Table Of Contents

Troubleshooting the MCU

Problems You Might Encounter Setting the IP Address

Problems You Might Encounter When You Configure the MCU

About LED Indications

Monitoring from a Remote Site

Using Advanced Command Line Commands

Accessing the Command Line Commands through the Serial Port

Configuring the Web Server Port

Restoring the Factory Default Settings

Configuring the Ethernet Port

About Bandwidth Considerations

Troubleshooting the MCU

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This section covers problems you might encounter when configuring, operating and managing the Cisco Unified Videoconferencing 3515 MCU. This chapter provides suggested actions you can use to solve the problems, and includes the following topics.

This chapter describes the following topics:

•Problems You Might Encounter Setting the IP Address

•Problems You Might Encounter When You Configure the MCU

•About LED Indications

•Monitoring from a Remote Site

•Using Advanced Command Line Commands

•About Bandwidth Considerations

Problems You Might Encounter Setting the IP Address

This section identifies problems that you might encounter when you assign an IP address to a new MCU, and suggests possible solutions.

Symptom

•I cannot access the MCU through the serial port.

•Information from the MCU does not appear on the terminal emulator window.

Recommended Action

•Make sure that the terminal emulator modem is set using the parameters as follows:

–Baud rate: 9600

–Data bits: 8

–Parity: None

–Stop bits: 1

–Flow control: None

•Make sure that the terminal cable that ships with the unit or a null cable is securely connected to the serial port and to the computer serial port.

•Verify that the MCU can communicate with the terminal.

Procedure

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Step 1 Launch the terminal emulation software installed on the computer connected to the MCU serial port.

A prompt appears.

Step 2 Press Enter.

If the prompt moves, the terminal emulator is communicating with the MCU.

Step 3 Restart the MCU.

A log of the startup events appears on the computer monitor.

If nothing appears, check the cable connection between the MCU and the computer. You must use the terminal cable that ships with the unit or a null cable. If the problem persists, contact Cisco Technical Support for assistance.

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Symptom

The terminal emulator does not display the configuration menu.

Possible Cause

After the power to the MCU is turned on, the terminal emulator connection displays two prompts that you can use to interact with the MCU. The first prompt is "Press any key to enter debug mode." If you press any key, an interactive prompt appears on the screen and the bootup process stops. You must restart the MCU and wait for the second prompt to configure the IP address. The second prompt is, "Press any key to start configuration." To restart the MCU, perform one of the following actions:

Recommended Action

Press the recessed RST button on the MCU front panel.

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Problems You Might Encounter When You Configure the MCU

This section identifies problems that you might encounter when you configure the module and suggests solutions.

Symptom

The MCU takes a long time to respond when I upload a configuration file.

Possible Cause

The MCU can freeze when the configuration settings you upload require resetting.

Recommended Action

Push the rst button on the front panel of the MCU to perform a hard reset.

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About LED Indications

This section identifies problems that the LEDs can indicate, and suggests possible solutions.

Symptom

The 10/100BaseT link LED does not light up.

The 10/100BaseT link LED is embedded in the 10/100BaseT jack on your left as you face the MCU front panel. When this LED is lit, it indicates that the MCU is connected to the network.

Recommended Action

•Make sure that the LAN cable is connected to the 10/100BaseT-1 jack on the front panel of the MCU.

•Make sure that the devices at both ends of the link are powered-up.

•Make sure that you use a RJ-45 jack with standard wiring to connect the LAN cable to the MCU 10/100BaseT-1 jack.

•Reset the MCU by pressing the RST button on the front panel or by clicking Reset in the toolbar of the Administrator interface.

•After the MCU restarts, check the link LED.

•Perform a ping test from a PC terminal to the MCU IP address. If the MCU is connected to the network, the ping returns the message "Reply from ...". If the MCU does not respond to the ping, the ping returns the message "Request timeout."

If you receive a "Request timeout" message, try replacing the cable and repeat the ping test. Also, make sure that you properly configure the MCU IP address and subnet mask, and the router IP address.

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Symptom

Why doesn't the GK Reg LED light up?

Possible Cause

The GK Reg LED indicates that the MCU has an active registration with the gatekeeper.

Recommended Action

•Make sure that you specify the gatekeeper with which you want the MCU to register in the MCU Administrator interface.

•Make sure that the IP address of the gatekeeper the MCU is to register with is correct.

•Make sure that the gatekeeper is working.

Monitoring from a Remote Site

The Administrator interface allows you to monitor MCU functions from a remote site. The LEDs are represented on the LED Monitoring tab of the Administrator interface. You can access this page from any computer on the LAN and monitor the module for connectivity or communication problems.

Procedure

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Step 1 Launch a Java-based web browser.

Step 2 In the address or URL field, enter the IP address of the MCU that you want to monitor.

The MCU access window appears.

Step 3 In the Name field, enter a valid user name.

Step 4 In the Password field, enter the user password.

Step 5 Click Go.

The Administrator interface appears.

Step 6 On the sidebar, click Device.

The LED Monitoring tab appears. Table 5-1 describes the LEDs that appear on the page.

Table 5-1 LEDs on the MCU Administrator Monitoring Page 

LED	Description
10/100 BaseT-1 Link	Embedded in the model-number side of the 10/100 BaseT connector. It lights green when there is connection between the MCU and network.
10/100 BaseT-1 Port Speed	Embedded in the serial-port side of the 10/100 BaseT connector. It lights green when the Ethernet connection supports 100 Mb. It is off when the Ethernet connection supports 10 Mb.
GK Reg	Lights green when the MCU has a valid registration with the gatekeeper.
CPU High	Lights green when the MCU is using more than 50% of its processing capacity.
Alarm	Lights green when the MCU requires a reset.
ACT	Lights green when one or more conferences are active on the MCU.

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Using Advanced Command Line Commands

This section describes advanced command line commands that you can access through the MCU serial port. These commands allow you to set additional module operating parameters that are not available in the web interfaces. This following topics describe these commands:

•Accessing the Command Line Commands through the Serial Port

•Configuring the Web Server Port

•Restoring the Factory Default Settings

•Configuring the Ethernet Port

Accessing the Command Line Commands through the Serial Port

You access command line commands through the serial port of the MCU device.

Procedure

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Step 1 Connect the appropriate ends of the terminal cable to the serial port on the computer and the serial port on the MCU.

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Note The terminal cable is a null cable that ships with the MCU.

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Step 2 Launch the terminal emulator on the computer.

Step 3 Set the communication values for the terminal emulator as follows:

–9600 Baud rate

–8 data bits

–1 stop bit

–No parity

–No flow control

Step 4 After the terminal emulator session starts, press the RST button on the MCU front panel or click Reset in the LED Monitoring tab of the Board section in the Administrator interface.

A log of the auto-boot events appears on the computer.

Step 5 When the message "Press any key to start configuration" appears on the screen, press any key within 6 seconds.

–The following command line options appear.

–Enter <N> to configure default network port values

–Enter <P> to change the configuration software password

–Enter <A> to display advanced configuration menu

–Enter <Q> to quit configuration menu and start the MCU

Step 6 Select an option to execute.

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Configuring the Web Server Port

This section describes how to change the web server port number. This way, you can set the port number that the MCU uses for posting its web pages. The default value is 80, which is the standard for web server ports. If another port is used in your environment, you can use this command to change the MCU web server port setting.

Procedure

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Step 1 At the prompt for the command line options, press A to display the advanced command menu.

The Advanced command menu appears.

Step 2 At the prompt, press 1 and press Enter to configure the web server port.

Step 3 At the "Enter a new port number for the web server" prompt, enter the value that you want to use and press Enter.

The MCU uploads the configuration change and then resumes the boot cycle.

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Restoring the Factory Default Settings

This section describes how to restore factory configuration settings to the MCU. Restoring these settings does not reset the IP address information.

Procedure

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Step 1 At the prompt for the command line options, press A to display the advanced command menu.

The Advanced command menu appears.

Step 2 At the prompt, press 2 to restore the factory defaults.

Step 3 At the "Are you sure you want to restore factory configuration? [y, n]" prompt, enter y and press Enter.

Factory default settings are restored.

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Configuring the Ethernet Port

This section describes how to set the Ethernet speed and duplex that the MCU uses.

Procedure

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Step 1 At the prompt for the command line options, press A to display the advanced command menu.

The Advanced command menu appears.

Step 2 At the prompt, press 3 to change the network working mode.

A list of Ethernet configuration options appear.

Step 3 At the prompt, select one of the following options:

–Press 1 to set the Ethernet port for 10 MBs half-duplex operation.

–Press 2 to set the Ethernet port for 100 MBs half-duplex operation.

–Press 3 to set the Ethernet port for 10 MBs full-duplex operation.

–Press 4 to set the Ethernet port for 100 MBs full-duplex operation.

–Press 5 to set the Ethernet port to Auto so that the MCU negotiates the port setting with the router or switch. This is the default setting.

–Press any other key to return to the configuration menu without changing the setting.

Step 4 Press Enter.

The MCU uploads the configuration and restarts the boot cycle.

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About Bandwidth Considerations

The amount of bandwidth required during a conference depends on a number of factors, including whether all participants are connected only through an IP network or also to other networks.

The following factors affect the available bandwidth when all the conference participants connect to the IP network:

•The capacity of the video conferencing terminal application (endpoint) in use.

•Whether or not audio transcoding is in use.

•System policies set by the system administrator.

The following factors affect the available bandwidth when one or more of the conference participants is connected to the conference through a gateway:

•The gateway connection

•The gateway audio transcoding capabilities

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