Cisco CDR Giving Me Fits

[dudecrush]

Using Call Manager 9.1

After months of back-n-forth with Cisco over a broken SFTP for CDR connection, they said to make a new one. I've set up a folder on an internal FTP server, then added it to the CDR manager. As you might guess - it doesn't work.

Our network monitoring tool is showing this output:

Mar 16 16:23:36 172.17.5.25 6631: : : 1347: ablcucmpub01.domain.com: Mar 16 2016 21:23:35.766 UTC : %UC_RTMT-2-RTMT_ALERT: %[AlertName=[highlight #EDD400]CDRFileDeliveryFailed[/highlight]][AlertDetail= BillingServerAddress : abmiis01 AppID : Cisco CDR Repository Manager ClusterID : NodeID : ablcucmpub01 TimeStamp : Wed Mar 16 16:23:28 CDT 2016. The alarm is generated on Wed Mar 16 16:23:28 CDT 2016.][AppID=Cisco AMC Service][ClusterID=][NodeID=ablcucmpub01]: RTMT Alert

Mar 16 16:23:28 172.17.5.25 6630: : : 0: ablcucmpub01.domain.com: Mar 16 2016 21:23:28.78 UTC : %UC_CDRREP-3-CDRFileDeliveryFailed: %[BillingServerAddress=abmiis01][AppID=Cisco CDR Repository Manager][ClusterID=][NodeID=ablcucmpub01]: ([highlight #EDD400]s)FTP delivery of CDR files to the outside billing server failed.[/highlight]

Mar 16 13:44:47 172.17.5.25 6537: : : 3483: ablcucmpub01.domain.com: Mar 16 2016 18:44:46.410 UTC : %UC_CDRREP-3-CDRFileDeliveryFailureContinues: %[BillingServerAddress=abmiis01][AppID=Cisco CDR Repository Manager][ClusterID=][NodeID=ablcucmpub01]: [highlight #EDD400](s)FTP delivery of CDR files failed on retries.
[/highlight]

What I can't figure out is WHY it is failing. What's been done so far:
1) Our network engineer configured an internal ACL to allow for passive FTP.
2) I know the username / password is correct or otherwise I couldn't have added it to the CDR Manager
3) The username / password has R/W access to the folder in question on the FTP server, and is inherited from the root folder.
4) I've un-checked the "Restart on Failure" check-box.
5) I've restarted the CDR Agent and Repository Manager services.

I just don't get it; this should be one and done. What kills me is that I'm still getting the "Failed on Retries" message even though I unchecked that to begin with. I'm going to open up a TAC on it, but wanted to give you guys a chance at it.

I've pulled CDR Agent and CDR Repository Management trace files from RTMT, but I can't read them. Can anyone point me to human-readable logs on RTMT that might show me what is happening, or a freeware tool that can read those trace files?

Thanks.

 

[whykap]

have you tried to run a local FTP, for example on your desktop and see if you can connect to that?
Is the billing server Windows OS? Could it be running windows firewall which is blocking the transfer? Or malware/virus detection?

 

[dudecrush]

Actually - I was able to make it work using my local PC. You bring up a good point, though, it might be the virus scanner (That bit me in the rear on a previous job). The FTP server is a Windows server but it was purpose-built for FTP, so you would think the virus scanner allows for FTP traffic. Still, it might be blocking based on an IP not in the access list. I'll check it out.

 

[whykap]

You just eliminated the issue being the call manager server. Something on the Windows server is blocking the transfer, once you figure out what that is (I think virus scanner, firewall IS your issue), you should be able to make your billing software work. Do you have administrator access to that server? If so the fix should be quick.

 

[dudecrush]

I don't have admin access, but I spoke with someone who does. He just waved me off with a "these aren't the droids you're looking for" response, but I'm not fully convinced.

 

[whykap]

You can always go to his manager since this issue been going on for months and it's his server not playing nice. Not sure why you as a telecom person does not have admin rights to a cdr billing server. Typical inter-company power struggles I guess.

 

[dudecrush]

His manager is my manager, so I don't want to make any waves. What I need is admin access to see what the enterprise virus scanner is doing on that server. I'm guessing that's where my answer lies.