broad range of features and services to help you to

•Streamline business processes and improve productivity

•Resolve technical issues with online support

•Download and test software packages

•Order Cisco learning materials and merchandise

•Register for online skill assessment, training, and certification programs

You can self-register on Cisco.com to obtain customized information and service. To access Cisco.com, go to the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com

Technical Assistance Center

The Cisco TAC is available to all customers who need technical assistance with a Cisco product, technology, or solution. Two types of support are available through the Cisco TAC: the Cisco TAC Web Site and the Cisco TAC Escalation Center.

Inquiries to Cisco TAC are categorized according to the urgency of the issue:

•Priority level 4 (P4)—You need information or assistance concerning Cisco product capabilities, product installation, or basic product configuration.

•Priority level 3 (P3)—Your network performance is degraded. Network functionality is noticeably impaired, but most business operations continue.

•Priority level 2 (P2)—Your production network is severely degraded, affecting significant aspects of business operations. No workaround is available.

•Priority level 1 (P1)—Your production network is down, and a critical impact to business operations will occur if service is not restored quickly. No workaround is available.

Which Cisco TAC resource you choose is based on the priority of the problem and the conditions of service contracts, when applicable.

Cisco TAC Web Site

The Cisco TAC Web Site allows you to resolve P3 and P4 issues yourself, saving both cost and time. The site provides around-the-clock access to online tools, knowledge bases, and software. To access the Cisco TAC Web Site, go to the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/tac

All customers, partners, and resellers who have a valid Cisco services contract have complete access to the technical support resources on the Cisco TAC Web Site. The Cisco TAC Web Site requires a Cisco.com login ID and password. If you have a valid service contract but do not have a login ID or password, go to the following URL to register:

http://www.cisco.com/register/

If you cannot resolve your technical issues by using the Cisco TAC Web Site, and you are a Cisco.com registered user, you can open a case online by using the TAC Case Open tool at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/tac/caseopen

If you have Internet access, it is recommended that you open P3 and P4 cases through the Cisco TAC Web Site.

Cisco TAC Escalation Center

The Cisco TAC Escalation Center addresses issues that are classified as priority level 1 or priority level 2; these classifications are assigned when severe network degradation significantly impacts business operations. When you contact the TAC Escalation Center with a P1 or P2 problem, a Cisco TAC engineer will automatically open a case.

To obtain a directory of toll-free Cisco TAC telephone numbers for your country, go to the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/687/Directory/DirTAC.shtml

Before calling, please check with your network operations center to determine the level of Cisco support services to which your company is entitled; for example, SMARTnet, SMARTnet Onsite, or Network Supported Accounts (NSA). In addition, please have available your service agreement number and your product serial number.

This document is to be used in conjunction with the documents listed in the "Related Documentation" section.

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All other trademarks mentioned in this document or Web site are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (0201R)

Release Notes for Cisco Personal Assistant Release 1.3(1)
Copyright © 2002, Cisco Systems, Inc.
All rights reserved.