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Table Of Contents
Cisco IPICS Server Administration
Logging In to and Out of Cisco IPICS
Accessing Online Help in the Administration Console
Important Cisco IPICS Concepts
Cisco IPICS Roles and Associated Tasks
Cisco IPICS Server Administration
This chapter describes the various administration tasks and concepts that are important to understand when you use Cisco IPICS and includes the following sections:
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Managing Cisco IPICS Licenses
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You install the Cisco IPICS software on supported Cisco Media Convergence Servers (MCS). Before you can perform administration tasks in Cisco IPICS, you must first install the Cisco IPICS operating system and the Cisco IPICS server software.
For detailed information about installing Cisco IPICS, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Installation and Upgrade Guide, Release 2.0(1).
Managing Cisco IPICS Licenses
You must first purchase and upload the applicable license file(s) on to the Cisco IPICS server to use any of the features that are available in Cisco IPICS or to use the Cisco IPICS Administration Console.
After you complete the Cisco IPICS installation, you use the Product Authorization Key (PAK) that was included in your Cisco IPICS product package to obtain the license file.
The license that you purchase is based on the total number of the following licensable features:
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To purchase your Cisco IPICS license file(s), access the following URL:
http://www.cisco.com/go/license
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After you have purchased your license file, you can upload the file(s) by accessing the Administration > License Management window in the Administration Console. Refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide for information about how to upload and apply your Cisco IPICS licenses.
Logging In to and Out of Cisco IPICS
You must log in to the Cisco IPICS Administration Console to perform any administration functions. When you have finished using Cisco IPICS, you log out of the Administration Console.
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You must install the Cisco IPICS operating system and server software, and upload one or more license files before you can log in to Cisco IPICS. For detailed information about obtaining license file(s), refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
To log in to and out of Cisco IPICS, complete the following steps:
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The Cisco IPICS Administration Console displays the My Profile window. You see only the information that relates to your user ID and the user role that was assigned to you.
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The Cisco IPICS window closes and you return to the Cisco IPICS login window.
Accessing Online Help in the Administration Console
You can access the Cisco IPICS help system from any window in the Administration Console by clicking Help in the menu at the top of the window. The help system provides online access to the information that is contained in the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide. This help system is whenever you use the Administration Console.
Important Cisco IPICS Concepts
You should be aware of some important concepts when you use Cisco IPICS. The following sections describe some of these concepts:
Understanding Locations
In Cisco IPICS, locations are used to define multicast domains within a Cisco IPICS deployment. A multicast domain comprises a set of multicast addresses that are reachable within a multicast network boundary. This implementation enables the Cisco IPICS server to assign the appropriate multicast address based on a specific user location.
In addition to specifically assigning names to locations, Cisco IPICS includes two predefined locations: ALL and REMOTE.
The ALL location signifies no network boundaries; that is, a channel that is designated with the ALL location means that there are no network boundaries within the Cisco IPICS deployment for that associated multicast address.
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The REMOTE location is available only to PMC users. When a PMC user chooses the REMOTE location from the drop-down list box, connectivity is established with the appropriate RMS via a SIP-based unicast connection for each channel or VTG that has been assigned to the user.
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In all cases, the Cisco IPICS server allocates RMS resources upon successful PMC authentication. When additional channels or VTGs are assigned to a logged-in user, the server immediately allocates the necessary RMS resources for each channel or VTG. When the PMC user activates the channel or VTG, the PMC places the SIP call to the appropriate RMS.
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For more detailed information about configuring locations, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide and the Cisco IPICS PMC Installation and User Guide.
Understanding VTGs
A VTG enables multiple participants on various channels to communicate by using a single multicast address. Participants in a VTG can include users, user groups, channels, channel groups, and other VTGs. An active VTG is a VTG in which all the participants have live connections with each other.
Cisco IPICS dispatchers can stage a VTG by creating a VTG template, which is an inactive VTG. The dispatcher uses a VTG template to arrange participants who can communicate when the VTG template is activated.
A VTG template allows the dispatcher to create various arrangements of members without committing network resources or affecting other VTGs that are in progress.
After the VTG is activated, the dispatcher can add and remove users, channels, and other VTGs, notify and dial out to VTG participants, and mute and unmute PMC users at any time; however, when the dispatcher makes changes to an active VTG, the original VTG template remains unchanged.
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For more detailed information about VTGs, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Understanding Ops Views
Cisco IPICS ops views provide the ability to organize or segment different entities, such as agencies, companies, departments, jurisdictions, municipalities, or sites, into separate views that are isolated from each other, providing increased security by limiting operator and dispatcher access. While these views are maintained separately by the system administrator, this functionality also allows multiple entities to use one Cisco IPICS server to enable resource sharing across multiple ops views, according to business need. In other words, resources in separate ops views are not accessible to users in other ops views unless the users are granted permission to access them.
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Ops View Port Allocation
When you purchase Cisco IPICS license(s), the license includes a specified number of ops views that you can configure. By default, Cisco IPICS includes the SYSTEM ops view with every installation. Cisco IPICS users who belong to the SYSTEM ops view can view all ops views, and their resources, that are configured on the system.
Each time the system administrator adds a new ops view, ports are reallocated from the SYSTEM ops view and distributed to the newly created ops view. The system administrator determines the number and types of ports, such as PMC ports, LMR ports, and dial ports that are needed for a particular ops view.
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When you add dial numbers (DNs) for ops views in a Cisco IPICS deployment that includes the policy engine, and if the new DNs fall outside of existing route patterns that are assigned to a SIP trunk (in Cisco Unified CallManager) or outside of existing destination patterns that are assigned to a dial peer (in Cisco IOS), you must update the SIP provider configuration to include the new DNs. For detailed information, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.When an ops view gets deleted, the system administrator has the option to reallocate the resources that were in the deleted ops view to other existing ops views in the system.
You must allocate dial ports for users to be able to dial in to Cisco IPICS, dial out to other users, or for the system to notify users. These dial ports are configured in the Dial Information and Dial Port Resources Allocation pane, in the Configuration > Ops Views window.
Dial port containers (also referred to as dial pools) allow you to configure reserve dial ports that are only used for specific dial functions (such as dial-in/invite and notification). These reserved dial ports ensure that you always have ports configured specifically for this use and which cannot be used for any other purpose.
The following dial pools are used for reserving ports for dial-in/invite and notification:
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The Dial ports reserved for dial-in/invite or notifications field is a read-only field that displays ports that Cisco IPICS allocates for both dial-in/invite and notification actions. The ports that display in this field are the ports that remain after you have reserved dial ports for dial-in, invite, and notification. The remaining number are the dial ports that are reallocated from the total number of dial ports in the Dial Ports dial pool.
For more detailed information about dial port allocation, refer to the "Allocating Dial Ports for the Dial-In/Invite and Notification Features" section in the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Ops View Attributes
Cisco IPICS ops views support the following attributes:
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Ops View Considerations
When using ops views, considering the following caveats:
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For detailed configuration information about Cisco IPICS ops views, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Understanding Associations
In Cisco IPICS, you can assign attributes to users, that control their behavior. In some cases, attributes may have the same attribute behaviors, so when users are associated to channels or VTGs, the system determines the resulting PMC behaviors based on the configured attributes for each associated resource. For example, a user may be allowed to perform a particular function, such as the use of the PMC latch feature, but when the same user is associated to a channel that does not allow the latch feature, the user will not be allowed to latch on that channel as long as the user is a part of that association. After the user is no longer associated to that channel, then the attributes that were originally configured for the user will apply (the user will be allowed to latch on channels again).
Cisco IPICS allows values for attributes to be customized or overridden. When attributes of users or channels that are part of an association get modified, the resulting behavior depends on the attribute settings for those users within the association. When you attempt to override a customized value of an attribute in an association, Cisco IPICS prompts you with a message to inform you that the action will override the custom PMC setting for that specific attribute.
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For more detailed information about attribute association behaviors, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Cisco IPICS Roles and Associated Tasks
Each person who uses Cisco IPICS is assigned one or more roles. Roles define the features that a user can access and the functions that the user can perform.
There are specific tasks that are associated with every Cisco IPICS role. Each Cisco IPICS user is assigned a role that determines the scope of user functionality and window accessibility.
The following sections provide brief descriptions of the tasks that are associated with each Cisco IPICS role:
System Administrator Tasks
The Cisco IPICS system administrator performs the following tasks, as described in Table 2-1.
Table 2-1 System Administrator Tasks
Install Cisco IPICS
Before you can perform any system administrator tasks, you must first install and configure the Cisco IPICS server. To install and configure Cisco IPICS, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Installation and Upgrade Guide.
Configure the Cisco IPICS server
Configure and manage the RMS
You perform RMS management in the RMS window. Access this window from the Configuration drawer in the Administration Console. See the "Managing the RMS" section for more information about the RMS.
For more detailed information about configuring the RMS component, refer to "Configuring the RMS Component" appendix in the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Manage locations
You add and delete locations in the Locations window. Access this window from the Configuration drawer.
For more information about locations, see the "Understanding Locations" section. For detailed information, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Set up multicast addresses
You set up multicast IP addresses in the Multicast Pool window. Access this window from the Configuration drawer.
For detailed information, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Configure PTT channels and channel groups
You perform channel and channel group management in the Channels and Channel Groups windows. Access these windows from the Configuration drawer.
For detailed information about channel and channel group management, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Manage PMC versions
You upload PMC version packages to the server and configure the PMC installer, as well as manage PMC alert tones and skins from the PMC Management drawer.
For more information about PMC management, see the "Managing the Cisco IPICS PMC" section. For more detailed information, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Monitor system status
You monitor system status and diagnostic information, to use for troubleshooting and to monitor user activity, from the Serviceability drawer.
For more information about monitoring system status, see the "Cisco IPICS Serviceability" section. For more detailed information, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Review log files
You view log file activities that relate to VTGs, such as operational views (ops views) for each channel, user, and VTG, the creator of log entries, and the time that log activities occurred. You can also download archived log entries for historical reporting. Log activities can be performed from the Administration drawer.
For more detailed information about log activities, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Create and manage Cisco IPICS ops views
Ops views enable the use of resource sharing on one Cisco IPICS server. You perform ops view management in the Ops View window from the Configuration drawer.
For more information about ops views, see the "Understanding Ops Views" section. For more detailed information about ops views, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Back up and restore the Cisco IPICS database
You can back up and restore the Cisco IPICS database, as well as download the backup and restore activity log files, in the Database Management window. Access this window from the Administration drawer.
For more information, see the "Cisco IPICS Database Management" section. For detailed information, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Set up Cisco Unified IP Phones
You configure Cisco Unified IP Phones for phone service in conjuction with the Cisco Unified CallManager or for Cisco Unified CallManager Express.
For more information, see the "Using Cisco Unified IP Phones with Cisco IPICS" section. For detailed information, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Create and manage policies
You create and manage policies by using the policy engine. Policies comprise one or more actions, which are discrete functions that perform when the policy executes. You perform policy engine tasks by accessing the Policy Management drawer in the Policy Engine tab.
For more information, see the "Managing and Using the Cisco IPICS Policy Engine" section. For detailed information about the policy engine, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Manage the dial engine
The Cisco IPICS dial engine enables the TUI and its associated features. You use the dial engine to manage system and custom scripts and prompts that the TUI uses to handle incoming and outgoing calls. You perform dial engine tasks by accessing the Dial Engine drawer in the Policy Engine tab.
For more information about the dial engine, see the "Managing and Using the Cisco IPICS Policy Engine" section. For detailed information, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Ops View Administrator Tasks
The ops view administrator can download and monitor the Cisco IPICS activity logs for the ops view to which the user belongs. This user can also specify which activity types Cisco IPICS should log, per the ops view of the user.
The tasks that relate to activity logs are performed in the Activity Log Management and Activity Log Options windows. You can access these windows from the Administration drawer in the Administration Console.
Refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide for more detailed information about the specific tasks that users can perform depending on their Cisco IPICS roles.
Operator Tasks
The operator performs the following tasks:
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Operator activities can be performed from the User Management drawer in the Administration Console. Users who are assigned the operator role can also access the dial engine windows.
For detailed information about the Cisco IPICS operator tasks, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
Dispatcher Tasks
The dispatcher performs the following tasks:
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User Tasks
A user can perform the following tasks:
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Users can access the user windows from the Home drawer in the Administration Console. For more information about user tasks, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.
