Cisco Collaboration Setup

Prerequisites

Tool or evidence	Purpose	Verify
Bash and Python 3	Run the offline renderer and validator	bash --version && python3 --version
Reviewed intake spec	Keep product routes, indexes, and privacy choices explicit	Start from template.example
Local evidence files	Qualify CDR/CMR, CIM, and partner-package claims; optional AXL/Expressway notes never qualify readiness	Use relative, single-link regular files with SHA-256 values

When to Activate

• Route CUCM remote-audit-logging syslog separately from CDR and CMR flat-file collection.
• Plan Expressway syslog and optional CDR or local2 media-statistics readiness.
• Plan CMS syslog while keeping its HTTP(S) XML CDR receiver as an explicit gap.
• Plan Meeting Management system and audit syslog.
• Produce evidence-only RoomOS, BroadWorks, UCCX, or UCCE gap packets.

Do not use this skill for Webex REST collection itself; hand that work to cisco-webex-setup. Use cisco-thousandeyes-setup for ThousandEyes data and cisco-product-setup when the Cisco product is not yet known.

Workflow Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  1. REVIEW INTAKE                                               │
│  Confirm product routes, privacy choices, and local evidence    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  2. RENDER OFFLINE                                              │
│  Build classifier, readiness, evidence, gap, and handoff assets │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  3. VALIDATE                                                    │
│  Re-read trusted evidence and verify the private packet         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  4. HAND OFF                                                    │
│  Operators review unresolved gaps before any child workflow     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Safety Contract

• Rendering is the only mode and is the default. There is no apply, install, execute, device-login, API, or credential mode.
• Never generate a child apply command or a Cisco device mutation. Delegated commands are stored as argv arrays and use render/help modes only.
• Reject unknown fields, secret-bearing keys, path traversal, symlinks, hard-linked evidence, unowned output directories, and executable artifacts.
• For CMS and Meeting Management, emit a deterministic classifier only for compatible plain-TCP handoffs. Their sender profiles may select documented TLS, but that selection keeps a blocking SC4S listener/certificate gap and suppresses plaintext vendor-port argv. Classifiers must use an exact host, exact IP, or unique dedicated port; regex and overlapping selectors are invalid.
• Keep the documented syslog destinations fixed: cisco:ucm to ucm, cisco:tvcs to main, cisco:ms to netops, and Meeting Management cisco:mm:system:* plus cisco:mm:audit to netops.
• Treat call analytics as product-specific normalized data. Do not claim a Telephony or VoIP CIM model. Render Authentication or Change mappings only when the spec supplies a constrained qualifying search, the conservative field set, and hashed local evidence. Keep the operator query outside the rendered bundle; persist only its SHA-256, structural review result, fixed route/field allowlist, and a non-identifying head 0 skeleton.
• Dashboard SPL must project fields _time collaboration_route, explicitly run fields - _raw as the final pre-aggregation step, and then aggregate. _time survives for timechart; no raw or hashed identifiers are retained or displayed.
• The private packet necessarily retains reviewed operational routing identifiers: project/environment/owner, restricted role, exact host/IP selectors, indexes/source types, and its marker-bound output path. The no-event-identifier boundary applies to evidence values and dashboard/CIM output, not those routing coordinates. Source spec names are never persisted. Every intake string and the resolved output/derived child path are screened for email, private-key, bearer, and a finite set of AWS, GitHub, Slack, JWT, OpenAI, and Google API credential shapes before any write. UUID-like HEC or client-secret strings remain allowed because their shape is indistinguishable from legitimate operational identifiers; this is not universal secret detection.
• Treat Splunkbase apps 669, 4434, 4640, 8413, 8592, and 8593 as optional Sideview partner packages, never Splunk-owned official TAs. Do not emit install commands; require exact version, tier, entitlement, and package metadata evidence before recording a selection.

Commands: Render and Validate

Render the example spec offline:

bash skills/cisco-collaboration-setup/scripts/setup.sh \
  --spec skills/cisco-collaboration-setup/template.example

Preview without writing:

bash skills/cisco-collaboration-setup/scripts/setup.sh \
  --spec skills/cisco-collaboration-setup/template.example \
  --dry-run --json

Validate the rendered packet without contacting Splunk, SC4S, or Cisco:

bash skills/cisco-collaboration-setup/scripts/validate.sh

Bare validation proves current structure, private ownership/modes, fixed registries, and consistency with the renderer-created unkeyed marker commitments. It does not authenticate historical provenance. If the packet contains CDR/CMR local qualification, CIM evidence, partner evidence, or CMM operator-attested evidence, validation fails closed until an externally trusted spec is supplied and its bound evidence is re-read:

bash skills/cisco-collaboration-setup/scripts/validate.sh \
  --spec /private/operator-owned/collaboration-spec.yaml \
  --expected-spec-sha256 <externally-recorded-sha256>

The optional digest is an external trust anchor. Because the bundle and its unkeyed SHA-256 marker are owner-rewritable, a coherent same-owner rewrite is outside bare validate.sh authenticity guarantees. Trusted-spec mode strictly re-parses the spec, verifies its digest, re-reads bound evidence, and compares every rendered projection deterministically.

With no arguments, setup.sh renders template.example to the repository's cisco-collaboration-rendered/ child directory. Review readiness/, privacy/, sc4s/, evidence/, gaps/, and handoffs/ before any operator uses a child workflow.

The renderer refuses an existing bundle by default. After reviewing it, use --replace-existing to publish a fully validated private sibling stage and preserve the prior output under a sibling backup name. The backup marker stays bound to the original target path, so the backup is intentionally not a valid bundle while it has the backup name. It is a recoverable replacement under a private target lock, not a claim of gap-free atomic replacement. It never clears an owned tree in place or deletes that backup.

For reviewed recovery, stop concurrent renderers, verify that the exact target is absent and its sibling lock is absent, verify the recorded backup is a current-user-owned 0700 real directory, rename that exact backup to the original target path, and run validate.sh --output-dir <original-target>. If the restored packet carries historical/local evidence, also pass the trusted original --spec and optional externally recorded --expected-spec-sha256. Bare validation is expected to fail for that qualified restore. Never edit the marker or validate the backup under its temporary sibling name. Replacement preflight checks only ownership, structure, and marker commitments; it never reports provenance success for the old packet.

Product Boundaries

Product path	Rendered result	Boundary
CUCM remote-audit-logging syslog	cisco:ucm parser readiness plus blocking SC4S listener handoff	UDP/TCP/TLS evidence applies only to remote audit logging; every operator-selected port remains unresolved and does not prove transport support for all %UC_/%CCM_ service syslog
CUCM CDR	SFTP billing-server or on-demand SOAP/SFTP evidence packet	No AXL substitution; complete sample evidence required
CUCM CMR	Independent flat-file evidence packet	Never infer readiness from CDR evidence
CUCM AXL	Configuration-enrichment readiness only	SOAP/XML HTTPS POST to /axl/; not realtime CDR collection
Expressway	cisco:tvcs syslog plus optional INFO CDR and local2 media checks	Device mode is UDP/514 legacy-BSD or IETF, or TLS/6514 IETF with trust review; SC4S listener capability is separate
CMS	TCP or tls: sender profile for cisco:ms	TLS listener/certificate readiness and XML CDR receiver implementation remain gaps
Meeting Management	Independent TCP or TLS 1.2 system/audit profiles	Exact classifier cannot overlap CMS; TLS listener/certificate readiness remains a gap
RoomOS	unsupported_roadmap evidence packet	Separate Webex and ThousandEyes handoffs only
BroadWorks	unsupported_roadmap evidence packet	Vendor-document handoff; no local collector claim
UCCX/UCCE	UNKNOWN evidence packet	No implementation claim

Evidence and Package Gates

When CDR or CMR is enabled, the spec must name its exact file type, two header rows, a local sample file, exact SHA-256, nonzero record count, header fields, export path, receiver owner, collection evidence, and the origin of the chosen custom source type. The renderer reads only that local file and never copies its contents into output.

Optional Sideview selections use partner_packages.mode: evidence_only. The renderer fails when a release, tier, dependency, license/entitlement record, or Splunk platform claim is unsupported. App 8413 remains non-selectable until receiver and tier placement are verified; app 4640 remains blocked on Splunk 10.5 because its verified public compatibility stops at 10.4.

Source Discipline

Read reference.md for the collection matrix and references/source-ledger.json for the claim-level ledger. SC4S parser evidence is pinned to commit f878a6e8031b07ae8777e97738b27afe735f118d; human documentation pages are separately marked mutable and checked on 2026-07-19.

Completion Contract

This router can validate only the offline packet. Product routes remain partial until operators complete child collection and prove index, sourcetype, event-flow, privacy, and dashboard results. Any optional TA or app must also satisfy the shared completion gate. The permanent CMS XML receiver gap and roadmap/UNKNOWN packets must not be reported as completed onboarding.

Troubleshooting

Failure	Meaning	Resolution
Unknown or secret field	The strict schema rejected an unsafe assumption	Remove it; use only documented non-secret fields
CDR/CMR evidence incomplete	Flat-file readiness is not proven	Add a local sample, hash, fields, owner, export path, and collection evidence
Classifier overlap	CMS and CMM could be misclassified	Use unique exact sources or dedicated ports above 1023
Output refused	The path is a symlink, unowned, or tampered	Choose an empty dedicated directory or review the existing packet
Partner package refused	Version, tier, dependency, entitlement, or platform support is unproven	Keep it disabled and record the residual evidence gap