UCA Softphone with MBG connections are flakey

[snelson]

Hi,

 We recently had an MSL system added to our 5000 by our vendor to enable us to run UCA with the ultimate goal being to eliminate the need for our remote staff to be on a VPN all the time to run an IP phone.  We plan to replace their IP phones with softphones.  We will have a mix of deskphone-only, softphone-only and desk+softphone users.

 We're at the point now where the vendor believes everything to be configured correctly, but I'm not so sure it is. (this seemed to be their first UCA + 5000 install.)  I'm hoping some of you could tell me if the following is normal behavior for a 5000 with MBG running UCA with Softphone:

 * When configured to work remotely the "Use teleworker for softphone" setting must be enabled. However, if we shut down a machine that had been working remotely and start it up at a different location (and thus on a different network) the softphone fails to connect.  The only "fix" seems to be to disable the Teleworker setting, shut down UCA, start UCA back up, re-enable Teleworker.  Not the most user-friendly process.

 * When in the office on the same LAN as the 5000, the softphone fails to connect until the teleworker setting is disabled, and UCA restarted.

 * If a remote user happens to be connected to the VPN when the UCA client is started, the softphone fails to connect until Teleworker mode is disabled and UCA restarted.  Also, in this situation, if UCA is shut down without making any changes, the VPN connection is then shut down, and UCA started, the softphone remains unable to connect[!] until teleworker is disabled, UCA restarted and teleworker re-enabled.

 * Video calling seems to have been disabled when the vendor switched us from "SIP softphone" to "UC softphone"

 I'm really hoping we can find a way to have UCA softphone work seamlessly both in and out of the office, as we were told it would.  I'm wondering if each user shouldn't actually have both a "UC Softphone and a SIP softphone configured?"  SIP for in the office, UC for out?  I'm still not sure that would solve it.

 Thanks for any help,

Simon

[Tech Electronics]

Snelson,

Rule 1: When teleworker mode is enabled in the UCA desktop clients and mobile clients, the SIP softphone and Minet softphone route the signalling and media traffic through the MBG even when the clients are used in the internal network.

I am going to assume that your CPE Installation and the MBG is on MAS, since you are using UC Softphones I am also going to assume a Co-residence on the MAS, and as such the MAS can only be deployed in one of two ways.

1. LAN Mode
2. Network Edge Mode

Do you know which one you are deployed as? These are the definitions straight out of the Engineering Guidelines.

MAS on the LAN
The safest way to deploy MBG is to leave MAS and its applications on the LAN, and deploy a second server running MBG (either standalone or single-app MAS) in the DMZ or in Gateway mode at the network edge. Remote access to the MAS server on the LAN is provided via Web Proxy on an Internet-facing MBG server. If centralized management is desired, the two MBG applications can be clustered, with the LAN server having a weight of zero to prevent sets being directed to it by the load balancer. All changes made on LAN MAS server will be reflected on the network edge MBG server.

MAS on the Network Edge
Although Mitel recommends the dual server approach for maximum security, a single MAS server with all applications can be deployed in server-gateway mode at the network edge. In this configuration, all administrative and end-user web interfaces and all services are directly reachable from the public network; Web Proxy is not required to reach them. Since this may be their first attempt this is the most likely setup you have.

Here is something else you need to keep in mind when trying to deploy MBG.

Partial Service Configurations
All MBG services are not available in all supported configurations. This section identifies for each MBG service configurations where the service is not supported at the time of writing. In some cases the service may be technically possible but not currently supported pending further testing or to reduce complexity.

MBG provides the following services:
Remote MiNet IP Phones
 Connecting to MBG in vUCC is not supported for LAN phones.
 Connecting to MBG in MAS on the LAN is not supported for Internet phones.

Remote SIP IP Phones
 Connecting to MBG in vUCC is not supported for LAN phones.
 Connecting to MBG in MAS on the LAN is not supported for Internet phones.
 The SIP Teleworker service is not available with MBG for the 5000 CP

SIP Trunking
 Connecting to a SIP trunk service provider from MBG in MAS on the LAN is not supported.

Call Recording
 Connecting to MBG in vUCC is not supported for LAN phones.
 Recording calls with MBG in MAS on the network edge is not supported for LAN phones.
 Recording calls with standalone MBG on the network edge is not supported for LAN phones.
 Call recording is not available with MBG for the 5000 CP.

Hopefully we can get this resolved soon.

Thanks,

TE

[snelson]

Thanks for the response.

 Correct, the system is deployed as a single network edge server.

 If I'm reading this correctly, you're saying that once the Teleworker box is checked, and the public IP entered (The UCA client will not accept the FQDN for some reason - should it?), the softphone should work seamlessly regardless if the user changes locations/networks be it home, office, Starbucks, or on a cellular hotspot (all assuming appropriate bandwidth is available).

 "The SIP Teleworker service is not available with MBG for the 5000 CP" for Remote SIP IP Phones is a little confusing to me (sorry for my ignorance, we outsource most of our phone system work to this vendor).  This sounds like they're just talking about the physical IP phone handsets, not for SoftPhones, correct?

 Also it sounds like call recording won't work as this is a 5000 CP - Disappointing, but not a deal breaker. I wish I could disable the button in the UI, as it does currently crash UCA if it's pressed.

 I'll go back to the vendor with this information.

Thanks,

Simon

[Tech Electronics]

Snelson,

First of all you can not use the Public IP Address you have to use the FQDN that is associated with the MBG and it needs to be the same on both the internal and external DNS so that works properly otherwise you will have the problems you are having now.

I am attaching a document that should give your technician/engineer an idea of how to set it up, assuming he has done this type of work before. Also they should have access to all the documents needed on Mitel's edoc website.

Thanks,

TE

[johnp]

I think the latest versions of MBG and 5000 software support both sip extensions and trunking through the MBG

[snelson]

Thanks for the document, I will pass it along.

I agree, it would make sense for the UCA client to use the FQDN rather than the public IP, but unfortunately it will not accept the FQDN in the Teleworker field.  It does accept the FQDN for the "server name" during setup, which is of course what we used.  If we enter an IP, any IP, the teleworker box turns from red to green and the Apply & OK buttons become available.  If we enter the FQDN (in fact any FDQN) the teleworker box remains red, and the OK and Apply buttons remain grayed-out.

I tried editing C:\Users\snelson\AppData\Roaming\Mitel\UC\snelson@mydomain.com\user.config to include the FQDN, which did get the field to populate correctly, however if I go to the config screen, the box remained red with no way to click OK or Apply.

Is there some setting in MBG, MAS, etc. that can effect the client in this way?  The client is v6.0.120.0 .

We do have split DNS setup correctly so the FQDN will result in a LAN IP when in the office, and the public IP when outside the LAN.  I can't say if the DNS is set up correctly on MGB though, as the vendor set that up.  I poked aroind some and while I did find references to our ISP's DNS server, the "corporate DNS" settings were not utilized.  Instead "internal DNS" was in use to supply the LAN IP resolution.  I'm not sure if that's correct or best practice. 

[johnp]

The teleworker value is an ip address not fqdn

[Tech Electronics]

Johnp & Snelson,

That is interesting as the manual specifically states that it can be an IP Address or FQDN. If it won't except a FQDN then it is no different the built in ability of the 5000 and therefore can not be used to pass from and internal network to an external network without some form of intervention on the user or administrators part.

At this point I have nothing nice to say about the MBG so I will just keep my mouth shut and look into setting one of these up myself since I have never had to do it with a 5000 in the first place. I will call Mitel tomorrow or the next day when I am on a site with a co-located MAS/UCA/MBG and have them walk me through it real fast. If it can be done I will figure it out.

Thanks,

TE