UCCX Sandbox availability

[connor.sadler]

Hi,

Just wanting to try out the new UCCX sandbox - UCCX_EarlyRelease.

Tried to reserve it but it offered me a date in September (September 25th).

Is this correct?

I thought Cisco were trying to improve availability of these sandboxes?

If we have to wait 7 months it's basically unusable - I'd be better of taking my laptop to the customer site and I'd be done in a couple of days.

If my company could pay for better availability that would also be a better option.

Regards,

Connor

[jacoadam]

Hey Conner-

Thanks for your inquiry! You are correct in that one of the goals of the UCCX lab is provide better availability to Contact Center and Finesse technologies. You have experienced two issues with this lab that I will explain.

The first is that we are currently seeing a bug where when users try to reserve an unavailable lab, it will try to reschedule them to sometime in September even though it may be available sometime sooner than that. We are working on that bug and will report back when that has been repaired. The lab is actually available starting tomorrow around 5am CST. (You could set the reservation to start then or sometime next week if you needed.)

The other issue is that this lab can actually have multiple concurrent reservations if needed, but that feature had been disabled due to some testing on our side. I have re-enabaled it and you should be able to reserve the lab now! Please give it a try and let me know if you have any issues.

Thanks!

Jacob 

[connor.sadler]

Thanks Jacob, both for the info and for tweaking it.

I have tried again and it's working so far - it's just doing the setup now.

I'll post again when I've tried it out

[jacoadam]

Great, we're glad that you're able to use this lab.

Since this lab is new, we'd love it if you provide some feedback on the lab setup. We'd like to know how well it's meeting your needs, and what can be improved upon. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Jacob

[connor.sadler]

Hi Jacob,

It's nearly there, just blocked on one issue and have another question also:

- setup finished OK

- connected via AnyConnect VPN OK

- I can see all the machines by IP address - OK

Issue 1

I try to login to Finesse via this URL: https://hq-uccx.abc.inc:8445/desktop/container/?locale=en_US

I use Agent001 / ciscopsdt / 6001

I encountered a couple of issues:

- Sorted out Diffie-Hellman errors as documented in lab notes

- Sorted out a few certificate issues

Now I get this error which I can't get past:

- The device associated with that extension or dial number is invalid.

I get this for Agent001 and 2 and 9

I am not sure I understand this part of the notes:

In order to log agents into Finesse each agent must be logged into their pre-provisioned Jabber Client (Same login credentials as the table below)

I get a similar issue if I use the REST and XMPP API to login to ext 6001 - I get an event coming back saying the device is invalid.

Do you have any ideas how to resolve this, please?

Issue 2

The other question I have, is there an external number I can dial to trigger a phonecall?

I see there are some notes about dialing 6000 from a Lab Phone but I'm not sure how to do that.

For the old UCCE lab I dialled a number in Ireland using my own phone on my desk.

Thanks for your help so far,

Regards,

Connor

[jacoadam]

Hey Connor-

Thanks for your input!

Issue 1:

Are you logging in the agent with a Cisco Jabber Client?

In order to log the user into Finesse they must have a registered phone, but this phone has to be controlled by the rmTAPI and JTAPI users associated with finesse. Also, there can only be one phone per user. So, to use finesse, you will need to log in the user to Cisco Jabber (their controlled phone) in order to log into finesse. If some other device is used, you will get the "device is invalid" error. I can provide Cisco Jabber if you need it for download.

Alternately, if you want to use a different device than Cisco Jabber, you'd need to make the config adjustments. (I can help with that if needed!_

Also, in the next iteration of this lab, we will include an automation tool that will registered phones for the agents in the background, that way users will not need a bunch of Jabber Clients to use finesse.

Issue 2:

To make this lab scalable, there is no outside dialing or PSTN access in the lab. Dialing the IVR would simulate a user calling in from an external number. To do this, you'll need to log in a jabber client (or other device if you have one) and call ext. 6000 to hit the IVR and be routed to an Agent (just like dialing from the outside). With a jabber client, you can log in the standard user with the following credentials:

Username: user001@abc.inc

Password: ciscopsdt

I will update the lab instructions to include a table with the standard (non-agent) users that are pre-configured in this setup.

Does this answer your questions? If you'd like more info, we could have a quick call.

Thanks!

Jacob

[jacoadam]

Also-

I noticed that your reservation was only 4 hours. Let me know if you'd like more time and we can extend that if needed.

Thanks!

Jacob

[connor.sadler]

Hi Jacob,

Thanks for the reply.

Issue 1

I am not logging the agent in with Cisco Jabber Client.

Is that a softphone of some sort?

I believe our customers use some sort of Cisco IP Softphone, can I use that instead?

Our software acts as an XMPP client using the Rest and XMPP API, would that interfere with Cisco Jabber Client?

Would that be hard to setup on my PC to talk through the VPN?

Will I be able to run multiple copies to login more than one agent?

Issue 2

That does make sense.

If we can solve Issue 1 then I can see I can use the same tool to make a call to ext 6000 and then through to one of my agents.

If you're available for a phonecall maybe we could do that on Monday?

I am on London timezone so it's 17:31 here now, I'm just finishing work now.

Let me know when would be convenient to you - I am connor.sadler (at) orchard-systems.co.uk if you want to contact me quickly/directly to exchange numbers etc

Regards,

Connor

[jacoadam]

Hi Connor-

I think what you're referring to is Cisco IP Communicator (CIPC) which is a softphone. We can setup the lab to use CIPC phones but it will take some minor configuration changes. You can easily configure the software to run on your PC. Also your application should not interfere with Cisco Jabber.

If you want to run multiple copies, that can get a little tricky, it is best to connect to the lab with more than one PC if possible.

It would be easiest if we talk directly to work through these issues! I will send you an email regarding my availability, I should be able to do Monday at 09:00 CST Monday morning.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks!
Jacob

[connor.sadler]

Hi Jacob,

Just coming back to this after a break.

We got the Jabber client installed over a screenshare a couple of weeks ago, thanks for that - it is working well.

I have also installed Jabber and the VPN on a VM we have, and I can connect in from my machine and that VM concurrently, and make calls between them.

I can also call 6000 and use the IVR to get connected through to the group - great stuff.

The slight issue is I'll need a third machine also to do transfer testing!

For UCCE Sandbox (previous sandbox)

This was easier as I could have:

- login to Finesse on my laptop as agent 1

- login to Finesse on my laptop as agent 2

- the customer calling in was a PSTN call to Ireland

For UCCX Sandbox (new sandbox)

- agent 1 on my laptop

- agent 2 on a VM

- the customer calling in on another VM

Is there any way I could set this up differently, please?

Regards,

Connor

[jacoadam]

As @dstaudt was saying, if you have some Cisco phones laying around you can use those. We can loan you an 881w VPN router to connect the phones for a few weeks if you are in need of one.

As mentioned before, in the next iteration of this lab we are planning on adding in a server which will emulate Cisco phones. These phones will be the default devcies for all of the agents. Then to answer a call from an agent phone you'd just need to log in to Finesse. I will post an update here when we've added this feature so you can try it out.

Thanks!

Jacob

[connor.sadler]

Thanks both for the advice.

The Jabber client launches on the VM and I can use it, I just couldn't hear anything as the VM had no sound.

A colleague has resolved that now so I can try it again.

The problem is the sandbox lab is unavailable again until 1st April - any idea why this is?

And Jacob, yes, that phone emulation sounds good, I'll definitely try it out when it comes online.

Regards,

Connor

[jokearns1]

Hi Connor,

It looks like you are hitting an intermittent bug in our scheduler where that date is returned. Looking at the system, there should availability in the coming days.

We are looking into this now and will have a UCCX lab available for you ASAP.

Regards,

Joe Kearns

[connor.sadler]

Thanks for the fast reply, Joseph.

There is not a huge rush for me to get on at present, I just wanted to try the sound on the VM.

Let me know when I can give it a try again.

Thanks,

Connor

[connor.sadler]

Hi again,

Just trying to access this again and it's offering me April 27th at 1 in the morning !

Any chance you could look into this please?

Regards,

Connor