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Cisco Personal Assistant 1.4 Installation and Administration Guide
OL-4590-03
Chapter 1 Planning for Personal Assistant
Creating Server Clusters
To create a simple Personal Assistant server cluster, do not specify failover servers in the server
configurations when you configure each server through the Personal Assistant administration interface.
(See the “Configuring Personal Assistant Servers” section on page 4-10 for information on configuring
the Personal Assistant servers into a cluster, and the “Server Configuration” section on page A-16 for
reference information on the server configuration settings.)
The following sections describe how to configure load balancing:
Configuring Load Balancing, page 1-14
Effect of Load Balancing on Users Who Access Personal Assistant, page 1-14
Effect of Load Balancing on Rule-Based Call Routing, page 1-15
Configuring Load Balancing
Personal Assistant load balancing is based on the “call forward busy” and “call forward no answer”
numbers assigned to each Personal Assistant server phone number (CTI route point). If you configure
these settings correctly in Cisco CallManager, the Personal Assistant servers in the cluster can answer
calls for busy servers without the knowledge of your users.
If you create a chain of servers, your users will need only one phone number to reach Personal Assistant.
This can make it easier for your users to use Personal Assistant.
Table 1-3 shows an example setup in which three Personal Assistant servers are chained so that they
share the call load. In this example, users have been told to call extension 5600 to reach
Personal Assistant. If Personal Assistant Server 1 has an available media port, it handles an incoming
call. If it does not have an available media port, the call is forwarded to 5700 (Personal Assistant Server
2). If Personal Assistant Server 2 has an available media port, it handles the call; otherwise, the call is
forwarded to 5800 (Personal Assistant Server 3). If Personal Assistant Server 3 does not have an
available media port, the call is forwarded to 5600 (Personal Assistant Server 1). Users can also reach
Personal Assistant by calling Personal Assistant Server 2 or 3 directly.
Effect of Load Balancing on Users Who Access Personal Assistant
If you are using load balancing without a failover server, and if a Personal Assistant server becomes
disabled, all calls that the server is currently handling are cut off. However, if Personal Assistant has
already completed its role in the call process (for example, has transferred a call based on call-routing
rules), the call remains in progress. Subsequent calls to the disabled server are forwarded to another
server based on the “call forward no answer number” configured in Cisco CallManager. However, the
number of available simultaneous sessions is reduced because the active server must support the sessions
from the disabled server in addition to its normal load.
Tab l e 1-3 Personal Assistant Server Load Balancing
Cisco CallManager Setting
Personal Assistant
Server 1
Personal Assistant
Server 2
Personal Assistant
Server 3
CTI route point (phone number) 5600 5700 5800
Call forward busy 5700 5800 5600
Call forward no answer 5700 5800 5600