Configuring Acme Packet platform for SIPREC based call recording

Owned by Kiss, Mate
May 24, 2022
4 min read

In order to use the Acme Packet SIPREC recording interface configuration of the SBC is required.

You can use this SIPREC integration to record:

  • audio sessions and
  • video sessions.

Requirements

SIPREC requires the purchase of a Session Recording license. Contact your Acme Packet Representative for more information

SIPREC is currently supported on the following platforms running Acme Packet Release: E-C(xz)6.4.0F1:

    • Net-Net 3820
    • Net-Net 4500
    • Net-Net Enterprise Session Director-Server Edition (ESD-SE)
    • Net-Net Enterprise Session Director-Virtual Machine Edition (ESD-VME)

SBC Provisioning Steps

Step 1 -  Provision session recorder server(s)

In this step recorder server(s) are assigned to SBC. 
The most important parameters:

    • realm: the realm to which the recorder belongs. Acme Packet recommends to use separate/dedicated realm for recorder servers. If you create dedicated realm, make sure related sip-interface and steering-pool configuration has been also done.
    • destination: IP address of the recorder server
    • port: listening port of recorder server (default SIP port of Verba Dial-in Recorder is 5065)
    • transport-method: SIP transport, we support all possible values except SCTP, but prefer StaticTCP

Example configuration script

# configure terminal
(configure)# session-router
(session-router)# session-recording-server
(session-recording-server)# name VERBA0
(session-recording-server)# select VERBA0
(session-recording-server)# realm REALM_TO_RECORD
(session-recording-server)# destination recorder_ip
(session-recording-server)# port 5065
(session-recording-server)# transport-method StaticTCP
(session-recording-server)# done

Step 2 -  Create recorder server group (for load-balancing & failover support)

In this optional step recorder servers are assigned to a recorder group. Load-balancing and faillover support can be configured at group level
The most important parameters:

    •  strategy: load-balancing/call distribution method to use
    •  simultaneous-recording-servers: number of recorder servers simultaneously recording a call. You can configure redundant recording with this feature 
    •  session-recording-servers: enumeration of recording server names belonging to the group (configured in Step 1.). You can add servers by 'session-recording-servers +SERVER_NAME' or remove by  'session-recording-servers -SERVER_NAME' command

Call distribution strategies:

  • Round-robin (default) - The SBC remembers the last Session Recording Server (SRS) that was used. Each new recording session selects the next SRS in the session recording group. When simultaneous-recording-servers is greater than 1, the next n recording servers are selected from the session recording group.
  • Hunt - The SBC successively attempts to contact SRSs in the session recording group until a successful recording dialog is established with the SRS, starting from the first SRS in the session recording group. The SBC attempts to contact each SRS in the session reporting group once. When contact is exhausted, the recording device is considered failed. A SIP failure (response greater than 399, timeout or TCP setup failure) causes the SBC to attempt the next possible SRS. When simultaneous-recording-servers is greater than 1, the SBC attempts to establish n recording devices in a hunting fashion.
  • Least busy - For some 3rd party recording devices, the number of concurrent recording servers proves to be the most taxing for system resources. The SBC tracks the number of recording servers active to a given SRS at any given time. It uses this information to determine which SRS would be the best candidate for the next RS. The SRS with the fewest number of active recording servers receives the next RS. If two or more SRSs in a session recording group currently have the same number of active recording servers, the SRS configured first in the session recording group takes precedence.
  • Lowest sustained rate (fewest-setups-per-minute) - For some 3rd party recording servers, processing large amounts of sessions in a short amount of time proves to be the most taxing on their system's resources. The SBC tracks the number of recording server setups over a sliding window of five minutes. The SRS within the session recording group with the fewest setups per the window of time is selected as the next candidate for receiving the recorded session. If two or more SRSs in a session recording group currently have the same value for setups in the given window of time, then the SRS configured first in the session recording group takes precedence.

Example configuration script:

# configure terminal
(configure)# session-router
(session-router)# session-recording-group
(session-recording-server)# name VERBA
(session-recording-server)# select VERBA
(session-recording-group)# strategy LeastBusy
(session-recording-group)# simultaneous-recording-servers 1
(session-recording-group)# session-recording-servers +VERBA0
(session-recording-group)# session-recording-servers +VERBA1 
(session-recording-group)# session-recording-servers +VERBA2
(session-recording-server)# done

Step 3 -  Assign recorder server (group) to recorded entity

After recorder server or group has been defined it should be assigned to recorded entity, Session recorder servers can be assigned either to sip-agent, realm, or sip interface. Recording mode is selective, according to Acme's design the responsibility to select to be recorded calls is at SRS side. This means that SBC invites the recorder into all calls processed by recorded entity (sip-agent, realm, sip-interface) and recorder explicitly refuses not to be recorded sessions based on caller/callee id or other properties of the call, and establishes session only for to be recorded calls. 
The most important parameters:

    •  session-recording-server: assigns the already configured (Step 1.) recorder server or server group (Step 2.) to the entity. To assign recorder server group the name of group must be prefixed with 'SRG:' as it is done in the example below.
    •  session-recording-required: if set to enabled the SBC does not establish the  recorded call if recorder is not available to record the session 

Example configuration script (assigns VERBA recording server group to 'PBXS' sip-interface)

# configure terminal
(configure)# session-router
(session-router)# sip-interface
(sip-interface)# select PBXS
(sip-interface)# session-recording-server SRG:VERBA
(sip-interface)# session-recording-required disabled
(sip-interface)# done

Step 3 -  Verify, save and activate configuration

After configuration has been done, you should verify, save and activate it on the SBC:

# verify-config
# save-config
# activate-config