Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Document ID: 63299

Contents

Introduction
Prerequisites
      Requirements
      Components Used
      Conventions
Initiate the Force Reservationless Password Mode
Force Reservationless Password Feature Notes
Attend a Reservationless Meeting: Password Setup Variations
      User Experience after Meeting Initiator Sets the Password
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Introduction

This document discusses the Cisco MeetingPlace server (M3) Force Reservationless Password feature. This feature allows a company to "force" all reservationless meetings to have a password if their owner's profile requests so.

Any profiled user that attends a reservationless meeting can wait for the meeting's owner to start the meeting or press "3" to start it themselves. Previously (pre-R5.3), users who started reservationless meetings (whether their own meeting or not), experienced one of the next two scenarios. If the meeting's owner did not specify a meeting password in their profile, the user could simply start and enter the meeting. If the meeting owner specified a meeting password, the user would be asked whether they wanted to specify a password. If the user chose not to specify a password, the user would still be allowed to join the meeting. If the user chose to specify a password, they would enter (specify) a password and then join the meeting. Later attendees would then have to know the password specified by this user in order to attend (even if the later user, in this case, was the meeting organizer).

The new feature discussed in this document allows a file to be created (/lat/etc/.forcepasswordforpersmtg) by way of the Cisco MeetingPlace command line interface (CLI). With the creation of this file, users do not have a choice as to whether or not to set a reservationless password. If the password option is set for a reservationless meeting, in the meeting owner's profile, the user who starts the meeting must select a password.

The Force Reservationless Password feature was added to R5.2 as a patch release feature at Oracle's request. Later, this feature was ported over to R5.3. This feature is documented here as it was not documented anywhere in R5.2 (or in any other official documentation).

Prerequisites

Requirements

There are no specific requirements for this document.

Components Used

The information in this document is based on Cisco MeetingPlace server (M3) software version 5.3.

The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab environment. All of the devices used in this document started with a cleared (default) configuration. If your network is live, make sure that you understand the potential impact of any command.

Conventions

For more information on document conventions, refer to the Cisco Technical Tips Conventions.

Initiate the Force Reservationless Password Mode

To initiate the Force Reservationless Password mode, the file /lat/etc/.forcepasswordforpersmtg must be created on the Cisco MeetingPlace Audio Server. To create this file, complete these steps:

1. Log into the Cisco MeetingPlace CLI:

   1. Log into the Cisco MeetingPlace Audio Server by way of Telnet, SSH, or locally.

   2. When asked for a username, enter admin. When prompted for the password, enter either the default (cisco) or, if you have changed this password, the new password.

   3. Enter su to change to the CSC privilege level.

   4. The Cisco MeetingPlace Audio Server prompts you for another password. For this password, use the Password Of the Day (POD).

      Contact Cisco Technical Support to get the POD. For information about contacting Cisco Technical Support, refer to the Guide to Cisco Conferencing Documentation and Support.

   5. Upon successful login, the csc$ prompt appears.

2. Enter cd /lat/etc to change the directory to /lat/etc.

3. Enter touch .forcepasswordforpersmtg to create the necessary file.

4. Enter restart enable to restart the Cisco MeetingPlace Audio Server and have the change take effect.

Force Reservationless Password Feature Notes

This section defines relevant terms and provides more detailed information about situations that you may encounter when using the Force Reservationless Password feature.

1. .forcepasswordforpersmtg file—This file is checked only at a restart. A restart must be completed for any changes to the existence of this file to take effect. However, you can create the file in advance and restart the system later, when convenient.

   Note: The existence of the .forcepasswordforpersmtg file is important to Cisco MeetingPlace, not the file's content.

2. The .forcepasswordforpersmtg file has no effect—If the owner of the reservationless meeting does not have "Password Required" to Yes in their profile (under Meeting Preferences in MeetingTime), the .forcepasswordforpersmtg file will have no effect.

3. Any profiled user can select a meeting password if “Allow 3rd Party Initiation” is enabled for the system—Assume a profiled user is waiting for the meeting organizer (the reservationless meeting's owner) and the user waiting presses "3". In this case, they get to select the password for the meeting regardless of the meeting owner's wishes. If the meeting password is not provided to the other attendees (including the owner) manually, only the meeting initiator can attend.

4. "Enter the meeting password..." prompt—The "Enter the meeting password followed by the # key" prompt is heard (whether .forcepasswordforpersmtg exists or not) when a user presses "3" to leave the waiting room and then "1". This prompt should be interpreted as "Select and enter a password to protect this meeting followed by the # key". Thereafter, new attendees must enter the selected password or they cannot enter the meeting. This prompt does not mean that the user who presses "3" followed by "1" should enter a previously determined password. Instead, they are actually selecting a password for this meeting that everyone else will be required to enter to gain access to the meeting.

5. Test for the existence of the .forcepasswordforpersmtg file—To test for the existence of this file, go to the /lat/etc directory. Then, issue the ls –a command. If the .forcepasswordforpersmtg file exists, you should see it listed.

6. Patch/standard feature—The Force Reservationless Password feature was installed in a few R5.2 systems as a patch, however, this feature is standard for R5.3 (no patch required).

7. Default mode—The force password for reservationless meeting feature is not a standard Cisco MeetingPlace Audio Server feature. Hence, this TechNote. All Cisco MeetingPlace Audio Servers are shipped without the .forcepasswordforpersmtg file. However, if this file was set in R5.2 (due to a patch that enables this feature), the file continues to exist after an upgrade to R5.3.

8. Waiting room semantics change in this model—When users arrive early for a meeting, they are NOT prompted for a password as they enter the waiting room. Instead, the password is supplied as part of the initiation process. At that point, the meeting is brought to order, and everyone in the waiting room is asked to supply the new password as they are brought into the meeting. If the user who initiates the meeting enters a different meeting password than the one originally intended, all of the attendees will provide the wrong password and are not allowed to enter the meeting (see the next example for a related situation).

9. A mistaken password can be problematic—If the user who initiates the meeting inadvertantly enters a different meeting password than intended, then all of the attendees will attempt to use an incorrect password and be blocked from entering the meeting. The initiator can either contact all meeting attendees and provide the new password, or manually end the meeting, dial in again and initiate the meeting with the originally desired password.

Attend a Reservationless Meeting: Password Setup Variations

This table illustrates the intiating user's experience as it relates to the meeting owner's profile and the existence of the .forcepasswordforpersmtg file:

User Experience after Meeting Initiator Sets the Password

This example details a user's experience after the first attendee has initiated the meeting and entered the meeting password. This example assumes that the meeting initiator has supplied the password to this attendee, enabling the user to attend the meeting. This example also assumes the Voice User Interface (VUI) Meeting Direct menu. However, as shown in the previous example, other attendance modes are similar.

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