Cisco Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal 11.0(1)

In standalone call flow models, with and without ICM Lookup capability, various combinations
of VXML Server and Reporting Server are possible. ICM Lookup capability requires a connection
hub that both the VXML Server and the Unified ICME VRU PIM (Peripheral Interface Manager)
can connect to. Internally to Unified CVP, the connection hub is known as a message bus, and
there is one always contained in every Call Server, Reporting Server, and Operations Console.
Neither the VXML Server itself, nor the VRU PIM, contains its own message bus.

If a Reporting Server is in the system, one might be tempted to use its message bus for both the
VXML Server and the VRU PIM to connect to. However, the Reporting Server uses a different
high availability paradigm than is used for components which are active in the processing of
live calls, and the two paradigms are not compatible. (The same holds true for the Operations
Console.)

On the other hand, a VXML Server can only connect to one message bus. If both Reporting and
ICM Lookup are used in the system, then the VXML Server must use a message bus which
satisfies the high availability requirements of both.

There is a way to explicitly deploy a message bus by itself: one can install a Call Server, without
enabling any of its services. In some situations this will be the proper approach. The next question
is to determine on what physical machine to deploy it so as not to increase the number of physical
servers unnecessarily.

Given all these considerations, the following table shows a set of guidelines for determining,
in standalone call flow models, when and where separate Call Servers need to be deployed, and
which components would connect to each other under each set of criteria.

No special considerations

No Call Server needed

Standalone with no ICM Lookup and
no Reporting

Planning Guide for Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal 4.1(1)