Installing SmartSIP version 1.0.0.6

As indicated in one of my earlier posts, we’ve been working closely with the NET engineers to get the next release of SmartSIP and after receiving it last week, we were eager to get the version we had updated. While this post doesn’t really provide more than what the excellent deployment guide I receive does, I thought I’d write this post for those who are interested in what the wizard looks like:

For those who have read some of my earlier posts about SmartSIP, you may know that I had quite a few problems with the installation because of the security restrictions of Windows Server 2008 R2, I’m happy to let everyone know that those issues have been resolved.

Note that the following screens still show the extra steps I take to run the install as administrator and that’s because I preferred to do the install that way. The client also took a stab at installing it without running the executables as administrator and the install still completed successfully.

Since the installation file is an .msi file, you can’t just right click on the file and run it as an administrator:

I went ahead and opened up the command prompt as an administrator:

Changed the directory to where the installation file was and ran it:

Note that the services aren’t started yet because we haven’t activated SmartSIP:

Yes, I could have just proceeded with selecting Yes for the UAC window but I chose to just close it and execute the .Ink file from the command prompt just to be safe:

What’s interesting is that whenever I hit the Validate button for the license window, I would see a command prompt window briefly flash then nothing happens. I believe this is because we already have the license installed from a previous version so I just went ahead with the install:

Notice how the services now run under the RTCComponentService account?

The install activation is now completed. Nothing to it right? Make sure you continue with the deployment guide and reconfigure your mediation server’s IP settings to listen and point back to itself if you a single Mediation and SmartSIP server setup. Once you’ve completed that, configure the trunk tab in SmartSIP to route calls to your gateway:

We’re currently beginning to test SmartSIP again but we’re very happy with what we see so far.

Problems with gateway bound calls routed through SmartSIP with traces showing: “Status: 401 Authentication Required”

We’ve been working closely with NET’s engineers for the past month providing them with feedback on problems we’ve experienced with SmartSIP and earlier last week, we received the latest version of SmartSIP: 1.0.0.6. I’d have to say I’m very satisfied with NET’s response and the effort they put into addressing the issues we’ve brought up. So hot off the press, we went ahead and installed SmartSIP onto our mediation server and the install went without any issues (I’ll write up another post to show the install sometime in the future).

The one issue we encountered wasn’t much of a product problem with our NET VX1200 and SmartSIP but rather simply not configuring the proper protocol and seeing how it stalled our deployment for half a day, I thought it would be worth writing a blog post about.

Problem

Your OCS, SmartSIP and VX1200 gateway exhibits the following symptoms:

1. Snopper with OCS traces reveals the calls are routed back to itself (which is correct) because SmartSIP is designed that way.
2. SIP phones to MOC calls work.
3. MOC to SIP phones call work.
4. All calls routed out to gateway does not work.

You’ve doubled check the settings within SmartSIP ensuring that you’ve set the gateway IP properly:

<sip_realm>10.102.1.5</sip_realm> <!-- <<<< (4) change to the value provided by the ITSP-->
<sip_proxy>10.102.1.5</sip_proxy> <!-- <<<< (5) change to the value provided by the ITSP-->
<sip_expire>180</sip_expire>
<sip_register>false</sip_register> <!-- <<<< (6) set to true or false to use registration based or static ip based authentication as per instructions from the ITSP—>

The live logging sessions in the SmartSIP show traces of:

Failed to load 'SocketData'.

Failed to load 'ChannelHangupComplete'.

Failed to load 'ChannelProgressMedia'.

A SIP trace on the VX1200 shows:

NETVX1200> trace sip

Trace level set to info 2.

[ 2fc][20101206.170126.640:sip.i2] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerInvite: Handling Invite Message as a Challenger

[ 2f8][20101206.170126.640:sip.i2] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerAck: Handling Ack Request

[ 2f8][20101206.170126.640:sip.m0] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::IsChall

engeSuccess: No Subscriber with username [username] in the Subscriber Table

[ 2f8][20101206.170126.640:sip.m0] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::IsChall

engeSuccess: No Subscriber with username [username] in the Subscriber Table

[ 2f8][20101206.170126.640:sip.i2] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerInvite: Handling Invite Message as a Challenger

[ 2fc][20101206.170126.640:sip.i2] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerAck: Handling Ack Request

[ 2fc][20101206.170129.312:sip.i2] CSipAL::SipReceiveOptionsRequest: Responding

at lower level. Will not transport to SIP channel.

[ 2f8][20101206.170139.250:sip.m0] CSipLQMOptionsSession::receiveMessage: OPTIO

NS session with callid 44c720101206170107250@10.102.1.5 will be reset

[ 2f8][20101206.170139.250:sip.m0] CSipLQMOptionsSession::receiveMessage: OPTIO

NS session with callid 400720101206170107250@10.102.1.5 will be reset

[ 2fc][20101206.170143.609:sip.i2] 1:15:3:2: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerInvite: Handling Invite Message as a Challenger

[ 2f8][20101206.170143.625:sip.i2] 1:15:3:2: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerAck: Handling Ack Request

[ 2f8][20101206.170143.625:sip.m0] 1:15:3:2: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::IsChall

engeSuccess: No Subscriber with username [username] in the Subscriber Table

[ 2f8][20101206.170143.625:sip.m0] 1:15:3:2: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::IsChall

engeSuccess: No Subscriber with username [username] in the Subscriber Table

[ 2f8][20101206.170143.625:sip.i2] 1:15:3:2: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerInvite: Handling Invite Message as a Challenger

[ 2fc][20101206.170143.625:sip.i2] 1:15:3:2: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerAck: Handling Ack Request

[ 2f8][20101206.170153.343:sip.m0] CSessionsManager::HandleIncomingSubscribe: E

vent package [message-summary] is not supported in non-proxy like mode. Rejectin

g message with CallID [a21a0cdc-2cfdf8d7-6f13806@10.1.128.80]

[ 2f8][20101206.170153.343:sip.i2] CSipAL::SipSendLowLevelResponse: Responding

at lower level. Will not transport to SIP channel.

[ 2f8][20101206.170158.640:sip.m0] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleR

esetTimeout: Channel was in transitional state for too long. Resetting.

[ 2f8][20101206.170158.640:sip.i2] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::Release

All: Attempting to release and reset channel ... with cause code 0x66, non-Bruta

l, 0x66

[ 2fc][20101206.170159.390:sip.i2] CSipAL::SipReceiveOptionsRequest: Responding

at lower level. Will not transport to SIP channel.

[ 2f8][20101206.170206.234:sip.i2] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerInvite: Handling Invite Message as a Challenger

[ 2fc][20101206.170206.234:sip.i2] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerAck: Handling Ack Request

[ 2fc][20101206.170206.234:sip.m0] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::IsChall

engeSuccess: No Subscriber with username [username] in the Subscriber Table

[ 2fc][20101206.170206.234:sip.m0] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::IsChall

engeSuccess: No Subscriber with username [username] in the Subscriber Table

[ 2fc][20101206.170206.234:sip.i2] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerInvite: Handling Invite Message as a Challenger

[ 2f8][20101206.170206.250:sip.i2] 1:15:3:1: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleC

hallengerAck: Handling Ack Request

[ 2f8][20101206.170208.093:sip.i2] CSipAL::SipReceiveOptionsRequest: Responding

at lower level. Will not transport to SIP channel.

[ 2fc][20101206.170214.250:sip.m0] CSipLQMOptionsSession::receiveMessage: OPTIO

NS session with callid 6e5b20101206170142250@10.102.1.5 will be reset

[ 2fc][20101206.170214.250:sip.m0] CSipLQMOptionsSession::receiveMessage: OPTIO

NS session with callid 65b120101206170142250@10.102.1.5 will be reset

[ 2f8][20101206.170215.625:sip.m0] 1:15:3:2: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::HandleR

esetTimeout: Channel was in transitional state for too long. Resetting.

[ 2f8][20101206.170215.625:sip.i2] 1:15:3:2: SIP: (No CSN): SIPChannel::Release

All: Attempting to release and reset channel ... with cause code 0x66, non-Bruta

l, 0x66

NETVX1200>

After troubleshooting for half a day and not really making any progress, I went ahead and reached out to NET to get their engineers on it. What was nice was that NET ended up getting 1 engineer for the VX and another one for SmartSIP which were very knowledgeable with their products so after troubleshooting for about an hour, we finally figured out what the problem was.

Solution

What the NET SmartSIP engineer noticed was that the wireshark captures exhibit the following:

Status: 401 Authentication Required

Seeing how this almost seemed like a the gateway was challenging the SmartSIP service trying to send the call out, we went and reviewed the trunk groups again:

As shown in the screenshot, the trunk group we felt was supposed to handle the calls was the OCS trunk group. However, through the traces and testing we did, it looked like the calls were hitting trunk group ThinkTel because that was the only one that would challenge for authentication when a call was routed to it.

So we’re here scratching our heads as to why this was happening. The VX engineer then suggested that we do a log capture on the gateway then parse through it line by line to see what exactly was going on. After going offline for 30 minutes, the engineer came back and told us that the logs were showing that packets were sent via UDP and not our expected TCP. As many OCS administrators would know, OCS is TCP or TLS only and we had configured that trunk group as TCP. We relayed this information back over to the SmartSIP engineer and he told us SmartSIP defaults to UDP.

So what did we do? We checked UDP to see if things would change and it did!

While this was a valid workaround solution, I have since added in my notes to ask NET how we can configure SmartSIP to send traffic via UDP. Once I get that information, I’ll go ahead and update this post.

Unable to start SmartSIP services after install

I was able to successfully install SmartSIP as per my last post (http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2010/08/problems-installing-nets-smartsip-run.html) but ran into a minor snag when I tried to start the services and this screen is what I’m presented with:

Server Error in ‘/’ Application.

The communication object, System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel, cannot be used for communication because it is the Faulted state.

Here’s another screen shot:

The services are listed but I couldn’t get them to start:

The NET engineer suggested that I’d try running the service with an account that had administrator privileges so I went ahead and added RTCComponentService to the local administrators group. After doing so and trying to start the services, they started properly.

Starting up the SmartSIP diagnostics and connecting was successful as well.

The NET engineer also told me that I could check the status of the SIP phones registration by simply typing:

sofia status profile phones

We’re still in the pilot phase so it’s not a big deal to give this account local administrative privileges and who knows, maybe it does need it since the SQL clusters I’ve built in the past actually requires certain service accounts to be a local administrator. I’ll see if any of the following can be done then update this post:

1. Figure out what rights the service account needs and grant it and then remove it as a local administrator.

2. If the service account has to be a local administrator, create a separate account to run the SmartSIP services so we don’t have to make RTCComponentService a local administrator.

I hope this post helps anyone out there that may come across this.

Windows Server 2008 R2 UAC strikes again causing problems with installing NET’s SmartSIP

Yes, it almost sounds like I had a heck of a lot of issues installing SmartSIP but note the following:

1. I wasn’t using the right package one of the times.
2. The manual said to use the IP but I went ahead and used the DNS name anyways.
3. Problems from X-Lite calls to MOC was because of server being multi-homed as per Microsoft’s best practices. I used to have a lot of these problems with OCS’ Edge Transport server as well so it’s no surprise to me.

This problem was solely because of good old UAC (User Activation Controller) on Windows Server 2008 and it reminds me of the time when I had problems installing Exchange because double clicking on the package doesn’t elevate the permissions properly so Microsoft’s recommendation was to run it as administrator. In the case of this problem, you need to do the same.

So here I am going through the install by double clicking on the package on a Windows 2008 Server R2 64-Bit:

Looking good so far.

Success!

The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. Inaccessible logs: Securiy.

Interesting…

Seeing how the error referred to event logs, I proceeded to try activating it to see what would happen.

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quite, the application will close immediately.

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

I was able to proceed with the next screen to try and enter the license but I would keep getting an error:

There was a problem validating the license, it may be have expired or there may have been a connectivity issue such as a firewall problem.

Let’s just say I’ve tried a lot of things at the Customer Registration window and nothing worked. I’d see a flash like this:

Then get a No License in system message.

While I am able to get to the Ready status which was further than where I got with the bad package, I knew something was wrong.

I could proceed with the activation but I would end up getting this:

Error setting up event log.

Exception = Access to the registry key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\SmartSIP' is denied.

Error setting up event log.

Exception = Requested registry access is not allowed.

The contact could not be created.

Exception from HRESULT: 0xC3EC7D81

Error configuring ASP.NET security.

Exception = Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation.

Error configuring Service security for Mediation server.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error configuring Service security for ECSmartSIPCore.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error configuring Service security for ECADHelper.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error configuring Service security for ECEmbededWebServer.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error configuring Service security for ECSmartTFTPServer.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error installing Soft Switch.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\SoftSwitch\x86\conf\freeswitch.xml' is denied.

Activation ecountered an error while provisioning files.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\conf\provisioned_config\smartsip{ip_addresses}.xml' is denied.

Activation ecountered an error while provisioning files.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\conf\provisioned_config\smartsip.section[configuration].configuration[sofia.conf].profiles.profile[ocs].gateways{Remote Servers}.xml' is denied.

Activation ecountered an error while provisioning files.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\ECSmartSIPServerCore.exe.config' is denied.

Activation ecountered an error while provisioning files.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\ECSmartTFTPServerSvc.exe.config' is denied.

Remembering the experience I’ve had with other applications that weren’t NET, these are debugging codes that infrastructure guys wouldn’t understand so I stepped back and thought about what I could do from a Windows perspective.

The first thing that popped into my head was to try and run the activation as an administrator from the start. The problem with that is that when I use the start menu to right click on it, the option wasn’t there because it was an LNK file and Windows doesn’t give you the option “run as administrator”. I tried right click, properties to click on the find target button to get to the source but that option wasn’t there either. What I ended up doing was finding it in the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Network Equipment Technologies folder.

Here’s what I ended up doing:

Open a command prompt as an administrator:

Ran the install again. Went to the folder with the Activate SmartSIP.LNK file:

Executed the lnk file went through the wizards and voila!

Seeing progress was great!

Wow! Success!