The Concept of Zones and subzones in VCS

[JustForVoice_2]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to understand some concepts related to VCS. My problem mainly is zone.

As per Cisco documentation: A zone is a collection of endpoints. And zone types are:

• Neighbor
• Traversal
• ENUM
• DNS

In the configuration there are other options, like subzones and local zones.

Anyone can help me to understand these concepts?

[Chris Swinney]

All of the zones you mention (Traversal, DNS, ENUM Neighbour) are methods of a call the be placed or received from endpoints that are NOT directly registered to that particular VCS. Think of them as "foreign" zones.

A local zone is exactly the opposite - it is the how the VCS see device that are directly registered to it.A subzone can further sub categorise these local registrations.

Does this help? I haven't outlined the purpose of each of the "foreign" zones you mention, but these are outline quite well in the admin guide.

Cheers

Chris

[JustForVoice_2]

Thank you Chris,

It is really helpful. at lest I can say we have two types: Zones and Local Zones.

Zone means the VCS is Location server, to find the the location of unregistered endpoints.

Local zone it is something to manage the registered devices.

Is it possible to have more than one local zone per VCS?

I found this in Cisco documentation:

Local Zone

The collection of all endpoints, gateways, MCUs and Content Servers registered with the VCS makes up its Local Zone.

The Local Zone’s subzones are used for bandwidth management.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

[Chris Swinney]

Is it possible to have more than one local zone per VCS?

No, but you can have multiple sub zone that split up the local zone

I found this in Cisco documentation:

Local Zone

The collection of all endpoints, gateways, MCUs and Content Servers registered with the VCS makes up its Local Zone.

The Local Zone’s subzones are used for bandwidth management.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

That's right

Anther way to think about "Zones" is as 'Remote' Zones - i.e. anything to to with a signal passed to a device that is NOT registered locally.

Cheers

Chris

[JustForVoice_2]

Thank you too much for your reply,

Anyone can give some examples and configuration scenarios for zone types?

[Chris Swinney]

Hi,

I'm going to direct you to the VCS Admin guide (http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/vcs/admin_guide/Cisco_VCS_Administrator_Guide_X7-2.pdf). There is a whole section (20+ pages) on zones, what they are for and how to configure them.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Chris

[JustForVoice_2]

Thank you for sharing

but actually this the guide that made me confused

[Chris Swinney]

Oh dear. Well, I don't think I can explain much better than this guide, but as a quick and dirty view:

• A Traversal Zone is used to cross a firewall from a protected network to a DMZ or Public Network
• A Neighbour Zone is use to connect to another VCS in the same side or a firewall, perhaps to extend dialling capabilities or pass off calls for some reason or other
• A DNS zone is just that. It (usually?) exists on the VCS-E pointing to the Internet is order that it can resolve names outside of the direct control of the VCSs
• An ENUM zone is similar to the DNS zone which again is used to resolve numbering convention assigned by ENUM
• A Local Zone host endpoint that are directly registered to the VCS
  • A Subzone further devices this Local Zone for ease of management and applying search rule

I don't think I can go any further. You may just need to read and re-read the guide - it can take a few goes for it to sink in.

Cheers,

Chris

[JustForVoice_2]

Thank you for your help and I will try to read more and more and if I have any question I will post it

Thank you too much.