The CUBE (Cisco Unified Border Element)  usually sits at the edge of your organization, being the first device that calls hit when they come in, and the last device they touch on the way out.  Because of this, it is helpful to get an idea of calls that are presented to CUBE, and any errors that occur with them.  This is where VoIP Detective CUBE Analytics steps in.


Admin Dashboard includes both CUCM and CUBE call legs:


Searching CUBE Analytics



The CUBE is capable of creating it's own CDRs (Call Detail Records), and sending them to a third party billing server.  VoIP Detective can process these CUBE CDRs, and provide them to administrators.


What is the difference between CUCM and CUBE CDRs, in VoIP Detective?

  • CUCM CDRs are processed and available in a number of reports (admin, inbound, outbound, all calls, etc).  These reports include extensions, hunt groups, gateways, and more, and will show if a call has been forwarded, transferred, etc.
  • CUBE CDRs are only available in the "CUBE Analytics" report in VoIP Detective.  This means that any CUBE CDRs that are received will not be included in any other report than the "CUBE Analytics" report.  It is also important to note that the details presented in the CUBE Analytics will only include events that happen on the CUBE itself.  Once a call leaves the CUBE, no further information is available.



With these limitations to CUBE CDRs, how can they help us?

It is true that there are quite a few limitations to the CUBE CDRs - you will not be able to see any processing that CUCM does to these calls.  The records will show calls coming into and leaving the CUBE, and not much more.  Even with this limited amount of information, we can get quite a bit of data like:

  • Understanding calls that never touch CUCM.  These calls could be rejected, or could go to other destinations like MS Teams.
  • "Disconnect Cause" error messages, if a call fails to connect
  • Listing of calls that are rejected by CUBE, and never make it to CUCM.  These can point to attacks, or misconfigurations.
  • Calling Line Identification (CLID) and Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) before any translations patterns are applied by CUCM.  
  • Codec used


Requirements

  • Cisco IOS Release 12.4(20)T or a later release
  • Cisco IOS XE Release 16.3.1 or a later release
  • VoIP Detective PRO app version 1.7 or higher


Configuration

VoIP Detective Configuration

1. Most versions of CUBE are only able to transmit files via FTP over port 21, so we'll need to enable FTP on VoIP Detective.  To do this, log into the command line using the cliadmin user. Go to "enable or disable services" and choose the option to enable FTP.

2. Next, go to Administration -> Configuration and enable CUBE Analytics


CUBE Configuration


Summary of VoIP Detective recommendations:

  1. enable
  2. configure terminal
  3. gw-accounting file
  4. primary ftp <VoIP Detective IP Address>/incoming/CUBE username voipdetective password voip (the same account and password that CUCM uses to send files)
  5. maximum retry-count  3
  6. maximum fileclose-timer 60

  7. maximum cdrflush-timer 1

  8. cdr-format detailed

  9. acct-template callhistory-detail

  10. end

  11. write


Detailed steps with explanation

                                               
 
          Command or Action         
          Purpose         

Step 1

  enable 

         
                    
 

 Router> enable

 Enables privileged EXEC mode. 

         
  •  Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

  configure  terminal 

         
                    
 

 Router# configure terminal

 Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

  gw-accounting file

         
                    
 

 Router(config)# gw-accounting file

 Enables the file method of accounting.

Step 4

  primary {{ ftp |   sftp} path/filename  username  username  password  password |  ifs    device  :  filename }

         
                    
 

 Router(config-gw-accounting-file)# primary ftp 10.10.10.100/incoming/CUBE username voipdetective password voip

  

 (Optional) Sets the primary location for storing the CDRs generated for file accounting.

         
  • path/filename - This should be the IP address of VoIP Detective, followed by '/incoming/', which puts files in the incoming folder, and finally the file prefix of 'CUBE'. If these CDRs do not start with CUBE then they will not be processed. Example : 10.10.10.100/incoming/CUBE
  •   ftp path/filename —Name and location of the file on an FTP server.
  •   sftp  path/filename —Name and location of the file on an SFTP server.
  •   ifs device : filename —Name and location of the file in flash memory or other internal file system on this router. Values depend on the storage devices available on the router, for example flash or slot0. 
  •   username username —User ID for authentication. This must be the username voipdetective
  •   password password —Password user enters for authentication. This will match what CUCM uses to send cdrs to VoIP Detective.
  •  Default:  flash:cdr.

Step 5

  maximum retry-count  number 

         
                    
 

 Router(config-gw-accounting-file)# maximum retry-count 3

 (Optional) Sets the maximum number of times the router attempts to connect to the primary file device before switching to the secondary device.

         
  •   number —Number of connection attempts. Range:1 to 5. Default: 2.

Step 6

 maximum fileclose-timer  minutes 

         
                    
 

 Router(config-gw-accounting-file)# maximum fileclose-timer 60

 (Optional) Sets the maximum time for writing records to an accounting file before closing it and creating a new file.

         
  •   minutes —Maximum time, in minutes, to write records to an accounting file. Range: 60 to 1,440. Default: 1,440 (24 hours).
  •  Set this file close timer to at least five minutes longer than the flush timer set with the  maximum cdrflush-timer command.

Step 7

 maximum cdrflush-timer  minutes 

         
                    
 

 Router(config-gw-accounting-file)# maximum cdrflush-timer 1

 (Optional) Sets the maximum time to hold call records in the buffer before appending the records to the accounting file.

         
  •   minutes —Maximum time, in minutes, to hold call records in the accounting buffer. Range: 1 to 1,435. Default: 60 (1 hour).
  •  Set this flush timer to at least five minutes less than the file close timer set with the  maximum fileclose-timer command.


VoIP Detective prefers many small files to process, instead of a single very large file.  Because of that, we set this timer to create a new file every minute.

Step 8

 cdr-format { compact |  detailed }

         
                    
 

 Router(config-gw-accounting-file)# cdr-format detailed

 (Optional) Selects the format of the CDRs generated for file accounting.

         
  •   compact —Compact set of voice attributes is generated in CDRs.
  •   detailed —Full set of voice attributes is generated in CDRs. Default value.

Step 9

acct-template { template-name | callhistory-detail }


Router(config-gw-accounting-file)# acct-template callhistory-detail		Collects all voice VSA (Vendor Specific Attributes) for accounting

Step 10

  end 

         
                    
 

 Router(config-gw-accounting-file)# end

 Exits to privileged EXEC mode.

   

More information : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios/voice/cdr/developer/manual/cdrdev/cdrcsv.html



Troubleshooting:

If CUBE is not able to communicate with VoIP Detective (for example, a network outage), and the "maximum retry-count" is exceeded, CUBE will stop trying to deliver files.   You can always see the last time a file was transmitted to VoIP Detective by going to the Administration -> System Status page:




If you notice that no files are being delivered to VoIP Detective, log into the cube and issue a "show flash: command.  You may notice that CDRs are being stored in flash instead of transmitted.  


show flash



Resetting communication.

If CUBE has stopped transmitting to VoIP Detective we will need to restart the transmission process on the CUBE.

We will start by closing the current file

file-acct flush with-close


Next, we will begin the push again:

file-acct reset


At this point, you should see files being transmitted to VoIP Detective.  Below is a SFTP session (FileZilla) with VoIP Detective



Manually moving files from CUBE to VoIP Detective

Once we have reset communication, we can move the files that were created in our CUBE's flash to VoIP Detective.

Log into CUBE via SSH, and issue a show flash command

show flash



We will now move the file cdr.2811VoiceRouter.12_27_2022_13_48_15.661 from CUBE into VoIP Detective.  The router command is:

copy flash://FILENAME ftp://VOIPDETECTIVESSHUSERNAME:VOIPDETECTIVESSHPASSWORD@VOIPDETECTIVEIP/incoming/CUBE.FILENAME


Important : The CDR filename must start with "CUBE" when it is sent to VoIP Detective. To achieve this, we alter the prefix during the copy process. CUBE generally prefixes with "cdr', so we will remove the "cdr" and replace it with "CUBE" (case sensitive). The format will be CUBE.routername.date


In this case the final command would be

copy flash://cdr.2811VoiceRouter.12_27_2022_13_48_15.661 ftp://voipdetective:[email protected]/incoming/CUBE.2811VoiceRouter.12_27_2022_13_48_15.661



Now that we have successfully copied this file we can delete it from our CUBE's flash


delete flash:FILENAME



Repeat this process for any other files that were stored on the router