Business Continuity Service (BCS) Requirements

System requirements

Two identical Waves. BCS requires two identical-model Waves. This means that if the primary Wave is a current-model ISC3 IP 2500, the secondary Wave must also be the same model ISC3 IP 2500. Similarly, if the primary Wave has an MRM-C installed, the secondary Wave must also have an MRM-C, and so on for all installed hardware components.

The Waves must both be on the same level of Wave software, including Hotfixes. Running Vertical Updates on both systems should address this.

Vertical Edge IP phones. BCS is supported with the following IP phones:
Vertical Edge IP 5000i-LLCDG large LCD screen phone
Vertical Edge IP 5000i-24G 24-button phone
Vertical Edge IP 9800 series phones (all models)

Other phones that support multiple registration servers may work, but are not guaranteed to failover in a timely fashion, or at all. 3rd party phones would have to be configured with both Wave IP servers. 

SIP trunking. BCS works with SIP Trunking. Your ITSP must provide SIP trunking service to any IP address that correctly registers with them. The primary and secondary Waves each have a separate, unique internal IP address.

NOTE: BCS is targeted at IP-only implementations using SIP trunks and IP phones. While the BCS process does retain TDM phone and trunk information, there is no simple way to move the physical wiring connections from the primary to the secondary Wave IP.

Multiple ITSPs can be used for improved reliability. You set this up on the primary Wave as normal for using two SIP trunk providers on one box, and configure outbound and inbound routing to use both sets of trunks (in order of priority). This trunk configuration passes to the secondary Wave at failover.

Software requirements

Wave 4.5 or higher
Wave Business Continuity Service license key for the primary Wave
 

Network requirements

The Primary and Secondary Wave IPs must each have unique IP addresses for all components (ISC, VAM, MRMs).
All devices must be on a single network. Both the primary and secondary Waves, all phones, and ViewPoint Desktop clients must be on the same routable network. The Waves do not have to be on the same site, but they cannot be separated by NAT. A fully accessible MPLS network will work as long as no NAT is in place between sites.
Your firewall must allow access for both Waves. The firewall for the network must allow port-forwarding of traffic for SIP trunking to both Waves (both inbound and outbound).
ViewPoint Mobile requires two ports. ViewPoint Mobile already requires a single port to be forwarded for inbound and outbound traffic to the Wave. With BCS, two ports must be specified. This can be the same port on two different public IP addresses (for example, 65.0.0.1:50070 and 65.0.0.2:50070) or two different ports on the same IP address (65.0.0.1:50070 and 65.0.0.1:50071).

Application Requirements

A single OpenVPN server should support both Primary and Secondary Waves. In OpenVPN: Off-Wave mode, the Secondary system can still manage the OpenVPN server when it is the active Wave.
Recording Archive Server is not supported. Recordings will not archive when the Secondary is active.
Global Manager and Global Reporter are not supported with BCS.