Definity Data Capture (3)

[djwahnuh]

Hi All,

I am wandering, and I wander alot about these kind of things...

I must be possible to at least get some kind of output from the dataport right? If BCMS can collect data from a G3 Definity dataport (or the netcons as they are called I believe)it must be possible to at least have a looksie at what the output is? I read in an earlier thread stating that it is impossible to capture any data from the dataport to an SQL database because of, well frankly, a whole lot of reasons that do not make sense. It is maybe not possible to make a serail connection directly to the definity port(s) but how about maybe through the datamodule used for BCMS? Does anybody have any idea of how to get some sort of output from the definity? (even if is is only grabage).

I am interseted to hear your views!

TIA

Wayne

 

[JZon]

Hi Wayne,

BCMS is getting it's data by just doing the list bcms commands, through a connection it sets up trough or a Datamodule or via IP (depending on the software-load).
The program captures the data and builds a Acces database with it.
So it doesn't really have acces to the data in the switch it just reads the output of the list bcms-commands.

CMS on the other hand is much more powerfull. Also with the reporting tool. CMS Supervisor you will have acces to it, because with this you will be able to do changes to the database. As on the other side BCMS is only reading..

But I guess that we all will have to have much more knowledge of the OS where the Definity platform is running on. Before we will know how to acces and to get any usefull information out of the system.

John

 

[djwahnuh]

Ok thanx a million that is just what i needed to know!

The only thing now is: is there anyway to 'talk' to the definity ie doing the list bcms commands via something else than bcmsvu? It should be possible to trace the communication and see what it sends to the definity I think. It is also possible to set up a normal terminal connection to the definity using some kind of terminal emulator (e-term, xterm, procomm whatever). I guess what you need to do then is somehow combine these two tools and try and automate the 'list bcms' commands yourself? If it is possible to capture the feedback somehow (make a selective tracelog under linux of your terminal activity) it is possible to build your own database.

What do you think about this theory?

The steps are (i guess)
1: Set up a terminal connection to the definity
2: Trace the line constantly
3: Log all the return data in a database.

And voila your done. The beauty if this is that you can also schdule list vdn or list vector commands or whatever you want and by doing this you can constantly keep your definty data in a database!

Sound plausible to you?

 

[clausen]

You could do the "list trace" or the same commands that BCMS-VU uses to collect the data. One of the problems is that there is no native database connectivity directly into the Definity.

The Definity does the report compilaton internally, makes the calculations and stores the report results, in some unknown data format internally. The report itself contains the results of the calculated items and not the items themself.

You can use a scheduling program to run the "list bcms" reports for specific times. Export them to text files to a computer. Write a program to convert the report to the necessary format and then using, ODBC, DDE, whatever you can come up with update an external database. This can and has been done before.

The only point I wish to relay again is that you can only see the result of the calulations not the specific items that determine the report results. Obviously CMS doses not have this limitation because it store all of the data elements in a database for later calculations.

I welcome your comments on this!

Hope this helps

Thanks

Chris

 

[djwahnuh]

Absolutely agree Chris,

The point that I am trying to get at is completely circumventing the standard software and seeing what is possible from there. I know it is probably impossible and very possbly dangerous to try and figure out a way to directly write to the translation tables as CMS does!

The point of the excersize is to get more information from the definity onto a web-based cleint side applet so that information contained within the definity can be made more transparent to 1: us the techinical users and 2: the other people in the organisation. This is just the first step in a plan that I am devisig.

What I want to do to start off is simply export as much information semi-realtime (such as a semi - realtime display of the # queued calls), actual (such as vectors etc) and historical (# calls offerd etc) data . These exports must be fully automated. The way I intend to do this is see if it is possible to shdule the export of all the data I want in DSA. I also want to try to set up a terminal connection under linux (for example) and trace the terminal to a log file.

Secondly I want to figure out a way to put this data in a database such as mssql or mysql.

Lastly I want to set up an internal web-page from which the data can be viewed.

Using this interface it should be possible to display the data in a digramatic, or whatever format, to the whole organisation.

Sounds good?

Do you have any idea if it is possible to set up a serial connection using xterm or some other terminal emulator under linux to the definity?

I am anxiously awaiting your comments

Regards

Wayne

 

[clausen]

The method of communication to the Definity with most programs that "talk" to the Definity is OSSI. The OSSI method appears to give you the raw data and speaks more elegantly to the switch. I wonder if there is any information avaliable for Avaya on OSSI? This could be what you are looking for. I do not have a great deal of information about OSSI but will see what I can find out.

But on with the dicussion:

What version swith do you have? V9 and higher support IP connectivity to the Definity via a TN799 (c-lan) card. If you have this, as I see it, a major hurdle is over allready. You could connect but the terminal emulation is very specific as to what is supported, VT220, ATT4410, ATT513, OSSI? etc. There are a lot of linux tools to do this.

Because there is no access directly into the Definity, I would exclude OSSI here, to get the information I see two items here that have different issues involved. RealTime Reports and Historical Reports.

Historical
It not a stretch to get the historical reports automated and posted to a web site. Run a scheduling program, DSA could work here, to send the reports to text files(or html), send them to a pre-determined location on a server. There are a few utilites that print to a PDF format, this could be a good method to reduce the formating issues that occur when manipulating data. Write a program to look for the files in a specific location on the network and import them, update your SQL database or post to your web site.

Realtime
The only way I can think of to get realtime reports (or semi-realtime) is some kind of screen scrape program. The realtime reports are refreshed every 30 seconds so I allready consider them semi-realtime anyway. The process would be the same, with the screen scrape being the difference.

I ponder how BCMS-VU does this, I believe it uses OSSI. If you have BCMS-VU it support wallboards. The wallboards display realtime stats so it can be done. The wallboard can use serial or IP connectivity to receive realtime stats. I wonder what method they use to achieve this (OSSI)? Is there is a way to determine how BCMS-VU does this and emulate it? The automated portion of this would rely on your skills and inventiveness to make it work.

I am going to see if there is a method, using OSSI, to do this as you have stated. I could use this myself to post results, only for my IVR though!

Enjoy and I will get back to you and let you now my results.

Thanks

Chris

 

[djwahnuh]

OSSI? Operations Support System Interface Never heard of it before, google does return quitea couple of results though so I am defininately going to check it out.

It seesm that AT&T have done some work on it and have been able to connect to this interface and generating SNMP data. Pretty cool though because with something like NetSaint you can get a lot of data from your definity. this might just be one way in which CMS communicates with the Definity. The ideas you have stated are not completely in line of what I am thinkg about but certainly something to try out. I think that the way you stated the generation of the dbase has a 100% success chance.

With regards to BCMSVu and wallboards. I wander if it uses this OSSI or if it simply emties the buffer of the Definity somehow. Apparantly the definity has some sort of buffer in which it stores data. Maybe you do need OSSI to get this data. if you look at the server directory of your BCMSVu installation you will notice to dbase files; hist.mdb and hist.ldb. The latter seems to function as some sort of temp dbase for realtime data. Check it out you might be surprised.

The annoying thing is that we do not have a c-lan card yet. We are only getting one later this year, as well as a brand new G3R9. Right now we have hardware version 6 which makes matters a lot more complicated than neccesary.

However I firmly believe that it is possible to execute these plans.

I will keep you up to date on progress and maybe (possibly) even posta couple of questions. Any ideas, no matter how un-doable they sound, please post them I would be glad to think about ways to apporach and realise these ideas.

Grtz

Wayne

 

[clausen]

If I was a betting man, IO'd bet that it uses OSSI to create and output the report to BCMS-VU which then redirects it the wallboard driver. I had heard that BCMS-VU had a login running to get the realtime stats and then did do some kind of sceen scrape to get the data to the wallboard. This would be a snap if we could act as the wallboard and be the reciever of the data. I do have BCMS-VU but have not yet installed, I'm waiting for my PC. When I do, I will connect it up to the Definity using a data module, put a protocol analyzer on the serial port between the data module and the BCMS-VU server. I'll let you now what I find.

Thanks

Chris

 

[lopes1211]

I have seen instances of PC's hooked up to a Definity systems' "system printer" port. Multiple BCMS commands are scheduled to print, and the PC hooked up to the serial printer port simpley capture the data. It's a little above my expertise but I have seen some home grown CMS servers operating using this techinique. They import the data and manipulate it as they see fit. -CL

 

[djwahnuh]

Great idea man never thought of it that way that is great!

I am definately going to try that

thanx a million

Wayne

 

[djwahnuh]

Ok guys here's an update:

We got it working this afternoon!

what we did?

1: Install Mysql on a Debian Machine
2: Install dbtools
3: Schedule VDN, Vector etc reports to export to a shared Samba directory on the Debian Machine
4: Copy the BCMS Database to the debian machine (very important to copy the file! (hist.mdb))
5: Use dbtools to convert the tables in the mdb file to convert them to csv files
6: Make a new database structure in Mysql
7: Insert all (so the exported files from DSA and the converted files from BCMSVu
8: Parse the database using PHP to get a web page.

We still need to do some work to cross reference the data etc but .....

IT WORKS

very cool stuff

Regards Wayne

 

[djwahnuh]

Ok guys here's an update:

We got it working this afternoon!

What we did?

1: Install Mysql on a Debian Machine
2: Install dbtools
3: Schedule VDN, Vector etc reports to export to a shared Samba directory on the Debian Machine (once a day or so it is pretty static data)
4: Copy the BCMS Database to the Debian machine (very important to copy the file! (hist.mdb))
5: Use dbtools to convert the tables in the mdb file to csv files
6: Make a new database structure in Mysql
7: Insert all (so the exported files from DSA and the converted files from BCMSVu
8: Parse the database using PHP to get a web page.

We still need to do some work to cross reference the data etc but .....

IT WORKS

very cool stuff

Regards Wayne

 

[ecsman]

I Want to tranfered all the configuration from a PBX R6 to a PBX R8 but I do not want to capture every single station, acd, abbrevieated dial, etc.

Is there an easier way to trasnfer this configuration automatically.

 

[europe]

Provision can do it all, so call a Business Partner or Avaya Please let me know if the information that was provided is helpfull.
Edwin Plat
A.K.A. Europe

 

[europe]

By the way, ask wayne for a good business partner, he should know!! Please let me know if the information that was provided is helpfull.
Edwin Plat
A.K.A. Europe