Planning Overview

Cisco HCM-F Application Node Overview

The following figure illustrates the architecture of Cisco HCM-F Application Node.

Figure 1. Cisco HCM-F Application Node Architecture

Cisco HCM-F Application Node delivers the following main functions and services:

  • Centralized database for the Cisco HCS solution: the Shared Data Repository (SDR)

  • Synchronization of the SDR with domain managers: Multiple synchronization services populate the SDR and keep it updated when configuration changes are applied through these domain managers. The following services populate and update the SDR:

    • CUCDMSync service updates the SDR when configuration changes are applied through the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager.

    • VCenterSync service updates the SDR when configuration changes are applied through vCenter.

    • HCS UCSMSync service monitors configuration data of Cisco UCS Managers and maintains synchronization between the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository.

  • North Bound Interface (NBI): Populates and updates SDR.

  • Cisco HCM-F Administrative UI: Allows configuration of Cisco HCM-F services.

  • Services for automatic configuration of the Prime Collaboration Assurance (PCA):

    • HCS Fulfillment service

    • HCS DMA-SA service


      Note

      Based on data that is extracted from the SDR, the services work together to automatically configure the PCA to monitor Unified Communications Applications and customer equipment.

    • HCS Provisioning Adapter Service


      Note

      Fulfillment and Cisco HCS CAA CUCM Service work together to automatically configure Cisco Unified Communications Manager applications with the data required for those applications to be monitored by PCA. Other applications such as Cisco Unity Connection and Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service must be manually configured to be monitored by PCA.

  • HCS License Manager (HLM) service: Manages licenses for UC applications.

  • HCS Northbound Interface (NBI) API service: Provides an interface to the service provider BSS or OSS through a SOAP web services interface.

  • UC Monitor: Exposes REST API to trigger the checks. On receiving the JMS message, UC Monitor fetches the cluster type from SDR and validates the checks present in the message if they match with the cluster type or not. If match is not found, then UC Monitor responds with an error.

  • DAM: Data Access Manager is an auto start service in HCM-F which exposes functionality to store data from UC Monitor.

  • Cisco Application Adapter Service: Cisco Application Adapter (CAA) is the adapter that communicates with all UC apps and expressway services.

  • Service Inventory: Provides the service provider with reports on customers, subscribers, and devices. Service provider may use these reports to audit customer admin provisioning, and generate billing reports and change reports for their customers, based on MACD operations.

Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository

The Shared Data Repository (SDR) is the central database for Cisco HCS. This repository stores data that is common to multiple Cisco HCS components.

The Shared Data Repository provides Cisco HCS with the following benefits:

  • Reduces duplicate data entry and data inconsistency.

  • Integrates Cisco HCS components, which provide architectural stability.

  • HCS License Manager, Service Inventory, and Platform Manager utilize Shared Data Repository.

The Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository supports the following functional areas:

  • HCM-Fulfillment—Allows a service provider to provision a new enterprise customer with voice, video, and other collaboration and mobility services, as required.

  • HCM-Service Assurance—Supports fault, and performance management.

One Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository is installed when you install Cisco HCM-F on the Cisco HCM-F platform.

Internal components of the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository identify the type of client that is communicating with the database; for example, the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository can identify whether the client serves as a sync agent. To identify the client, the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository assists with debugging by allowing the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository to record the client name in log messages. An internal component of the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository prevents clients that are accessing the same data from overwriting changes that occur at the same time. In addition, the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository provides clients with change notification.

The following sources update the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository:

  • Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager

  • The Cisco HCM-F northbound interface API

  • VCenterSync, CUCDMSync, and UCSMSync—These synchronization services read data from the data source and write the data to the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository.

  • The Cisco HCM-F administrative interface

External clients, such as the service provider Operations Support System (OSS)/Business Support System (BSS), interact with the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository through Cisco HCM-F northbound interface APIs.

The Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository indicates whether data is read-only to clients such as the Cisco HCS administrative interface. In this case, the administrative interface indicates that the administrator cannot edit the content.

Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted

Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted is a software subscription-based licensing model that is deployed on the same infrastructure and architecture as all other Cisco HCS deployments. The only difference is the application of the licenses. The model lets an organizations choose a mix of on-premise and cloud-based services that they can change as their business needs change.

For additional details on integration with Cisco HCS see the Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan Hybrid Services HCS Integration Reference Guide.


Note

Cisco Webex Message and Cisco Webex Meetings are available as well as other Collaboration Flex add-ons. This deployment guide only covers the Cisco Webex Hosted Call portion.

With Collaboration Flex Plan-Hosted, each instance of Prime License Manager (PLM) must be coresident with the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) cluster and is dedicated to one end-customer. PLM must run in HCS mode.


Note

Coresident Prime License Manager was first made available with Cisco HCS 10.6(3).

This deployment requires HLM to be configured in the service provider network and PLM in the customer network. HLM connects to PLM through the Service Provider IP address.

Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted Standalone Deployment

Install Cisco HCM-F to manage a new Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan – Hosted installation. Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager and Prime Collaboration Assurance should not be installed unless management licenses are purchased.

Set the HLM Default Deployment Mode to HCS in HCM-F to configure the HCS License Manager (HLM). You can then configure coresident Prime License Manager (PLM) and associated Unified Communications applications; they are automatically set to HCS mode.

A coresident PLM must be deployed for each Collaboration Flex Plan – Hosted customer.

Figure 2. Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted Standalone Deployment
The above graphic illustrates about the Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted Standalone Deployment.

Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan- Hosted Deployment with Existing HCS

An existing HCM-F deployment can be used to manage your Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan – Hosted. With HCM-F, you must use HLM to add a co-resident PLM on a per-customer basis.


Note

Do not use Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager and Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance unless you have purchased multiple management licenses.

Optionally, you can deploy a separate, dedicated HCM-F to manage your Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted deployment.

When you deploy Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan–Hosted, both PLM and the Unified Communications Apps must be running in HCS mode for each Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan–Hosted customer. The general steps for doing this are listed below; refer to the HCM-F documentation for more information.

  1. Check HCS License Manager (HLM) Default Deployment mode (in this case most likely it was set to HCS).

  2. Add UC Applications to the Co-resident PLM in HLM.


    Note

    HLM sets both the PLM, and UC App mode properly.

For details on configuring HLM and PLM, see the latest version of Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Install and Configure Guide.

Figure 3. Collaboration Flex Plan Hosted Deployment with Existing HCS
The above graphic isslutrates the Collaboration Flex Plan Hosted Deployment with Existing HCS.

License Management Overview


Note

In this document, the term License Manager refers to both Enterprise License Manager and Prime License Manager.

HLM runs as a stand-alone Java application on the Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment platform, utilizing Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment service infrastructure and message framework. There is one HLM per deployment of Cisco HCS. HLM and its associated License Manager manage licenses for Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unity Connection, and TelePresence Room.

If it is not running, start HLM using the following command: utils service start Cisco HCS License Manager Service. This service must run to provide HLM functionality.


Note

There is no licensing requirement for Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service, and Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM.

HCS supports multiple deployment modes. A deployment mode can be Cisco HCS, Cisco HCS-Large Enterprise (HCS-LE), or Enterprise. Each Prime License Manager is added with a deployment mode and all UC clusters added to the License Manager must have the same deployment mode of License Manager. License Managers with different deployment mode can be added to HCM-F. When adding License Manager, the default deployment mode is selected, but it can be manually changed by selecting a different deployment mode from the drop-down menu.

Through the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment NBI or GUI, an administrator can create, read, or delete a License Manager instance in Cisco HCM-F. A Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment administrator cannot perform any licensing management function until HLM validates its connection to the installed License Manager and its license file is uploaded. HLM exposes an interface to list all of the License Manager instances.

After the administrator adds and validates a License Manager instance to the HLM, you can assign a customer to the License Manager. This action does not automatically assign all Cisco Unified CM and Cisco Unity Connection clusters within this customer to that License Manager. The administrator must assign each Cisco Unified CM or Cisco Unity Connection cluster to a License Manager after the associated customer is assigned to that License Manager. If the customer is not assigned to License Manager, the cluster assignment fails, and you are advised to associate the customer with a License Manager first.

The administrator can unassign a UC cluster from a License Manager through the HLM NBI or GUI.

For more information about Prime License Manager, see Cisco Prime License Manager User Guide.

HLM supports License Report generation. The report includes all customers on the system with aggregate license consumption at the customer level.


Note
Customers that are assigned to Enterprise Licensing Manager 9.0 are not reported. The license usage of 9.0 clusters that are assigned to Enterprise Licensing Manager 9.1 is not counted in the report either.

An optional field Deal ID at the customer level is included in the report. Each customer has zero or more Deal IDs that can be configured through the HCM-F GUI.

The Administrator requests the system-level Cisco HCS license report through the HLM GUI or NBI. The report request generates two files: csv, and xlsx format. Both files are saved into the HLM license report repository (/opt/hcs/hlm/reports/system) for download. The retention period of the report is set to 60 days by default.

Add a License Manager

Procedure

Step 1

From the side menu, select License Management > License Manager Summary.

Step 2

Click Add New.

Step 3

Enter the following information:

Field Description
Name

The name of the License Manager instance.

Hostname

The hostname/IP Address of the License Manager instance. If hostname is specified, then it must be a fully qualified domain name. If IP address is specified, then ensure that the IP address specified is the NAT IP Address of License Manager.

Note 

If the License Manager is in Application Space, ensure that the Hostname field has the NAT IP Address of License Manager specified.

License Manager Cluster Capacity

The License Manager Cluster Capacity is set at 1000 and cannot be edited.

User ID

The OS administrator user ID associated with the License Manager.

Password

The password associated with the user ID.

Re-enter Password

Re-enter the password associated with the user ID.

Deployment Mode

Select the required Deployment Mode from the drop-down list.

Note 

Licenses of Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan work only in HCS mode.

Network Space

In the drop-down list, select the Network Space in which your Prime License Manager is located: Service Provider Space, or Application Space.

  • If Standalone PLM located in Service Provider space, use Service Provider Space.

  • If Coresident PLM is located in Application space, use Application Space.

A Prime License Manager located in the application space can either be a stand-alone Prime License Manager or a coresident Prime License Manager with CUCM. When Prime License Manager is located in application space, it can only serve applications located in the same application space.

If the Prime License Manager is coresident with Cisco Unified CM, then make sure to start the following services:

  • Cisco Prime LM Resource API

  • Cisco Prime LM Resource Legacy API

For assistance on verifying the status of services, see Working with Services.

Step 4

Click Save.

Note 

For detailed assistance on HCS Collaboration Flex Plan licensing, see Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution License Management.

License Management for Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted

License management of Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted is performed by HLM, which is managed by HCM-F. With HCM-F a partner uses HCS License Manager (HLM) to manage Prime License Manager (PLM). Each instance of PLM is co-resident with the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) cluster and is dedicated to one end-customer.


Note

PLM must run in HCS mode.

For details on installing and configuring Cisco Prime License Manager, see the Cisco Prime License Manager User Guide

The license types available for Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted are:

  • Cisco HCS Standard licenses for your knowledge workers.

  • Cisco HCS Foundation for public space phones.

  • Cisco HCS Essential licenses for analog phones such as fax machines.

  • Cisco HCS Standard Messaging license for voicemail.

    Figure 4. HCS and Collaboration Flex Plan - Hosted - License Management

For more information, see the Cisco Unified Communications Licensing page at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/unified-communications/unified-communications-licensing/index.html.

Cisco HCS Fulfillment Service

The Cisco HCS Fulfillment service is a standalone Java application. It performs the following functions:

  • To trigger provisioning of Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance, the fulfillment service automatically detects data changes in the SDR related to devices, and triggers the DMA-SA to provision those devices.

  • To trigger the Cisco HCS CAA CUCM service to add some Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance configuration to Cisco Unified Communication Manager application nodes.

  • To automatically link a virtual machine to an application instance within the SDR, a blade to an ESXi Host, and a customer to Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance.

The following sections describe the functions of the fulfillment service.

Role of Fulfillment Service in Domain Manager Configuration

The Cisco HCS Fulfillment service responds to notifications of changes sent by the SDR. It instructs the Domain Manager Adaptors (DMAs) to set up the Domain Managers to reflect those changes. The Fulfillment service responds to change notification when devices are added, deleted, or modified in the SDR.

The Fulfillment service responds to data changes in the SDR related to the following types of devices:

  • Application instances (such as Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unity Connection, and Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service)

  • Customer equipment

For example, when new devices are added to the SDR, the Fulfillment service instructs the DMA-SA to start monitoring those devices. The Fulfillment service also responds when devices are deleted or changed in the SDR and instructs the DMA-SA to make the required changes to the Prime Collaboration configuration to reflect those changes in the SDR. The Fulfillment service also triggers the Cisco HCS CAA CUCM service to perform configuration changes on the Cisco Unified Communications Manager for monitoring by Prime Collaboration.

SNMP V3 Configurations

The Cisco Collaboration Systems Release (CSR) 12.5 SU1release onwards support SHA protocol for SNMP V3 in UC applications. To align with CSR and enhance security in HCM-F 12.5.1(SU2) and later release, the default authentication protocol that is supported for UC applications and Expressway clusters is SHA for SNMP V3 configuration.

  • For the new Cisco Unified CM clusters that are configured with SNMPv3 in HCM-F, are provisioned with SHA as a default authentication protocol in both Cisco Unified CM and PCA. PCA will start monitoring with SHA as the authentication protocol.

  • For the existing Cisco Unified CM clusters that are configured with SNMP V3, the authentication protocol will be provisioned as SHA in both Cisco Unified CM and PCA. PCA will start monitoring with SHA as the authentication protocol.

  • For the new Non-Cisco Unified CM clusters (such as Cisco Unity Connection, IM&P, Cisco Emergency Responder, and Expressway) that is configured with SNMP V3, the authentication protocol will be provisioned as SHA only to PCA. You must manually set the authentication protocol to SHA from the corresponding user interface of the UC application or Expressway. PCA will start monitoring with SHA as the authentication protocol.

  • For the existing Non-Cisco Unified CM clusters (such as Cisco Unity Connection, IM&P, Cisco Emergency Responder, and Expressway) that are configured with SNMP V3, the authentication protocol will be provisioned as SHA only to PCA. You must manually set the authentication protocol to SHA from the corresponding user interface of the UC application or Expressway. PCA will start monitoring with SHA as the authentication protocol.


    Note

    The authentication protocol for existing Cisco Unified CM clusters and Non-Cisco Unified CM clusters is updated when you upgrade to HCMF12.5(1) SU2 or later version or when you restart the fulfillment service.

    To change the default authentication protocol of the clusters to SHA for HCMF 12.5(1) and HCMF12.5(1) SU1 release, download the COP file using the Software Download link.

Automatic Linking

A second function of the Fulfillment service is to link automatically various parts of the configuration together. HCM-F obtains provisioning data from several sources, including Cisco Unified Communications Domain Managers, UCS Managers, and vCenters. Service Assurance requires data from these three sources to be linked in certain ways to enable accurate fault correlation and root cause analysis.

Virtual Machine to Application Instance Links

The fulfillment service links virtual machines to the associated application instance. These application instances run on virtual machines that are synced into the Shared Data Repository from vCenter. The fulfillment service examines the primary hostname from the virtual machine and the network address hostname from the application instance. If these hostnames match, the virtual machine and application instance pair are linked in the database. This procedure works if nonoverlapping hostnames are used in the HCS deployment. Nonoverlapping hostnames means that each virtual machine in the deployment uses a unique hostname. Overlapping hostnames means that the same hostname may be used for two different customers. If overlapping hostnames are used in the deployment, then the virtual-machine-to-application-instance linkage must be done manually.


Note
The fulfillment service autolinking is disabled by default. When enabled, autolinking only recognizes the number of customers who are assigned to the fulfillment service. Autolinking does not recognize or consider device counts.

Unified communications applications are synced into the SDR from Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager.

Manually Link Virtual Machine to an Application Instance for Overlapping Hostnames

To link a virtual machine manually to an application instance, follow this procedure:


Note

This procedure is time-consuming even for relatively small numbers of cluster applications. Ensure that you use nonoverlapping hostnames.

Procedure
Step 1

On the CUCDM configuration page, uncheck Sync Enabled, and click Save. Wait one minute for the configuration change to take effect.

Step 2

On each Cluster Application configuration page, uncheck the Auto Link to Virtual Machine check box.

Step 3

Select the associated virtual machine from the drop-down box and click Save.

Step 4

Repeat for all Cluster Applications.

Step 5

When finished, return to the CUCDM configuration page and check Sync Enabled check box and click Save. This action does not overwrite the manual linkages that you just made.

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance to Customer Linking

The Fulfillment service can be configured to link each new customer automatically, that is configured in the SDR with Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance, which monitors the customer's applications. Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance has a current capacity (the number of customers and devices currently monitoring) and a maximum capacity. If configured, the fulfillment service automatically links the customer that has the lowest current capacity and has not exceeded the maximum capacity. If Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance is not configured below the maximum capacity, no automatic linkage is made.

Blade to ESXiHost Linking

The Fulfillment service automatically links Blades that are configured in UCS Manager with ESXiHosts configured in the vCenter. The linkage is done using the UUID associated with both the Blade and the ESXiHost. If the UUID matches, the link is made. This linkage is enabled by default. This automatic linkage can be disabled, if desired.

Disable Automatic Blade to ESXi Host Linkage

Follow this procedure to disable automatic blade to ESXi Host linkage:

Procedure
Step 1

On the vCenter configuration page, uncheck the Sync Enabled check box and click Save. Wait for 10 seconds for the change to take effect.

Step 2

On each ESXi Host configuration page, uncheck the Auto Link to Blade check box.

Step 3

Select the associated Blade from the drop-down box and click Save.

Step 4

Repeat for all ESXi Hosts.
Step 5

When finished, return to the vCenter configuration page and check the Sync Enabled check box and click Save. This action does not overwrite the manual linkages that you just made.

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance is a member of the Cisco Unified Communications family of products. It provides a comprehensive and efficient solution for the network management and allows you to provision and monitor Cisco Unified Communications deployments.

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance monitors and evaluates the status of both the IP communications infrastructure and the underlying transport infrastructure in your network. Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance uses open interfaces such as, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and HTTP, to poll data remotely from different devices in the IP communications deployment.

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance does not deploy any agent software on the devices being monitored and therefore is not disruptive to system operations.

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance increases productivity of network managers by enabling them to isolate problems quickly using the following tools:

  • Fault Monitor—Provides access to devices views, event summaries, device and event details, as well as access to other management tools on devices, clusters, and phones. This component makes navigating fault management easier and allows you to view relevant information quickly. You can set the context views based on site or device group.

  • Device 360° View—Provides concise summary information for any device when you rest your mouse over a device IP address, then click the quick view icon. You can view the device information such as status and location, view modules, alarms, and interfaces on the device, and invoke tools such as, ping and traceroute for the device.

  • Diagnostics—Provides access to key diagnostic tools and reports in one location. Distinct monitoring and diagnostic workflows allow you to identify network data for analysis.

  • Reports:

    • Event history

    • Audio IP phones

    • Personalized reports

    • Service quality history

    • Video IP phones

  • Clickable information in notification messages---Includes context-sensitive links to more detailed information about service outages.

  • Context-sensitive links to other Cisco tools---Help you manage IP communications implementations.

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance also performs the following functions:

  • Supports device pools---Collects this information for various reports and displays. Service-quality and phone registration-related events can contain data at the device pool level.

  • Supports event customizations---Event severity and description customizations are available across all displays and reports. You can also control events using suppression at the component level.

  • Presents service-quality events---Uses information from Cisco Unified Service Monitor when it is also deployed for the following purposes:

    • Displays Mean Opinion Scores (MOSs) associated with poor voice quality between pairs of endpoints that are involved in a call. These endpoints can be Cisco Unified IP phones, Cisco Unity messaging systems, or voice gateways. It also displays other associated details about the voice-quality problem.

    • Enables you to perform a probable path trace between the two endpoints and reports on any outages or problems on intermediate nodes in the path.

  • Highlights current connectivity-related and registration-related outages affecting Cisco Unified IP phones in the network. In addition, Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance provides contextual information that enables you to locate and identify the IP phones involved.

  • Tracks IP communication devices and IP phone inventory---Tracks Cisco Unified IP phone status changes and creates various reports that document move, add, and change operations on Cisco Unified IP phones in the network. All phone reports and personalized reports now show the device pool and partition information for the IP phones.

  • Provides easy to use, scalable reports---Displays large networks using visual cues in map views, and tabular reports to access management details of clusters and devices.

Migration

If not already done so, we recommend that you migrate from Cisco Prime Unified Operations Manager to Cisco Prime Collaboration using the Cisco HCM-F CLI command:

utils migrate cuom-to-primecollab

This moves all devices at once, retaining the association level to the domain manager.

You can also migrate individual clusters, customer equipment, or customers using the Cisco HCM-F GUI or the Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager GUI.

Supported solutions

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance supports various solutions:

  • Call processing services

  • Contact center services

  • Voice messaging services

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence services

  • Conferencing services

  • Mobility services

  • Video/TelePresence services

  • Endpoints (IP phones and soft clients)

    • Other voice application services

    • Infrastructure services

Supported Devices

Device 8.6.2 9.0.1/9.1.1 9.2.1 10.0(1) 10.1(1) 10.1(2) 10.6(1) 11.5(x) 12.5(x) Comment
CUCM CUOM CUOM CUOM PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
CUCXN CUOM CUOM CUOM PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
CUxAC PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA Attendant Console, third party, basic monitoring only
CUP CUOM CUOM CUOM PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
Contact Center: UCCE CUOM CUOM CUOM PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
Contact Center: CVP CUOM CUOM CUOM PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
CUBE-ENT CUOM CUOM PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
CUBE-SP CUOM (manual) PCA PCA PCA
Finesse CUOM CUOM PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
MediaSense CUOM CUOM PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
CER PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
vPGW PCA PCA PCA Third party, basic monitoring only
HCM-F CUOM (manual) CUOM (manual) PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA All multinode components. Third party, basic monitoring only
EIM/CIM PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
VCS (E & C) PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
CTX PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
TP Server PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
MCU PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
IVR PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
CTMS PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch
TMS PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
TP Video Endpoint PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA PCA
CUIC IM (manual) IM (manual) IM (manual) PCA PCA Not monitored post 9.2
vCenter IM (manual) IM IM PCA PCA Not monitored post 9.2
CCDM IM (manual) IM IM PCA AKA: CCMP, Exony Not monitored post 9.2
CUCDM IM (manual) IM IM PCA PCA Not monitored post 9.2
CUOM IM (manual) IM IM No part of HCS post 9.2

Cisco HCS Domain Manager Adapter for Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance

In the Cisco HCS architecture, Domain Managers are components that manage, monitor, or control other solution services. Examples of domain managers are Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance, the Unified Communications Domain Manager, and vCenter.

Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance is a Cisco network management server for Cisco voice products. In the Cisco HCS solution, it is a domain manager that performs monitoring of Cisco HCS network applications and devices. It receives events from the monitored devices and forwards them to the Event Collector for processing.

The Domain Manager Adapter for the Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance (DMA-SA) integrates into the Cisco HCS solution. The DMA is an interface between the SDR and Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance. The key function of the DMA is to configure Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance automatically, and to monitor Cisco HCS devices and applications that are based on data from the SDR.

A second function of the DMA is to monitor Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance limits and generate an HCM-F alarm when thresholds are reached.

The DMA-SA relies on the HCS Fulfillment service to detect changes on the SDR. The HCS Fulfillment service monitors the SDR database for changes. In response to those changes, the HCS Fulfillment service then instructs the DMA-SA to configure the Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance to reflect changes on the SDR.

The DMA-SA can perform the following configuration changes:

  • Add device

  • Update device credentials

  • Delete device

For instance, when a new device is added through a vCenter and configured through the Unified Communications Domain Manager, CUCDMSync, and the VCenterSync service update the SDR with the change. The Fulfillment service responds to the change in the SDR and instructs the DMA-SA to begin monitoring the new device. The DMA-SA then reads the device details from the SDR and programmatically configures the device (through SOAP) for monitoring in Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance. The Cisco HCS CAA CUCM service also configures devices for monitoring.

To configure the devices for monitoring, the following conditions must be met:

  • Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance must be added on the Cisco HCM-F Infrastructure Manager Administrative UI. It must be configured with an IP address in the service provider space and a hostname, using ADMIN credentials.


    Note

    Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution supports a single HCM-F with one or more PCA that is used to monitor. Different versions of Prime Collaboration Assurance running in the same environment is not supported.

  • The application cluster or customer equipment is linked to Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance. This function can be performed manually through the Cisco HCM-F UI, or automatically by the Fulfillment service. The automatic function can be enabled or disabled with the command line interface (CLI) using the command set hcs link auto-primecollab-linkage. The state of this function can be displayed using the command show hcs link auto-primecollab-linkage.

  • Credentials have been added for the device in the Cisco HCM-F UI HCM-F Infrastructure Manager Administrative Interface. Credentials for the devices can be added in two ways:

    • You can define a set of default credentials for each device type in HCM-F (Infrastructure Manager > Administration > Default Credentials).When a new device is synchronized from the Unified Communications Domain Manager through the CUCDMSync, the default credentials associated with the device type is automatically assigned to the new device. This method works well if all the devices have the same SNMP credentials.

    • You can assign credentials to specific devices after they are synchronized to the SDR. This can be done on the Cluster Application page in HCM-F (Infrastructure Manager > Customer Management > Customer > Cluster > Cluster Application). This method is used for devices that have different SNMP credentials from the defaults.

Event Destination Setup

For Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance to monitor UC applications and customer equipment devices, these devices must be configured with event destinations (SNMP trap, syslog, or RTMT API) to Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance. The Cisco HCS CAA CUCM service automatically configure event destinations on the Cisco Unified Communications Manager, but other devices must be manually configured to forward events to Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance. Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance must be manually configured with a trap destination to the Cisco HCS service provider OSS system for processing.

Event Flow

The DMA-SA configures Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance to monitor UC Applications and customer equipment devices, but it does not collect events from the devices. After Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance has been configured to monitor the devices, it collects events from the monitored devices, aggregates them and forwards them to the HCS service provider OSS system in HCM- SA. HCM-SA also provides an NBI API for integration with the service provider MoM.

Cisco HCS Service Inventory

Cisco HCS Service Inventory is a service that provides reports for service providers for billing and audit purposes. These reports contain data on customers, subscribers, devices, and other details that are currently provisioned on Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager. In addition, Service Inventory can generate reports directly from Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity Connection application servers for customers that are provisioned in Cisco HCM-F that do not have a Unified Communications Domain Manager configured. Service Inventory automatically transfers the report files daily to remote SFTP servers. The service providers use these reports to generate billing records for their customers.


Important

Currently, Service Inventory can generate reports from a Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity Connection running UC Application Software Version 8.6 or later.

You can configure and schedule the report generation through the Service Inventory administrative interface. Through this interface, you can also manage credentials and configure general settings for Service Inventory.

At the time that is specified in the Service Inventory configuration, Service Inventory sends a real-time query request to Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager or the appropriate UC Application for information. Cisco Unified Communications Domain Manager or the UC Application generates the necessary files and sends the files to Service Inventory through SFTP. Service Inventory creates a backup of the files, creates the report, and transfers the report to the SFTP servers that are configured in the Service Inventory administrative interface.

The generated report contains data for the previous 24 hours, up to and including the end time that you specify on the Overview page in the Service Inventory administrative interface. The generated reports get backed up for a configured amount of time. The default is 60 days.

On-Demand Reporting

Service Inventory provides On Demand Inventory and Location reporting. These On Demand reports allow the administrator to generate reports at any time without having to alter the reporting schedule. Location Summary reports generate a report to indicate the number of devices and subscribers per location.


Note
Location reports require an Inventory report available on the system or an error is generated.

Three types of customer or reseller reports are generated: SI reports, Summary reports, and MACD reports.

The reports use a Cisco common format. For more information on this format and the data that is generated, see the

Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Maintain and Operate Guide

For instructions on how to perform configuration and scheduling tasks through the Service Inventory administrative interface, see the

Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Maintain and Operate Guide

Cisco HCS Platform Manager

The Platform Manager is an installation, upgrade, restart, and backup management client for the following Cisco Unified Communications applications:

The Platform Manager is a backup management client for the following Cisco Unified Communications applications:

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager

  • Cisco Unity Connection

The Platform Manager allows you to manage and monitor the installation, upgrade, restart and backup of these servers. You can access the Platform Manager through the Cisco HCM-F administrative interface.

The Platform Manager allows you to back up these servers. You can access the Platform Manager through the Cisco HCM-F administrative interface.

The Platform Manager organizes servers into server groups. All the servers in a server group can be upgraded, switched, and restarted at the same time. Server groups are user-defined and consist of servers from multiple clusters. All the servers in a particular group, however, must have the same product. For example, you cannot mix Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service nodes in the same server group.

Server groups allow you to join different servers logically on which you want to perform common tasks as a group, such as installation, upgrades, and restarts.

The Platform Manager allows you to configure the system server inventory and select, schedule, and monitor upgrades of one or more servers across one or more clusters.

The server inventory can be synchronized automatically from the Shared Data Repository so that it does not have to be maually configured.

The Platform Manager offers a wide range of different user-defined servers types to accommodate the management of potentially thousands of servers.

Once you have configured all your servers and server groups within Platform Manager, you can create various tasks that help you streamline any installation, upgrade, or restart process. You can also automate backup tasks of your system using the Backup Schedule feature.

Once you have configured all your servers and server groups within Platform Manager, you can create tasks that help you streamline the backup process. You can also automate backup tasks of your system using the Backup Schedule feature.

For instructions on how to perform Platform Manager configuration tasks, see the

Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Install and Configure Guide

.

Cisco HCM-F Real-Time Monitoring Tool

Cisco HCM-F Real-Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT) runs as a client-side application and uses HTTPS to monitor system performance. RTMT can connect directly to a device through HTTPS to troubleshoot system problems. Tasks such as alarm and performance monitoring updates continue to run on the server in the background even when RTMT is not connected to the server.

HCM-F installation for Release 9.2.1 consists of one application server (node) and may contain either a single or multiple web services (WS) nodes. While RTMT can provide troubleshooting support for more than one server, you can connect to and monitor only one server per RTMT session.

RTMT allows you to perform the following tasks:

  • Monitor a set of predefined management objects and performance counters that monitor the health of the server to which RTMT is connected.

  • Configure and update alert settings for the management objects and performance counters (in the form of email messages).

    The HCM-F server monitors the alert conditions and when values go over or below user-configured thresholds, generates alerts. RTMT does not need to be running on your computer in order for alerts to be generated by the server. Alerts are displayed in RTMT in the form of alert logs.

  • Collect and download or view traces. Traces can be viewed in the viewers that are built into RTMT.

  • View syslog messages in SysLog Viewer.

For more information on RTMT, see the Administration Guide for Cisco HCM-F Real-Time Monitoring Tool and Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Maintain and Operate Guide.

Cisco HCM-F Administrative Interface

The Cisco HCM-F administrative interface is the user interface to the Cisco HCM-F services. It allows you to perform management and configuration tasks on the Cisco HCM-F services.

From any user PC in your network, you can browse into a server that is running the Cisco HCM-F administrative interface, such as, https://your-HCM-F-server:<portnumber>. You can log in with administrative privileges.

The Cisco HCM-F administrative interface uses HTTPS to secure the communication between the browser and the web server.

The Cisco HCM-F administrative interface provides the following administrative interfaces:

  • Service Inventory

  • Infrastructure Manager

  • Platform Manager

  • HCS License Manager

Service Inventory Administrative Interface

The Service Inventory administrative interface allows you to perform configuration and scheduling tasks on the Service Inventory application. It also allows you to configure and schedule the generation and transmission of three types of Service Inventory billing reports, SI reports, Summary reports, and MACD reports. Service Inventory transfers these report files to remote servers using SFTP. Service providers use these reports to generate bills and audit their customers.

For more information on the Service Inventory application and configuration tasks you can perform through the Service Inventory Administrative Interface, see the

Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Maintain and Operate Guide

.

Infrastructure Manager

The Infrastructure Manager Administrative Interface allows you to provision and query the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository. The Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository is a repository of data that represents the Cisco HCS configuration of data centers, customers, and management components in the service provider network. This repository is then used by HCM-Service Assurance to provide more effective, detailed, and accurate operational alarms and events.

Platform Manager

The Platform Manager Administrative Interface is the user interface to the Platform Manager service. This service is an upgrade management client, which allows you to manage upgrades for Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and Cisco Unity Connection in the Cisco HCS.

The Platform Manager Administrative Interface is the user interface to the Platform Manager service. This service is an upgrade management client, which allows you to back up multiple application instances of Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and Cisco Unity Connection in the Cisco HCS.

The Platform Manager allows you to organize the servers in groups. Then, you can create various tasks to manage and monitor the installation, upgrade, and restart process of multiple servers. The Backup Schedule feature automates backup tasks of your system.

The Platform Manager allows you to organize the servers in groups. Then, you can create tasks to back up multiple servers. The Backup Schedule feature automates backup tasks of your system.

For more information on the functions of the Platform Manager, see Cisco HCS Platform Manager.

For instructions on how to perform Platform Manager configuration tasks, see

Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Install and Configure Guide

.

Cisco HCS North Bound Interface Web Service API

The Cisco HCS North Bound Interface Web Service is a set of SOAP APIs that exposes Cisco HCM-F functionality to the service provider OSS/BSS. These APIs can configure, service, and control a Cisco HCM-F deployment.

The APIs comprise the following distinct categories:

  • Shared Data Repository Web Service API

  • Fulfillment Web Service API

  • Service Inventory Web Service API

  • HCS License Manager Web Service API

  • UC Monitor Web Service API

Shared Data Repository Web Service API

This web service is the external interface to the Cisco HCS Shared Data Repository.

This web service offers CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) APIs to view and modify data in the HCS Shared Data Repository.

For more information on the Shared Data Repository Web Service API, see the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Developer Guide.

Fulfillment Web Service API

This web service API controls Cisco HCM-F related tasks, such as starting manual synchronization jobs, restarting jobs, and non-CRUD Share Data Repository operations.

For more information on the Fulfillment Web Service API, see theCisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Developer Guide.

Service Inventory Web Service API

This web service is the external interface to the Service Inventory application. It allows you to schedule, configure, and execute the generation of Service Inventory billing reports.

For more information on the Service Inventory Web Service APIs, see the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Developer Guide.

HCS License Manager Web Service API

This web service provides an interface for HCM-F administrators to perform license management. The license management functionality includes getting or setting the Default Deployment Mode, creating or deleting an HCS License Manager, assigning a customer or UC cluster to an HCS Prime License Manager, and more.


Note

If the Default Deployment Mode is not provided in the License Manager and the deployment mode is not specified while adding License Manager, then HCMF does not set any deployment mode for License Manager.

For more information on the HCS License Manager Web Service API, see the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment Developer Guide.