CallManager Express
This page is intended to be a quick, easy to access resource with answers to questions regarding
the day-to-day installation, maintenance and support operations of your Cisco CallManager
Express environment. This site is not meant to replace Cisco's documentation but to supplement it
with answers to scenarios you may encounter.
This site is being transitioned to a new maintainer and host, so check your bookmarks to make
sure they are up to date. Many thanks to Pat Jensen for contributing his original site content!
Thanks to the CCME product team and the TAC support teams at Cisco for their support in
providing excellent feedback and contributing ideas and resources for this site.
Configuration Guides and How-To's
How do I locate a phone on my network?
CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) is a layer 2 protocol that Cisco devices use to report information
about themselves to the devices they are connected to. In this case, your phone supplies a CDP
heartbeat to your switch to tell it about it's status - vital information such as phone loads, the type
of phone connected, the amount of power it's received and the capabilities of that device.
With CallManager Express you can identify a phone by it's phone number listed in it's ephone-dn
entry. You can then use the MAC address in it's associated ephone entry to locate it. On a Catalyst
switch, you can use the "show cdp neighbor" command to locate a phone and identify its physical
port based on it's MAC address. You can get further detail by using the "show cdp neighbor detail"
command. An example is shown below:
CCME30-switch#show cdp neighbors
Capability Codes: R - Router, T - Trans Bridge, B - Source Route Bridge
S - Switch, H - Host, I - IGMP, r - Repeater, P - Phone
Device ID
CCME30-1751V
SEP0008E3D66320
Local Intrfce
Fas 0/2
Fas 0/5
Holdtme
163
124
Capability
R
H P
Platform Port ID
Cisco 1751Fas 0/0
Cisco IP PPort 1
CCME30-switch#show cdp neighbors FastEthernet 0/5 detail
------------------------Device ID: SEP0008E3D66320
Entry address(es):
IP address: 192.168.1.16
Platform: Cisco IP Phone 7940, Capabilities: Host Phone
Interface: FastEthernet0/5, Port ID (outgoing port): Port 1
Holdtime : 138 sec
Version :
P00303020214
advertisement version: 2
Duplex: full
Power drawn: 6.300 Watts
Management address(es):
How can I assure the reliable operation of my CCME system?
The same techniques that apply in assuring reliable operation of your routers, PBX's and servers
apply in maintaining your CCME voice infrastructure. In building out your CCME solutions, whether
at a single site or multiple sites, a site survey should be performed before installation to ensure
the environment will be able to accommodate your equipment and supply the correct power, clean
and cool air and good connectivity to the PSTN. By following these guidelines, you can assure a
longer runtime and overall lifetime for your Cisco hardware.
PSTN - You have several options for connectivity to the PSTN, whether you have analog FXO/DID
trunks, or a ISDN PRI circuit for larger call volumes. Make sure that you have clean relatively new
wiring and jumpers from your punchdown block to your routers ports. Use TDR tested and certified
CAT-5e or CAT-6 runs to carry your PSTN trunk wiring to your CCME router. In an environment
where a PRI is being used, it is helpful to have several analog trunks available and configured to
carry outbound calls on should your primary T1 circuit fail. If you encounter noise on your analog
lines, call your LEC's repair service and have your lines tested - this is most likely to happen after
a weather event or cable damage. You should always have an outside PSTN line available for
emergency 911 calls in a marked and easily accessible location. It is also helpful to maintain spare
VIC cards should a failure occur on your router FXO/DID trunk cards.
Space - If space permits, dedicate a rack or enclosure in your data center or phone closet to
current and future voice services. Rack mount your routers and switches in a free standing rack or
air-filtered closed enclosure. Leave ample room (2 to 4 rack units) for device wiring and ventilation
between devices. Keep in mind it is fairly easy to remount to accommodate new devices - it is not
easy however, to rewire to accommodate new devices. To prevent unnecessary downtime, wire
your CCME router's cabling correctly using channels or wire management inside your enclosure.
Also, keep the supplied console cables connected to the device and leave them in the rack should
you need to configure it later. This is especially important if there is a tight fit inside the enclosure.
Power - Power is critical to proper operation of your routing and switching equipment. Make sure
that clean, backed up power is provided by an appropriately sized UPS and that the UPS is
manageable so that you can be alerted to power events. Repeated surges, spikes and brownouts
can lower the life of your network gear and significantly decrease the MTBF (mean-time before
failure) of your Cisco gear. The cost to purchase power infrastructure is significantly less then the
cost of the downtime that will occur due to a power event. With a router running CCME and several
power over Ethernet (802.1af and Cisco) switches and all associated devices (phones, APs and
cameras), sizing is very important. To prevent unnecessary downtime, a UPS should be purchased
at least 3x the power usage to provide longer runtimes during an outage and room to scale for
growth of your networking equipment. In industrial plant and warehouse environments where
generators are available, make sure that the UPS is placed in line to condition the power coming
from a generator to your eqipment and to assure a seamless cut-over. Make sure to track and
follow your UPS vendor's instructions on changing UPS batteries once the lifetime has expired.
Many vendors supply discounts for recycling used UPS batteries as well.
Also, consider using Cisco's redundant power supply products to product your CCME infrastructure.
The Cisco RPS can protect 2600 series routers and stackable switches. The larger Cisco 3745 and
3845 also has a dual power supply option.
Air - Air is a factor that most engineers don't consider when deploying voice and data solutions. Air
can kill routers and switches faster then any other factor. Be sure to keep your routers and
switches in a clean, filtered enclosure and perform preventative maintenance on your enclosures
on a regular schedule.Keep the temperature regulated at 80 degrees or less. Keep in mind that the
inside of a closed enclosure, it is 20 degrees F hotter then outside of the enclosure. Rack vent
products are available to vent hent from full enclosures into an attic or back through air
conditioning systems. Also, airborne particles can also clog switch and router fans and lead to
premature heat death. Filters are just as important as AC is inside your enclosures. Do not leave
your equipment under a desk or behind cabinets where there is not adequate ventilation, as it will
become a "vacuum" and quickly clog fan assemblies and vents. Make sure to maintain a PM
(preventative maintenance) schedule to replace enclosure filters and spray router and switch fans
with canned compressed air.
Backups - It is very important to maintain up-to-date electronic and hardcopy versions of your
CCME configurations, whether you are an installer or customer. During an outage, you don't want
to have to reprovision phone sets that you added during your last MAC (moves, adds, changes)
period because they were not backed up. Also, print hard copies of your configuration revisions
and place them in a dated binder. Depending on your document retention policy, you may choose
to store hardcopy backups of your configurations and archived call accounting off-site. If a router
or switch fails, you can obtain a replacement, hot spare or cold spare and place an up to date
configuration and be running within a short period of time. For more information, see How do I
make an offline backup of my CallManager Express configuration?
How do I configure basic LAN quality of service for IP phones?
A basic configuration can be applied to Cisco switches to allow Cisco IP phones to dictate their
quality of service to the network, ensuring that LAN-based voice calls are given priority over
regular data on your network. The following configuration uses the phone's CDP (Cisco Discovery
Protocol) information to determine whether it's quality of service should be trusted and dictated by
the connected device. The default Class of service for PCs and networked devices is 0. As
configured, Cisco IP phones will be trusted to set their own CoS to 5 automatically, regardless of
which port they are plugged in to. This configuration should apply to Cisco IOS based access
switches like the Catalyst 2940, 2950, 3550 and 3750.
An example quality of service configuration is shown below:
interface range FastEthernet 0/1 - 24
description Trust devices to set their own CoS
mls qos trust cos
mls qos trust device cisco-phone
If you need to apply a class of service to a device manually, say you have wireless IP phones like
7920s connected to a third-party vendors access point, you can force the switch to override the
regular CoS of 0 and give priority to outgoing traffic (only) going to that access point. An example
configuration is below:
interface FastEthernet0/6
description Apple Airport - CoS 5
mls qos cos 5
mls qos cos override
Keep in mind this only applies to queued outgoing traffic only. To test and troubleshoot your CoS
settings, you can use the "show mls qos interface" command to tell whether a phone's CoS is
trusted, or whether it is currently being overridden by your configuration. Here is an example of
QoS correctly being trusted from a Cisco IP Phone:
CCME30-switch#show mls qos interface | begin FastEthernet0/5
FastEthernet0/5
trust state: trust cos
trust mode: trust cos
COS override: dis
default COS: 0
pass-through: none
trust device: cisco-phone
How do I fix Missed Call/Received Call numbers so that you can dial
them from the menu correctly (auto-add a 9, etc.)?
By adding a translation rule to correct incoming calls caller ID information, you can remove the
area code for local calls, and add a 1 for long distance calls. Add the following translation rule to
your configuration then apply it to your incoming voice ports (i.e. FXO or PRI). This will enable you
to correctly be able to place outgoing calls from the Missed Call/Received Calls directory. Replace
559 in the example with your area code. Remove the 9 if you don't need an outbound dial number.
voice
rule
rule
!
voice
translation-rule 1
1 /^559\(.*\)/ /9\1/
2 /\(..........\)/ /91\1/
translation-profile filter_559
translate calling 1
!
voice-port 1/0
translation-profile incoming filter_559
!
voice-port 1/1
translation-profile incoming filter_559
To test and troubleshoot the proper operation of the translation-rule, use the "test voice
translation-rule 1 <number>" command. An example below shows the area code being removed,
and a 9 correctly being added.
CCME30-1751V#test voice translation-rule 1
Matched with rule 1
Original number: 5591234567
Translated
Original number type: none
Translated
Original number plan: none
Translated
5591234567
number: 91234567
number type: none
number plan: none
How do I block 1-900, 10-10-xxx PICs and international calls?
In your telephony-service configuration, use the after-hours block facility to block any defined
patterns 24 hours a day. The following example will block 1-900, 10-10-xxx LD PIC codes and
international calls. You can add additional phone numbers, by adding another pattern to the list
with the beginning digits to block. Once the number is dialed, CCME will send a fast busy signal to
the phone.
telephony-service
after-hours block pattern 1 1010 7-24
after-hours block pattern 2 1900 7-24
after-hours block pattern 3 011 7-24
To show your currently blocked patterns, use the "show telephony-service all" command. Here is
an example showing the above patterns entered:
CCME30-1751V#show
after-hours block
after-hours block
after-hours block
telephony-service all | include after-hours
pattern 1 1010 7-24
pattern 2 1900 7-24
pattern 3 011 7-24
How do I set up multiple phones to share the same lines (overlay DN)?
Multiple phones can be configured to share the same line (as in a key system) by creating an
overlay directory
number. This can be accomplished first by defining the ephone-dn and then mapping it as a button
on each IP
phone set. Also, multiple lines can be mapped to a single button with CME by using overlay-dn's.
This is
important if you want a no-button phone like the 7905/7910/7912 to be able to pick up calls on
multiple lines.
An example configuration is below, showing two phone sets mapping 2 outside lines (123-4567,
123-4568) to one line button:
ephone-dn 1
number 1000
label 559-123-4567
ephone-dn 2
number 1001
label 559-123-4568
ephone 1
mac-address 1234.5678.1234
type 7960
button 1o1,2
ephone 2
mac-address 1234.5678.1235
type 7940
button 1o1,2
Why does it take so long to dial?
You may want to change the interdigit timeout, which tells CCME how long to wait before
processing the call if a direct dial-peer match is not found. You may want to adjust this based on
your users preference and usability. If you find that the call is processed too quickly before the
users finish dialing digits, increase the interdigit timeout. This is done in telephony-service
configuration mode. See the example below:
telephony-service
timeouts interdigit 3
How do I setup CCME so I don't have to dial a 9 for an outside call?
If you are using CCME in a small office or home office environment, you may find it beneficial to
not have to dial a 9 or a trunk access code to reach an outside line. Using the following example
configuration, CCME will then rely on the interdigit timeout that is configured before sending the
call to the PSTN. CCME will match a local extension (or dial-peer) before it tries to send the call
out. It is not advised to use this in multiple CCME gateway environments. If the phone attempts to
send digits before you have finished dialing them, adjust the interdigit timeout to a higher value.
See the example below:
dial-peer voice 1 pots
destination-pattern T
port 1/0
forward-digits all
!
dial-peer voice 2 pots
preference 1
destination-pattern T
port 1/1
forward-digits all
!
telephony-service
timeouts interdigit 3
How do I use Centrex features on a FXO POTS line?
New to CallManager Express 3.0 is the fxo hook-flash command. It is configured in telephonyservice mode. You can then use the Flash Softkey on your telephone set during a call to use
Centrex services like a regular PSTN phone. Example is below:
telephony-service
fxo hook-flash
How do I setup XML services on CCME so I can get the weather, news
and airline information?
Berbee, a Cisco IP phone XML developer, has developed a free XML based portal (like Yahoo!) that
you can use on your phone to get the current weather, look up stock quotes and area codes, look
at CNN news headlines and download current flight information. You can activate this on CCME by
setting your XML services setting. Your CCME router and phones will need to have outbound
access to the Internet, and should have a DNS server correctly propagated to your phones via
DHCP. Make sure to restart your phones after implementing this, and then press the "Services"
button on the phone. Configuration is below:
telephony-service
url services http://phone-xml.berbee.com/menu.xml
How do I install newer CallManager 4.0 phone loads and use them with
CCME?
You can download CallManager 4.0 phone loads from the CCO web site, and use the ZipScan tool
to remove the phone loads from the InstallShield CABs. Warning - For phones that are not running
a signed load, you will not be able to revert back to an unsigned load (older then 5.0) as Cisco
now signs them for security and file integrity purposes.
To install new phones loads you will need to TFTP the Cisco Application loader, and the new signed
phone load to your CCME router. Then add a tftp-server flash:<filename> statement in your CCME
router for each file. Adjust the "load 7960-7940" command to point to the Cisco Application Loader
.bin file, i.e. (load 7960-7940 P00305000301). You can use "debug tftp-server events", "debug
ephone register" and "show ephone phone-load" to determine if your upgrades were successful.
An example is below:
tftp-server flash:P00305000301.bin
tftp-server flash:P00305000301.sbin
telephony-service
load 7960-7940 P00305000301
The following files would need to be copied to your router's flash memory so that the phone can
upgrade to the 5.0 build:
P00305000301.bin
P00305000301.sbin
The same process will work for the 7920 wireless phones as well, make sure to copy the load and
the OS7920.txt file in this case. Please keep in mind newer builds may have bugs and
incompatibilities with CCME as the newer builds are only tested against CallManager. It is
recommended by Cisco to install the version 5.0 phone loads (and not the 6.0 phone loads) for
consistent, reliable CCME operation. You should really only consider upgrading to a newer load for
a specific feature or bug fix. If your current load works fine in your environment, don't change it.
How do I support reliable faxing with CCME?
CCME supports using the Cisco ATA-186 (analog telephone adapter) as a SCCP (skinny) device.
However, it is reported that Fax with ATA in SCCP mode can lead to prolems, so the reccomended
method is to use the ATA with an H323 firmware.
You will need to TFTP the H.323 load to the ATA-186 and configure the ATA gateway IP address to
point to your CCME router's IP address. Make sure that you are configured to use G.711 and no
voice activity detection enabled to ensure consistent voice quality. Alternatively, you can use an
FXS VIC card in your router plugged directly into the fax machine and configure the voice-port as
normal in IOS. See How do I connect analog devices to CCME?
How do I register phones to CCME over the WAN (or the Internet)?
Cisco does not currently provide technical support for CCME phone registration outside of the local
network where the
router is being deployed. However, it does work with the following caveats. Please make sure you
fully understand
them before attempting to deploy remote registration on your CCME network.







Maximum of 10 remote sites, with 1 IP phone at each
remote site.
E911 or emergency calls are not supported from the
remote IP phones.
All PSTN access is through the central site. PSTN
termination at remote sites are not supported.
All calls made to and from Remote IP Phones must use
G.711. These include calls from PSTN and
autoattendant(AA) and voicemail access. CCME does not
support the ability to provision other codecs such as
G.729 for Remote IP phones.
<>Remote phones cannot use NAT. They must have
public IP addresses.
CCME does not support trancoding for skinny IP phones
registered across the WAN.<>
<>CCME does not support Call Admission Control (CAC)
so minimal oversubscription of the available bandwidth
should be implemented.
Thanks to tesaka @ Cisco for contributing to this scenario.
Why does the local directory or speed-dials only show up on some
phones?
I have sometimes seen the flash memory on a phone getting corrupted and not correctly rendering
the
Directory/Speed dial list on the phone correctly. This can remedied by checking the following
things:



Make sure your CME router time is correct and is synced
to NTP. If it is not, CME will not correctly generate a new
phone configuration file.
Go into telephony-service and type "create cnf-files" and
then reboot the problematic phone.
If this does not work, go into telephony-service and
change the user-locale to any other language,then reboot
the problematic phone. Once the language has been
changed, reset it back to english and reboot it again. This
should successfully resolve the problem.
How do I allow my users to setup their speed and fast dials on the
CCME web server?
Make sure before you get started that the CCME web files are installed into your Flash. You can do
a "dir flash:" command and look for telephony_service.html on your router. If you do not have it
installed, you will need to download the CCME GUI package from Cisco's web site (see CCME Files
on the Quick Links bar) and use the following command to extract them via TFTP:
archive tar /xtract tftp://192.168.1.100/cme-gui-3.0.3.tar flash:
You may want to replace the listed IP above and filename as appropriate. Once the tar has been
installed, you will need to configure the CCME web interface using the following commands:
ip http server
ip http authentication local
ip http path flash:
telephony-service
web admin system name <admin logon> password <admin password>
You can then go into each individual ephone, and set a username and password, using the
following command:
ephone 1
username "patj" password CCME
Once you are finished, you can either login on the admin account as configured above, or login as
an ephone user. The URL will be http://your.CCME.ip/telephony_service.html. Your users can then
change their phone PINs, speed dials and fast dials if they are on a 7940/7960 set. Changes
should take effect once they are saved. For users that change their speed dials often, make a
shortcut on their Windows desktop to the URL so that they can connect to CCME with one click, or
copy it from a login script to their PC.
To verify that the CCME web server is working correctly, you can use the "show ip http server all"
and "show ip http server session-module" commands. An example is shown below:
CCME30-1751V#show ip http server all | include status
HTTP server status: Enabled
CCME30-1751V#show ip http server session-module | include ITS
ITS_LOCDIR
9
ITS Local Directory Search
ITS
8
IOS Telephony Service
How do I make an offline backup of my CallManager Express
configuration?
If you are using Unity Express, you can use the built-in FTP backup on the web interface to FTP
your current CCME, CUE configs and mailboxes to an FTP server running locally on your network.
If you are not using Unity Express for voicemail, you can make an offline backup of your
configuration from the IOS command line. Using a terminal program like SecureCRT, Putty or
HyperTerminal, you can capture a text file and use the "show running-config" command to
download a backup of your current CCME and phone configurations. This is highly recommended,
especially if you make frequent changes to your phone database.
If you are running a TFTP server, you can use the "copy running-config tftp" command to
download a backup directly to your favorite TFTP server. If you manage multiple CCME boxes, this
may be easier. With tools like Kiwi CatTools and CiscoWorks 2000 that can connect to multiple
routers at once, they can be scripted and automated to perform nightly backups of your
configuration files.
How do I connect multiple CallManager Express systems?
CallManager Express takes advantage of the built-in IOS dial-peer and voice-port functionality.
Connecting multiple CCME systems for seamless calling is easy and effective, unless you are in a
larger environment (10 or more CCME systems). With larger systems, you should take advantage
of the IOS Gatekeeper functionality or SIP Register to perform site-to-site WAN based call
processing. That is outside the scope of this scenario, for more information take a look at the IOS
Gatekeeper or SIP reference guides, or call the TAC for assistance in deigning and configuring IOS
gatekeeper functionality.
To connect two CCME systems, you will need to define a dial-peer entry on each side that points to
each other, with the prefix for the extensions between those systems. Here is a network diagram
showing this scenario:
scenario 1
Here is an example configuration for both systems, showing the required dial-peer commands to
connect them.
CCME-A
dial-peer voice 10 voip
description Connection to CCME-B
destionation-pattern 11..
session target ipv4:192.168.2.1
telephony-service
call-forward pattern 1...
transfer-system full-consult
transfer-pattern 1...
CCME-B
dial-peer voice 10 voip
description Connection to CCME-A
destionation-pattern 10..
session target ipv4:192.168.1.1
telephony-service
call-forward pattern 1...
transfer-system full-consult
transfer-pattern 1...
You should then be able to perform seamless dialing, H.450.2 consultative call transfer and
H.450.3 call forwarding between each site. You can add additional dial-peers to connect to multiple
sites. As you can tell, the dial plan on each CCME router will get quite complex once you start
adding a large number of sites. A dedicated IOS gatekeeper router is preferred in large network
scenarios for WAN-based call processing.
Thanks to Richard Messinger @ Ronco and Joel Jackson @ Cisco for contributing to this scenario.
How do I add a custom text message to my telephone sets?
Cisco IP Phones feature a customizable text message at the bottom of the phone screen near the
hotkeys that you can change to your company name, location information, or for event purposes.
It is set system wide for all phones and will generally take effect instantly, without having to
restart phone sets. An example configuration is below:
telephony-service
system message Happy holidays from XYZ Company!
Another good idea is to set it to the address for that site location, so that mobile users know their
current address, or provide your help desk contact information.
How do I set up a basic automated attendant on my CCME router?
CCME ships with a basic configurable automated attendant that can be deployed on your router,
without additional hardware. The CCME AA software is a customizable TCL script that is located in
the main CCME package. It is a tar file that is extracted via TFTP to your router's flash memory.
The AA asks the caller where to forward an extension when an incoming call arrives and then
sends the call off, or can forward the call to an operator to be directed. The premade audio files
can be modified to suit your purposes, i.e. "Hello, you've reached Pat's Auto. Your call is very
important to us. If you know your parties extension, please dial it now otherwise press 0 or hold
for an operator."
Once extracted to your router, you then setup a custom voice application and add it to your
incoming voice ports. Keep in mind, the AA software is built to handle incoming calls from your
voice ports only. You will not be able to dial to it directly from your IP phone sets.
Using the following commands, you can download and install the CCME AA to your router. You will
need to obtain the CCME AA package from CCO.
archive tar /xtract tftp://192.168.1.100/cme-aa-2.0.1.0.tar flash:
You may want to replace the listed IP above and filename as appropriate. Once the tar has been
installed, you will need to configure the automated attendant using the following commands:
call application voice
call application voice
call application voice
should be a number not
call application voice
call application voice
ccmeaa flash:its_Cisco.2.0.1.0.tcl
ccmeaa language 1 en
ccmeaa aa-pilot <a pilot number used to reach the AA used elsewhere>
ccmeaa operator <your operator/receptionist number>
ccmeaa set-location en 0 flash:
Once you have set your pilot number and where the AA should send calls to the operator, you can
then apply your automated attendant to the voice ports you would like it to answer. The example
below is for analog FXO ports:
dial-peer voice 1 pots
application ccmeaa
port 1/0
dial-peer voice 2 pots
application ccmeaa
port 1/1
Alternately, for an ISDN PRI here is an example:
dial-peer voice 1 pots
application ccmeaa
incoming called-number 1000 !(for 555-1000 to ring to the AA)
port 1/0:23
Once the AA is installed and tested, you can use the stock audio files to create your own AA using
your favorite sound editor tools. Make sure to see the following section on how to install custom
ring tones to find out how to properly format and save your AA audio files.
How do I install custom ring tones for my 7920/7940/7960 series sets?
Installing ring tones on a CCME router is a three step process. First, you need to obtain ring tone
audio files - these are 8khz 8-bit mono u-Law WAV audio files (just like Music on Hold). You then
need to create a RingList.xml file which lists the display names of the ringers, and their file name.
Then you need to TFTP those files onto your router, and create a "tftp-server flash:<filename>"
entry for RingList.xml, and each ring tone individually.
There are 45 ringtones for Cisco 7920/7940/7960 sets on the Quick Links bar. You can open them
with WinZip and extract them to a directory. Then make a RingList.xml that looks like this:
<CiscoIPPhoneRingList>
<Ring>
<DisplayName>Indian Call</DisplayName>
<FileName>indiancall.raw</FileName>
</Ring>
<Ring>
<DisplayName>Cartoon Split</DisplayName>
<FileName>cartoonsplit.raw</FileName>
</Ring>
</CiscoIPPhoneRingList>
Replace the Display Name and File Name with as many ring tones as you would like to have
available. There is a current limitation in early 7920 software in which you can only download 16
ringtones - keep this in mind if you use wireless sets. Then, use your favorite TFTP server and
copy your RingList.xml and .raw ring files to your CCME router using the "copy tftp flash"
command. Make sure to answer "n" when IOS asks to erase your current flash. Always make a
backup of your router's configuration when making changes. After you've copied the ring tones to
your router, use the tftp-server flash:<filename> command to tell IOS to serve up your ring tones
to your phone sets. An example is below:
tftp-server flash:RingList.xml
tftp-server flash:indiancall.raw
tftp-server flash:cartoonsplit.raw
You should then be able to immediately go into Settings, Ring Type and select and preview your
new ring tones. If you have problems, make sure that the tftp-server statements are listed in your
configuration, and that you have a valid RingList.xml using the format above, or download an
example RingList.xml from the Quick Links bar. The following command can be used to verify
proper TFTP server operation:
CCME30-1751V#show running-config | include tftp-server
tftp-server flash:RingList.xml
tftp-server flash:loudlaser.raw
How do I control my phone from my PC running Outlook?
You can control your phone from your PC using the Cisco TAPI stack for Windows. This will allow
you to use Phone Dialer and Microsoft Outlook to call contacts directly, and get screen pop ups
with contact and notes information when a call is received. Keep in mind that your audio path will
go through your phone. Cisco's TAPI stack for CCME does not support multiple lines or audio
through the PC yet.
To get started, you will need to assign a username and password to the ephone entry on the CCME
router. This provides security so that desktop users can logon to that phone. An example on how
to do this is below:
ephone 1
username "patj" password CCME
Once you set passwords on your phone sets, you will need to install the TAPI stack on each PC
that will be using their phone. The stack comes with the CCME zip file that you downloaded from
CCO. However if you need it, there is a Quick Link to the CCME files to download it. Run the
setup.exe and fill out the options for your IP, username and password for the phone.
Once you finished, make sure to reboot. For some reason, a consistent TAPI connection is not
made with CCME until after you reboot. You can then run the Phone Dialer on your Windows box,
and set Line 1 on your phone as your primary line. Leave Phone Dialer running for screen pop-ups.
You should be able to right click on address entries within Outlook and select Call Contact to dial
them from your phone set.
If you need to change username information, you can go into the modem control panel, under
Advanced and then go into the Properties to reset the IP and account configuration. You will need
to reboot after you make changes. You can use the "debug ephone reg" and "show ephone reg" to
verify that the TAPI ports are being registered correctly, with the correct password information.
Note the passwords are shown in clear text.
How do I create and install my own custom music on hold?
Like custom ringtones, music on hold files need to be 8khz 8-bit mono u-Law audio in WAV or AU
format. You can use Microsoft Sound Recorder (included with most versions of Windows) to create
your own music on hold, or convert an existing MP3 or other formats. Just make sure that when
you save it, you have the correct options selected. You can do this by clicking on Change under
Save As.. A screen shot from Sound Recorder is below:
Sound Recorder dialog
Once you have created the MOH file, you can use your favorite Windows TFTP server (I prefer
Solarwinds free TFTP server, see the link under Quick Links) and copy it to your router using the
"copy tftp flash" command. Try and keep it as small as possible so that it will fit in the router's
flash memory and you will have future room for growth for more phone loads.
Remember that it loops as well so it should have a seamless beginning and end to the audio file.
Music on hold can also be multicasted through your WAN if you have multiple CCME gateways. For
more information, see the Cisco CCME Administration Guide. There are also professional audio
tools that can be used for seamless and easy development of your own music on hold audio. Sony
Acid Pro is good for developing MOH loops, as well as Syntrillium/Adobe CoolEdit. There are
demonstration versions available for testing. An example configuration is below:
telephony-service
moh mymoh.wav
How do I setup and configure CCME and Unity integration?
Setting up Unity integration with CCME is quite simple and involves three processes: Setting up
the skinny ports that Unity attaches to, assigning the VM ports a phone number, and configuring
message waiting indication. Depending on how many voicemail ports you have, you will associate
a voicemail Device ID to that port, and then assign those ports a number. An example
configuration is below, broken down in sections to be more easily comprehendable. For more
information, see the Cisco Unity CCME integration guide on the Quick links bar listed above.
Step 1 - Set up the skinny ports that Unity attaches to. Add as many as you have licensed.
ephone 1
vm-device-id CiscoUM-VI1
button 1:1
!
ephone 2
vm-device-id CiscoUM-VI2
button 1:2
!
ephone 3
vm-device-id CiscoUM-VI3
button 1:3
Step 2 - Assign the Unity VM ports a phone number. Copy ephone-dn 2 for as many ports as you
have, increasing the preference for each port. Optimally, you should configure one VM port with an
inaccessible number (like A01), so it can be used to send message waiting indication reliably in the
event all ports are being used by a call.
telephony-service
voicemail 5000
!
ephone-dn 1
number 5000
name Unity Voicemail
no huntstop
!
ephone-dn 2
number 5000
name Unity Voicemail
preference 1
!
ephone-dn 3
number A01
name Unity Voicemail MWIs
Step 3 - Set up message waiting indication virtual numbers, so that Unity can call CCME and ask it
to light a message light on a phone. You can call these numbers directly to fix a stuck lamp as
well.
ephone-dn 4
number 9998 secondary 9999
mwi on-off
Make sure to restart the phones once you are done. Unity should be registered with the default
CallManager integration settings. For more complex configurations, see the Unity CCME Integration
guide on the Quick links bar.
How do I optimize wireless coverage for my 7920 phone sets?
If you are building out a wirelesss network to support IP telephony, it is important that you design
based around three factors: VLAN support, Quality of Service and Roaming. These three aspects of
your wireless network will highly affect whether your wireless IP telephony implementation is
successful. Some customers already have deployed wireless networks that do not use Cisco's
access point products - which is fine, so long as you keep voice traffic, latency and jitter in mind
when you deploy your wireless handsets. Cisco advises no more then 8 IP phone sets should be
associated to more then one AP at once. This is not for bandwidth reasons (~512k at G.711) but
for latency and jitter issues when all phones are handling an active call. A break down of these
factors in detail is below:


VLAN support - It is important to break your voice and
data traffic into separate VLANs, as you can apply a
higher quality of service separately to your voice VLAN. It
also provides a layer of abstraction for security,
separating your voice traffic from your data network.
Cisco's AP350, AP1200 and AP1300 products support
wireless VLANs by using separate SSID wireless network
IDs. They can backhaul via VLAN trunking (802.1Q) to a
switch that supports it. Your switches are just as
important as your AP infrastructure.
Quality of Service - In a wireless environment, you'll have
additional data in the background, where it is inventory or
asset management (retailers, warehouses) or other types
of bursty applications (telemedicine) . It is important to
separate this traffic and allow priority for voice traffic, so
that it is queued and leaves the WLAN first and that
packet delivery is consistent and reliable. This reduces
jitter (variable delays in packet transmissions) which have
the capability to lower voice quality. If your already
deployed AP's do not support VLANs and QoS, you can
overlay a separate voice wireless network, or mitigate
non-voice saturation on your APs by applying QoS at the
switch level to ensure the AP does not get saturated with

incoming application data. You may have variable levels
of success depending on the type of pre-existing traffic.
Roaming - This is one of the most common problems with
customer-installed WLAN infrastructure. A proper site
survey should be performed to determine seamless
coverage areas for AP handoffs. This is generally not an
issue with typical PCs or PDAs connected to the WLAN but once IP phones are added to the network and users
begin taking advantage of the mobility, it will result in
many dropped calls and degraded voice quality as IP
phones leave the coverage area. For consistent reliable
roaming, access points will need to be optimized for RF
power levels and 802.11 channel overlap. Also,
authentication and encryption on the wireless network
(LEAP or WEP) will need to be configured to allow secure
voice connections.
How can I add overhead paging to my CCME system?
Depending on your current environment, station-to-station intercom or group paging may not be
acceptable.
If you are in a warehouse, transportation or retail environment - you may need a louder, large
area of paging zone coverage. This is fairly common with the existing installed base of KSU and
PBX solutions.
Overhead paging devices can be integrated into a CallManager Express environment, sometimes
just as easy as adding an additional analog handset or fax machine. When looking at adding
overhead paging to your system, make sure to look at the following factors:




Interface - Many common paging systems use an FXS
port on your router to communicate, and are configured
like a standard analog handset to CCME. It is important
that you verify vendor availability of the interface ports
used to connect to your router in advance of the
implementation. Also, if you need to purchase and add an
FXS VIC card to your router or IAD ,make sure that you
have DSP resources available to drive the newly added
ports. The "show voice dsp" command will show you
many channels of external voice that your CCMErouter
can currently support.
Wiring - If this is an existing installation, your wiring to
your paging zones should be fine. Keep in mind that if
you are adding new zones, wiring will have to be installed
to accommodate the newly added speakers. If you are
moving your paging system from a phone closet or MPOE
to your data center, that wiring will need to be repulled as
well.
Space - Most paging systems are installed onto a wood
backboard on a wall in an existing phone room or closet.
Make sure to verify availability and accessibility to that
closet before the new system is installed.
Power - A majority of overhead paging systems are AC
based, and will use a wall mounted power ransformer to
supply voltage to the paging system. If you have DCbased phone facilities in your closet, be sure to ask your
paging vendor if they can accommodate your power
solution.
How can I secure CCME and prevent toll fraud?
Securing CCME is a two-pronged process - encompassing both your voice and data network
facilities. Network facing refers to routing and switching infrastructure security. Voice facing refers
to toll, voice messaging and phone security, internally and externally to your organization.
Network security itself is beyond the scope of this document, but Cisco provides several features
that can help secure your data infrastructure such as IOS Auto-Secure. Please study the Cisco
SAFE blueprints for more information on how to secure your voice and data infrastructure.
On the voice side, there are several features in CCME that you can take advantage of to secure
your voice infrastructure and prevent toll fraud:




Call Blocking - This gives you the ability to block calls 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. It is recommended that you
block known prefixes that you will not use, such as
international calling patterns (011), long distance PIC
codes (10-10-xxx) and 1-900 numbers to prevent toll
fraud. For more information, see How do I block 1-900,
10-10-xxx PICs and international calls?
Phone PINs - This gives you the ability to log in to a
phone, and bypass time of day and blocking restrictions
and make outbound phone calls.
PIN Timeouts - This gives you the ability to lock out a
phone after a predetermined amount of time to prevent
users in a high traffic zone from terminating toll calls from
a phone.
Time Based Blocking - This gives you the ability to
prevent outbound phone calls, based on time of day. This
is important in an 8-5 operation where maintenance and
janitorial facilities have access to your voice network after
hours.
For more details on these features, please look at the latest version of the CallManager Express
manual shown on the Quick Links bar above.
How do I create a system wide phone directory?
To configure a searchable system wide phone directory that is accessible via the Directories button
on your phone, you will need to create a directory entry database on your CCME router. CCME can
store up to 100 searchable names and phone numbers, with a customizable search order.
An example configuration is below, with first name being listed first.
telephony-service
directory first-name-first
directory entry 1 5551212 name "Pat Jensen"
directory entry 2 5552323 name "Sarat Khilnani"
directory entry 3 5559111 name "Ron Lewis"
Then by pressing the Directories button on your phone, and selecting Local Directory, you can then
search against the CCME system wide phone directory. To erase all directory entries on your router
quickly, use the "directory entry clear" command in telephony-service configuration mode.
How do I check for known CCME issues, bugs and workarounds?
If you have a CCO account that is registered to a SmartNet contract, you can use the Bug
Navigator to search for known issues.
The URL is http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/Support/Bugtool/home.pl
Alternately, you can use the IP Telephony Network Professionals connection, or Google Groups to
search for reported issues and workarounds, or ask questions to people with experience on the
CCME product.
How do I set up Caller ID blocking?
Caller ID blocking can be handled two ways for your users, either by call, or by directory number.
Per call blocking allows you to dial a special predetermined prefix to block outgoing caller ID. Per
DN blocking allows you to always block caller ID coming from a certain ephone-dn. Caller ID
blocking from CCME is only supported in a T1/PRI environment. Analog FXO caller ID blocking can
be activated by your LEC on your lines, or you can set up your dial plan to allow you to send the
outbound CLASS code to block it per call.
To configure it per call, you can configure a prefix like the example below:
telephony-service
caller-id block code *10
To configure it per DN, you can configure the DN like the example below:
ephone-dn 1
caller-id block
How do I set up phone paging?
Configuring phone to phone paging is a two step process. First, you should determine your paging
"zones", or who should be paged. This can be by department, workgroup or all users. You then
place each member into a paging-dn or zone. And then, just like a regular phone, you create a
ephone-dn and assign it a phone number to reach that zone.
Follow this example to configure paging:
ephone 1
paging-dn 1
ephone 2
paging-dn 1
ephone 3
paging-dn 1
ephone-dn 1
number 2000
paging
Alternately, if you have a switched network that encompasses your voice infrastructure, you can
preserve bandwidth by enabling the multicast paging feature. Instead of individual unicast streams
being sent to each phone in the paging group, you can send one multicast stream out, conserving
bandwidth. An example is below:
ephone-dn 1
number 2000
paging ip 225.10.10.1 port 2000
How do I migrate from CCME to CallManager and SRST?
Migrating from CCME to a full blown Cisco CallManager installation can be broken down into
several tasks. The key to a successful migration is the same as installing CCME, it is all about
preparation, planning and getting a good picture of the current state of your network.





Identify phone assets - Collect your existing CCME router
configurations to identify phones, user names and phone
locations. Populate an Excel spreadsheet with ephone and
ephone-dn information so that you can import it into BAT
to bulk create phones and directory information into
CallManager. If additional growth prompted you to move
to a CallManager deployment, purchase additional
switches, phones and ATAs.
Identify features and trunks - Get a good idea for what
features you are currently using in CCME, and find out if
they are currently supported with your version of
CallManager. Features like intercom and paging may
require extra applications (at an added cost, with
additional integration time) to perform the same
functionality in CM, depending on your needs. Inventory
trunk circuits at each CCME site and determine if any
additional trunks will be required to handle traffic from
the new CM deployment. This includes additional trunks
for tail-end hop off, and SRST for redundancy at those
locations. Contact your LEC to order any additional
circuits required.
Identify voice mail integration - Check compatibility for
integration with your existing voice mail systems. Extra
hardware may be required if your legacy voice mail
system does not support digital trunking or SMDI.
Install and implement - Install, configure and test
CallManager, Voicemail, Directory (LDAP or AD), DHCP
services and test operations and bulk add phones with
BAT.
Configure routers and SRST functionality - Reconfigure
branch routers with SRST. Add SRST locations into
CallManager. Verify incoming calls from SRST are routed
correctly and dial plans support outbound calls. Verify
failover to SRST works correctly during non-peak time.
How do I connect analog devices to CCME?
In a CCME environment, you have several options for analog connectivity. The key differences are
the feature sets available to each connected device. You can use a Foreign Exchange Station (FXS)
port on a CCME router or other IP router on your network, to connect analog phones, paging
systems, fax machines and modems. FXS ports are not provisioned and administered from within
CCME, they are configured separately. A voice-port and dial-peer will have to be configured for
each individual FXS port. They do not currently support features like message waiting indication.
An example configuration for an FXS port is below:
voice-port 1/0
station name Shipping
station number 1100
dial-peer voice 10 pots
destination-pattern 1100$
port 1/0
You can also use an analog gateway product like the Cisco ATA-186/188. This is a small Ethernet
connected gateway which provides dual analog ports for phones, fax machines and modems. The
ATA is administered just like a standard IP phone from within CCME, and gives you message
waiting indication, Caller ID, call waiting and forwarding features. An example configuration for an
ATA-188 is below:
ephone 6
mac-address 1234.1234.1234
type ata
button 1:6
ephone-dn 6
name Bus Yard
number 1200
Cisco makes a high density analog gateway called the VG-224 and VG-248 (24 and 48 ports
respectively). It supports all analog features like MWI, Caller ID, call waiting, sttuter dialtone,
transfer and forwarding. It enables you to use your existing punchdown infrastructure, without
rewiring or distributing small adapters to your users. It can take advantage of your closet power
protection for a higher reliability solution. Recent versions of CCME support the VG series Analog
Voice Gateway.
A recent addition to Cisco's IOS is controlly FXS port in SCCP mode, by implementing SCCP client
on the router (selected models). This technique allows a CCME to use local or remote FXS ports as
if these where ephones, hence a better integration and homogeneity of features is achieved.
Analog modems and faxes hooked up to an analog gateway are not known to have high
connectivity rates over the PSTN. There are a lot of variables that can garble fax communications
and cause erratic modem connections. On the CCME side, network conditions such as jitter, echo
cancellers and lack of QoS can effect outbound data transmissions. On the PSTN side, wire quality,
compression and Pairgain multiplexers can effect outbound data calls as well. Depending on the
type of PSTN connectivity you use (FXO/BRI/PRI), you may or may not exceed 14.4k for faxes and
28.8k for modem connectivity. In these cases, it may be helpful to maintain existing telco circuits
where analog data quality is important