Processing CDR from CUCM in Tariscope

The Tariscope system (SoftPI) allows you to collect and process data about the calls made through different telephone systems, including a voice equipment of Cisco Systems, such as Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM).

Contents

Benefits of Tariscope to analyse CDR from CUCM
CDR configuration in CUCM
Tariscope configuration to process CDR, CMR files
Data analysis
Control of the call quality
Creation of specific report form
Telephone budget management
Testing and purchase of Tariscope
References

Benefits of Tariscope to analyse CDR from CUCM

You can find benefits of Tariscope to analyse CDR from CUCM in the article.

CDR configuration in CUCM

When Cisco Unified Communications Manager places or receives a call, the system generates a CDR record when the call terminates. The system writes the CDR to a flat file (text file) [1].

CDR file has the following filename format:

tag_clusterId_nodeId_datetime_seqNumber where:

tag – Identifies the type of file, either CDR or CMR (Call Management Record).
clusterId – Identifies the cluster or server where the Cisco Unified Communications Manager database resides.
nodeId – Identifies the node.
datetime - Indicates UTC time when the file was created. The yyyymmddhhmm format is used.
seqNumber – Specifies the sequence number of the file.

Here are some examples of such file names:

cdr_StandAloneCluster_01_201409111456_55

cmr_StandAloneCluster_01_201409111456_237

CUCM can send CDR files to up to three billing servers via FTP/SFTP. The CDR Repository Manager service executes this function. How to configure general parameters of CDR Repository Manager you can find in the Section "CDR Repository Manager → Set up general parameters" [2].

To set up sending of CDR files to a specific billing server, perform the steps described in the Section "CDR Repository Manager → Set up application billing server" [2].

Next, you must configure CDR parameters. To do this, open Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration and choose System → Enterprise Parameters.

The CDR File Time Interval parameter specifies the time interval for collecting CDR data. For example, if this value is set to 1, each file will contain 1 minute of CDR data (CDRs and CMRs, if enabled). The external billing server and CAR database will not receive the data in each file until the interval has expired, so consider how quickly you want access to the CDR data when you decide what interval to set for this parameter. For example, setting this parameter to 60 means that each file will contain 60 minutes worth of data, but that data will not be available until the 60-minute period has elapsed, and the records are written to the CAR database and the CDR files are sent to the configured billing servers. The default value equals 1. The minimum value specifies 1, and the maximum value specifies 1440. [2]

And finally, you should configure CDR service. To do this, open Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration and choose System → Service Parameters [3]. Choose the Advanced button to display the complete list of Service Parameters. The following list of service parameters can affect CDR/CMR records:

• System Parameters

CDR Enabled Flag - This parameter determines whether CDRs are generated. Valid values specify True (CDRs are generated) or False (CDRs are not generated). For this required field, the default value specifies False. Enable this parameter on all servers.
CDR Log Calls With Zero Duration Flag - This parameter enables or disables the logging of CDRs for calls which were never connected or which lasted less than 1 second. Cisco Unified Communications Manager logs unsuccessful calls (calls that result in reorder, such as might occur because of a forwarding directive failure or calls that attempt to go through a busy trunk) regardless of this flag setting. This represents a required field. The default value specifies False.

• Clusterwide Parameters (Device - General)

Call Diagnostics Enabled - This parameter determines whether the system generates call management records (CMRs), also called diagnostic records. Valid values specify Disabled (do not generate CMRs), Enabled Only When CDR Enabled Flag is True (generate CMRs only when the CDR Enabled Flag service parameter is set to True), or Enabled Regardless of CDR Enabled Flag (generates CMRs without regard to the setting in the CDR Enabled Flag service parameter). This represents a required field. The default value specifies Disabled.
Display FAC in CDR - This parameter determines whether the Forced Authorization Code (FAC) that is associated with the call displays in the CDR. Valid values specify True (display authorization code in CDRs) or False (do not display authorization code in CDRs) for this required field. The default value specifies False.
Show Line Group Member DN in finalCalledPartyNumber CDR Field - This parameter determines whether the finalCalledPartyNumber field in CDRs shows the directory number (DN) of the line group member who answered the call or the hunt pilot DN. V alid values specify True (the finalCalledPartyNumber in CDRs will show the DN of the phone that answered the call) or False (the finalCalledPartyNumber in CDRs will show the hunt pilot DN). This parameter applies only to basic calls that are routed through a hunt list without feature interaction such as transfer, conference, call park, and so on. If a feature is involved in the call, the hunt pilot DN will show in the finalCalledPartyNumber field regardless of the setting in this parameter. This parameter does not apply to Cisco Unified Communications Manager Attendant Console. The default value for this required field specifies False.

• Clusterwide Parameters (Device - Phone)

Add Incoming Number Prefix to CDR - This parameter determines whether Cisco Unified Communications Manager adds the incoming prefix (as specified in the National Number Prefix, International Number Prefix, Subscriber Number Prefix, and Unknown Number Prefix service parameters) to the calling party number in the CDRs for that call. If the prefix is applied on the inbound side of that call, it always will be added to the calling party number in the CDRs for the call, even if this parameter is set to False. If the prefix is applied on the outbound side, the prefix will be added to the calling party number in the CDR(s) for that call, only if this parameter is set to True. If the destination of the call is a gateway, Cisco Unified Communications Manager will not add the prefix to the CDRs even if this parameter is enabled. This parameter applies cluster wide. The default value for this required field specifies False.

Tariscope configuration to process CDR and CMR files

Below we consider only the specific Tariscope configuration to work with CUCM. The description of all other settings you can find in the "Tariscope 4.5. Administrator's Guide".

You can configure Tariscope after the first start using the Equipment creation wizard or you can use the wizard at any other time by selecting in the Tariscope menu: Communications nodes → Equipment creation wizard. At the same time you can set the telephone system settings selecting the desired telecommunications node → Equipment → Equipment management. To add CUCM, click on the Add icon on the toolbar. In the appeared New eqiupment window, enter a telephone system name, for example, CUCM. The Edit CUCM page is displayed. The description of the page, see in the article. In the Equipment list, select the Cisco CallManager item and click on the Advanced settings button located on the left side of the list. The Advanced settings window appears as shown in Figure 1.

en cucm
Figure 1

CDR format of CUCM contains hundreds of different fields. Some of the fields are not used to call rating. They are complementary. Therefore, by default, only those fields, which are used for call rating, are processed, and saved in the Tariscope database. In order to all fields of CDR file are processed and saved in the Tariscope database, turn on the Save all fields switch. It should be borne in mind that the storage of all fields requires more disk space.

To correctly detect the internal and external telephone numbers, you should use a numbering plan. To do this, turn on the Use numbering plan for internal numbers detection switch.

If you use a numbering plan, but you do not want to handle calls that do not belong to the numbering plan, turn on the Skip calls outside the numbering plan switch. This saves the disk space and increases the productivity.

If you do not want to process information about unanswered calls, turn on the Ignore unanswered calls switch.

To account the authorization codes, turn on the Save prefix as auth code if matching pattern switch, and enter a pattern, which will be used to define the authorization codes.

If you have more than one partition in CUCM, turn on the Enable partitions switch. This allows to correctly define a subscriber who made the call.

If you need to use the outpuledCalledPartyNumber field from CDR as the dialed number, turn on the Using outpuledCalledPartyNumber as dialed number switch.

Click Save to keep settings.

If you use partitions, and extension numbers are not unique in CUCM, you must specify the partition along with the extension number for each subscriber. To do this, from the Subscribers page, choose the desired subscriber and click on the Edit icon on the toolbar. The page with the subscriber data is opened. Click on the button located near the Auxiliary identifiers box. The Auxiliary identifiers table appears. Click on the Add icon on the toolbar. The New auxiliary identifier window appears. An example of the window is shown in Figure 2.

en aux identifier
Figure 2

In the Auxiliary identifier textbox, enter the extension number and the partition using the folowing format: [extension number]@[partition]. For example: 1234@old_city, where 1234 is an extension number and old_city is a partition. Click Save.

This setting allows Tariscope to correctly detect a subscriber when it processes CDR data.

The Tariscope Observer services are used to collect CDR data from telephone systems in the Tariscope system. You should create a new Tariscope Observer profile for CUCM. In the Tariscope menu, select Data Collection/Observer → Observer management. The Data Collection/Observer page apeears. Click on the Add icon on the toolbar and in the appeared New Observer window, enter a service name in the Name box. For example, CUCM Observer. Click Save. Then, click Settings. The Tariscope Observer configuration page appears, an example of which is shown Figure 3.

en observer profile
Figure 3

For CUCM, you can select one of the following sources depending on which source you want to use:

FTP server.
SFTP server.
Folders/file.

To use the FTP server included in Tariscope, in the window shown in Figure 2, in the Data source list, select the FTP server item and click on the Data source configuration button. The Data source configuration window appears.

In the Port box, type IP port of the FTP server. This port should be used in an FTP client of CUCM. By default: 21.

In the Login box, type a login name. In the Password box, type a password, which the FTP client will be used to connect to the FTP server.

In the Local folder box, type the path to the folder where the FTP client will write CDR files.

If necessary, in the File mask box, specify a template, which is used to select the required files in a folder. The default pattern is "*", which provides a choice of all the files in the folder.

If there is no need to keep the downloaded files in the folder, turn on the Don't store the downloaded files switch.

To keep the settings, click Done.

When you plan to use the SFTP server in Tariscope, select the SFTP server item and click on the Data source configuration button. The Data source configuration window appears. All settings of the window are the same as for the FTP server.

When you plan to use a third-party FTP or SFTP server, in the Data source list, select the Folder/file item and click on the Data source configuration button. The Data source configuration window appears. The description of the window, see in the article.

Strat the Tariscope Observer. It will begin to collect and process CDR data from CUCM.

Data analysis

The main Tariscope purpose is an analysis of call information, creating reports on calls, billing, etc. Since the processed data from all types of telephone systems in Tariscope are reduced to one view, there are no features on filtering, sorting, reporting for CUCM in comparison with other types of telephone systems.

These features are performed in the calls views. To create a call view, in the Tariscope menu, select Views → Views list. For a description of creating a new view for calls, see the article.

An example of the call view of the Tariscope program with the processed data from the CUCM is shown in Figure 4.

en call view

Figure 4

The Tariscope view allows you to set a list of the desired fields and their order, to filter data using different ways, to group data on the specific fields, etc.

Some calls may consist of a few records, for example, for call transfer. In this case, if you set the focus on one of these records and click on the Show related records icon on the toolbar (Figure 5), Tariscope select all rows which are related to this call.

en related records

Figure 5

This feature makes easy to analyze calls consisted of several stages.

In addition, to CUCM as well as for several other PBXs, which have a wide range of CDR fields, there is the ability to handle all CDR fields and save them in the Tariscope database. It can be useful if you need to analyze some CDR fields from CUCM which are absent in the usual call view. In this case, select the desired rows in the call view and click on the Records details icon on the toolbar. The menu appears that contains two items:

in current window. The detailed records are displayed on this page.
in a new window. The detailed records are displayed on the new tab of the browser.

An example of the view with the detailed records in shown in Figure 6.

en detailed records

Figure 6

The view contains the toolbar. If you click on the Header on the left icon, the table will change the form and it will be as shown in Figure 7.

en detailed records2

Figure 7

The view allows you also to search, filter data, and export the table in the external file (PDF, Excel, Text, CSV). If you need, you can create a report form which will contain only the required fields for the desired period or for other filter conditions. The Tariscope Tasks service can automatically generate this report by schedule.

If you want to analyze the telephone traffic, you should select the View list, select the desired veiw or views, and click on the Traffic calculation icon on the toolbar. The Traffic calculation window appears where you should specify views, data of which will use for calculation, gateways, period, and beginning of the period. As a result, you will get a chart that displays the traffic. An example of the page is shown in Figure 8.

en traffic
Figure 8

For a complete analysis of CDR data, we recommend to create the desired report form using Report Designer or Microsoft SQL Server Report Builder. How to create a specific report form for CUCM in the Report Designer you can find in the article.

Control of call quality

Tariscope can collect and processes Call Management Records (CMRs) that contain information about the quality of audio and video streams, and it can generate a number of reports with CMR data.

To learn more about this Tariscope feature, read the article.

Creation of report forms for CUCM

Tariscope allows users to create reports to analyze all the data contained in the CDR files. How do it you can find in the article.

Telephone budget management

Tariscope not only allows you to account all calls of each employee, department, customer, but it provides a full control over the expenditure of finance on telephone calls. Tariscope allows you to set a money or time limit on phone calls for each subscriber or a subscriber group. When the limit is exhausted, Tariscope sends commands to CUCM, which restricts, for example, long-distance calls until the end of the limit period. At the beginning of next limit period the restriction will be automatically cleared. Thus the company can clearly execute the planned costs on telephone calls, and if necessary, to reduce them. To use this ability, the Tariscope license must contains the restriction feature.

Testing and purchase of Tariscope

Download and try Tariscope with your CUCM. It is a free.

You can purchase Tariscope by a variety of ways:

Contact directly to the SoftPI
Contact to the company's partners in your country.
Buy online from the page.

References

1. Call Detail Records Administration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Release 12.5(1).
2. Cisco Unified Serviceability Administration Guide, Release 11.5(1).
3. Cisco Unified CDR Analysis and Reporting Administration Guide, Release 12.5(1).