desktop monitoring and dot1q

[ciscoforum]

Anybody knows how desktop monitoring feature works? why we need to configure PC as dot1q to support that? Thanks

[gpulos]

you shouldn't need to configure the PC NIC to support dot1q unless that PC has to be able to talk to multiple VLANs.

the dot1q configuration though is so Voice VLAN data as well as PC VLAN data can be sent to the switch port for that host.

desktop monitoring/recording does not necessarily require dot1q be configured on the PC NIC itself.

what is required is a 'SPAN' session created on the switch to allow a supervisor to monitor/record an agents voice stream.

when you setup a SPAN session, it will capture all data, PC or Voice that is sent to/from that switch port, or VLAN if that is how you configured your SPAN.

you should be able to setup the SPAN and then test your monitoring/recording if the feature has been installed.

please see the following link for more monitoring/recording info:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps556/products_tech_note09186a00801a62a8.shtml

also, start by qualifying your NIC cards for monitoring/recording. please see the link below for more info:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1844/products_tech_note09186a00801f42f9.shtml

(not all NICs will suppor this; intel PRO have issues most of the time for example)

[ciscoforum]

Thanks very much

But what I am refering to is version 4. It's a new feature called desktop monitoring which no longer needs the span.

Please see the excerpt from srnd

http://www.cisco.com/application/pdf/en/us/guest/products/ps6488/c1609/ccmigration_09186a008066ea75.pdf page 32 and 33

-------------------------------------------

Desktop monitoring provides a mechanism for the CAD application to obtain a copy of the RTP packet

streams directly from the phone and therefore removing the need for a Monitoring component connected

to the SPAN port on the Catalyst switch. A 7940 or above phone is required for desktop monitoring and

the agent workstation running CAD must be connected to the data port on the back of the agent phone.

The IP Communicator (softphone) also supports using desktop monitoring for silent monitoring and

recording.

For desktop monitoring, the agent workstation must have a NIC that supports

802.1Q. This allows the NIC to process packets from both the data and voice VLANs

-------------------------------------------

[Alejandro Cadarso Cerdeirina]

Hi, anybody can explain how desktop monitoring works with IP Communicator.

With any hardware IP phone I understand that in "Cisco CallManager Administration" we set the "Span to PC Port" and with this the NIC receive both VLAN traffic (Voice and DAta) and if it is configured to pass VLAN tags it gets all the RTP stream in the voice VLAN.

When we have IP communicators then, do we need to configure anything special? or only "Enable Desktop Monitoring" in "Cisco Desktop Administrator" and then the CAD gets te RTP stream directly from the IP Communicator software?

[Chuck Smith]

IP communicator will still receive the RTP stream to the network card on your PC so WinPCap will still be able to capture the stream and forward it to the recording server.

[Tim Smith]

Hi,

I am working on getting similar function in ICM CTIOS going.

My understanding here is that some NIC's strip the VLAN 802.1q header.

For monitoring to work the packet capture utility (in CTIOS they use Win PCAP) needs to be able to see this VLAN header.

Have a look at this document. It is not the feature you are talking about, but I think it is all based on the same principles.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1844/products_tech_note09186a00801f42f9.shtml

Cheers,

Tim.