Vocera Communications System Release Notes

Vocera Voice Server Version 5.6.0.187 (HF3)

Updated: May 19, 2023

  1. New and Enhanced Features
  2. Prerequisites and Reminders
  3. Installation
  4. Fixed Issues
  5. Known Issues

New and Enhanced Features

The Vocera Voice Server 5.6.x platform has new features and enhancements.

This section summarizes prominent features and functionality for each release.

New and Enhanced Features in 5.6.0.187 (HF3)

This is a maintenance release that does not introduce any new features.

New and Enhanced Features in 5.6.0.186 (HF2)

This is a maintenance release that does not introduce any new features.

New and Enhanced Features in 5.6.0.185 (HF1)

This is a maintenance release that does not introduce any new features.

New and Enhanced Features in 5.6.0.181

The following list displays new features in this version of the Vocera Voice Server.

Vocera Voice User Interface

  • B3000 and B3000n badges can now send text messages using speech-to-text.
  • Smartbadge users can manage certain device settings with voice commands, such as enabling DND and PPE mode, adjusting volume, and checking battery level. PPE Mode provides default settings optimized for wearing the device under Personal Protective Equipment; settings can be adjusted by users and preserved for future use.
  • The “Dial an extension” voice command can now be configured to support extensions less than or equal to 10 digits long through the TelExtensionLength server property.

Vocera Voice Server

  • Vocera web applications such as the Administration Console and Staff Assignment can run in the latest Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser. Other browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have been lightly tested and should also work.
  • Vocera Voice Server has been optimized to work more efficiently within the 8GB memory requirement.
  • Vocera Voice Server can be configured to use MS Graph as a mail host.
  • Calls forwarded through the forward-all or forward-unanswered options will now be reported in call logs and through the “Who Called” voice dialog.
  • Groups configured to use the “forward to off network group member” can now be configured to use round-robin call scheduling.
  • An alert email will now be sent to the administrator prior to the expiration of the server’s SSL/TLS certificate.

Third-party Software Versions

The following third-party software versions are included in this release and provide 64-bit compatibility or security enhancements:

3rd-party Software Version
Apache HTTP Server 2.4.46
Apache Tomcat 9.0.44
JRE (Zulu built on OpenJDK) 1.8.0_282-b08 (Zulu JDK 8.52.0.23)
MySQL Server 8.0.23 (VS)/5.7.33 (VRS)
ODBC Connector Not installed; used at install-time only
TLS 1.3 and 1.2
PJSIP 2.9

Vocera Firmware Versions

The following firmware versions are included in this release:

Vocera Device Firmware Build Number
V5000 5.0.6.28
B3000n 4.3.3.18
B3000 3.1.3.13
B2000 604

Prerequisites and Reminders

Before you install Vocera Voice Server along with its components and consoles, ensure that the following prerequisites are met.

Prerequisites for Vocera Voice Server and server components:

  • Verify that you have one of the following Vocera products installed, if you are upgrading from an earlier version of Vocera:
    • Vocera Server Version 5.x (5.0.1 or later)
    • The GA release or any service pack of Vocera Server 4.3 or 4.4
  • Verify that you have turned the Compatibility Mode off in the browser, if you are using any of the following consoles:
    • Administration Console
    • User Console
    • Staff Assignment Console
    • Report Server Console
  • Perform one of the following to get a telephony connection to Vocera Voice Server 5.x:
    • If you have an analog or digital PBX, connect to the Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway through a hardware gateway such as the Sangoma Media Gateway.
    • If you have a SIP PBX, connect to the Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway directly.

Installation

Follow these instructions to install Vocera Voice Server or upgrade it to the latest version. .

Installation prerequisites

  • If Vocera Secure Texting (VST) is installed in your environment, you must uninstall the Vocera Secure Texting Sync Connector before you upgrade to the latest version of Vocera Voice Server.

    Re-install the Vocera Secure Texting Sync Connector after you complete the Vocera Voice Server upgrade.

    See How to Uninstall the Vocera Secure Texting Sync Connector in the VST Vocera Administrator Guide.

  • Ensure that you download and install the latest version of the Vocera Secure Texting Sync Connector.
  • Ensure that you have installed an English-based language pack in Windows Operating System where you are installing Vocera Voice Server and any subsequent Vocera localization packs.

To install or upgrade:

Note: While installing or uninstalling, you can be repeatedly presented with pop-up messages instructing you to reboot for changes to be applied. Do not reboot when prompted. Wait until the installation is complete to reboot.
  1. To perform a new installation, follow the steps described in the Running theVocera Voice Server Installation Program section of the Vocera Voice Server Installation Guide.
  2. To upgrade from previous Vocera versions, follow the steps described in Upgrading Vocera Voice Server to Version 5.6.0 section of the Vocera Voice Server Installation Guide.
    Note: Your previous system configuration remains in the database that is restored at the end of the upgrade. Because some 4.x features have been deprecated.
    • Update the values in your database as follows:
      1. Open the Vocera Voice Server Administration Console and navigate to the System > Preferences page.
      2. Choose Save Changes.

        The server updates your database and removes any settings for deprecated features.

    • Convert custom names directory:
      • If you are upgrading from a version 4.x deployment and have a custom names dictionary, convert the custom names directory to the version 5.x format manually.
      • If you are upgrading from version 5.x and have a custom names dictionary, no conversion is required.

Fixed Issues

The following list contains fixes and improvements made to the Vocera Voice Server 5.6.x platform.

Fixed Issues in Version 5.6.0.187 (HF3)

The following list includes items fixed or improved in this version of the Vocera Voice Server.

  • VCXP-15059 Slow speech port leak makes Genie busy, and no speech ports are available until they failover.

    This issue has been resolved.

Fixed Issues in Version 5.6.0.186 (HF2)

The following list includes items fixed or improved in this version of the Vocera Voice Server.

  • CRVC-21616 When shared telephony is in use, calls through guest access to remote site groups fail unless the “Receive Offsite Calls” option is enabled for the group.

Fixed Issues in Version 5.6.0.185 (HF1)

The following list includes items fixed or improved in this version of the Vocera Voice Server.

  • CRVC-21118 A race condition involving VCS dialing an extension and immediately hanging up can cause the VCG to stop sending keepalive signals to VMP. Once this occurs, the VCG will no longer properly process calls and will need to be restarted. This situation no longer occurs.

Fixed Issues in Version 5.6.0.181

The following list includes items fixed or improved in this version of the Vocera Voice Server.

  • VCXP-11172: In the AE locale, VRS cannot retrieve data for less than one day.

    The date format prevented VRS from retrieving the data. This situation no longer occurs.

  • VCXP-11175/CASE-1805: Active VS takes a long time to shut down after cluster failover

    Fixed the issue by making sure that the thread monitor now intervenes in a more timely manner.

  • VCXP-11907/CASE-2098: System runs out of speech ports because Nuance does not release them properly.

    This issue has been fixed by installing a Nuance patch.

  • VCXP-12125/CASE-2146: Newly active node sometimes fails after a failover occurs.

    This problem resulted from a timing issue that occurred when a user was deleted while the system was searching to find a user who had a reminder.

  • CRVC-17560: When a V5000 broadcasts to a group, the screen of the initiating device incorrectly displays the name of the initiating user instead of the group name.

    The initiator's Smartbadge now correctly displays the group name.

  • CRVC-17632: The server may hang in an infinite loop when attempting to create a binary log for the VRS.

    This problem no longer occurs. The server no longer adds badge logs of type "binary" to the report logs. The binary logs still appear in the log-* files for SLR consumption.

  • CRVC-18572: When two or more sites are on different SSIDs and a device roams to a different site, the device does not always connect to the new SSID.

    This problem no longer occurs.

  • CRVC-18801/CASE-1672: V5000 devices in a site whose time zone differs from the VS time zone display the VS time instead of local time.

    This issue no longer occurs

  • CRVC-19357: In some situations, predictive search in the Administration Console does not display auto-complete results.

    The auto-complete results are now visible

  • CRVC-19460: Both active and standby nodes may fail when recording a message for multiple users with long internal IDs.

    Fixed the issue by increasing the length of the allowed concatenated names.

  • CRVC-19505: Calls to a V5000 in DND do not follow expected forwarding behavior.

    This problem no longer occurs.

  • CRVC-19660: Genie continues to prompt for message response after soft button response on Gen5.

    This problem no longer occurs.

  • CRVC-19713: When incoming mail settings pull from Office 365 using IMAP, the VS sometimes stops pulling mail after a failover occurs.

    Fixed by implementing better handling of the properties files.

  • CRVC-20035: When a V5000 device is in a group call such as a broadcast and another call comes in, the device sometimes gets into a bad call waiting state, causing the server to fail.

    This problem no longer occurs.

  • CRVC-20197: The call forwarding feature sometimes gets into an invalid state, causing the Voice Server to fail.

    This problem no longer occurs.

  • CRVC-20449: Voice Server occasionally sets the "last seen on network" time for V5000 devices incorrectly.

    When this issue occurred, the "last seen on network" value was erroneously set to the server start time.

  • CRVC-20982/CASE-2296: In rare situations, users may experience a delay before receiving the Genie prompt when the system contains a very large number of users (~10,000) and the Group of users permitted to add themselves to this group permission is set to "Everyone Everywhere".

    This situation was fixed by optimizing the performance of the operation that searched for group permissions.

Known Issues

A few issues are known to exist in the Vocera Voice Server 5.6.x platform and this section summarizes all the known issues in the release.

Known Issues in the Vocera Voice Server

This section summarizes known product defects and limitations, including any workarounds we may have, for the Vocera Voice Server 5.6.x platform.

  • CRVC-21192 Certain rare scenarios involving bulk updates of the group forwarding information can result in invalid configurations being saved. During subsequent validations of the data before a new bulk update, the server might crash when attempting to validate the invalid information.
  • CRVC-20856 If an unexpected RTP stream comes in to VSTG on the same IP:Port as an existing call, then this stream will mix with the existing stream and cause choppy audio.

    Workaround: Locate the source of the unexpected RTP stream and prevent it from sending to the VSTG or block it.

  • CRVC-20580 When accessing a Web console in Internet Explorer, users are unable to select multiple entities in a table using Shift + arrow keys.

    Workaround: Select multiple entities using Ctrl key + right mouse click.

  • CRVC-20639 When accessing a Web console in Internet Explorer, users are unable to use arrow keys to select a desired result from autocomplete suggestions that appear for a search input field.

    Select the desired result using mouse click.

  • CRVC-17551 After configuring the authentication type as EAP-TLS with custom certificates, the Client Key Password and Username fields become mandatory for Non-EAP-TLS with custom certificates type of authentication.

    Workaround: Select BPE > Security Settings > Authentication Type > EAPTLS, uncheck Use Custom EAP-TLS Certificates, configure all the required fields, and click Submit.

  • VCXP-5998 Voice reminder commands are not available to users accessing Genie over VAA Direct Access.
  • CRVC-19985 In deployments where the Vocera Server and VMP Server installations have mismatched versions, VCS and Smartbadge clients do not show new call log records. Once the servers are on the same version, the problem will be resolved.
  • CRVC-25117 The Minibadge LED does not blink when receiving a voice message.