Centralized Management and Scheduling of Your Cisco TelePresence Network
Product Overview
Cisco TelePresence® Management Suite (Cisco® TMS) provides scheduling, control, and management of telepresence conferencing and media services infrastructure and endpoints, enabling enterprises to improve productivity, reduce costs, and maximize return on their telepresence investments (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Cisco TelePresence Management Suite
With Cisco TMS (Figure 2), network administration is simplified through powerful scheduling, configuration, and provisioning capabilities, making Cisco TMS vital to any telepresence deployment. Cisco TMS integrates phone books with various external information sources and existing directories. It allows you to schedule meetings quickly and easily, enabling effective collaboration while providing scalable, multivendor infrastructure support across the telepresence network. It also delivers a comprehensive set of usage and activity reports for informed business decisions.
Figure 2. Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Applications
Features and Benefits
Benefits of Cisco TMS include:
• Scalable provisioning: Cisco TMS can support rapid, large-scale deployments of up to 100,000 telepresence users, endpoints, and soft clients across disparate customer locations, including up to 5,000 direct-managed devices.
• Centralized administration: Cisco TMS automates and simplifies the management of telepresence meetings and telepresence infrastructure resources, reducing your total cost of ownership (TCO).
• Flexible scheduling: Cisco TMS makes scheduling telepresence meetings more accessible with a range of tools including a simple and intuitive Smart Scheduler option, extensions for Microsoft Exchange integration, and advanced booking capabilities for experienced administrators.
• Natural user experience: Cisco TMS reduces complexity and makes it easy for users to start and join meetings on time with One Button To Push (OBTP) capability for select Cisco TelePresence systems and intuitive instructions for other participants, including One Click To Join for people joining with WebEx and in-meeting message notifications.
Features of Cisco TMS follow:
• Centralized management of all conferences, ad-hoc and scheduled, in real time.
• Flexible scheduling tools designed to meet the needs of basic users for quick conference creation, including integration with Microsoft Exchange for scheduling via Outlook clients, and to provide advanced conference booking options for sophisticated users.
• Robust and flexible phone book management that supports synchronization with a wide range of directories, including external sources for easy contact management.
• A selection of ready-to-use reports and support for the creation of fully customizable reports to answer specific business questions.
Table 1 lists additional features and benefits of Cisco TMS.
Table 1. Features and Benefits
Product Feature
Benefits
Configuration Management
Provisioning and device management
• Featuring distributed, redundant architecture with the Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (Cisco VCS) clustering technology, Cisco TMS supports up to 100,000 telepresence users, endpoints, and soft clients across disparate customer locations.
• Cisco TMS supports up to 5000 direct-managed devices.
• Cisco TMS Provisioning Extension supports provisioning and management of Cisco Jabber™ Video for TelePresence (formerly Cisco TelePresence Movi™), Cisco Jabber™ for iPad, Cisco IP Video Phone E20, Cisco TelePresence System EX60, EX90, MX200, MX300.
Account management, security and permissions
• Microsoft Active Directory integration allows the use of enterprise logins.
• Synchronization with the enterprise directory provides for automatic user account creation and maintenance.
• User groups for controlling permissions are customizable.
• Cisco TMS supports automatic group membership using Microsoft Active Directory.
Directory Management
Phone book and sources
• Cisco TMS supports centralized phone book and directory services for Cisco and select third-party H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) endpoints.
• Import of directory records and synchronization with many data sources, including Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Microsoft Active Directory, H.350 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), gatekeepers, and file-based imports is automatic.
• Cisco TMS supports hierarchical phone book structures, enabling easy browsing of contacts on the endpoint user interface.
Conference Management
Conference Control Center
• Conference Control Center manages scheduled and unscheduled conference activity.
• Cisco TMS manages point-to-point, multipoint control unit (MCU)-hosted, and Cisco TelePresence Server-hosted conferences.
• Conference Control Center monitors conference events for connectivity status, alarms, and changes.
Diagnostics and alarms
• Intelligent diagnostics interrogate the configurations and status of managed devices, reporting errors.
Ticketing service
• Cisco TMS ticketing service provides a centralized view of status and configuration errors for direct-managed devices.
• Cisco TMS offers proactive suggestions for resolving error conditions.
Event notification
• Cisco TMS provides email notification of select system events on a per-event, per-device, and per-user basis.
Graphical monitoring
• An animated graphical view or geographical map view allows for visualizing call activity and direct-managed device status.
Booking and Scheduling
Scheduling Extension products
• Cisco TMS Smart Scheduler interface, included with Cisco TMS Provisioning Extension (Cisco TMSPE), allows simple, intuitive booking of single-instance and recurrent telepresence meetings.
• Cisco TMS supports Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and 2010 calendar integration through the Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Extension for Microsoft Exchange (Cisco TMSXE).
• Cisco TMS supports IBM Lotus Domino Server calendar integration through Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Extension for IBM Lotus Notes (Cisco TMSXN).
• Custom-built scheduling interfaces for other calendaring products are supported through the Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Extension Booking API (Cisco TMSBA).
Support for advanced telepresence scheduling features
• Scheduling with Cisco TelePresence MCUs and Cisco TelePresence Servers is supported.
• Scheduling with Cisco TelePresence Conductor (requires TelePresence Conductor XC2.2 or later).
• Scheduling and automation of point-to-point meetings using the embedded Cisco TelePresence MultiSite™ capability of select Cisco TelePresence endpoints is supported.
• Variable length Personal identification number (PIN) access controls on Cisco TelePresence MCUs and Cisco TelePresence Servers, and Participant Access Codes for WebEx Enabled TelePresence are supported to secure meetings.
• Scheduling meetings that include both TelePresence and WebEx together is supported, enabling organizations to extend their conferencing reach.
• Cisco TMS allows scheduled conferences to be extended, or where an extension is not possible, TMS can display meeting notifications to participants.
Booking confirmation emails
• Customizable booking confirmations are automatically sent by email to the organizer with clear, simple joining instructions and clickable links for participants to join with telepresence, WebEx, and audio-only applications.
Resource allocation
• Scheduling is provided across non-homogenous networks with mixed vendors and mixed protocols (H.323, H.320, SIP, V.35, and telephone).
• Cisco TMS intelligently manages dial-plan and infrastructure resources to facilitate conference automation.
Infrastructure Management
Asset management
• Cisco TMS has a single management console for all Cisco and select third-party telepresence devices, including endpoints, call-control servers, Cisco TelePresence MCUs, Cisco TelePresence Servers, and other infrastructure.
• Communications for select Cisco applications are secured using Secure HTTP (HTTPS) and full X.509 certificate validation (user, device, and server communications).
Configuration backup and restore
• With Cisco TMS you can retrieve and back up configurations of all supported devices.
• You can compare current and previous device configurations.
• Cisco TMS supports single or bulk restoration of saved configurations to all supported devices.
Software upgrades
• Automated software upgrade helps ensure the latest software updates and release key retrieval for supported devices with minimal administrative intervention.
• Cisco TMS offers an administrator-defined schedule for bulk software upgrades of supported systems.
Customized Reporting and Analysis
Auditing
• Integrated application audit logging to monitor system changes is supported.
Standard reports
• Asset management reports include ticket logs, device events, device alarms, and connectivity diagnostics.
• Call-history reports for managed endpoints and infrastructure are provided.
• Scheduling activity reports include user-based, scheduling interface used, conference event logs, and conference reports.
Business intelligence integration
• A Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)-based application programming interface (API) is available through the Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Analytics Extension (Cisco TMSAE).
• Business Intelligence (BI) integration extends Cisco TMS Reporting to other BI tools for fully customized reporting through Microsoft Excel, Crystal Reports, or other Microsoft SSAS-compatible products.
Product Specifications
Table 2 lists platform and language specifications of Cisco TMS.
Table 2. Platform and Language Specifications
Platform
Application
• Cisco TMS is provided as software for installation on a customer-provided Microsoft Windows Server (Cisco recommends Cisco Unified Computing System™ [Cisco UCS®] Servers).
• The Cisco TMS user interface is a web-browser application that uses Microsoft Internet Information Services (.NET framework).
Database server flexibility and resilience
• Cisco TMS supports either a local database server installation or an external standalone SQL server.
• Cisco TMS also supports Microsoft SQL Server Clustering. It supports multiple deployment scenarios, including multiple application servers with or without load balancing for high availability.
Localization and Internationalization Support
Character set support
• Cisco TMS offers international name support (UTF-8) for direct-managed and provisioned devices management.
• It offers international name support (UTF-8) for phone books and phone book sources.
Language support for primary Cisco TMS interface
• You can select language preferences.
• Languages supported include:
• English
• French
• German
• Russian
• Japanese
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Korean
Language support for Cisco TMS Smart Scheduler
• English
Language support for booking confirmation email templates
• You can select language preferences.
• Languages supported include:
• English
• French
• German
• Russian
• Japanese
• Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)
• Korean
• Arabic
• Catalan
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• Finnish
• Italian
• Norwegian (Bokmål)
• Polish
• Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil)
• Spanish (Spain and Latin America)
• Swedish
• Thai
• Turkish
System Requirements
Table 3 lists system requirements for Cisco TMS.
Table 3. System Requirements for Cisco TelePresence Management Suite
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite
Product specifications
• The base software product includes a license for up to 10 direct-managed devices.
• The base capacity may be extended through additional purchased licenses:
• Additional system licenses (up to 5,000 managed devices or 100,000 large-scale provisioning devices)
• Additional Cisco Jabber Mobile Client and Cisco Jabber Video for TelePresence (formerly Cisco TelePresence Movi) licenses for up to 100,000 users
• Base product functions may be extended through feature licenses or accessory products:
• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Provisioning Extension (TMSPE)
• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Extension for Microsoft Exchange (TMSXE)
• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Extension for IBM Lotus Notes (TMSXN)
• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Extension Booking API (TMSBA)
• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Analytics Extension (TMSAE)
• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Network Integration Extension (NETINT)
• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Application Integration Extension (APPINT)
Scheduling WebEx Enabled TelePresence
• In order to use Cisco TMS to book telepresence meetings that include WebEx, you will need:
• Cisco TMS 14.2 or later
• A zero cost Cisco WebEx and TelePresence integration option L-WBX-TPINT or L-WBX-TPINT= (includes TMS option key L-TMS-WXOT)
• Windows Server 2008 SP2 or later, Standard 32 bit and 64 bit, or Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard 64-bit
• Minimum dual-core 2.6 GHz processor (Intel or equivalent) recommended
• Minimum 4 GB of RAM
• Minimum 10 GB of disk space for application installation
SQL Server requirements
• One of the following is required:
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (all versions, 32- or 64-bit)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (all versions, 32- or 64-bit)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (all 32-bit versions)
• If an SQL database is not present on the server when installing Cisco TMS, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express 32-bit will be installed. Note that all Express editions of Microsoft SQL Server have certain technical restrictions, including for example, a database size limit:
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and 2005 Express have a 4 GB limit.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express has a 10 GB limit.
• Large deployments with databases that can be expected to grow larger than 4 or 10 GB, respectively, must therefore use the full edition. We recommend using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 for new installations.
Client user requirements
• Cisco TMS is tested with:
• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 9 and 10
• Firefox versions 21 and 22
• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.5 is required (Version 1.6.0 or later is recommended)
Cisco TMSBA - Extension Booking API - per 25 system registrations
L-TMS-BAPI-25
Cisco TMSXN - Extension for IBM Lotus Notes - per 25 system registrations
L-TMS-LOTUS-25
Cisco TMSXE - Extension for Microsoft Exchange - per 25 system registrations
L-TMS-MSEX-25
Cisco TMS Application Integration Package - per server integrated
L-TMS-APPINT
Cisco Services and Support
Cisco offers a wide range of services programs to accelerate customer success. These innovative services programs are delivered through a unique combination of people, processes, tools, and partners, resulting in high levels of customer satisfaction. Cisco Services help you protect your network investment, optimize network operations, and prepare your network for new applications to extend network intelligence and the power of your business. For more information about Cisco Services, visit Cisco Technical Support Services or Cisco Telepresence Services online.
For More Information
For more information about the Cisco TelePresence Management Suite, please visit Cisco TelePresence Management Suite or contact your local Cisco account manager.
