OfficeSuite Dynamic Site IP Recovery Feature Customer Responsibilities Dynamic Site IP Recovery The Dynamic Site IP Recovery feature is designed to provide IP address resiliency for OfficeSuite customers that have one or more customer-provided access sites for which a static IP address could not be secured. This feature ensures that OfficeSuite services are kept whole and fully operational following a local router IP address change imposed by the customer s Internet Service Provider (ISP). The Dynamic Site IP Recovery feature leverages a well known industry concept called Dynamic DNS (a.k.a DynDNS or DDNS) along with proprietary Broadview Networks logic to automatically detect and adapt to IP address changes in localized (site specific) customer routers. Page 1
Recovery Process The recovery process is fully automatic and ensures that the loss of service resulting from an unexpected Site IP address change does not exceed 2 minutes in duration. The end-to-end Site IP recovery process is shown in Figure 1. Note that the process starts with an IP address change in the customer s Site Router the router behind which the OfficeSuite phone sets reside. OfficeSuite Dynamic Site IP Recovery Feature 6 Service restored. Phone Sets Site Router 1 2 3 Site IP changes. Service disrupted. IP address change detected by router and instantly reported to DDNS provider to align the pre-configured hostname-to-ip address mapping. Every 60 seconds, the DDNS server refreshes its hostname/ip mapping. DDNS Provider* 4 Customerprovided access Network Internet Every 30 seconds, the Dynamic Site IP Recovery application performs a hostname lookup to see if the IP address of the site has changed. Broadview Data Center x OfficeSuite servers 5 The Dynamic Site IP Recovery application updates OfficeSuite application servers with the new site IP address. x Tenant Admin 7 The Dynamic Site IP Recovery application sends an email alert to the Tenant Admin about the event and the automatic repair action. IP Recovery Logic * Customer contracts separately with DDNS provider Figure 1: End-to-End Site IP Recovery Process In this process, the Site Router is pre-configured to communicate IP changes to a Dynamic DNS Provider (e.g., DynDns.org). The Dynamic DNS provider, in turn, makes those changes known to Broadview s systems which react by updating the back-end OfficeSuite server (restoring voice services) and notifying the tenant admin via email of the change. The email alert includes a web link so that, as a precautionary measure, the tenant admin can verify or adjust the E911 settings for the site. Factoring in Time To Live (TTL) setting in DNS root servers as well as polling and transaction intervals, the entire process is designed to recover from unexpected Site IP changes in less than 2 minutes. Note that most ISPs attempt to retain a router s non-static IP address through outages, reboots and power cycles but the reality is that non-static IP addresses can and, most likely at some point, will change. The Dynamic Site IP Recovery feature provides assurances that OfficeSuite voice services will remain operational should such a change occur. It is important to keep in mind that while the recovery is automatic, Site IP changes will result in the temporary loss of service (terminating active calls and preventing new calls from being made or received). It is for this reason that Broadview advocates the use of a static IP address for all OfficeSuite site locations. Page 2
Provisioning (Set-Up) Process The one-time set-up process consists of the following: Step 1: Customer creates an account with a Dynamic DNS Provider and establishes a hostname for their router (e.g. myrouter.dyndns-free.com). Step 2: Customer configures their router for Dynamic DNS. Step 3: Broadview configures back-office systems to provide the customer Dynamic Site IP Recovery. The first two steps are performed by the customer. The final step in the process must be performed by a trained Broadview Representative. Page 3
Step 1: Customer creates an account with a supported Dynamic DNS Provider and establishes a hostname for their router. While the process supports any Dynamic DNS provider, this document assumes the use of DynDns.org. a. Before you can obtain a hostname for your router, you must first register with the Dynamic DNS Service Provider (DynDns.org). The following steps take you through the registration process. I. Go to http://www.dyndns.com. It will bring you to the home page: II. At the top right-hand side of the page click Sign In and then click the link that says Create an Account. You will be presented with a page that looks as follows: Page 4
III. Set Username to your desired username IV. Set Password to your desired password V. Set Retype password to your desired password again for validation VI. Set Email to your email address VII. Set Retype email to your email address again for validation VIII. Enter the security number. IX. Uncheck Subscribe to DynDns.com newsletter. X. Read and agree to the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) XI. Click the Create Account button. XII. Your account will be created and a verification email will be sent to the email address you signed up with. You will need to click the link contained in that email to finish the Page 5
registration process (you have 48 hours to do this otherwise the process will be terminated). b. You now have a registered account with DynDns.org and can proceed to create a hostname for your router. I. Once again go to www.dyndns.com II. Log in using the credentials for your newly created DynDns.org account. It will bring you to a page that looks as follows: III. Select Add Host Services. It will bring you to a page that looks as follows: Page 6
IV. Set fields as follows: a. Hostname: Select your desired hostname prefix (e.g., myrouter) and choose a suffix from the drop-down box. Record this value somewhere, as you will need it later. This, along with your DynDns.com account credentials (Login/Pass) will be used later in the process. b. Service type: Leave on Host with IP address c. IP Address: Set this to the current IP address of your Site Router. d. Leave the rest of the fields and check boxes as-is. V. Click Add to Cart. a. At the time of this writing the Dyn Standard DNS is sold for $29.95 /yr Page 7
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VI. VII. Click Proceed to checkout. You will be prompted for payment information. Click Activate Services to finish and activate your dynamic DNS hostname. You will be shown a table with your newly created hostname. Page 9
Step 2: Customer configures their router for Dynamic DNS. After establishing an account with a dynamic DNS provider and establishing a host name for their router, the customer configures their router with the settings established in the previous step. This involves activating DynDns in the router, setting the Service provider, and enter the details eastablished in the previous step (e.g., hostname, account login and password). This step is critical. Without this step, the router would be unable to communicate detected IP address changes to the Dynamic DNS Provider. The following example uses a Netgear router and DynDns.org as the DDNS Provider to demonstrate the steps required by the Customer to configure their router: a. To do this log in to your (Netgear) router and choose the Dynamic DNS option from the menu on the left. This will display the Dynamic DNS page: b. Check the box marked Use a Dynamic DNS Service c. Set Service Provider to www.dyndns.org d. Set Hostname to your newly created hostname from Step 1-b. e. Set Password to your username and password from Step 1-a. f. Click Apply. Page 10
For Verizon Fios routers, the Dynamic DNS page can be found after clicking the Advanced icon. Page 11
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Step 3: Broadview configures back-office systems to provide the customer Dynamic Site IP Recovery. The final step in the process is for the Broadview Networks Representative to configure and activate the Dynamic Site IP Recovery feature in back-office systems. When ready to perform Step 3, the Customer may call their assigned Broadview Networks Project Manager to complete the set up. Copyright 2012 Broadview Networks Page 13