FCM or GCM messaging for IBM Verse for Android clients

IBM Traveler server can use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) or Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) for real time push notifications to keep your Mail, Calendar, Contact and To Do data on your IBM Verse for Android clients up to date. Google has deprecated GCM and replaced it with FCM.

Using FCM or GCM can greatly improve the battery life of Android devices using Verse, as Verse no longer needs to stay constantly connected through HTTP to the IBM Traveler server for push notifications. If you currently use the HTTP option for the Real-time sync type, then the existing Verse for Android application automatically starts using FCM or GCM once it detects that the server supports this capability and the device is logged into a Google account.

If you have chosen periodic sync as your sync type, you can use FCM or GCM by selecting Real-time as the sync type, and then choosing FCM or GCM as the Real-time option.

The IBM Traveler server attempts to communicate with the FCM service or GCM service using the host cm.googleapis.com (FCM) or android.googleapis.com (GCM) on port 443. Make sure that any internal firewalls between the IBM Traveler servers and this external host allow this connection. To verify that this connection is working, connect an IBM Traveler for Android client from a device that is also logged in with a Google account. The IBM Traveler server will not attempt to contact FCM or GCM until it has a reason to do so.

On the Traveler server, run the command:
tell traveler push cmstatus
In the output, check for a section that looks similar to the following text. Either FCM or GCM displays depending on what the administrator has selected, but FCM is the default as of 10.0.1 and later.
Traveler: ########## Connection Notification Sender GCM (Wed Feb 04 06:50:43 EST 2015) ##########
Traveler: Description: Details about the connections to the Google Cloud Messaging (GCM).
Traveler: Connection to Google Cloud Messaging is active

If this connection is not showing active, check your NTSErrors*.log files for connection issues with the host cm.googleapis.com (FCM) or android.googleapis.com (GCM).