Overview of the Administration Console

The administration console provides a graphical user interface to configure, monitor, and troubleshoot the Cisco TelePresence Exchange System product. The following sections provide a general description of the administration console:

•Accessing the Administration Console

•Screen Layout

•Usage Guidelines

•Media Resource Operational States

•Common Field Properties

•Sorting and Filtering Lists in the Administration Console

Accessing the Administration Console

You can access the administration console from any computer that can connect to the virtual IP (VIP) address of the outside VLAN interface on the Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) that is associated with this Cisco TelePresence Exchange System.

Procedure

To access the administration console, do the following procedure:

Step 1 Browse to http://<IP address of the administration server>:8080/ctxadmin.

In some configurations, you do not need to specify the 8080 port value.

Step 2 To log in to the system, enter the following default username and password, and then press Return.

username: admin

password: cisco

Note For security reasons, Cisco recommends that you change the password of the default user. For instructions, see the "Editing User Settings" section.

Screen Layout

The administration console user interface includes a banner pane, a navigation pane, system status, and a content area. These elements are described in the following topics:

•Banner Pane

•Navigation Pane

•System Status

•Content Area

Banner Pane

The banner pane, which is displayed at the top of all administration console windows, lists the name of the software application and provides the following functions:

•Message display—Shows important messages regarding the administration console status.

•User—Shows the name of the user that is currently logged in to the administration console. Click the name to show details about the user.

From the user details window that opens, you can also view a listing of other users on the system as well as edit your own settings by clicking the appropriate button. As a system administrator, you can modify details for all users.

•Log Out—Click to log out of the system.

•About—Click to show the software version and licensing information.

•Upgrade—Click to show the Cisco TelePresence Exchange System Upgrade window. Enter the default username and password; then, click LOG IN.

•Help—Click to show online help for the administration console.

Navigation Pane

The navigation pane is on the left side of the administration console. The navigation pane lists items by category that you can view and configure.

When you click a category, the menu expands to show the items in that category. Table 2-1 describes the categories of the navigation pane.

Table 2-1 Navigation Categories 

Category
Description

System

Basic system settings. Also shows information about system status.

Media Resources

Configuring Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch resources, IVR resources, SIP resources, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) resources, Cisco TelePresence Server MSE 8710 resources, and Cisco TelePresence MCU MSE 8510 resources.

Customers

Configuring service providers, regions, and organizations. You can also configure resource groups and whitelist groups.

Endpoint Management

Configuring endpoints, media profiles, and Cisco TelePresence Manager resources.

Call Routing

Configuring dial plans, call routing, remote service providers, and call detail records (CDRs).

Collaboration Services

Configuring meetings, service numbers, and IVR prompts. You can also configure active meetings and reservation types.

Licensing

Managing licenses.

Diagnostics

Viewing meeting diagnostics and event audit trails. You can also view reservation pool and allocation pool usage.


System Status

The system status appears below the navigation pane and provides a status summary of scheduling, attending, One-Button-to-Push (OBTP), and system configuration on the Cisco TelePresence Exchange System. For additional information about system status, see the "Understanding System Status" section.

Content Area

The main content area appears to the right of the navigation pane. When you click a menu item in the navigation pane, the content that is associated with that item shows in the content area. The content shows as an item table, which lists the currently configured items.

Usage Guidelines

Be aware of the following usage guidelines when you perform tasks in the administration console:

•Administration Console Timeout—For system security, the administration console session times out when the user is inactive for 30 minutes. The current administration console window remains open. When the user attempts to perform a new function, the administration console prompts the user to reenter login information.

–To log in again, enter your username and password, and then click Log In.

–To exit the administration console, click Log Out (located in the top-right corner of the administration console banner pane).

•The administration console supports the following browsers:

–Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) versions 8.x and 9.x

–Mozilla Firefox versions 3.7 and later

•You can simultaneously run multiple browser sessions on different machines.

•You cannot run multiple sessions within the same browser on a single machine. However, you can open multiple browsers (with one session per browser).

•In order to play IVR prompts in the administration console, the browser requires a media player plug-in capable of playing the .au audio file format.

•In the event of a database failure, the administration console may take up to two minutes to respond after database failover.

Media Resource Operational States

The Cisco TelePresence Exchange System call engine monitors the operational state of the SBC and the Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch systems that are installed in the network by conducting regular polling of these systems at two minute intervals. You can also monitor the following bridge types:

•Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch (CTMS)

•Cisco TelePresence Server MSE 8710 (TPS)

•Cisco TelePresence MSE 8000 Series

•Cisco TelePresence Manager (CTS-Manager)

You can view the operational state from the administration console. The operational states are defined as follows:

•Online—Indicates that the system responds to polling from the Cisco TelePresence Exchange System.

•Offline—Indicates that the system is not responding to polling. If the system subsequently recovers and starts responding to the polling, the Cisco TelePresence Exchange System sets the operational state to online after receiving three consecutive responses. The Cisco TelePresence Exchange System continues to poll an offline system until it receives a response.

•Maintenance—Indicates that the system is not available. The system administrator must manually set the state to maintenance. The Cisco TelePresence Exchange System does not poll systems in maintenance state.

Note To return a system to an active state from an maintenance state, you must manually disable the maintenance state, so that the Cisco TelePresence Exchange System starts to poll the system again. When the system responds to polling, it is reset to an online state.

Common Field Properties

Table 2-2 describes the field properties for fields that are commonly used in the administration console.

Table 2-2 Common Field Properties 

Field Name
Description

Name

No limit on the number of characters. Special characters and spaces can be used after the first character, which must be alphanumeric.

Description

Maximum of 255 characters. Special characters and spaces can be used after the first character, which must be alphanumeric.

Node Name

Maximum of 128 characters. Special characters and spaces can be used after the first character, which must be alphanumeric.

IP Address

IPv4 address entered in dotted decimal notation (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx), where xxx is a value between 0 and 255 with no leading zeros.


Sorting and Filtering Lists in the Administration Console

To
Do This

Sort a list.

1. Click the relevant column header to sort the list in ascending alphanumeric order.

2. Click the column header again to sort the list in descending alphanumeric order.

Filter a list.

1. Click the T icon in the relevant column header.

2. Enter the text string or select the conditions against which you want to find matches.

If you see two text fields for a time-related column, then you can specify a range of times for the filter by entering the start date or time and the end date or time. These time-related fields accept a wide range of inputs, such as "yesterday" or "8/5/12" or "10:30 AM".

3. Click Filter.

Clear filters for a single column.

1. Click the T icon in the relevant column header.

2. Click Clear.

Clear all filters for a list.

1. Scroll to the bottom of the list.

2. Click Clear Filters.