mvts manual v2

VoiceMaster MVTS billing module manual

Voicemaster (VM2000) MVTS BILLING MODULE

Module description

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Nov 2008

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Contents

Intro ........................................................................................................................................................... 3

Module description ................................................................................................................................... 3

Installation ................................................................................................................................................ 5

Configuration ............................................................................................................................................ 5 File downloading procedure ................................................................................................................... 5 Preparing VM billing system to collect and bill MVTS CDRs ............................................................. 7

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Intro

MVTS system known as well designed system for wholesale traffic. Billing subsystem is only available in latest professional version releases of MVTS (known as MVTS II). Other (older) versions of MVTS are capable for RADIUS and offline CDR billing by thirdparty billing systems. There are a number of external billing systems on the market which can work with MVTS – Billbery, MeraBilling, Alepo, CDR analyzer. Every billing system is unique. VM2000 VOIP platform from sysmaster (www.sysmaster.com) has unique and very flexible billing system, it has almost all possible custom billing features like route/rate switching depending from ANI/DN/DNIS prefix, calling plan minutes for a range of destination and lots of more. But due to a big flexibility and huge number of functions this billing is very resource consuming (mainly DB billing procedures).

VM2000 can be configured to work as billing system for MVTS via radius without any custom modules and patches. Just need to be sure that MVTS sends the origination IP address as a PIN, and VM can recognize it and do IP authentication based on it. However, to for multiple auth IP addresses per account you need custom patch, but this is not the theme of this manual.

VoiceMaster Radius billing works great when response time from the billing engine (DB billing procedures) suitable for radius server timeout ( < 5 sec) . However, when billing subsystem is full of data (rate/route tables keeps more then 100 000 rows, CDR table over 10 000 000 rows etc..) – radius is not stable (message ”ERROR: error reading from socket” is on VM radius log /home/manager/debug/radius/radius_calls.log). This is not a bug, just billing system overloaded, and need to add resources or do rate/route table optimization, upload CDR to files etc.

NOTE!: Module development is done by third party company, which is not related to sysmaster. All modification, which made in the system while module installation done without having root access, but connection to the DB is used under “System Administrator” role. In case your Vm server is on support – you have to inform sysmaster support team about it. At any time, you can ask this module suppliers to recover VM server into original state.

Module description

This module was created as alternative to VM RADIUS billing for MVTS system. Idea is simple:

automatically download new CDR files from MVTS using rsync (over ssh); every minute run file collector script, which find new files and register them to Billing

system, placing them in queue for billing every 5 minute run MVTS billing module , which takes new files, load them to the Billing

system, take each CDR line and emulate the call in VM billing system.Files: collector.sh; mvts_billing.pl Stored procedures: sp_cdr_import_stage (and 5 more)This module, by other words, generates traffic based on CDR. Every CDR passed thru

traditional VM billing system exactly like a regular call, and processed by the same auth/rating/rouing procedures. This call emulation results billing call history per every account, statements for providers and clients.

Technically, for advanced users, I can explain shortly in steps, what is done:After file upload to the certain folder (for each MVTS there is a separate folder – see

configuration part of this manual), the perl script mvts_bill.pl parses the MVTS CDR file, extract the required fields, and generate the BCP file, which is uploaded to Sybase DB temporary table –

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http://www.sysmaster.com/


cdr_import_stage. Next – the procedure sp_cdr_import_stage is executed in DB, which analize the uploaded data, removes duplications, corrects datetime formats, remove zero calls and sarts sp_call_finish procedure with call detailes. Procedure sp_call_fiish tries to finish the call with given session_id, but fails to find it in current calls (callers) and emulate the call start (this is where we need option “Enable exception billing” to be set). Once call start is amulated – sp_call_finish starts from beginning, finds the call and finishs/stops/bills it. After this – call appears in call history. In case call failed to start for some reason (route not found, rate not found, account not found) – CDR is ignored, counter “Account not found” is increased, and report shows this counter per every uploaded MVTS cdr file (see last section of this manual).

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Standard mvts procedures:

- Call routing procedures - Call signaling - Call proxy - Codec conversion - Protocol conversion

Writing CDRs locally to files:

/usr/local/mvts/billing/*

Incoming H323/SIP calls from clients

H323/SIP calls to termination providers

every minute check for new cdrs at MVTS using rsync over ssh, do auth over ssh using user & pub DSA(RSA) key

parse cdr files and upload them in VM database system

Emulating calls from CDR, executing call start per every call and place it in callers table

Billing calls using traditional VM billing system procedures

Generate statements,

CDR files downloading proccess

rsync request

Picture 1. MVTS CDR billing schema


InstallationUsually, module installation and configuration is done by me (the creator), it saves your time, and,

at least, you have guarantee, that it works like described. However, you may want to know the process. Here it is:

put files collector.sh and mvts_bill.pl to /home/manager/scripts/, do DB modification of stored procedures (6 procedures) setup cron job to run the /home/manager/scripts/collector.sh every minute, configure communication with MVTS using ssk key, like described in this manual, later and

configure the Billing system (add MVTS as a gateway, add rates/routes/accounts)

Configuration

File downloading procedure

Communication between VM and MVTS based on rsync linux tool. This command makes synchronization of files and folders, instead of copy them. Every time this command executed – only new parts of data (the difference) is downloaded. In our case, the best and simple way to run rsync using ssh secure channel. MVTS should allow ssh connection from VM for user manager without password. Instead – the PUB/PRIVATE authentication key pairs are used (this is default auth procedure of ssh).

Configuration steps of creating user and RSA auth keys: 1) Create manager account at MVTS;

root@mvts#: useradd manager

1) Generate pub/private key for user manager at VM (passphrase is empty, just press enter for all the questions)

manager@voicemaster:~> sshkeygen t rsaGenerating public/private rsa key pair.Enter file in which to save the key (/home/manager/.ssh/id_rsa): Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): Enter same passphrase again: Your identification has been saved in /home/manager/.ssh/id_rsa.Your public key has been saved in /home/manager/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.The key fingerprint is:51:21:15:c5:4a:c1:8e:13:f9:c1:78:45:c9:3e:fc:21 manager@voicemaster manager@voicemaster:~>

2) At MVTS create directory /home/manaer/.ssh and change owner to manager

mkdir /home/manaer/.ssh && chown manager.manager /home/manaer/.ssh

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mailto:manager@voicemaster:~


mailto:root@mvts#


3) Insert public rsa key of user manager at VM /home/manager/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to the MVTS, in file /home/manager/.ssh/authorized_keys2

cat /home/manager/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (do it at VM, and copy the key)vi /home/manager/.ssh/authorized_keys2 (do it at MVTS, press I, paste the key, and save&exit :wq )

In case everything is correct, you shold be able to login from VM to MVTS as manager without password. Try to connect here, in order to store the RSA key finger point (type YES when it asks):

manager@voicemaster:~> ssh mvtsThe authenticity of host 'mvts (192.168.1.111)' can't be established.RSA key fingerprint is 34:9d:71:0b:08:be:eb:b4:ac:39:8f:cc:db:a9:92:eb.Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yesWarning: Permanently added 'mvts' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.manager@ mvts :~ >

Final step – is to give read permission for user manager to the files in MVTS CDR folder, by default is /usr/local/mvts/billing/*

As alternative, for security reasons, you can setup automatic file uploading from MVTS to VM. For that, you need to repeat the procedure with creating users and auth key pairs, but generate key pair (priv/pub) at MVTS server, and put PUB key to VM manager profile: /home/manager/.ssh/authorized_keys2. Then, run periodically CDR files synchronization using rsync (most optimal tool) every minute, 10 minutes, or every hour. Add this line at the MVTS server crontab (correct the path, address, ports according to your locations):

crontab –e

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/rsync a e 'ssh p 22' /usr/local/mvts/billing/* manager@VM_SERVER _IP /home/manager/upload/cdr/Mera >/dev/null 2>&1

where folder /home/manager/upload/cdr/Mera is predefined, the format is:

/home/manager/upload/cdr + GW_ID GW_ID – it is gw_id for MVTS gateway, which is added to gateway list: Route>gateway in

VM admin console. (See next configuration step).

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mailto:manager@mvts:~



Preparing VM billing system to collect and bill MVTS CDRs

Voicemaster MVTS billing module can work with multiple MVTS gateways. Every GW should be present in VM gateway list, and have correct IP address. This IP address used for file downloading and management purposes. Client IP address and termination GW should also be correctly set in vm billing system like for regular call traffic.

Configuration steps:

Add customer account with IP address authentication

Picture 1. Creating customer account with IP authentication

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It is supposed, that routing/rate table “System[0]”,”System Route[0]”, keeps the correct prefixes and rates to bill the CDR. Other wise – calls won’t be billed due to error “No route to destination” or “No billing rate found for …”.

add MVTS to the VM gateway list, putting the IP address and GW_ID, name to the form.

Picture 2. Adding new MVTS gateway to VM.

NOTE: the GW_ID is used as a folder name to keep the CDR files for this GW, it is automatically created in VM system /home/manager/upload/cdr/GW_ID. Each MVTS GW will have it’s own folder, you can add unlimited gateways to the system, keeping GW_ID unique for each MVTS gateway.

add this GW to the “MVTS CDR Billing” list. This step is important, it tells system to run MVTS billing for this GW, i.e. connect to it via ssh, download files and bill them.

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Picture 3. Adding MVTS GW for billing

If you did everything correct, within a minute MVTS cdr files should be appeared in the GW list. You have to reload tree to see the MVTS gateway files.

Picture 4. Refreshing the menu tree

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Once it is done, you have to see the list of CDRs, which are downloaded from MVTS server. There is a possibility, that there are too much of files; it is requires some time to download them (depends from connection speed between VM and MVTS). Billing is executed at once after download process finished.

Picture 5. Downloaded CDR files.

From this moment, the billing is started. It is executing download and billing procedure every minute. In case when new cdr files found – they are loaded and billed automatically.

Fields “Billed %”, “Total Calls”, “Billed calls”, “Auth failed” reflect the billing results. Billed % reflects dynamically the billing process percent; Total calls – total call count in uploaded CDR file; Zero calls count of calls in CDR with duration = 0. This could ne rejected calls by MVTS

due to some errors; Billed calls – important field, reflect the count of calls which were authenticated (account

found) and billed by the system rates. These CDRs are processed by the VM billing system, and you can see calls in account CDR history

Auth failed –reflects count of calls, which was not authenticated and not processed. “Account not found” error is generated by the system. Most probably you do not have such IP, prefix in your VM system.

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Picture 4. Billed calls.

VM system billing is very flexible, it has almost all common features for billing the calls and services. In our example, MVTS files with total file count 65000 rows was billed for 6 minutes. Mostly, time is spent for file uploading and validation. Billing itself took about 1 minute.

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mvts manual v2

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