Troubleshooting Cisco Visual Voicemail
•Capturing Phone Logs
•How to Resolve Visual Voicemail Problems
Capturing Phone Logs
To access the logs of a phone, you must first obtain the IP address of the phone.
Procedure
Step 1 Select Device > Phone in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration.
Step 2 Search for the phone in the Find and List Phones window.
The IP Address column displays the IP addresses of the phones that the search found.
Step 3 Copy the IP address and paste the address into the address or location bar of a web browser.
Step 4 Select Console Logs under Device Logs on the left side of the page in the browser.
Links to the phone log files are displayed in the page. To download the log files that you require, right-click on the link, then save the file as a text file.
Step 5 Select Core Dumps under Device Logs on the left side of the page in the browser.
Links to the core files are displayed in the page. To download the core files that you require, right-click on the link, then save the file as a text file.
How to Resolve Visual Voicemail Problems
•Users See "Contact Administrator" Error Message
•Users with Phones Behind Routers See "Contact Administrator" Error Message
•Users with Phones Behind ASAs See "Contact Administrator" Error Message
•Users Cannot Start Visual Voicemail
•Line Used by Visual Voicemail Becomes Disconnected After a Few Seconds
•Cannot Hear Message Playing
•Opening Visual Voicemail Takes a Long Time
•Voicemail Server Is Unavailable
Users See "Contact Administrator" Error Message
Problem When users press the Messages button on their phones, the following error is displayed:
Error, contact administrator
Solution This error message is displayed if a user presses the Messages button during the installation of the Visual Voicemail service. To resolve this issue, ask the user to wait for approximately one minute, until the Visual Voicemail application has downloaded. Then ask the user to press the Messages button again. If Visual Voicemail starts, the problem is resolved.
Users with Phones Behind Routers See "Contact Administrator" Error Message
Problem When users who have a phone behind a Cisco Virtual Office router press the Messages button on the phone, the following error might be displayed:
Error, contact administrator
Solution For phones that are behind Cisco Virtual Office routers, or behind any other type of hardware VPN device, the address of the Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection server must not be blocked. In some cases, particular traffic might be prevented from leaving or entering the voice Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN). Check with your administrator to ensure there are no access control lists or firewall devices that block the address of the Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection server.
Users with Phones Behind ASAs See "Contact Administrator" Error Message
Problem When users who have a phone behind a Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) press the Messages button on the phone, the following error might be displayed:
Error, contact administrator
Solution For phones that are behind ASAs, the address of the Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection server must not be blocked. In some cases, particular traffic might be prevented from leaving or entering the voice Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN). Check with your administrator to ensure there are no access control lists that block the address of the Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection server.
Users Cannot Start Visual Voicemail
Problem When users try to start Visual Voicemail, the following error message is displayed:
Error, contact administrator
The error message still appears after the user waits for two minutes, then try to start Visual Voicemail again.
Solution This can happen if a user is playing or recording a message when the voicemail server stops running. To resolve this issue, reset the affected phones.
Line Used by Visual Voicemail Becomes Disconnected After a Few Seconds
Problem When some users with SIP phones start Visual Voicemail, the line is opened, but they do not hear anything, and the line is disconnected after less than 10 seconds. Users with phones that are in a remote location might experience this problem more often than local users.
Problem The following message is frequently displayed when users try to play or record a message on a SIP phone:
Retrying connection...
Problem When users enroll in the voice message service for the first time from a SIP phone, the line that Visual Voicemail uses becomes disconnected after a few seconds.
Solution Change the value of the call_connect_delay parameter in the Visual Voicemail service only on the phones that experience this problem. The default value of this parameter is 1000 milliseconds. To resolve the problems above, change the value 1500. If the problem persists, change the value to 2000.
Cannot Hear Message Playing
Problem The user reports that they pick up the handset, open Visual Voicemail, then play a message, but cannot hear the voice message.
Solution Except for when you start Visual Voicemail, the application only opens a line when you play or record a message. Users can view a list of their messages, then choose to play a message. At this point, Visual Voicemail opens a line. Therefore, the user does not need to pick up the handset, or open a line in any other way, before they start Visual Voicemail. Refer the user to the Quick Start Guide for Visual Voicemail.
Opening Visual Voicemail Takes a Long Time
Problem When users of extension mobility functionality start Visual Voicemail, they experience a delay before the list of voice messages is displayed.
Solution In environments where the directory number associated with a phone changes frequently, you can add the never_save_localization_data service parameter to the Visual Voicemail service. Set the value of this service to 1. This might help to reduce the time for Visual Voicemail to start.
Voicemail Server Is Unavailable
Problem When you start Visual Voicemail, the Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection voicemail server is unavailable.
Solution Verify that your configuration defines a valid DNS server on the phone. On the phone, select Settings > Network Configuration > IPv4 Configuration > DNS Server 1.
Solution Verify that your configuration defines a valid domain name on the phone. On the phone, select Settings > Network Configuration > Domain Name.
Alternatively, if the voicemail server is not within the phone domain, you must specify the fully-qualified domain name in the voicemail_server service parameter. For more information about this parameter, see Service Parameters for Visual Voicemail, page 2-10.