Web Portal Sections:Configurations

The Configurations section of the Web Portal provides a list of the configurations found on the device. It is in this section that you will create, modify and activate configurations. Broadly defined, a configuration is a specific set of system parameters corresponding to a specific application or use of the underlying hardware and its signaling, transcoding, and switching capabilities.

You may create multiple configurations, or sets of settings, that correspond to multiple different applications or uses of the underlying hardware and software capabilities of the device. However, there can only be a single active configuration at any given moment. That being said, it is possible to create and modify configurations at the same time as the device is running and you can do so without affecting its current performance. When you activate a configuration on a system with multiple configurations stored on it, you are in effect disabling the configuration that was previously active. Finally, it is not possible to delete the active configuration. If you want to delete the configuration that is currently active, you must first activate a different configuration, before deleting the previously active one.

It is important to point out that each configuration is specific to a given system.

Best practices

Due to the importance of configurations to the overall operation of the media gateway or telecom platform device, we have identified a series of best practices on configuration management:

Naming

When working with any complex system that requires multiple variables to be configured, and especially when working with a system that allows you to create multiple configurations, you need a method for ensuring that you can both create, as well as come back to and revise, system configurations. Most of the time this comes down to the way that system configurations and sub-settings are named.

We have identified a couple of considerations when creating names for your configurations.

First and foremost, you need to be consistent in the way that you name and number items, specifically when working with multiple sub-components such as line interfaces, network access points, call routes and others. Whether you choose to use full words to describe system components, or abbreviations, the important thing is to be consistent. The same goes for the use of upper and lower case letters. By the way, TelcoBridges recommends the use of capitals when naming network access points or NAPs. It also important to pay attention to the way that you append numbers to component names; in particular, you need a numbering schema that will allow your system capacity to grow.

Second, you should take good care to ensure that the names that you create are intuitive or as intuitive as they can be if you are using a series of abbreviations. Whenever possible, the names that you create should say what the configuration, or the component or the service is being used for. If the configuration does not use SS7, then make sure that the term SS7 does not appear in the configuration name. Creating intuitive names will help you when you come back 3 months or a year later and need to make modifications. Intuitive naming will also help when you reach out to the TelcoBridges technical support team, particularly if you need them to perform remote intervention on your system.

Third, it is very important to ensure that names are always unique and that no single name is applied to more than one sub-component.

And a final best practice is this: document your configuration of the Web Portal using an external tool. Microsoft Excel, while not explicitly designed for this purpose, can be a useful tool. You can even create your naming schema and name your components there, then build out your Web Portal configuration based on them.

By following these suggestions, you should be able to simplify the creation of a system configuration on your TelcoBridges device.

Configuration management

While you are not obligated to do so by the system, TelcoBridges strongly recommends that you duplicate a given configuration before attempting to modify it. This can make a major difference should you run into difficulty with a new configuration and need to quickly bring the system back to its original operating state. Due to the high number of variables that need to be configured for a typical telecommunications network device, it is easier and much faster to modify a system that was known to work then to attempt to configure all variables from scratch.

By maintaining multiple versions of a configuration, with different names or version numbers, you have the ability to roll-back to a given configuration depending on system performance or on changing business requirements. The ability to roll-back is particularly useful if you have just modified a configuration and the modified version does not work.

Before putting a new or modified configuration in to service, you should first validate it. This step, which takes only a few seconds and involves clicking a single button, will enable you to detect any errors in the configuration.

Probably the most important best practice of all is this: perform backups of your system configuration data on a regular basis. In fact, TelcoBridges recommends that you back up your configurations both before and after modifying them. This can be done within the Web Portal interface via the Backups section in the navigation bar. There you can directly back up the current database as well as view and recover from previous database backups.

Finally, TelcoBridges recommends that following the creation or modification of a system configuration and its subsequent backup on the media gateway or telecom platform device, that you download an offline archive of the configuration database for safe-keeping.