Cisco TelePresence Management Server (TMS) has been used on-premise as part of Cisco Meeting Server and Cisco video conferencing device ecosystems for decades.

In conjunction with Cisco, VQ has developed VQ Conference Manager DMA (Device, Management and Automation). DMA is designed as the on-premise device management replacement for TMS.

While DMA’s focus is providing a replacement for TMS, DMA is not designed as a TMS clone. Instead, as with the existing Meeting Services capability of VQCM, DMA brings plenty of ‘features including…

• Directory Services – Includes a ‘folder per address book’ view on Touch and Navigator panels
• Device Configuration – A redefined approach to building, scaling, and managing the complexity of configuration templates for large environments
• Device Maintenance – Advanced endpoint security and certificate management, automation of tasks and workflow and branding/software file storage and management.
• Analytics – Monitor the state of devices with powerful Kibana-based dashboards
• One Button to Push – Schedule meetings through VQ’s user interface, Microsoft Outlook plug-in or custom applications

VQ DMA doesn’t require installing additional servers and there are no major configuration differences compared to TMS. The main differences include specifying user profiles and Access Control ACLs for access to the DMA functionality.

Interested to learn more? In this blog we discuss how to use VQ DMA. Read on for more information.

Page Features and Layout

Let’s look at the DMA user interface (UI).

You’ll notice DMA looks different from the existing VQ Conference Manager Meeting Scheduling and Management pages but the architecture of the VQCM platform is essentially unchanged.

This blog looks at examples of the UI from the administrator role, other roles have more limited access to menus and options within DMA.

Side Bar Main Menu

Let’s look at the DMA user interface (UI).

You’ll notice DMA looks different from the existing VQ Conference Manager Meeting Scheduling and Management pages but the architecture of the VQCM platform is essentially unchanged.

This blog looks at examples of the UI from the administrator role, other roles have more limited access to menus and options within DMA.

Exit

The Exit button is always shown at the bottom of the side bar and will log you out of DMA and return you to the VQ Conference Manager login page.

Navigating through categories in DMA works in a few different ways:

Drop Down

Clicking on fields with a small triangle ‘twisty’ at the end will display a drop-down menu, as will clicking on the three dots shown in any ‘Action’ column.

Lists

You can re-sort most lists in DMA by clicking the title of the relevant column. A small arrow next to the column title indicates whether sorting is ascending or descending.
For lists with a significant number of entries, DMA displays these in pages viewed by < and > arrows at the bottom.

Filters

Clicking on the Filter icon above most Device lists will display a filter creation box. This box allows you to filter devices to or from your selection.
Devices can currently be filtered by Name, Location and Label.

Tabs

Some pages in DMA have the option of multiple views, shown as tabs across the top. The active tab is always underlined and highlighted in blue text.

Add to List

Where it is possible (or required) to create or add to a list, the, Add to List ‘+’ icon will be displayed at the top of the list.

Edit a List Action

The three dots icon is  displayed when there are actions available for a list. Clicking this icon will display a drop down action list.

A new URL (https://servername.domain/dma/) has been added to the CM-Admin list to enable users to directly access DMA.

How do I migrate to VQ Conference Manager DMA from TMS?

Migrating from TMS to DMA is relatively straightforward and involves four steps:

1. Move all TMS ‘Bookings’ to Conference Manager
2. Switch endpoints to use VQ’s Directory Services for Phone Books
3. Migrate ‘Persistent’ templates and bulk changes to Device Configuration
4. Onboard your devices to VQ Conference Manager DMA

If you want to discuss any of the steps involved in migrating to VQCM’s DMA, please contact us.

Interested in finding out more?

Now that you know the basics, it’s time to set up DMA for your business. This blog is part of a series of blogs about VQ DMA. The others in the series cover:

• Setting up DMA
• Directory Services
• Device Configuration

Alan Mills works within the cyber security department at VQ and is also a lecturer in cyber security at University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).

Not too long ago I posted (my first blog post) about how we are continually working to ensure security and compliance here at VQ Communications. I also hinted at the fact there would be more to follow… Well this is part of that “more to follow”. 

Recently I was lucky enough to present at an international IEEE conference on Cyber Security Resilience (IEEE CSR). The IEEE CSR conference is an international conference that “focuses on theoretical and practical aspects of the security, privacy, trust, and resilience of networks, systems, and services as well as novel ways for dealing with their vulnerabilities and mitigating sophisticated cyber-attacks.” as taken from their website

The work I presented focused on container security and looked at bringing together multiple reporting tools, presenting easy visualisation of results as well as looking at how we can start to automatically patch and secure container images in a way that avoid bloat or introduction of breaking changes. As a company that takes full advantage of microservices and the flexible infrastructure they provide, as well as one that is continually working to ensure the security of our products, research and tools like this are key. They make the life of security analysts easier, saving time when it comes to security assurance, allowing focus to switch to the issues which need it. 

Work like this is only part of how we at VQ ensure we not only stay close to the forefront of cyber security practices, but also help to bring industry skills, experience and requirements into the mix and help to push cyber security overall forward. For those who are interested and want to know more the conference proceedings have now been published and can be found here which includes the work I presented here.

I thoroughly recommend that anyone with an interest in cyber security resilience take a look through the proceedings and see the work that is being put forward.

Watch out for more in the coming months.

Have you seen our new Analytics Dashboards in VQ Conference Manager yet?

If not, read on…

Log into VQ Conference Manager. Click on Kibana, and you’ll see the new Analytics Dashboards.

Starting with the Welcome Dashboard.

Here you can see an overview of the activity on your system. In the above screenshot, we’re looking at activity over the past seven days. There are top-level metrics across the top of the page, pie charts to the right and two graphs for meeting load and participant alarms.

Using the navigation bar, you’ll have access to additional dashboards, including call, participant, call bridge and tenant timelines.

So, let’s look at a few examples:

Completed Meetings

Click on Completed Meetings > View Meetings and you get taken to the Call Timeline:

Under the ‘Call Timeline’ report, you’ll see all calls, represented by blue rectangles. The start of a rectangle indicates start of the call, and the end of a rectangle indicates end of the call. In this example, we’ll select just one call – Marketing.

To find the call you’re looking for, you’ll need to narrow the results. This is done by adding a filter cospaceUri.keyword;marketing, in the Kibana Query Language (KQL) bar at the top of the Dashboard. Select a time range and click ‘Apply the filter to current view’ to update the results.

Clicking this allows you to view a range of metrics for this call in the Call View Dashboard:

These metrics include top-level metrics, for example, the number of participants, the average alarms and the call graph. The call graph displays the start and end of each of the Participants (Call Legs).
If you hover over the Call Leg, more information is displayed, such as media type, the reason for leaving the call, etc:

Further down the Dashboard, the pie charts show the Disconnect Reasons and Device Types in the call:

There is also the ability to share the entire Dashboard. In this example, we’ll export it and share as a PDF:

This blog is just a very brief introduction to a few of the VQ Conference Manager Dashboards and how to navigate around them. For more detailed information, view our Analytics video or join our Webex Space if you have any questions.

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Finally, for those looking for a more detailed understanding of the capabilities of VQ Conference Manager Analytics, we offer a three-day course delivered by our training partner, Scott Waschler, from TeKnowLogical Solutions.

Customers use VQ’s Conference Manager (VQCM) product globally to support today’s flexible working models.

VQCM is a comprehensive platform delivering Unified Communications services on Cisco infrastructure and devices and includes many useful features.

To help you make the most of VQCM, we’re showcasing its features in a series of blogs.

In this one, we’ll focus on One Button to Push.

How to Use One Button to Push

So how do you use OBTP? Let’s have a quick run-through.

How to schedule a One Button to Push meeting

We’re going to show you how to schedule an OBTP meeting on VQ Conference Manager. Start by filling in the schedule meeting page required for any meeting scheduled through VQ Conference Manager.

The schedule meeting page includes a check box to select the One Button to Push functionality.

The meeting setup window looks like the screenshot provided.

To schedule a One Button to Push meeting, follow these simple steps:

1. Give the meeting a title. In this example we’ve called it OBTP Meeting.
2. Set the meeting start and end times. These are the times which will be displayed on the device screen. Other options are available, including setting this meeting as a recurring meeting in your calendar (by checking the box)
3. Check the ‘One Button To Push’ box. When the meeting starts, the system will display a green ‘Join’ button on the screen.
4. Select the device(s) you wish to use to join the meeting.
5. Choose the pre-defined passcode or generate a passcode. In this example, the meeting has a pre-defined passcode. The passcode is defined within the Space Template. A randomly generated passcode is automatically filled into the template, but if you want to change the passcode you can.

6. Click Done and the meeting is scheduled.

How to Join a VQCM One Button to Push Meeting

In our example VQCM OBTP meeting, we’ve invited DeskPro into the call. DeskPro is provided with the meeting details and how to join.

When it’s time for the meeting to begin, the green ‘Join’ button will appear on the screen. Joining the meeting is just a case of pushing the ‘Join’ button – it’s that easy.

NOTE: One Button to Push (OBTP) is licensed as a separate feature. Please contact us or join our Webex Space for more information.

Alan Mills works within the cyber security department at VQ and is also a lecturer in cyber security at University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).

Here at VQ we’ve had a lot on going on recently, with work on our latest release, VQ Conference Manager 3.10. As with every release we’re working hard to make sure we maintain our high security standards and practices and whilst  at Cisco Live in June, it was great to hear some of the positive feedback from our customers and partners in America around all the security features and compliance requirements our product provides out of the bag.

But let’s not forget we’re still a UK company and we’re just as committed to ensuring we both work and align with the security best practices that are held to over here. There’s no better place for making sure our finger is still on the pulse than at CYBERUK. For those that don’t know CYBERUK is an annual conference run by the NCSC that brings together government, industry and academia with a focus on cyber security. It’s a flagship event and a great place to hear from leaders across all 3 sectors.  

This year I was lucky enough to not only attend the event, but to speak at it (if only briefly). The focus of my talk? Supply chain security. As I’m sure any tech company will tell you supply chains security has become a major concern, with attacks against micro-services, packages and plugins becoming increasingly common. So it was an honour to be able to share the viewpoints and VQ TTPs for dealing with these issues with everyone else at the conference. In just 5 minutes I went through the issues supply chain attacks present, some common attack vectors and some useful mitigations. It was also the opening lightning talk, so I was keen to make sure I covered it all, without starting us all off on a delay. But mission success and the talk went well (and within time).

It’s always good to know that the things you’re doing and saying not only make sense, but resonate with the wider community and there are few platforms or events with the same reach as CYBERUK. Rest assured though we’re not resting our laurels, we’re constantly working to ensure our security practices are up to date and the work and research I’m involved in is helping to improve existing tools and security practices, especially around the use of containers. So I’ll sign this post off by saying more to come and watch this space!

We’ve just released VQ Conference Manager 3.10 which contains the first version of DMA or Device Management and Automation.  This first release of DMA delivers TMS style hierarchical address books and Directory Services for Cisco RoomOS and CE devices.

The next version of DMA will add device configuration and templates which, in turn, will be followed by a version containing the automation functionality (for example, certificate checks and renewals).

One of the questions we’re asked is whether DMA is a separate product? No, DMA is a major new component within Conference Manager and will be included in upgrades and installs. Please note that DMA functionality is licensed separately on a per device, per month basis.

We’re also asked about migration and co-existence with Cisco TMS. We expect DMA and TMS to co-exist for some time; customers will migrate functionality over from TMS to DMA as it becomes available in DMA and customers become comfortable with DMA. We are keen to avoid “big bang” transitions and all the associated risks.

On the subject of transitions, we’ll be providing tooling to make it as easy as possible to migrate data from TMS to DMA.

Wrapping up, we’re really excited about DMA. We’re now at the point of release and the market response to DMA has been amazing.

DMA at 3.10 is the start; It looks like it’ll be an interesting journey and we look forward to taking it with you.

Thanks for making the time to read this blog.

Mike

When we started out on the VQ journey, we had some ideas on what we’d do, why it would be useful and from that, why it’d be a good thing to do.

We never imagined we’d have some of the customers we have today. It’s truly remarkable who uses our software.

So, in a journey that’s consisted of a sequence of remarkable events, I’d like to let you know of the next one…..

VQ Conference Manager 4.0 has been added to the US DOD Information Network Approved Products List (“APL”).

https://aplits.disa.mil/processAPList.action

From the vendor list, you can now select VQ Communications. How brilliant is that?

This represents a huge amount of work that’s taken place over the last 18+ months by the VQ team and the DOD test teams. We’ve had amazing support from Cisco and their guidance helped us negotiate the process successfully.

With the APL grant made, we’re going to tidy up a handful of bugs and release VQCM 4.0 shortly. From a functionality point of view, VQCM 4.0 has the same functionality as VQCM 3.9.2. Our focus has been to get APL and it’s taken a lot of effort over a long period. The DMA functionality that’s about to appear in VQCM 3.10 is not in the first version of VQCM 4 but, rest assured, it’s coming and we’ll be working with the DOD test teams in terms of following the correct APL process.

Thanks again for being such great customers and take care.

Mike