Understanding Cisco Unified CallManager
Quality Report Tool
QRT is a voice-quality and general problem-reporting tool for Cisco CallManager IP Phones. The Cisco Extended Functions service supports the QRT feature. The QRT Viewer, located in the Tools menu of Cisco CallManager Serviceability, allows administrators to filter, format, and view problem reports that are generated.
Administrators can configure Cisco IP Phones with QRT, which is installed as part of the Cisco CallManager installation, so that users can report problems with IP phone calls. Users report issues by using a Cisco IP Phone softkey that is labeled QRT. Any Cisco IP Phone that supports an HTTP web server also includes support for QRT. The IP phone must be in the Connected, Connected Conference, Connected Transfer, or On Hook state for the QRT softkey to be available.
QRT is a feature that extends to Cisco IP Phones as a Microsoft Windows NT service. Cisco Extended Functions, which supports the QRT feature, must be enabled in the Cisco CallManager service activation window. To enable Cisco Extended Functions, choose Cisco CallManager Serviceability > Tools > Service Activation and activate the service called Cisco Extended Functions.
When a user presses the QRT softkey, as shown in Figure 34-11, QRT displays a feedback window. It is possible that while the user is interacting with the QRT screen, another application, such as Cisco Call Back or Cisco IP Manager Assistant (IPMA), or function keys, such as settings, directories, messages, and so on, could overwrite the QRT screen. In this situation, QRT cannot send the feedback. To send feedback in such cases, the user has to press the QRT softkey again.
Figure 34-11. QRT Submission Process
If a user presses the QRT softkey to generate a report and forgets to stop the logging process (the user must manually stop the logging process by pressing the End softkey on the Cisco IP Phone), the QRT tool periodically checks all IP phones that are generating reports and closes them. This action prevents the device from consuming large amounts of resources that, over time, could impact CTI performance. Currently, the default setting is to check every hour and to close devices that have remained open for more than an hour.
QRT records are written only when the end user presses the QRT softkey on the IP phone, selects a problem, and sends the report to the administrator. Otherwise, no records are written and the administrator cannot troubleshoot the problem. The figure shows the logging process of an audio call between two IP phones.
Depending on how the system administrator configured QRT for the Cisco IP Phone, users can use the QRT softkey in either of the two ways described in Table 34-4.
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Issue |
What To Do |
|---|---|
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To quickly report an audio problem with a current call while on a call, press More > QRT. |
Your IP phone system will collect and log call data for the current call and route this information to your system administrator. |
|
To report a problem with your phone calls, press More > QRT. |
Select the problem that you want to report from the list of problem categories. Some problem categories include a reason code that you can select to provide more details about the problem. Your IP phone system will store the information in a database or file and the administrator can run reports to diagnose the problem. |
Activating the QRT Softkey
The system administrator can temporarily configure a Cisco IP Phone with QRT to troubleshoot problems with calls. Reconfigure the softkey layout for the IP phone (choose Cisco CallManager Administration > Device > Device Settings > Softkey Template > softkey_template_name > Softkey Layout) to activate the QRT softkey, as shown in Figure 34-12. Users can now report problems by using the QRT softkey during or after a call.
Figure 34-12. Adding the QRT Softkey
When the administrator modifies the softkey templates to activate the QRT softkey, the softkey should be added to the following call states:
- Connected
- Connected Conference
- Connected Transfer
- On Hook
Viewing QRT Logs
Administrators can view the IP phone problem reports that are generated by QRT by using QRT Viewer.
Note
QRT collects streaming data only once per call. Therefore, if user A calls user B and both submit reports for that call, only the first report includes streaming data (for example, delay, jitter, and ports being used).
Use the following steps to view the QRT logs:
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Step 1. |
To open the IP phone Problem Reporting window, choose Cisco CallManager Serviceability > Tools > QRT Viewer.
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Step 2. |
Choose the Cisco CallManager server for which you want to view a problem report. Enter a start and end date in the Date fields. In the Time fields, you can specify the time for those dates, if needed. An illustration of this is shown in Figure 34-13.
Figure 34-13. Generating a QRT Query: Time and Date Fields |
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Step 3. |
Click the Get Logs button.
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Step 4. |
From the Extension Number, Device, and Category drop-down menus, choose the extension numbers, the devices, and the problem categories that you want to include in the report, as shown in Figure 34-14.
Figure 34-14. Generating a QRT Query: IP Phone Filters |
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Step 5. |
From the List of Fields drop-down menu, select the fields that you want to include in the report and click the down arrow to move the selected fields to the Selected Fields pane.
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The QRT output displays all IP phone problems for the specified time frame. For the filters set in the query, all issues within the time frame are displayed. In Figure 34-15, two QRT reports matched the submitted query. One of the QRT reports came from extension 4015 and the other from extension 4010.
Figure 34-15. QRT Report Sample
When you choose All from the Category field, all problems are displayed. The Category and Reason Code columns are the areas that you should look at first. These two columns describe the problem and the reason. The output can be saved in a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) file.
Note
Because QRT reports are based only on entries in the QRT database and records are added to that database only if a user presses the QRT softkey, QRT cannot detect any problems on its own; it relies completely on user activity.