TMS, Polycom phonebooks, E.164 numbers, and IP addresses

[jrg]

I have TMS version 9.6, configured to take H323 and H320 details for VC endpoints from an LDAP source. Most have IP, E.164, and ISDN numbers in their entries, some just have one or the other.

TMS is configured to provide phonebooks to some Polycom Viewstations (various flavours: 512MP, FX, EX512, and more [I have a VSX8000 too :-(, but that's another thread!]) most of which are IP and ISDN, a few just ISDN, and a few just IP. Some endpoints are configured with gatekeepers and some haven't yet been moved over.

So far so good. But I've noticed something odd. A few phone book entries seem to get shown as the IP address and the ISDN number, others as the E.164 number and the ISDN number. This ought to be because of the gatekeeper settings (after all, if an endpoint doesn't have one configured then it couldn't use an E.164 number), but it doesn't appear to be as simple as that: some endpoints with gatekeepers configured still only get sent the IP address, and some without get sent an E.164 number.

I've all but given up trying to work out what the factor is that makes TMS behave one way or the other (and how it can be fixed!) in the details it supplies to each endpoint (I can see that it is TMS making this choice, as I can watch the network traffic and see the data being sent as part of the Polycom GAB protocol.) Is TMS trying to use its knowledge of how all endpoints are configured, in order to decide what numbers to send, or is it something far simpler?

Help!

James.

[Glen Sykes]

Have you reported this to Tandberg? If it is a bug, which from your description is what it sounds like, then they will need to replicate this in their Labs before they can issue a fix.

Have you tried providing address information to the Polycom endpoints directly from the TMS address book? Does it behave the same?

It's likely that you'll be asked to upgrade to TMS version 10, which I have to say is excellent, far less buggy that when version 9.0 was released, from my own experience you can be confident in upgrading without introducing and new problems.

[jrg]

Upon closer inspection of the endpoint data stored in TMS (I exported the System Overview to Excel- it would be so nice if there were a 'select all systems' button) I think it's happening when the endpoint receiving the GAB is configured for a different gatekeeper. I'm not yet sure how this is going to play out with my systems in other regions, but it's definite progress in understanding the pattern.

Thanks for the thought about just using the TMS address book, Glen - that helped cut down the number of entries I was looking at and made it a bit easier to spot.

[Sean Lessman]

...some endpoints with gatekeepers configured still only get sent the IP address, and some without get sent an E.164 number...

TMS routes all phonebook entries for localization. TMS will only put E.164s on systems if it knows the system's GK config can reach the other device. (they are both registered to the same GK or neighbored GKs). If TMS thinks the GK configs aren't reachable, it will put the IP address in.

If you want TMS to ignore this logic, turn on 'flat dial plan' in Admin tools, and this will force TMS to always use e.164s, without prefixes, whenever an e.164 is given.

Sean

[Sean Lessman]

..it would be so nice if there were a 'select all systems' button)...

double-click a folder to select everything in it :)

Sean

[jrg]

Thanks Sean - for both those tips!

We've not yet got all the (Cisco) gatekeepers fully integrated with TMS so I've gone for the flat dial-plan option for now. We'd already put absolute E.164 numbers (i.e. with routing prefixes) into our directory so that works out fine.

[IC1sharp]

TMS routes all phonebook entries for localization. TMS will only put E.164s on systems if it knows the system's GK config can reach the other device. (they are both registered to the same GK or neighbored GKs). If TMS thinks the GK configs aren't reachable, it will put the IP address in.

If you want TMS to ignore this logic, turn on 'flat dial plan' in Admin tools, and this will force TMS to always use e.164s, without prefixes, whenever an e.164 is given.

Sean

Wow! Ive been looking for this answer and tripped over this thread! Thanks.