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Metreos was purchased by Cisco not too long ago for a phone proxy appliance that sat in a DMZ to allow ip phones to register across the internet to your call manager (err communications manager) cluster without the use of any vpn appliance nor exposing your CM to the internet. Cisco rebranded the appliance an sold it for short period of time as the Cisco Unified Phone Proxy. August saw the release of ASA code 8.04 which now includes this functionality and replaces this appliance. This is a licensed feature that you purchase per the number of proxy’ed connections you require, however ASA allows 2 connections for testing without any additional licensing.  Alternatively you can purchase a secure cm bundle that includes the asa and proxy licenses along with cm. The license is called “UC Proxy Session”. It’s notable that even the lowend IP Base version ASA 5505 has this functionality of which I am using to test this out myself.

To configure this, simply head to your asdm and navigate to Configuration/Advanced/Encrypted-Traffic-Inspection/Phone-Proxy and run through the fields. It’s very straight forward. For those looking to go cli or want more details, navigate here for the official documentation.

Cisco DMS (Digital Media System) is a suite of applications that provide video content in several different formats. This includes pushing content to digital signs (video displays) such as those that you see in lobbies of hotels and businesses. Additionally it manages content that is pushed to web clients (think Youtube for corporate). The topology is fairly easy. The main physical components that make up DMS are:

• DMM – Digital Media Manager
• DME – Digital Media Encoder
• DMP – Digital Media Player
• VP – Video Portal

To understand how all these pieces work with each other, it is important to look first at the DMM. (more…)