Configuring WebDAV

Interaction Recording Web Services relies on a Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) server to store and manage the GIR recording files. WebDAV is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on World Wide Web servers. A working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) defined WebDAV in RFC 4918.

The following information represents examples of what can be done for WebDAV. Follow these procedures to get a better understanding of what needs to be done when you use a Red Hat Enterprise Linux machine with the Apache HTTP Server.

Important

• This document provides you with basic guidelines on configuring WebDAV on RHEL. If you wish to configure WebDAV on other operating systems or if you have additional questions regarding WebDAV on RHEL, refer to the official documentation from the operating system provider.
• It is recommended that you do not install WebDAV on the same machine as Interaction Recording Web Services (RWS), since numerous deployments already install Cassandra and Elasticsearch on the same host. These are critical components for the operation of RWS. If an additional process such as WebDAV is run on the same machine as RWS, disk I/O operations will be limited and the stability of RWS may be negatively impacted.
• Authentication must be configured on the WebDAV server. This is required to ensure proper storage and management of GIR recording files.

Deploying the WebDAV Server

1. Install Apache HTTP Server and run the following command:
   

   yum install httpd



2. Edit the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file, and append the following to the end of the file:

   Alias /recordings /mnt/recordings
   <Directory /mnt/recordings>
      Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
      EnableSendfile off
      AllowOverride None
      Order allow,deny
      allow from all
   </Directory>
   <Location "/recordings">
      DAV On
      AuthType Basic
      AuthName "user"
      AuthUserFile /var/www/htpasswd
      Require valid-user
   </Location>
   

3. Open the firewall.
   Because Apache HTTP Server is an HTTP server, the incoming default HTTP and/or HTTPS ports (80 and/or 443) must be open to the server.
   Important

   It is possible to use custom ports by changing the permitted incoming ports in the firewall, the virtual host configuration file, and the URL used to reach the Apache HTTP server.
4. Create the directory to keep the recording files, and set the permission to apache, using the following commands:

   mkdir /mnt/recordings
   chown apache:apache /mnt/recordings
   chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_t /mnt/recordings

Important
Due to performance concerns, Genesys does not recommend using a remote directory for WebDAV.
5. Create an Apache HTTP Server user for httpd, and configure the password. The following example creates a user called "user":
   

   htpasswd -cm /var/www/htpasswd user

   Warning

   If the Recording Muxer is deployed for screen recording, make sure all WebDAV storages of the same contact center region are using the same username and password.
6. Configure the httpd to start on boot up (and start it now) using the following commands:
   

   chkconfig --levels 235 httpd on
   service httpd start



7. Test the Apache HTTP Server installation:
   1. Upload a hello.world file to the Apache HTTP Server using the following command:
      

      curl -T hello.world -u user:password http://myserver/recordings/hello.world

   2. Using a browser, open the http://myserver/recordings/hello.world URL. The browser will request for user credentials.


8. The Apache HTTP Server is installed.

Configuring TLS for the WebDAV Server

To configure TLS for the Apache HTTP Server on RHEL6:

1. On the WebDAV server, run the following command to install SSL:
   

   yum install mod_ssl

   The certificate/key pair is automatically generated:

   • Certificate: /etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt
   • Key: /etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key
2. To use your own certificate/key pair, either update the files automatically generated (as above), or edit the /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf file and modify the following lines:
   • SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt
   • SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key
3. Restart httpd by running the following command:
   

   service httpd restart

   TLS is enabled on the default HTTPS port 443.

Important

If you're using a self-signed certificate and migrating from Web Services to Interaction Recording Web Services, you'll need to complete a few more steps. See Re-importing the Certificate for WebDAV for details.

Changing storage location

You can use any one of the following methods to expand the available storage or to migrate the recording files to a new WebDAV server.

Method 1

1. Leave the existing WebDAV server in place and point the Storage Destination in IVR Profile to the new WebDAV server. Ensure that the recordings storage destination folder in new WebDAV server has write access.
2. Configure the new WebDAV storage path in RWS Storage settings for voice recordings. For details, see Configure the Storage Credentials for Interaction Web Services.
3. If the tenant has Screen Recordings enabled, configure the new WebDAV storage path in Screen Recording storage settings and set the active property to true. For more details, see Screen Recording Storage Settings.
4. Update the active property to false for the existing WebDAV storage path in Screen Recording storage settings.

Important

If the WebDAV servers are load balanced using the Load Balancer, add the new WebDAV servers to the load balancer as a separate balanced address and follow Steps 1 to 4. Retain the existing WebDAV load balancer configuration to ensure that old recordings are still accessible.

Method 2

1. Copy all the existing recording files to the new WebDAV server and make sure the file path is maintained as in the old WebDAV server.
2. Make the necessary changes to the new WebDAV server to take over the IP or FQDN of the old WebDAV server.

Next Step

• Initialize Cassandra