Call Forking with AD integration on UX platform

Call forking is another great feature in UX platform. It allows to send a single call to up to 8 endpoints. This feature requires license. Check license for Forking.

The traditional call routing logic is that process goes through routing table top to bottom trying to match Called Number. As soon as matching routing entry is found the matching process stops and call is sent to destination specified in matching routing entry. UX Routing Table entry has parameter "Fork Call". If this option is enabled matching process doesn’t stop on first matched routing entry but proceeds to next routing entry.

As result two calls are initiated based on two different Routing Table entries. In this example we are routing calls to Lync based on Active Directory match criteria and to PBX.

Transformation tables for Lync AD routing

Transformation Table for PBX routing translating 4 digit extension to 5 digit.

Active Directory integration in UX platform

UX platform has a great features - Active Directory integration. This article will show how to use AD integration for advanced call routing.

First make sure that "Active Directory" feature license is present and by default it is since it's no fee feature in UX platform.
WebUI - Settings Tab - System - Licensing - Current Licenses:

Next, add Domain Controller to Domain Controllers Table:

Settings - Auth and Directory Services - Active Directory - Domain Controllers

Specify Domain Controller IP/FQDN, Search Scope and LDAP Query.

Configure Active Directory settings:
Settings - Auth and Directory Services - Active Directory - Configuration.
Enable AD use, specify Operating Mode, Username and password, Update Frequency, Cache Attributes and Primary Damin controller that was specified in previous step.
For AD based routing to Lync2010 use msRTCSIP-Line attribute.

Verify connectivity by going to Domain controllers and clicking on "Status". AD Connectivity Status should be "Up"

Now proceed to Transformation table:

Create new transformation table "AD Translation" and within that table add two  rows:

In this case UX normalizes Called Number to E.164 and trying to match to msRTCSIP-Line. If match is found,  msRTCSIP-Line value is used as Called Number for outbound call to Lync.

Next assign newly created "AD Translation" transformation table to Call Routing Table entry with Lync as destination.

Logging on UX1000 with SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server

At some point during UX1000 deployment you will need to get logs for review. With UX1000 there is a way to configure Remote log server.

There are several Syslog server options. I am going to cover SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server.

Kiwi download and install is no rocket science: google it on Bing, download, follow setup wizard. You can install Kiwi as Application or Server (runs as service, no need to login and start application). I installed it as an Application.

First thing is to configure Remote Log Server and subsystems for logging. ( I know you know, just saying)

 As soon as I started Kiwi Syslog server Console the messages from UX started popping up.

 

But! there is limitation: only 40 rows are shown. You can increase number of rows to display but upper range is 50, which is not enough for troubleshooting. The good news is that Kiwi writes a log in .txt.

Now you have logs to work with.

NET UX1000 Overview

Learn about hardware side of NET UX1000 new Gateway/Lync SBA appliance.