How should redundancy be configured for this situation? 1

[scifan]

I have experience with Cisco Call manager, but not with IP Office... but I'm trying to come up to speed.

I believe our system is comprised of a pair of VMWare hosts (Cisco C220-M4 servers) on which are running a pair of IP Office Service Edition vm's, and a pair of Voice mail Pro vm's. We have twenty(ish) sites and I'm pretty certain each site has an IPOffice 500V2 gateway. From what I've heard, each 500V2 gateway is supposed to be configured with a FXS card for analog phones, and a 4 port FXO daughter card for an external trunk to a paging system and a connection to a redundant trunk. There are 3 PRI's connected to the primary site to a single 500V2 gateway. I believe all of the site's 911 call's are routed out the main site's PRI's. (Yes, there is valid PS-ALI/Intrado E911 data with correct addresses, and room numbers for the various DID's)

I have some level of fear that there's no real redundancy configured. I've read that the phones can be configured to register to to a primary and a secondary...

What should be the primary connection? What should be the secondary connect? Do these have to be a 500V2 chassis? or something else?

Is there an easy way to verify that the phones are configured to fail-over?
Is there any option for redundant power for the 500V2's?

I know on Cisco systems, phones register to the call manager, and then fail over to SRST on voice gateway's if all nodes of the call manager's were to become unreachable.

I've already learned that each site was supposed to have had an FXO connected for emergency calls if intra-site fiber links were to fail, but if they DO have that link connected, there's no fall-back routing to use those trunks.

Sites are inter-connected with leased single mode dark fiber - speed shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Okkie26]

To be honest, Get yourself someone with more experience.

I respect the effort you make, and you're coming a long way. But this is really a 'black belt' installation you're running now.

I can say that also me will have some issues for this setup.

 

[scifan]

We're still working with the original installer... But I've already caught one thing that is questionable, and I was reaching out for other input.

Eventually, I'll be managing this, right now I'm learning about it.

 

[Okkie26]

Okay, I missed the part of the original installer.

First note that there is no redundacy available on the IPO. There is only reslience, which is a bit different.

You can see that an IP phone is in resilience mode on the display of the station itself. it will show a 'R' on the display. Ypu can also see the status in the 'system status' application.

If you did install a second server edition, you can use that one as the secondary server. All IP phones and IPO500's will fallback to that server in case the primary fails.

Unfortunately, there is no redundant power supply for a IPO500V2.

 

[scifan]

Thank you for your response! If resilience is the only real backup plan, then I want to ensure that it's setup properly anyway.

I haven't seen an R on my display or any other display. I guess I should verify that the phones involved actually support a resilient configuration - the phones in question are 9608G's and E129's.

I've glanced through the RFP, and it looks as though their intention was to connect the phones only to the IPO500V2's at each site. Then their diagram show's the IPO500V2's connected to both the primary and secondary Server Edition vm's via IP.

Based upon the diagram, I think each site was supposed to have a single CO-trunk. Making a leap of assumption, based upon one site I've looked at the configuration for, I don't think they've connected any CO trunks. Do the IPO500V2's FXO ports support a trunk that's either loop start or ground start?

I'm basically trying to gather information before I have my next "conversation" with these folks... I know we're currently running 10.0, and it sounds like we're going to be stepping up to 10.1 sometime soon.

 

[tlpeter]

The IPO can handle analog trunks (the 500 does) on its own but require a card for that.
There is no need for FXO/FXS.
But with so many units i would go for SIP trunks to be honest.


BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!

 

[sizbut]

@scifan - you're going to find life easier, and the answers here may get a bit more useful, if you can get to the position of calling an analog trunk an analog trunk and not FXO or even CO. Whilst they are understood terms they aren't used in the IP Office world its just a layer of unnecessary jargon for jargon's sake.

Ditto with analog telephone extensions rather than FXS.

Stuck in a never ending cycle of file copying.

 

[scifan]

I was working with the terminology I'd used previously... I'll work with what you suggest going forward.

I think that at some point in the future, there's a goal to move to SIP trunks.

I'm getting mixed messages concerning if there is a functioning secondary server or not while there should be one, when I connect to the manager application, the secondary server's showing off-line... While in the web interface the secondary server looks like it's fine.

I know we're currently running 10.0, but I was told there was a conversation about an upgrade.

What is the "most current" release of IP Office Server Edition?

 

[tlpeter]

If manager shows it offline then there is something blocking some port to the PC running manager.
The most current release is 10.1.1

BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!

 

[scifan]

I figured out why the "secondary" server wasn't showing up to my workstation... it's dual homed... and the default route isn't on the 10.x.x.x/24 interface.... which is where my desktop is trying to attach to it from.

I'm not certain if it really needs to be dual homed.

*sigh*