Cisco CallManager Serviceability System Guide, Release 3.2
CDR Analysis and Reporting

Table Of Contents

CDR Analysis and Reporting

Understanding CDR Analysis and Reporting

CAR Administrators, Managers, and Users

User Reports

Individual Bills

Department Bills

Top N by Charge

Top N by Duration

Top N by Number of Calls

Users with CTI Port Enabled

Cisco IP Phone Services

System Reports

QoS Detail

QoS Summary

QoS By Gateway

QoS By Call Types

Traffic Summary

Traffic Summary by Extensions

System Overview

CDR Error

Device Reports

Gateway Detail

Gateway Summary

Gateway Utilization

Route Group Utilization

Route List Utilization

Route Pattern Utilization

Conference Bridge Utilization

Voice-Mail Utilization

CDR Search

CDR Search By User Extension

CDR Search By Gateway

System

System Parameters

Administrator Rights

Mail Server Parameters

Dial Plan

Gateway Configuration

System Preferences

CDR Load Scheduler

Scheduling Reports

Scheduling Daily Reports

Scheduling Weekly Reports

Scheduling Monthly Reports

Default Schedules for Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Reports

CAR or CDR Database Alerts

CAR and CDR Database Purge

Error and Event Logs

Event Log

Error Log

Starting or Stopping the CAR Scheduler

Report Config

Base Rate and Duration

Factoring Time of Day into Call Cost

Factoring Voice Quality into Call Cost

Restoring Default Values for Call Cost

Quality of Service (QoS) Values

Automatic Report Generation/Alert

Enabling or Customizing Reports for Automatic Generation

Notification Limits for QoS and Daily Charges

CDR Analysis and Reporting Configuration Checklist

Where to Find More Information


CDR Analysis and Reporting


Cisco CallManager Serviceability supports CDR Analysis and Reporting (CAR) under the Tools menu option. CAR generates reports for Quality of Service, traffic, and billing information.

This chapter contains the following topics:

Understanding CDR Analysis and Reporting

CAR Administrators, Managers, and Users

User Reports

System Reports

Device Reports

CDR Search

System

Report Config

CDR Analysis and Reporting Configuration Checklist

Where to Find More Information

Understanding CDR Analysis and Reporting

The CDR Analysis and Reporting application generates the following types of reports:

Quality of service

Traffic information

User call volume and detail

Billing details

Gateway information

Utilization for gateways, conference bridges, route patterns, route groups, route lists, and voice mail


Note To view CAR reports in pdf format, install Adobe Acrobat Reader.


Cisco CallManager records information regarding each call in Call Detail Records (CDR) and Call Management Records (CMR). CDRs and CMRs, known collectively as CDR data, serve as the basic information source for CAR.

Cisco CallManager retrieves information that is not present in the CDR and CMRs, but is required for various reports, from the Light Weight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), or the CAR administrator must enter the information. Information retrieved from LDAP includes the user ID, password, extension, and whether the user is a CAR administrator or a manager, as well as other user-based details. Information provided by the CAR administrator includes adding or revoking rights for a user to act as a CAR administrator.

CAR Administrators, Managers, and Users

CAR provides reporting capabilities for three levels of users.

Administrators use all the features of CDR Analysis and Reporting; for example, they can generate system reports to help with load balancing, system performance, and troubleshooting.

Managers can generate reports for users, departments, and QoS to help with call monitoring for budgeting or security purposes, and for determining the voice quality of the calls.

Individual users can generate a billing report for their calls.

Any user can be a CAR administrator, but each user designated as a CAR administrator must be specified in the Grant/Revoke CAR Admin Rights window. Users who have been identified as CAR administrators have full control over the CAR system. The administrator can modify all the parameters related to the system and the reports.

CAR requires a minimum of one administrator.

User Reports

Users, managers, and CAR administrators can receive user reports. You can generate reports on demand, or if you are an administrator, you can schedule reports for automatic generation. Refer to Configuring Automatic Report Generation/Alert, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide.

You can view reports in comma separated values (CSV) format or portable document format (PDF). If you choose PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC.

This section describes the following reports:

Individual Bills—Available for users, managers, and CAR administrators

Department Bills—Available for managers and CAR administrators

Top N by Charge—Available for managers and CAR administrators

Top N by Duration—Available for managers and CAR administrators

Top N by Number of Calls—Available for managers and CAR administrators

Users with CTI Port Enabled—Available for CAR administrators

Cisco IP Phone Services—Available for CAR administrators

Individual Bills

Individual bills provide your call information for the date range that you specify. You can generate, view, or mail summary or detail information about your individual phone bills.

Department Bills

Department bills provide call information and quality of service (QoS) ratings. You can generate, view, or mail summary or detail information about your departmental phone bills.

If you are a manager, you can generate a summary or detailed report of the calls made by all users who report to you, or only those users that you select.

If you are a CAR administrator, you can generate a summary or detailed report of the calls made by some or all users in the system. This report helps you keep track of all calls on a user-level basis for the entire system.

Top N by Charge

Top N by Charge reports the top number of users that incurred a maximum charge for calls during a period that you specify. You can generate, view, or mail reports about the top calls when classified by cost.

If you are a manager, the report includes the top charges for all calls made by users who report to you during the specified period.

If you are a CAR administrator, the report includes the top charges for all calls made by all users on the system for the specified period.

Top N by Duration

Top N by Duration reports the top number of users that incurred a maximum time on calls during a period that you specify. You can generate, view, or mail reports about the top calls when classified by duration.

If you are a manager, the report lists the top number of users who report to you who incurred a maximum time for calls made during the selected date range, starting with the longest.

If you are a CAR administrator, the report lists the top number of users that incurred a maximum time for calls made during the selected date range, starting with the longest.

Top N by Number of Calls

Top N by Number of Calls reports the top number of calls made and received by users during a period that you specify. You can generate, view, or mail reports about the top calls when classified by volume.

If you are a manager, the report lists the top number of calls by user, among the users who report to you, for the selected date range.

If you are a CAR administrator, the report lists the top number of calls for each user in the system.

Users with CTI Port Enabled

Only CAR administrators generate the CTI enabled report. You can generate a list of users who have a CTI port assigned to them. Certain applications, such as Cisco IP SoftPhone, require a CTI port.


Tip CTI calls consume considerable call-processing resources. Use this report to ensure that only those users who truly need a CTI port have been allocated one. You can also use this report for capacity planning to ensure that your Cisco CallManager network is not overloaded due to the call-processing demands of CTI ports.


Cisco IP Phone Services

Only CAR administrators generate the Cisco IP Phone Services report. You can generate a report that shows selected Cisco IP Phone services, the number of users subscribed to each of the selected services, and the utilization percentage for each of the selected services.


Tip You can create services for a wide variety of business and entertainment uses. If you have revenue tied to a service, such as for advertising, you can use this report to determine the number of users who have subscribed to the service. You can also use this report to indicate the popularity of selected services.


System Reports

CDR Analysis and Reporting provides system reports for managers and CAR administrators. You can generate reports on demand, or if you are an administrator, you can schedule reports for automatic generation. Refer to Configuring Automatic Report Generation/Alert, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide.

You can view reports in comma separated values (CSV) format or portable document format (PDF). If you choose PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC.

Managers or CAR administrators can access the QoS summary report. Only CAR administrators can access all other reports. This section describes the following reports:

QoS Detail—Available for CAR administrators

QoS Summary—Available for managers and CAR administrators

QoS By Gateway—Available for CAR administrators

QoS By Call Types—Available for CAR administrators

Traffic Summary—Available for CAR administrators

Traffic Summary by Extensions—Available for CAR administrators

System Overview—Available for CAR administrators

CDR Error—Available for CAR administrators

QoS Detail

Only CAR administrators generate the QoS detail report. The report details the QoS ratings attributed to inbound and outbound calls on the Cisco CallManager network for the period that you specify.


Tip Use this report to help monitor the voice quality of all calls on a user-level basis for the entire system.


The call details in CDRs and CMRs and the QoS parameters that you choose provide basis for assigning a call a particular voice quality category. Refer to Defining the Quality of Service (QoS) Values, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide.

QoS Summary

Managers or CAR administrators generate the QoS summary report. The report provides a three-dimensional pie chart showing the distribution of QoS grades achieved for the specified call classifications and period. The report also provides a table summarizing the calls for each QOS. The call details in CDRs and CMRs and the QoS parameters you choose provide basis for assigning a call a particular voice quality category. Refer to Defining the Quality of Service (QoS) Values, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide.


Tip Use this report to monitor network performance.


QoS By Gateway

Only CAR administrators generate the QoS by gateway report. The report provides jitter, latency, and lost packet information for a period that you specify for all gateways of a selected type. This report helps you select a gateway and check the QoS values for the gateway.

QoS By Call Types

Only CAR administrators generate the QoS by call types report. The report provides jitter, latency, and lost packet information for a period that you specify for all calls of a selected type.


Tip Use this report to monitor general QoS for your system.


Traffic Summary

Only CAR administrators generate the traffic summary report. The report provides information about the call volume for a period that you specify. Include only those call types and QoS voice quality categories that you chose.


Tip Use this report to determine the number of calls being made on an hourly or daily basis. This report helps you identify high- and low-traffic patterns for capacity planning.


Traffic Summary by Extensions

Only CAR administrators generate the traffic summary by extensions report. The report provides a information about the call volume for a period and set of extensions that you specify. Include only those call types and extensions that you chose.


Tip You can use this report to track call usage by a specified group of users, by a department, or by another criteria, such as lobby phones or conference room phones. This report helps you determine high-usage users or groups by aggregating the usage level across the users that you specify.


System Overview

The system overview report, generated by CAR administrators, provides the entire set of system reports.


Tip Use this report to see a high-level picture of the Cisco CallManager network.


CDR Error

Only CAR administrators generate the CDR error report. The report provides statistics for the number of error records in the CAR Billing_Error table and the reason for the errors.


Tip Use this report to determine whether any errors with CDR data are incurred by CAR while loading the CDR data.


Device Reports

Device reports help CAR administrators track the load and performance of Cisco CallManager-related devices, such as conference bridges, voice-mail server, and gateways.

This section describes the following reports:

Gateway Detail

Gateway Summary

Gateway Utilization

Route Group Utilization

Route List Utilization

Route Pattern Utilization

Conference Bridge Utilization

Voice-Mail Utilization

Gateway Detail

Only CAR administrators generate the gateway detail report. Use the gateway detail report to track issues with specific gateways. The report provides a list of calls that used the specified gateways.


Tip Use this report to review detailed information about selected gateways. You can specify gateways by type, such as all or some of the VG200 gateways in your system, or by only those gateways that use a particular route pattern.


Gateway Summary

Only CAR administrators generate the gateway summary report. This report provides a summary of all the calls that went through the gateways. You can use this information for monitoring the traffic and QoS for calls through the gateways. The report also provides the total number of calls and the duration under each of the categories.

You can schedule the report for generation every month or generate the report on demand.


Tip Use the this report to track the functioning of the system on a daily basis. If you discover issues that need to be studied further, use the gateway detail report.


Gateway Utilization

Only CAR administrators generate the gateway utilization report. The report provides an estimate of the utilization percentage of the gateway(s). You can examine the usage based on each hour of a day or by a specified number of days of the week or month. Reports generate for each gateway that is selected.


Tip Use this report for load balancing or capacity planning (to evaluate the need for adding or removing gateways, depending on their utilization). You can specify gateways by type, such as all or some of the VG200 gateways in your system, or by only those gateways that use a particular route pattern.


Route Group Utilization

Only CAR administrators generate the route group utilization report. This report provides an estimated utilization percentage of the selected route group(s). You can examine the usage based on each hour of a day or by a specified number of days of the week or month. Reports generate for each selected route group.


Tip Use the report to analyze whether the route group capacity is sufficient to meet the usage requirements. Based on the results, you can decide whether additions are required. If you are load balancing gateways by using different route groups or route lists assigned to the gateways, you can use this report to see the load for the whole grouping. This report also provides a convenient way of generating utilization information for a grouping of gateways by a particular route group or route list; the group will also include any H.323 fallback gateways that are using the specified route group or route list.


Route List Utilization

Only CAR administrators generate the route list utilization report. The route list utilization report provides an estimated utilization percentage of the selected route list(s). You can examine the usage based on each hour of a day or by a specified number of days of the week or month. Reports generate for each selected route list.


Tip Use the report to analyze whether the route group capacity is sufficient to meet the usage requirements. Based on the results, you can decide whether additions are required. If you are load balancing gateways by using different route groups or route lists assigned to the gateways, you can use this report to see the load for the whole grouping. This report also provides a convenient way of generating utilization information for a grouping of gateways by a particular route group or route list; the group will also include any H.323 fallback gateways that are using the specified route group or route list.


Route Pattern Utilization

Only CAR administrators generate the route pattern utilization report. The route pattern utilization report provides an estimated utilization percentage of the selected route pattern(s). You can examine the usage based on each hour of a day or by a specified number of days of the week or month. Reports generate for each selected route pattern.


Tip Use the report to analyze system usage on the selected route pattern.


Conference Bridge Utilization

Only CAR administrators generate the conference bridge utilization report. The report provides an estimate of the utilization percentage of the conference bridge(s). You can examine the usage based on each hour of a day or by a specified number of days of the week or month. Reports generate for each conference bridge.


Tip Use this report to determine the activity on the conference bridge(s) and whether you need to add additional resources. This report helps you identify usage patterns, so you can plan capacity when you discover recurring peaks in the usage pattern.


Voice-Mail Utilization

Only CAR administrators generate the voice-mail utilization report. The report provides an estimate of the utilization percentage of the voice mail server(s). You can examine the usage based on each hour of a day or by a specified number of days of the week or month. Reports generate for each voice-mail server.


Tip Use this report to determine the activity on the voice-mail server(s) and whether you need to add additional resources. This report helps you identify usage patterns, so you can plan capacity when you discover recurring peaks in the usage pattern.


CDR Search

Call detail records (CDR) provide detail about the called number, the number that placed the call, the date and time that the call was started, the time that it connected, and the time that it ended. Call management records (CMRs, or diagnostic records) detail the jitter, lost packets, the amount of data sent and received during the call, and latency. CDR data comprises CDRs and CMRs collectively. A single call can result in the generation of several CDRs and CMRs as Cisco CallManager tracks the progress of the call through each part of the call: sending digits, receiving digits, hold, transfer, engaging a transcoder for conferencing, and disengaging the transcoder.

You must ensure statistics is enabled in Cisco CallManager for CDR data to be generated. Because statistics are enabled by default, unless you have disabled the service parameters that control CDR data generation, you do not have to be concerned about enabling the CDR statistics. For more information about statistics service parameters, see the Cisco CallManager Administration Guide.

All CAR reports use CDR data. Make sure you have the most current CDR data from which your reports are built. By default, CDR data loads from midnight to 5 a.m. on a daily basis. However, you can set the loading time, interval, and duration as needed. See CDR Load Scheduler, for more information.

You can configure CDR searches to verify the details of a call. The search groups all the related legs of a call, which can be useful if the call involved a conference or transfer. This method helps you track the progress and quality of each part of an entire call.

This section describes the following features:

CDR Search By User Extension

CDR Search By Gateway

CDR Search By User Extension

Only CAR administrators use the CDR search by user extension feature.

You can search CDRs by user or extension to analyze call details for the first 100 records that satisfy the search criteria. If more than 100 records are returned, the results are truncated. Each page displays a maximum of 20 records. You can search for calls using specific extensions for the period that you specify. This helps you trace calls placed from specific extensions for diagnostic or informational purposes. All associated records, such as transfer and conference calls, appear together as a logical group.

CDR Search By Gateway

Only CAR administrators use the CDR search by gateway feature.

You can search CDRs by gateways to analyze the call details of calls using specific gateways. This method helps you trace issues on calls through specific gateways. If more than 100 records are returned, the results are truncated. Each page displays a maximum of 20 records.

System

Before generating reports in CAR, you must configure CAR system parameters, scheduler, and database options. In most cases, CAR provides default values. Review the topics provided in this section to learn how to customize CAR.

System Parameters

CDR Analysis and Reporting sets default values for all system parameters. Cisco recommends that you customize system parameters before generating reports but no requirement to do so exists.

Administrator Rights

Although any user can be a CAR administrator, use the menu option Grant/Revoke CAR Admin Rights to specify each user to be designated as a CAR administrator. See CAR Administrators, Managers, and Users.

Mail Server Parameters

To send alerts and reports by e-mail specify the server criteria for CAR installation. CAR uses this information to successfully connect to the e-mail server. If you do not want to send alerts or reports by e-mail, you do not need to specify this information.

Dial Plan

The default dial plan in CAR specifies the North American numbering plan (NANP). Ensure the dial plan is properly configured, so call classifications are correct in the reports. If you have modified the default NANP provided in Cisco CallManager Administration, or if you are outside the NANP, be sure to configure the dial plan according to your Cisco CallManager dial plan. Cisco CallManager uses the dial plan configuration in CAR for outgoing calls.

To configure the dial plan, you define the parameters for the outgoing call classifications. Calls classifications include international, local, long distance, on net, and others. For example, if local calls in your area are 6 digits in length, you would specify a row in the dial plan as follows:

Condition

No of Digits

Pattern

Call Type

=

6

!

Local



Note If you are using the NANP, you do not need to change this configuration unless you have made modifications to the NANP in Cisco CallManager Administration.


Gateway Configuration

To utilize the gateway reports, you need to configure gateways in CAR. You should do this initially after installation for any existing gateways in your Cisco IP telephony system. Also, when you add gateways to the system, you should configure the new gateways in CAR. If any gateways are deleted from the system, Cisco CallManager automatically deletes those gateways (and any configuration settings that you have specified) from CAR.

CAR uses the area code information to determine whether calls are local or long distance. You must provide the Number of Ports information for each gateway to enable CAR to generate the Utilization reports. Use this procedure to specify the gateway configurations, such as area codes and ports of each gateway.

System Preferences

You can set CAR system preferences for various parameters. Although defaults are supplied, you may customize the system by specifying values for the system parameters.

CDR Load Scheduler

Call detail records (CDR) detail the called number, the number that placed the call, the date and time that the call was started, the time that it connected, and the time that it ended. Call management records (CMRs, or diagnostic records) detail the jitter, lost packets, the amount of data sent and received during the call, and latency. CDR data comprises CDRs and CMRs collectively. A single call can result in the generation of several CDRs and CMRs. Make sure statistics are enabled in Cisco CallManager for CDR data to be generated.


Tip Statistics are enabled by default. To make statistics work, you must enable the service parameters that control CDR data generation. For more information about statistics service parameters, refer to the Cisco CallManager Administration Guide.


All CAR reports use CDR data. Make sure that you have the most current CDR data from which your reports are built. By default, CDR data loads from midnight to 5 a.m. on a daily basis. However, you can set the loading time, interval, and duration as needed.


Note Loading CDR data can cause performance degradation on the Cisco CallManager server. Cisco recommends that you use the default loading time or schedule the loading to occur at a time when Cisco CallManager performance will be least affected.


By default, CDR data loads at midnight on a daily basis; however, you can disable the CDR loading.


Tip Disable CDR loading when you are installing or upgrading the system in the same off-hours that CDR loading normally occurs. Because loading CDRs causes a resource drain on the Cisco CallManager system, you can suspend CDR loads until your other operations complete. Of course, the CDR data would not be updated when CDR loading is disabled. Be sure to enable CDR loading again as soon as possible.


Scheduling Reports

You can schedule any CAR report to generate automatically at a regular time. Some of the CAR reports can be scheduled for automatic generation. Each of the reports that can be scheduled has its own report generation interval. The report generation interval can be daily, weekly, or monthly. Scheduling the Daily reports would schedule all the reports that have report generation intervals as Daily. Similarly, scheduling Weekly or Monthly reports would schedule the reports that have report generation intervals as weekly or monthly. For the lists of reports that can be scheduled for automatic generation and their report generation interval, refer to Configuring Automatic Report Generation/Alert, in the Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide. You can specify the duration to keep a report before it is automatically deleted.

For system monitoring, automatically generate various reports, such as QoS reports, and review them at regular intervals, perhaps every day if you have a very large system, or every week or every two weeks for smaller systems. QoS reports help you to determine the quality of calls running on your network and to judge whether you need additional hardware to improve performance. You can use utilization reports for gateways, voice mail, conference bridge, route groups, route lists, and route patterns to provide a picture of the usage to help with system handling.

Using the Automatic Report Generation/Alert Option menu option, you must specify the reports that you want to be generated.

Changes take effect at midnight. You can force the change to take effect immediately by stopping and restarting the CAR Scheduler service. See Starting or Stopping the CAR Scheduler, for more information.


Note Report generation can degrade Cisco CallManager performance; therefore, schedule reports when performance will be least affected.


Scheduling Daily Reports

You can access the automatically generated reports by choosing the report from the list of available reports. For example, if you have scheduled the Voice Mail report for automatic generation, click System Reports > Traffic Summary and choose the report from the Available Reports box. You can also have the report mailed to you by checking the Mailing Option check box when you customize parameters for each report in Automatic Report Generation/Alert Option. When this check box is checked, the report gets mailed automatically when it is generated.

Setting the life of the report to 2 would purge the reports generated after two days. To disable the scheduling of all daily reports, set the life to zero.

Scheduling Weekly Reports

You can access the automatically generated reports by choosing the report from the list of available reports. For example, if you have scheduled the Voice Mail report for automatic generation, click Device Reports > Voice Mail > Utilization and choose the report from the Available Reports box. You can also have the report mailed to you by checking the Mailing Option check box when you customize parameters for each report in Automatic Report Generation/Alert Option. When this check box is checked, the report gets mailed automatically when it is generated.

Setting the life of the report to 2 would purge the reports generated after two weeks. To disable the scheduling of all weekly reports, set the life to zero.

Scheduling Monthly Reports

You can schedule all reports to be generated at the same time, or schedule monthly billing reports, such as the Individual Summary or Department Bill Summary, to be generated at one time, and all other reports to be generated at a different time. Generating the reports at different times helps distribute the load on the server.

You can access the automatically generated reports by choosing the report from the list of available reports. For example, if you have scheduled the Voice Mail report for automatic generation, click System Reports > QOS > Summary and choose the report from the Available Reports box. You can also have the report mailed to you by checking the Mailing Option check box when you customize parameters for each report in Automatic Report Generation/Alert Option. When this check box is checked, the report gets mailed automatically when it is generated.

Setting the life of the report to 2 would purge the reports generated after two months. To disable the scheduling of all monthly reports, set the life to zero.

Default Schedules for Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Reports

If you need to restore the default schedule for automatic generation of reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, use the following default values:

Daily reports run at 1 a.m. every day. These reports will be purged after two days.

Weekly reports run at 2 a.m. every Sunday. These reports will be purged after four weeks.

Monthly reports run at 2 a.m. on the first day of every month. These reports will be purged after two months.

Changes take effect at midnight. You can force the change to take effect immediately by stopping and restarting the CAR Scheduler service.

CAR or CDR Database Alerts

You can configure CAR to notify you when the CAR database size or CDR database size exceeds a percentage of the maximum number of records. You can set the message, set the maximum number of records, and specify the alert percentage. You cannot edit the maximum number of records for the CDR database from CAR.

CAR and CDR Database Purge

CAR provides manual and automatic purging of the CDR and CAR database. When data is purged, CDR Analysis and Reporting deletes records that are older than the number of day(s) specified for the CAR or CDR database. Default disables automatic database purging. When enabled, automatic purges of the CDR and CAR databases occur at the time when daily reports are scheduled.

Use the manual database purge when you want to delete records older than a particular date but do not want to change the automatic purge schedule.


Note Schedule database purges or manual purging during off-peak hours to minimize any degradation on Cisco CallManager performance.


Error and Event Logs

CAR provides logs that can be used to track the status of the various activities. The event log tracks events triggered by the CAR Scheduler, such as automatically generated reports, loading of CDRs, database alerts notifications, report deletions, and database purging. The error log tracks errors that CAR encountered while performing various tasks, such as report generation and loading CDR data. The error log assists with debugging and diagnosing problems in CAR functionality.

Event Log

The event log provides a report on the status of the activities controlled by the CAR scheduler, such as automatic report generation and loading CDR data. The report shows whether the tasks have started, completed successfully, or are in progress.

Error Log

The error log provides a report on the errors that CAR encountered while performing various tasks such as report generation and loading CDRs. You can use this information to assist with troubleshooting the system when problems occur.

Starting or Stopping the CAR Scheduler

You start or stop the CAR scheduler using the Control Center menu option. The scheduler service does not restart automatically, so you must manually restart the service if it has been stopped.

If you have made configuration changes, such as the CDR load, scheduling reports, or automatic report generation/alert, those changes will not take effect until the start of the next day (00:00 hours). However, you can force the changes to take effect immediately by stopping and then restarting the scheduler service.

Report Config

You can use CAR to set a base monetary rate for the cost of calls based on a time increment. Then, you can further qualify the cost by applying the time of day and voice-quality factors. Service providers who must account for service to subscribers use this feature. Some organizations also use this information to establish billing costs for users and departments in the organization for accounting or budgeting purposes.

Reports that use these rating parameters include individual bill, department bill, top N by charge, and top N by duration.


Note If you do not change the default value for charge base/block, the cost will always be zero because the default base charge per block is zero.


Base Rate and Duration

To establish a cost basis for calls, you must specify a base rate for all calls. For example, if your service provider charges you 6 cents for each minute, billed in 10-second increments, you can set the base rate at which all calls are charged at 1 cent for each 10-second increment.


Note If you use the default base charge value, CAR provides no costs. Although default values are provided, if left to the defaults, the rating engine is disabled, and costs are not provided.


Factoring Time of Day into Call Cost

To further define the cost of calls, you can specify a multiplication factor for certain times of day. For example, if you want to charge subscribers a premium for daytime calls, you can apply a multiplication factor to the base charge/block that you specified in the Call Duration window.


Note If you do not want to increase call cost by time of day, you can use the default values. The default multiplication factor is 1.00, so no increase in call cost for time of day occurs.


Factoring Voice Quality into Call Cost

To further define the cost of calls, you can specify a multiplication factor for the voice quality of a call. For example, if subscribers are paying a premium price to ensure the highest voice quality on calls, you can apply various multiplication factors to the base charge/block that you specified in the Call Duration window depending on the voice quality. Using a multiplication factor other than 1.00 helps you differentiate between the various voice-quality calls as well.


Note If you do not want to increase call cost by voice quality, you can use the default values. The default multiplication factor is 1.00, so no increase in call cost for voice quality occurs.


Restoring Default Values for Call Cost

You can restore the default values that CAR uses to determine call cost. By restoring the default value of 0.00 (zero) for the call charge/block, you have effectively disabled the other factors used in determining call cost.

Quality of Service (QoS) Values

CAR generates reports about QoS. To qualify the data presented in those reports, CAR must use predefined values about voice quality that you set. You specify the value ranges that you consider good, acceptable, fair, and poor for jitter, latency, and lost packets. If a call does not satisfy any of the criteria that were set for the four voice quality categories, it receives a classification of NA.

You can enter NA (not applicable) to ignore the values of a parameter. Suppose a QoS parameter, for example, jitter, has NA and the QoS is defined as good. This means that the QoS depends only on the values of latency and lost packets. All three parameters cannot have NA as values. Infinity specifies the maximum value that is available for any parameter. If you specify a rule where a jitter value from 500 to Infinity is considered poor, a call with jitter greater than 500 gets classified as poor.

Automatic Report Generation/Alert

CAR allows you to automatically generate reports based on a schedule. This can include a daily, weekly, or monthly summary report, or QoS reports that you may want to view on a regular basis. You can set up any report that CAR provides to generate automatically based on a default schedule or a specific time that you set. For this feature to work, you must enable the reports that you want generated on a scheduled basis. You can learn more about the scheduling of reports in the "Scheduling Reports" section.

CAR provides e-mail alerts for various events. Enabling the system for e-mail alerts comprises a two-step process. First, you must enable the e-mail alerts. Default enables some, but not all, reports. Then, you must configure the e-mail that is sent when the alert criteria are met. E-mail alerts can be sent for the following events:

CDR database exceeds a predefined percentage of maximum size. The percentage can be set using the CDR Database Alert function.

CAR database exceeds a predefined percentage of maximum size. The percentage and the maximum size can be set using the CAR Database Alert function.

Change Limit Notification indicates when the daily charge limit for a user exceeded the specified maximum. You can set the maximum in the Report Config > Notification Limits window.

QoS Notification indicates when the percentage of good calls drops below a specified range, or the percentage of poor calls exceeds a specified limit. You can set the range in the Report Config > Notification Limits window.

CDR database exceeds 2 million records

Enabling or Customizing Reports for Automatic Generation

Automatically generating reports comprises a two-step process. First, you must enable the reports that you want generated, unless they are enabled by default. Second, you must schedule the reports for the day and time that you want them to generate. CAR provides a default schedule, so if the default schedule is acceptable, you need only enable the reports that you want to automatically generate. Use the following instructions to enable or disable one or all reports for automatic generation. You can also customize the report parameters and enable a mailing option, so reports are e-mailed when they are created.

The following reports are enabled by default. The words Daily, Weekly, or Monthly in the square brackets next to the report name are the report generation interval of the particular report.

Traffic Summary-Hour of Day[Daily]

Conference Bridge Util-Day of Week[Weekly]

Gateway Util-Day of Week[Weekly]

Route Group Util-Day of Week[Weekly]

Route List Util-Day of Week[Weekly]

Route Pattern Util-Day of Week[Weekly]

Traffic Summary-Day of Week[Weekly]

Voice Mail Util-Day of Week[Weekly]

Gateway Summary [Monthly]

Traffic Summary-Hour of Day[Daily]

QOS Summary [Monthly]

System Overview [Monthly]

The reports that you choose here generate at a specific time each day, week, or month, and get purged from the system after a predefined duration. If you want to change the time or life of a report, see Scheduling Reports,

The default values for report scheduling and life follow:

Daily reports run at 1 a.m. every day. These reports will be purged after two days.

Weekly reports run at 2 a.m. every Sunday. These reports will be purged after four weeks.

Monthly reports run at 2 a.m. on the first day of every month. These reports will be purged after two months.

Notification Limits for QoS and Daily Charges

You can specify limits for QoS and daily charges, so the administrator gets alerted by e-mail when these limits are exceeded. The alerts go to all administrators identified in the administration rights window (see Administrator Rights).

CDR Analysis and Reporting Configuration Checklist

Table 11-1 provides an overview of the steps for configuring CDR Analysis and Reporting.


Note If you have CDR Analysis and Reporting (CAR), formerly known as Administrative Reporting Tool (ART), running on your system before upgrading to Cisco CallManager Release 3.2, the upgrade process automatically upgrades CAR. If you are installing Cisco CallManager for the first time, you must install the CAR plugin before performing Step 2 of the Configuration Checklist. Refer to the Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide for information on installing the CAR plugin.


Table 11-1 CAR Configuration Checklist 

Configuration Steps
Related Procedures and Topics

Step 1 

Obtain userid and password for CAR from the Cisco CallManager administrator.

CAR Administrators, Managers, and Users

Step 2 

Configure CAR system parameters for report generation:

Grant admin rights.

Configure mail server.

Configure dial plan.

Configure gateway.

Set system preferences.

System Parameters Configuration, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Step 3 

Configure the system scheduler to schedule daily CDR reports and daily, weekly, and monthly reports.

System Scheduler Configuration, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Step 4 

Set up CAR database and CDR database notifications of maximum number of records. Set a message, maximum number of records, and alert percentage.

System Database Configuration, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Step 5 

Configure error and event logs. Logs track status of various CAR activities.

System Log Screens, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Step 6 

Set up report generation requirements:

Configure rating engine (base rate, duration, and time of day costs).

Configure QoS values.

Configure automatic report generation and alert.

Configure notification limits.

CAR Report Configuration, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Step 7 

Configure user report requirements:

Configure bills.

Configure Top N.

Configure CTI ports.

Configure Cisco IP phone services.

Configure mail reports.

CAR User Reports Configuration, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Step 8 

Configure system report requirements:

Configure QoS reports.

Configure QoS parameters.

Configure traffic summary (also with extension).

Configure system overview report.

Configure CDR error.

CAR System Reports Configuration, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Step 9 

Configure device reports:

Configure gateway reports.

Configure conference bridge reports.

Configure voice-mail reports.

CAR Device Reports Configuration, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Step 10 

Configure CDR search (requires that CDR be enabled on the Cisco CallManager system).

CDR Search Configuration, Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Cisco CallManager Administration Guide


Where to Find More Information

Related Topics

"CDR Analysis and Reporting," Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

"CAR System Configuration," Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

"CAR Report Configuration," Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

"CAR User Reports Configuration," Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

"CAR System Reports Configuration," Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

"CAR Device Reports Configuration," Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

"CDR Search Configuration," Cisco CallManager Serviceability Administration Guide

Additional Cisco Documentation

Cisco CallManager Administration Guide