It’s 8:00am – Is Your CDR Working?

CDRs, or Call Detail Records, are a truly vital part of the logging and auditing systems that most mid-to-large organizations utilize on their telecom switches and systems. While CDR databases may seem alike from one vendor’s implementation to another, the shortfalls of “bad CDRs” can make you look like an incompetent telecom manager or engineer. Perhaps the first problem with CDR systems or other telecom auditing policies, is the ignorance that they actually exist. For instance, CDR logging is such a mundane and autonomous process, that it’s easy to forget to monitor and verify the integrity of the data. As I’ve said before, garbage in, garbage out! While CDR may not seem that impressive and ‘flashy’ to the naked eye, the functions and day-to-day operation of a CDR system are critical for billing, auditing, and organizational compliance. I’ve personally heard of a few instances where a switch’s CDR database had crashed months before it was noticed. Since billing wasn’t dependent on CDR in this case, it went virtually unnoticed. When one employee made a few 1-900 calls, and managers wanted to know the ‘who/what/where/when’, did the telecom manager get caught without a safety net. While some vendors may try to sell expensive analysis software, CDR reporting and analysis can be done effectively with a stable SQL or other relational database and query tool. With a few stored queries and views, it’s easy to quickly get the information needed. In the open source community, the Asterisk CDR allows for CSV file exports of data, as well as the ability to commit CDR transactions to a MySQL database. Quick, easy, and effective – that’s what CDR should be. So, as I have done already today, check your CDR databases and processes, just to make sure they’re working. You never know when one of your user’s might get the urge to make a few 1-900 calls. You ‘will’ know, however, that you’ll be asked about it later.