Bouncing Boxes: 2012

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Easy (and cheap) SQL Server Backups

The Backup/DR solution I use at work, like most of them, requires extra licenses to backup MS SQL databases. I happened to be SQL happy and have databases running on 4 or 5 servers (yes I lost count), purchasing a license for each one can get expensive. To get around this I had been using a isql from a batch file to dump the database files to a folder before the backup, and while this worked fine it had two problems. First it wastes a lot of space, and second I have no way of knowing if the dump was successful I know, I could have written a complex batch file to notify me but I am not a fan of batch files, if I am going to bother with that I will just write something in c or vb.net.

I came across SQLBackupAndFTP, and it's a slick solution with a not too sophisticated name. It will backup and compress your SQL databases, handle full and incremental and even purge old backups. It apparently will FTP them too, but I have didn't bother with that. It will also backup SQL database from remote servers with a little extra configuration. They have a free version that will backup two databases (I use that at home) and various paid versions that will backup more. If your Backup/DR solution gouges you for SQL backups you should check it out.

SQLBackupAndFTP.com

-Keith

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

We have out grown our home grown auto attendant prompts

Since, and before, I was sitting in this chair the company I work for has used in-house talent to create the voice prompts for our Cisco phone system. Management has decided to use an outside firm to create the audio which I think is a good thing. Anyway, part of what we want to accomplish is to have different MoH (Music on Hold) streams for each queue a caller can be placed in.

Currently everything uses the default Cisco MoH stream. It was relatively easy to create the new audio sources for MoH, but what took me a while was figuring out how to apply that new source to the queues. Most information I Googled mentioned setting them in the CTI Points... It was only after figuring out that that didn't work that I came across an article that correctly stated you had to change the CTI *PORTS* not Points. Our UCCX server was using a single Call Control Group with 100 CTI Ports for both the sales and support queues, I created a second Call Control Group and moved 50 of them to the new group. Then came the fun part, going through all 50 CTI Ports and setting the MoH source.

So in a nutshell, if you want to use different MoH audio sources for the queues on your UCCX (or IPCC) server, first make sure your CRS scripts uses the standard Call Hold and Call Unhold commands. Then create a Call Control Group for each queue and create or shuffle around your CTI Ports so that you have enough in each control group, and finally in CUCM locate the CTI Ports (they are listed under Phones) change the MoH source for each port.

Hope that helps.

-Keith

About Me

I am an IT Director for a manufacturing company in south central Texas. I have some 25 years of experience in programming, computer repair and networking.

I do not have a degree in computer science, in fact I do not have a degree in anything, though I have been to some training classes over the years. I've always had a knack for computers. My father worked for IBM, all of my brothers have worked in IT, it's in my DNA I suppose. I naturally understand computers better than I understand people (think Asperger's). I read RFC's for fun. You get the idea.

But, given my lack of formal education, my knack for technology and my personality I tend to not hold technology with the same high regard as most of my peers. In fact, I never wanted to work in IT in the first place. I was going to be a musician. Turns out musicians don't make a lot of money. Since I needed a new career path I decided to take the easiest route to success. You might call me a technology renegade. Okay, maybe not.