An AOD application that uses Text to speech has been deployed to the Avaya experience portal. The application does not play the TTS and we hear silence instead. No error is being logged in the log files and the application is being executed as if the TTS has been successfully played back.
1) What could be the issue?
2) How can we investigate the matter as no error is being logged?

1) How do we set the termchar property to nothing in AOD?

This can be done if we are writing VoiceXML instead of using AOD by adding the following:

<property name="termchar" value=""/>

2) Do we have a built-in touchtone grammar in AOD?

There is latency at the start of a call. The log files show that there is a connection timeout when trying to access the followings:
a) https://xx.xx.xx.xx/axis2/services/VPAppLogService
b) VPAppRuntimeVars:getAppVarsAxis2()

5014967 [VPBatchLogWriterThread: https://xx.xx.xx.xx/axis2/services/VPAppLogService] WARN - BatchLogWriter:run() - BatchLogWriter thread is EXITING!!!
ERROR - VPAppRuntimeVars:getAppVarsAxis2() - Caught Exception FAILED with AxisFault faultCode: null error: Connection timed out: connect send to vpms url: https://xx.xx.xx.xx/axis2/services/VPAppVarsService Application Name: From AE Server: SERVENAME NOTE: It could be caused by this VPMS is not online or some other network issues.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Connection timed out: connect
at org.apache.axis2.AxisFault.makeFault(AxisFault.java:430)
at org.apache.axis2.transport.http.HTTPSender.sendViaPost(HTTPSender.java:193)
at org.apache.axis2.transport.http.HTTPSender.send(HTTPSender.java:75)
at org.apache.axis2.transport.http.CommonsHTTPTransportSender.writeMessageWithCommons(CommonsHTTPTransportSender.java:389)
at org.apache.axis2.transport.http.CommonsHTTPTransportSender.invoke(CommonsHTTPTransportSender.java:222)
at org.apache.axis2.engine.AxisEngine.send(AxisEngine.java:435)
at org.apache.axis2.description.OutInAxisOperationClient.send(OutInAxisOperation.java:402)
at org.apache.axis2.description.OutInAxisOperationClient.executeImpl(OutInAxisOperation.java:229)
at org.apache.axis2.client.OperationClient.execute(OperationClient.java:165)
at com.avaya.xml.ws.vpappvars.voiceportal.VPAppVarsServiceStub.getAppRuntimeVars(VPAppVarsServiceStub.java:192)
at com.avaya.vp.appruntimevars.AppRuntimeVarsAxis2.getAppVars(AppRuntimeVarsAxis2.java:93)
at com.avaya.vp.appruntimevars.VPAppRuntimeVars.getAppRuntimeVarsFromVPMS(VPAppRuntimeVars.java:187)
at com.avaya.vp.appruntimevars.VPAppRuntimeVars.getAppRuntimeVars(VPAppRuntimeVars.java:60)
at com.avaya.vp.appruntimevars.VPAppRuntimeVars.getGlobalAppRuntimeVars(VPAppRuntimeVars.java:83)
at com.avaya.runtimecommon.platforms.vp.PlatformParams.checkForUpdate(PlatformParams.java:52)
at com.avaya.sce.runtimecommon.SCESession.getSession(SCESession.java:543)
at com.avaya.sce.runtimecommon.SCESession.getSession(SCESession.java:591)
at com.avaya.sce.runtime.SCEServlet.requestHandler(SCEServlet.java:198)
at com.avaya.sce.runtime.SCEServlet.doGet(SCEServlet.java:181)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:617)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:103)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProcessor.process(Http11AprProcessor.java:879)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11AprProtocol.java:600)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AprEndpoint$Worker.run(AprEndpoint.java:1703)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

VPAppRuntimeVars:getAppVarsAxis2() - Caught Exception FAILED with AxisFault faultCode: null error: Connection timed out: connect send to vpms url: https://xx.xx.xx.xx/axis2/services/VPAppVarsService Application Name: From AE Server: SERVERNAME NOTE: It could be caused by this VPMS is not online or some other network issues.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Connection timed out: connect
at org.apache.axis2.AxisFault.makeFault(AxisFault.java:430)
at org.apache.axis2.transport.http.HTTPSender.sendViaPost(HTTPSender.java:193)
at org.apache.axis2.transport.http.HTTPSender.send(HTTPSender.java:75)
at org.apache.axis2.transport.http.CommonsHTTPTransportSender.writeMessageWithCommons(CommonsHTTPTransportSender.java:389)
at org.apache.axis2.transport.http.CommonsHTTPTransportSender.invoke(CommonsHTTPTransportSender.java:222)
at org.apache.axis2.engine.AxisEngine.send(AxisEngine.java:435)
at org.apache.axis2.description.OutInAxisOperationClient.send(OutInAxisOperation.java:402)
at org.apache.axis2.description.OutInAxisOperationClient.executeImpl(OutInAxisOperation.java:229)
at org.apache.axis2.client.OperationClient.execute(OperationClient.java:165)
at com.avaya.xml.ws.vpappvars.voiceportal.VPAppVarsServiceStub.getAppRuntimeVars(VPAppVarsServiceStub.java:192)
at com.avaya.vp.appruntimevars.AppRuntimeVarsAxis2.getAppVars(AppRuntimeVarsAxis2.java:93)
at com.avaya.vp.appruntimevars.VPAppRuntimeVars.getAppRuntimeVarsFromVPMS(VPAppRuntimeVars.java:187)
at com.avaya.vp.appruntimevars.VPAppRuntimeVars.getAppRuntimeVars(VPAppRuntimeVars.java:60)
at com.avaya.vp.appruntimevars.VPAppRuntimeVars.getGlobalAppRuntimeVars(VPAppRuntimeVars.java:83)
at com.avaya.runtimecommon.platforms.vp.PlatformParams.checkForUpdate(PlatformParams.java:52)
at com.avaya.runtimecommon.platforms.vp.License.<init>(License.java:49)
at com.avaya.runtimecommon.platforms.vp.Toolkit.createLicense(Toolkit.java:46)
at com.avaya.sce.runtimecommon.License.getInstance(License.java:98)
at com.avaya.sce.runtime.Entry.handleRequest(Entry.java:184)
at com.avaya.sce.runtime.AppDocument.processRequest(AppDocument.java:241)
at com.avaya.sce.runtime.SCEServlet.requestHandler(SCEServlet.java:282)
at com.avaya.sce.runtime.SCEServlet.doGet(SCEServlet.java:181)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:617)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:103)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProcessor.process(Http11AprProcessor.java:879)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11AprProtocol.java:600)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AprEndpoint$Worker.run(AprEndpoint.java:1703)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

This seems to happen when we restart the tomcat instance that serves the OAD application and sometimes without restarting the Tomcat instance.

Questions
1) What does the runtime do at start of a call? And how often does it do it (frequency)?
2) What are 'VPAppLogService' and 'VPAppRuntimeVars:getAppVarsAxis2()' used for?
3) Why are we experiencing this latency?

Questions Deploy an Avaya orchestration designer application:
1) If the application is DTMF based, how can we disable the ASR options when we are exporting the application? Or this is not required
2) How is ddconfig.xml being used?
2.1) This file is not exported as part of the runtime config library
2.2) What is invalidlicensetimer?
2.3) We deployed an application to the Avaya platform, it did work in the begining and after that we had the error 'com.avaya.sce.runtimecommon.SCERuntimeException: Invalid runtime license '. When we rebuilt the ddconfig.xml file, the application starts working again.
The error we are getting on the log file is shown below:
19/11/2013 14:18:53:005 INFO - 4CB5929865A623D8B94CC5A2036F1F18:/MnSGiftCard : Acquiring Avaya Platform runtime license
19/11/2013 14:18:53:005 DEBUG - 4CB5929865A623D8B94CC5A2036F1F18:/MnSGiftCard : PlatformParams:getPlatformParams: __VPVarGlobalDate is null
19/11/2013 14:18:53:005 DEBUG - 4CB5929865A623D8B94CC5A2036F1F18:/MnSGiftCard : PlatformParams:getPlatformParams:Timestamp is 01/01/70 1:00:00
19/11/2013 14:18:53:005 DEBUG - 4CB5929865A623D8B94CC5A2036F1F18:/MnSGiftCard : PlatformParams: get global parameters from VPMS...
19/11/2013 14:18:53:036 DEBUG - 4CB5929865A623D8B94CC5A2036F1F18:/MnSGiftCard : PlatformParams: AppRuntimeVarsResponse.getGlobalAppRuntimeVars returns status - Failure, either user id or password is invalid
19/11/2013 14:18:53:036 DEBUG - 4CB5929865A623D8B94CC5A2036F1F18:/MnSGiftCard : License: Use the license server url in VPMS instead - null
19/11/2013 14:18:53:036 DEBUG - 4CB5929865A623D8B94CC5A2036F1F18:/MnSGiftCard : License is bad, grace period expired
19/11/2013 14:18:53:036 DEBUG - 4CB5929865A623D8B94CC5A2036F1F18:/MnSGiftCard : License refresh timer started
19/11/2013 14:18:53:036 INFO - 4CB5929865A623D8B94CC5A2036F1F18:/MnSGiftCard : Capturing exception [com.avaya.sce.runtimecommon.SCERuntimeException]. Message [Invalid runtime license]
2.4) Some help on how to set the license file in ddconfig.xml is required