Cisco Webex is an app-centric, cloud-based service that provides a complete collaboration suite for teams to create, meet, message, call, care, white board, and share, regardless of whether they’re together or apart—in one continuous workstream before, during, and after meetings. It is built to help teams work seamlessly. It is simple, secure, complete, and open, and provides a space for people to work better. The core capabilities of Cisco Webex are Meetings, Messaging, and Calling. The Cisco Webex platform, app-centric design, hybrid services, and architecture of Cisco Webex create a unique and differentiated service. For more information on the solution, refer to Cisco Webex.
Cisco Webex Meetings provides a Messaging API that VFC is able to use to retrieve content from Webex Rooms. The Webex Import Source uses the Webex Messaging API to list and download available recordings, query and add participants prior to ingest. Separate recordings are created for each recorded Webex user. Each recording contains details of all meeting participants. Once triggered, Webex content is ingested indefinitely in near real-time with an unlimited retry attempts if the media is unavailable for any reason. If the integration is restarted or the first recording start time reset, no duplicate content will be created within VFC.
There are certain pre-requisite steps that must be performed within Cisco Webex Portal to ensure that Meetings are recorded and available for VFC to download:
- Automatic Recording - As a site administrator, you can enable automatic recordings for your whole Webex site. With this feature enabled, when any of your users host a meeting or event, Webex automatically begins recording. Please see https://help.webex.com/en-us/article/nghqgucb/Enable-Automatic-Recording-of-All-Meetings-on-Your-Webex-Site
- Limitation - If Automatic Recording is not enabled, then by default Webex only automatically records participation if the regulated user (configured for recording) hosts the meeting. When a user attends a meeting as a participant, then they are not automatically recorded. If this user joins as a participant, they are required to ask the meeting host to make them a co-host or presenter. The meeting host can also assign multiple participants as co-hosts for the meeting. Once the user is made a co-host or presenter, they will have the recording options available.
For a general description of Verba Import sources, please refer to Import sources.
Recording is supported for the following modalities only:
- MP4 Video (includes audio only content and video)
- Audio only (all video converted to audio only)
1. Prerequisites
- Two components, a Cisco Webex integration application and a VFC Import Source are required.
- Firewall access must be arranged as two way internet communication is required between the Import Source and Webex.
- Incoming authentication arrives from Webex to the Webex Integration redirect URI. The URL and port number is fully configurable and is secured by TLS over HTTP. The port number cannot be 443 as this is already used by the VFC Web Application.
- Outgoing API calls to Webex for content and user queries is on Port 443 and via https://webexapis.com/v1
- Outgoing calls to retrieve media is on Port 443 and normally via https://<company name>.webex.com/ <company name>. The URI is determined by Webex alone.
- If used, Compliance Site URL must also be granted firewall access, including the port number.
- VFC video or audio recording licence. If audio-only recording is used (Transcode Video to Audio is set), it is mandatory to install Windows Media Foundation (Windows Server 2012 or newer) on the server where the Webex Import Source runs.
2. Create a Cisco Webex Integration
To create a Webex integration, a Webex account backed by Cisco Webex Common Identity (CI) is required. If no Webex account is available, sign up. If you're using Webex Meetings, your site will must be on Common Identity. Typically, the user creating the API Integration needs to be the Compliance Officer on Webex. Navigate to https://developer.webex.com/my-apps and press the Create a new app button. Then press the Create an integration button to create an OAuth Integration.
Configuration Item | Description | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile SDK | (Webex iOS or Android SDK 3.0+) | No |
| Integration Name | Name of your integration as it will appear in Webex. | VFC WebEx Meetings Ingestion |
| Icon | Upload your own or select from our defaults. Must be exactly 512x512px in JPEG or PNG format. | Use VFC Logo provided. |
| App Hub Description | What does your app do, how does it benefit users, how do users get started? Does your app require a non-Webex account? If your app is not free or has additional features for paid users, please note that and link to pricing information. 1024 character limit. | VFC WebEx Meetings Ingestion. (Note the application will not be shared on the app hub at present.) |
| Redirect URI(s) | One or more URIs that a user will be redirected to when completing an OAuth grant flow. | http(s)://<VFC Hostname>:<VFC Port>/Webex/RedirectURI/OAuth VFC Hostname is the name of the VFC server VFC Port is the port opened in the customer firewall for Webex access. Make a note of this value as it is also required when configuring the VFC Webex import source. The port number cannot be 443 as this is already used by the VFC Web Application. |
| Scopes | Scopes define the level of access that your integration requires. | Select the following 3 scopes:
|
Once all the integration values have been entered, press the Add Integration button. Make a note of the two important values shown, Client Id and Client Secret. They are required during the next step, configuration of the VFC Webex Import Source.
3. Create a WebEx Import Source
Follow the steps in VFC to create a new Import source. All settings are mandatory, apart from TLS configuration.
Step 1 - Open the VFC Web interface then select Data > Import Sources from the top menu
Step 2 - Click on the Add New Import Source link on the top right.
Step 3 - Complete the configuration according to the requirements in the following table
NOTE: Ingestion of Webex content is always behind real-time. The closest ingestion can be to real-time is: Webex Recording Start Timestamp + (Webex Maximum Recording Length * 2) + Webex Availability Delay.
Configuration Item | Description | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Mandatory. Name your Import Source. This name will identify the source across the system. | Recommended to include the import source type and purpose. |
| Type | Mandatory. Import Source type | Select WebEx (not Cisco Spark) from the Import Type drop-down |
| Webex Integration Client Id | Mandatory. Client Id value obtained during previous step of Webex creation integration. Used during OAuth authentication. | Example: M2lzY29zcGFyazovL3VzL0FQUExJQ0FUSU9OL0MzNWI4NmM0 ATg2Nzc3NmQxNzhiMjg1OGIwMTMzNTdiODJiMTFkZjVlNmM1N GhiZTlkOGNjNzYyMDcyMTU3M2Mz |
| Webex Integration Client Secret | Mandatory. Client Secret value obtained during previous step of Webex creation integration. Used during OAuth authentication. | Example: 0c2e71a7f2628596ad856a9e6ab7efddead07d6b272dc2a2ef3f9fc4cf74d0b7 |
| Webex Integration Redirect URI | Mandatory. URI called by Webex during authentication process. Same value used during configuration of the Webex integration. | http(s)://<VFC Hostname>:<VFC Port>/Webex/RedirectURI/OAuth VFC Hostname is the name of the VFC server VFC Port is the port opened in the customer firewall for Webex access. The port number cannot be 443 as this is already used by the VFC Web Application. Must be exactly the same value used to configure the Webex Integration Redirect URI. Note case sensitivity and port restrictions. |
| Forward Proxy Address | Optional. IP address or FQDN of the forward proxy. When defined, the system will connect through a forward proxy. | |
| Forward Proxy Port | Optional. The port of the forward proxy. | |
| Forward Proxy Username | Optional. Username for basic authentication for the forward proxy server. | |
| Forward Proxy Password | Optional. Password for basic authentication for the forward proxy server. | |
| Compliance Site URL | Optional. Compliance Officer's Webex site from which to retrieve recordings. If not specified, the user's default site will be used. | Example: <company name>.webex.com or normally leave blank. |
| TLS Certificate File or Thumbprint | Optional. Certificate file / certificate thumbprint used for the Webex connection. | The default VFC CA Certificate can be used for HTTPS/TLS communications between Webex and the VFC Import Source by setting HTTPS in the Redirect URI and leaving all of these TLS settings empty:
|
| TLS Key File | Optional. File system location where the certificate key is stored. | |
| TLS Key Password | Specify the password for the file that contains the certificate keys. | |
| TLS Trust List | Certificate chain (or Chain of Trust) is made up of a list of certificates that start from a server's certificate and terminate with the root certificate. If your server's certificate is to be trusted, its signature has to be traceable back to its root CA. | |
| Transcode Video to Audio | Optional. Store audio-only version of recording. | Select required audio codec. |
| Recording Timezone | Mandatory. VFC Server timezone. | Example: GMT +09:00 - Japan |
| Webex Recording Start Timestamp | Mandatory. Timestamp of the earliest WebEx content to be ingested. This can be a timestamp in the past, e.g., 2020, if historic Webex content is required to be ingested. The Import Source will gradually catchup with real-time as it is run by successive Data Management Policies, but will take longer to catch up depending on the number of historic recordings, the Maximum Recording Length and Availability Delay. In the case of mass historical ingest, it is recommended to set the Maximum Recording Length to a large number, e.g., 999 and reduce the Availability Delay to a small number, e.g., 10 minutes. Once the ingestion has caught up, adjust each of these parameters to their correct operational values. | Example: 2023.01.29 07:00:00 |
| Webex Maximum Recording Length (minutes) | Mandatory. Maximum length of Webex content to be ingested. Content exceeding the maximum length may not be ingested or an alert generated. | Example: 60 |
| Webex Availability Delay (minutes) | Mandatory. Maximum time the import source waits for a Webex meeting to become available for ingestion. If the meeting is not available after this time, it may not be ingested or an alert generated. | Example: 30 |
| On Completion Delete Recordings Stored in Webex | Optional. Allows VFC to become the single repository for Webex content. The recording deleted from Webex cannot be recovered, so this setting must be set with great care. If a Compliance Officer deletes another user's recording, the recording will be inaccessible to regular users (host, attendees and shared), but will be still available to the Compliance Officer. Only recordings of meetings hosted by the authenticated user can be deleted. | Tick to delete recordings from Webex immediately after VFC ingestion or leave unticked to have recordings both in Webex and in VFC. |
| Authentication Keep-Alive (minutes) | Mandatory. Webex Authentication cannot be completed unless the VFC Import Source is running because it depends on an OAuth HTTP(S) callback from Webex to the Import Source. This is why the VFC Import Source must be saved and an Active Data Management Policy created. The callback provides VFC with an Access Token that Webex content ingestion depends upon. The Authentication Keep-Alive setting is a temporary configuration value which ensures the installation engineer has enough time to press the Authenticate Now button and authenticate with Webex before the VFC Import Source terminates inline with the VFC Data Management Policy. Once the token has been obtained by Webex authentication, the Authentication Keep-Alive must be reduced to zero and the Import Service restarted. The Access Token is securely encrypted and automatically updated during production. | Example: 99 - During initial installation 2 - If a periodic check of the VFC Webex Token/Authentication status web page is required during production. 0 - During normal operation to avoid delay in completing processing of the Import Source. The value can be updated at any time if an adhoc check is required. |
Webex
| Mandatory. Do not press this button until an active Data Management Policy has been created. Until the VFC Import Source has been saved with settings for all of the above values and an active Data Management Policy created, this button will not authenticate the VFC Import Source with Webex and content will not be ingested. Once authenticate now has been pressed, it should not be used except on the very rare occasion the integration has not been running for along time and the Webex Access Token has expired. | N/A |
4. Create an active Data Management Policy
Follow the steps below to configure the Data Import action. Note, the policy must be active before proceeding to authenticate the VFC Import Source with Webex.
Step 1 - In the Verba web interface, navigate to Data > Data Management Policies
Step 2 - Click on the Add New Data Management Policy button at the top-right corner of the page
Step 3 - For the action, select Data Import
Step 4 - Under Available Import Sources, select the Import Source that you created, then click on the Add button just below the text field
Step 5 - Configure the policy details, based on the information that is shown in the configuration items summary table below
Step 6 - Set up how frequently the Import should be run in the Scheduling section
Step 7 - Click on Save
Configuration Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable Recording Rules | Specifies if all data should be processed in the imported data set or just the records of the recorded users as configured in VFC. |
| Execute Only on Selected Servers | If enabled, a specific server can be chosen that will run this policy |
5. Authenticate the VFC Webex Import Source with Webex
Webex
| Once all previous steps have been completed, press this button. A popup window appears which allows the Compliance Officer to authenticate the Import Source via Webex logon. Once authenticated, an encrypted token is stored on the VFC Import Server. The token is automatically renewed when required by the VFC Webex Import Source. After authentication, token status information is displayed as shown below. Token status information can also be checked by entering the first part of the Redirect URI: http(s)://<VFC Hostname>:<VFC Port> VFC Hostname is the name of the VFC server VFC Port is the port opened in the customer firewall for Webex Once Webex has Authenticated (step below), reduce Authentication Keep-Alive (minutes) to the required value and restart the Import Service. |
6. Validate Webex Authentication
OAuth token status information can be displayed by entering the first part of the Redirect URI in a web browser.
http(s)://<VFC Hostname>:<VFC Port>
VFC Hostname is the name of the VFC server
VFC Port is the port opened in the customer firewall for Webex access.
7. Configure Users in VFC
Follow the steps below to configure users in VFC:
Step 1 - In the Verba web interface, navigate to Users > Users
Step 2 - Click Add new User
Step 3 - Enter the user's e-Mail address is in lower-case and set to the same e-Mail address the user will join Webex with
Step 4 - Add user information as normal, making sure the user's validity extends to cover the range of their Webex recordings
Step 5 - Click Save
8. Configure Extensions in VFC
Follow the steps below to configure extensions in VFC:
Step 1 - In the Verba web interface, navigate to Users > Extensions
Step 2 - Click Add new Extension
Step 3 - Set the extension in lower-case to the same e-Mail address the user will join WebEx with
Step 4 - Set the Type to User/Agent Id
Step 5 - Set the Recording Settings to Voice and Video
Step 6 - Click Save
9. Resilience
In the event of failure to ingest Webex content, resilience is provided by the retry buffer. This contains VFC CDR files in XML format that failed to be ingested and must be retried. The Webex import source automatically adds a batch of up to 25 of these files to the current ingestion each time it runs. Once added, the XML file is removed from the retry buffer, but will automatically be re-added should the ingestion fail again. If the CDR is successfully ingested, it will appear in the ingestion status report alongside the other content. Files can be manually added or removed to the retry buffer if required for troubleshooting purposes. Retry buffer capability also enables the import source to track real-time as it enables historic failures to be retried.
Alternatively, if the Verba Import Service is required to be stopped for reasons of troubleshooting or maintenance, the manual procedure below must be used:
Step 1 - In the Verba web interface, disable the Data Management Policy associated with the Webex Import Source
Step 2 - Open windows explorer and navigate to Program Files\Verba\work\cdrimport\webex\laststate\policyId_importSourceId
Step 3 - Open the policyId_importSourceId.cursor file in notepad - it is one line and will look similar to:
c84f2f698fc9d64d64ed161d87b00c25_I_251182078220051266_19d0243a-9fd0-11d1-ac11-13453884b96c;2023.02.02 07:00:00.000
Step 4 - Set the timestamp to a date and time before the failure ensuring this timestamp plus the import batch duration and the recording lag is less than the current timestamp and then save the file.
Step 5 - Re-enable the Data Management Policy associated with the Webex Import Source
10. Folders used by Webex Import Source
| Folder Location | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Program Files\Verba\work\cdrimport\webex\work\policyId_importSourceId | Encrypted Token storage, temporary Webex content download. |
| Program Files\Verba\work\cdrimport\webex\laststate\policyId_importSourceId | Cursor file containing current import status so that import source can be stopped and restarted from previous Webex Recording Start Timestamp value. The cursor file also contains the meeting identifier of the last ingested Webex content for monitoring and troubleshooting purposes. |
| Program Files\Verba\work\cdrimport\webex\retryBuffer\policyId_importSourceId | Contains VFC CDR files in XML format that failed to be ingested and must be retried. The Webex import source automatically adds a batch of up to 25 of these files to the current ingestion each time it runs. Once added, the XML file is removed from the retry buffer, but will automatically be re-added should the ingestion fail again. If the CDR is successfully ingested, it will appear in the ingestion status report alongside the other content. Files can be manually added or removed to the retry buffer if required for troubleshooting purposes. Retry buffer capability also enables the import source to track real-time as it enables historic failures to be retried. |
11. Types of alerts raised by the Webex Import Source
| Alert Message | Explanation/Resolution |
|---|---|
| Could not parse configuration of import source | Check import source configuration and restart import service if updated. |
| Conversation failed to import | Check network/firewall access and integration permissions/scopes within Webex. |
| Problem retrieving content | Check network/firewall access and integration permissions/scopes within Webex. |
| Failed to delete content from Webex | Check network/firewall access and integration permissions/scopes within Webex. |
| Could not obtain timezone offsets | Check database connectivity. |
| Missing media runtime | Media Foundation (Windows Server 2012 or newer) is missing from the server where the Import Source is running. Please install and restart the Import Service. |
| Failed to get authorization token | Check network/firewall access and integration permissions/scopes within Webex. |
| Failed to list recordings | Check network/firewall access, integration permissions/scopes within Webex and that Webex content exists. |
| Failed to list participants | Check network/firewall access, integration permissions/scopes within Webex and that Webex participants exist. |
| Failed to obtain recording details | Check network/firewall access, integration permissions/scopes within Webex and that Webex content exists. |
12. Webex Content Ingestion Status Reporting
No report files are generated by the Webex Import Source. However at the end of each batch, a notification alert is raised containing details of Webex content ingested into VFC.
Example alert shown below. Note that due to the overlap approach used in the sliding window mechanism, mention of conversations already imported is as expected.
If no recordings are found in Webex for the time period of the Webex batch sliding window, an alert is generated. This does not indicate an error, only that Webex has not content for the time period specified.
13. Webex Metadata
| Metadata Field | Description | Template | Available |
|---|---|---|---|
Start Date | Start date of the conversation | Standard | Yes |
| Start Time | Start time of the conversation | Standard | Yes |
| End Date | End date of the conversation | Standard | Yes |
| End Time | End time of the conversation | Standard | Yes |
| Duration | Length of the conversation | Standard | Yes |
| User | Name of the recorded user | Standard | Yes |
| From | Subscriber | Standard | Yes |
| From Info | User / contact name | Standard | Yes |
| Conference Participants | Participant details, join and leave timestamp | Standard | Yes |
| Native Id | Unique VFC conversation identifier | Standard | Yes |
| Technical Id | Unique Webex Meeting Id conversation identifier | Standard | Yes |
| Source Platform | WebEx | Standard | Yes |
| Conversation Type | Video or Audio | Standard | Yes |