Connecting to NextPlane UC Exchange

Add a NextPlane community to an IBM® Sametime® Gateway to create a connection to an external community that is hosted on XMPP.

Before you begin

Beginning with V9.0.1, Sametime Gateway requires a connection to a NextPlane UC Exchange community for providing access to XMPP communities. Sametime no longer supports direct connections to external XMPP servers. UC Exchange is a clearinghouse service that connects Sametime Gateway to third-party services; you configure the connectivity between Sametime Gateway and NextPlane UC Exchange, and UC Exchange then manages connectivity to the third-party service.

You must add the local Sametime community before adding an external community. The firewall must be open for incoming connections over port 5061, from NextPlane nxpfs.nxpuc.info to your Sametime Gateway server's fully qualified domain name. Set the _xmpp-server._tcp.domain-name DNS records to point to nxpfs.nxpuc.info for each of the local domains.

Important: If XMPP external communities are already configured for the Sametime Gateway Server, or if LANs are configured for XMPP external communities, they can no longer be accessed without using NextPlane. Once the Gateway Server local domain XMPP DNS records point to the NextPlane server, all XMPP traffic goes through NextPlane.

About this task

Connect to a NextPlane community by specifying domains in the external community, selecting a translation protocol, and setting the host name, port, and transport protocol for the external community.

Procedure

  1. On the deployment manager for Sametime Gateway, open the IBM WebSphere® Integrated Solutions Console and click Sametime Gateway > Communities.
  2. In the table that lists communities, click New.
  3. In the Name field, type a name for the new community.
    Restriction: After you name and save a community, the name cannot be changed. To rename a community, you must remove the original community and add the community again with the new name.
  4. In the Community Type field, select External.
  5. In the Domains field, type the Fully qualified domain names in which users are found in the external community. You can use a wildcard character (*) in this field as a prefix, but it must always be followed by a period and at least two components of the fully qualified domain name. A value of *.example.com includes us.example.com and test.prod2.example.com. For example, you can use either of these values, *.example.com and *.us.example.com, but you cannot use *example.com because the wildcard is not followed by a period.
  6. In the Translation Protocol field, select: SIP for Sametime Gateway
  7. In the Host Name field, type the name of the external real-time communication server nxpfs.nxpuc.info
  8. In the Port field, type the port number 5061.
  9. In the Transport protocol field, select TLS (Transport Layer Security). You must set up SSL with a certificate signed by a Certificate Authority and exchange trusted certificates with the external community.
  10. Click OK to save the new community.
    Note: You cannot assign users to the community until you save the community.
  11. On the Communities panel, select the name of the community that you created, scroll to the end, and click Assign local users to this community to assign local users access to the external community.
  12. The following steps are optional, but be sure to restart the Sametime Gateway servers if you make any changes to the community.
    1. In the Route properties field, set the maximum sessions for instant messaging or presence for this community. The session numbers set for this community cannot exceed the global maximum sessions set for the Sametime Gateway Server. If Route properties are not visible, you must connect to a local community first.
    2. Select the check box to disable the route to the community.
    3. Click Custom Properties to set additional properties for the community. The Custom properties links are available only after the community is saved.