System and Network Management

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  • 1.  Network Region PE and CLAN

    Posted 05-11-2015 07:26 AM

    New to our enviroment. Hope I get the terms correct.

    I have been looking at how the network regions are setup. We have CM(PE/PROCR), G650, 2 G430, 1 G700. None of the gateways have trunks.

    We are using all H323 IP phones. No SIP.

    We have 4 regions defined. Our IP map has three regions but the DHCP IP pool space only maps to region 1.

    All our CLAN cards are in region 1 except one is in region 2.

    Our PE or PROCR is in region 200. Not sure why. The IP phones all register to the CLAN cards. I was thinking I would like to move away from using the CLAN cards.

    To get the IP phones to register to the PE I assume I need to change the PE from region 200 to region 1. What would be the impact of doing that? I'm not sure why its in region 200 to begin with.

     



  • 2.  RE: Network Region PE and CLAN

    Posted 05-11-2015 11:32 AM

    Well, I am not that expert regarding your question, bzt in our setup we have a cm 6.3 in duplex mode running in our central data center and all regions connected to this CM(s). I guess you only have to change the gatekeeper address the phones connect to. Just add the procr-address as first gatekeeper to the phones-configuration, then the phones will try to connect to that gatekeeper. If it fails, they will connect to the CLAN-gatekeeper.

    The regions are important for routing rules between the regions i assume (i'm nt for 100% sure) and to have different configurations on each network region. You can configure WAN bandwidth between regions and limit traffic and usage of codecs to guarantee quality.

    What I am not sure about is if there are further side effects in switching from CLAN to PE.

    I just would take one phone, put it in a phone group no other phone is using, add the PE-gatekeeper address in the config-section and test with this phone.

     

    regards,

    andre



  • 3.  RE: Network Region PE and CLAN

    Posted 05-11-2015 12:02 PM

    Our procr-address address is in the DHCP options for the gatekeeper but the H323 VoIP phones always connect to the CLAN cards.

    My guess is in list ip-network-map v4 the subnet for DHCP for the VoIP phones is for REgion 1. The procr-address is in region 200. Given such the endpoints would never register with the procr-address.

    To do what I want I'm pretty sure the procr needs to be in region 1 instead of region 200. I'm just not sure why procr is in region 200 and if I move it to 1 what impact will that have by moving. What might I break.

    Craig



  • 4.  RE: Network Region PE and CLAN

    Posted 05-11-2015 12:18 PM

    not sure but i guess it won't impact something if procr is moved to nr 1. it isn't used anyway, is it?

    neverthless procr should be able to be registered to. just take a phone and configure PNLY procr as gatekeeper and check if the phone is able to register to.

     

    regards,

    andre



  • 5.  RE: Network Region PE and CLAN

    Posted 05-12-2015 11:11 AM

    I'd leave your PROCR interface alone, even if you do pull out the CLAN boards.  Avaya h.323 phones derive their network region in two ways.  

    * In the absence of a matching entry in the IP Network Map, the phone is assigned the IP-Network region of its gatekeeper (either CLAN or PROCR)

    * When the h.323 devices IP is matched in the IP Network Map, the phone is assigned the IP-Network region found in the Network Map.  This means a phone can be given a network region that does not contain a CLAN TN board or the PROCR interface.

    I find it very easy to track down misconfigurations in an environment when PROCR is isolated in its own network region.  If a Network Region isn't properly administered in the network map, you'll find phone registrations in the PROCR region that don't belong.  In your case, running a list reg reg 200 would show you any phones that had registered to PROCR, but lacked a matching entry in the network map.

    You mentioned your DHCP scope options tell the phones to register to PROCR, but you find your phones registered to CLANs, right?  This is a load balancing mechanism employed by CM.  When h.323 phones register, CM attempts to load balance registrations and reassign them a gatekeeper in their own region first.  If there isn't one, they can remain registered to PROCR, but still receive the proper network region assignment.

    Tom Lynn



  • 6.  RE: Network Region PE and CLAN

    Posted 05-12-2015 11:24 AM

    list reg ref 200 shows no endpoints in Region 200. Also, our CM utility server never shows endpoints and its checking with CM for registered endpoints. That is because all the endpoints are on the CLANs.

    Our DHCP scope has the MCIPADD pointing at PROCR in region 200. But our IP Network Map only points to Region 1 where all the CLAN resides.

    So the IP Network Map tells the endpoints to register with any CLAN that is in region 1. No endpoints ever register with PROCR which is in region 200 even though its listed as the gatekeeper in DHCP scope option.

    I'm thinking if I want to move towards PROCR as the registration point and away from the CLANs. I need to change the IP network map where it has region 1 for the scope to region 200. And maybe move the CLANs to region 200 as well giving them lower priority over the PROCR as a backup.



  • 7.  RE: Network Region PE and CLAN

    Posted 05-15-2015 09:19 PM

    Craig,

    I'm glad to hear there are no phones orphaned in NR 200.  It means your subnets are all accounted for in the network map.

    As for remapping your subnets to Network Region 200?  Respectfully, I disagree with that course of action, as it will cause you to have to re-examine the relationships between other network regions.  Relationships, that I assume are working well as they are.

    Your DHCP scope quite rightfully is instructing your phones to register to the PROCR address.  If you list trace RAS (consult help for exact syntax) you'll see this is the case.  A fresh phone that has never registered to your environment has no knowledge of the existence of the CLAN boards until it has successfully registered to the PROCR gatekeeper.  Once this has happened, and only when it has happened, does the phone learn about the CLAN boards (unless your DHCP scope is referencing a list of gatekeeper addresses, of course).  At this point the IP-network map is consulted and two things happen.  The phone is mapped to IP-Network region 1, and upon discovering available gatekeepers in IP-Network-Region 1, its registration is moved to one of the available CLANs within that region.  Had there been no available CLAN board within network region 1, the phone would still be mapped to NR1, but it's gatekeeper would remain the PROCR address.

    You can prove this behavior by changing translations on the IP-interface screen.  Tell the CLANs that they're no longer eligible to accept h.323 registrations.  At this point, the phones will seek an alternate gatekeeper and find only PROCR available to them.  It's intrusive.

    I have 1 PROCR address and dozens of network regions, about 7500 sets and absolutely no C-LAN boards.  You don't need them.  Removing the CLAN boards and calling it a day poses the least risk due to administrative change. 

     

    Good luck.