3300 DHCP Export 1

[MitelRob]

Hi, does anyone know if it's possible to automatically export the current DCHP list from a 3300?

At the moment I'm manually logging into the ESM and using the Export button to dump the "All IP Telephones" page to csv.

Ideally I'd like to be able to query the 3300 directly at run-time if there is any way of doing it, otherwise hopefully there's a way of automating the export so that I could schedule a process to retrieve it?

 

[slapin]

What kind of tools do you have. Generally there is no direct access to the system database.

As a first step you can try to automate access to the vxWorks shell over SSL connection. I would use some sort of "expect" package scripting.

Then from VxWorks shell issue following command:
"leaseShow"

Capture output and parse.

Enjoy

 

[MitelRob]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I did wonder about using SSL/Telnet but I was warned by one of our Mitel support engineers that there was a bug in the Mitel OS that left a thread open when an sx2000 telnet session was closed, these threads built after repeated connections and would eventually cause the switch to crash & reboot! I wonder if this was just the techs way of suggestign I don't play....

I have Visual Basic as my personal tool of choice, but am open to other suggestions - ultimately I'll be comparing the output with some recordsets from MS Access and MS SQL sources.

 

[slapin]

Mitel software doesn't run any sort of heavy SQL engine. It's just a simple set of berkeleyDB files, so don't expect to be able to use any sort of SQL client. I don't think that Mitel will ignore this kind of well known bug for so long. Back in days when 3300ICP was released there was a requirements to restart the system once a week because of some memory leaks. Now it's very stable and I have systems restarted once a year for software upgrade.
Just keep in mind that using VxWorks shell is really dangerous and may result in system crash or instability.

 

[MitelRob]

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that I was expecting an SQL source - the other sources of data that I want to programatically compare the Mitel data with are in Access & SQL. I may well take the data from the Mitel and import it into some temporary SQL tables to do data comparisons. Basically the requirement is that we have an IP voice recording application that has to be updated with phone details manually (number, MAC, IP etc.) if these are out of sync with the real Mitel setup then we don't get recordings or record the call under the wrong agent, and with hundreds of extensions over multiple sites it's easy to mess up. If I can automate the checking process I can run it nightly and produce an exception report.

Apologies if I'm labouring the subject but, if I do run this process nightly with some sort of VxWorks script, just extracting the "leaseShow" data then closing the connection, is it likely to bring the Mitel down at some unknown point? Obviously I wouldn't want to do that and if it's a known possibility I may well end up with my P45 sooner than I'd planned!
Have you any systems that you use anything like this sort of process with/on?

 

[MitelRob]

Apologies for my narrow minded UK-only view -> P45 is a code for Details of employee leaving work in UK and Irish taxation.

 

[slapin]

I didn't test this command with really large output, so I don't know. vxworks shell is some sort of a backdoor, you use it on your own risk. I hear your pain since we run similar recording. I'd say this output will dive you DHCP information only. It doesn't mean that actual set is connected using listed IP.

You may be interesting in another command:
"viperShow"

It can give you a chart with MAC address, extension number and type of device.

 

[MitelRob]

Do you have any sort of automated process to cross-check the agent details on the recorder against the live Mitel ones, or does it update those automatically? We're using a package called Audiolog by Verint (formerly Mercom), the control db is in MS Access and the call records are in SQL. Our management don't understand the difference in the IP system compared to our previous non-IP setup, so trying to explain how calls 'go missing' gets rather difficult! ;-)

You're a mind reader, I'd just run the leaseShow command and noticed there was no etxn. numbers against the IP details. Looks like the viperShow command will do just the job though Many thanks!

A side question if I may:
I've searched the board for vxworks commands and come across a few posts, none seemed to mention the two commands you've provided - do you have a reference or any suggestion where I might find a definitive list? (I've googled but no results for vxworks and leaseshow)

 

[slapin]

I just created static records in DHCP server, so my agents get the same IP every time and manually entered in the recorder config. We don't store recordings automatically, just hold for one year and then discard.

These commands my own findings, there is no official support or manual for most of the shell commands. If you are really interesting, just read through programming references for VxWorks OS. Just keep in mind that executing some of the commands may cause system crash or other negative effects, so hold your hands off of production system.

 

[MitelRob]

Many thanks slapin, your method DHCP reservations would be a sensible way to go - the problem is that we have the multiple admins working different parts of the network/telephony systems and we also have 4 pbx's clustered over 2 sites with different dhcp ranges on each. We use device MACs for the Agent identifier on the voice recorder in the majority of cases, so theoretically things shouldn't change - it just makes management feel more comfortable when they have a daily activity report etc.

I've just got to find a VB SSH component now.....

Thanks for your help.