It didn't kill me, but my family might. (part 3 in a series)

So with the CMR's all backed up as Conductor Conferencing Aliases, I feel like things are "stabilized" for now and I'm preparing for vacation.

However,  the nature of my ADD means that sometimes it is hard to think of anything else than what excites me. Lately that's been all the things at work and that I'm working on. So a week up camping with my wife and daughter (plus her friend) may possibly lead to them killing me.

I guess you cannot escape death.

In order to clear my conscience and (maybe) wrap up this trilogy, I would like to explain a tiny bit more about that I've learned about what a "CMR" is. In part 1 I explained it as magic tied back to some SQL thing - pretty much magic begetting magic, am I right?

It really isn't quite that mystical. When you create a CMR - something you can only do in TMS - it makes an API call to the Conductor to build a conference that is then stored in the Conductor but you cannot modify it. If a CMR is in the Conductor and has the same video number or video address as a Conductor Conference Alias, the CMR will take priority. This way you can have a CCA that mirrors the CMR but they can coexist peacefully. If the CMR gets wiped from the Conductor because it's marked for deletion and you hit that Regenerate CMRs button you will be totally safe. the CCA is backing you up.

Until TMS creates a CMR for someone new that uses the same video number or address.

These moments of clarity were provided in the "Cisco-TMSPE-with_VCS-Deployment-Guide" on page 57 and 58. I also learned about how a CMR differs from a CCA and most significantly in guest access. I have never played with a host/guest meeting room in the Cisco environment so it's fun to exercise this. In short: with a CMR you can have the PIN determine the participant's role in a conference. User one PIN and you are a guest, or use the other PIN and you are the host. With a CCA, you must have a separate alias for the guest to call.

Where do we go from here?

I'm going on vacation. HA!

Not much of this really matters to many because ya'll are probably on to CUCM which totally changes what a CMR is. There is no Conductor. TMS is relegated to a purely scheduling function. Who knows, it might not even have a place in the future where Spark/WebEx converge to take over.

But I feel better putting this down and maybe you found this bit interesting. The Cisco documentation is deep. I've ready too many PDF's in the last month and I really should be working on my lab again. But for now i'm going to sit back, light a marshmallow on fire, and try not to talk about tech too much.