Chapter 6. Configuring Unified Messaging
Upon completing this chapter, you will be able to do the following:
Introduce the terminology that is used in unified messaging
Describe the Cisco Unity Connection architecture that is used to implement single inbox using a dual-store architecture.
Describe the single inbox functionality with Exchange integration and voice message synchronization
Describe the benefits of using unified messaging in Cisco Unity Connection
Describe the mail systems that are supported for single inbox
Describe the different Cisco Unity Connection deployment options
Describe the security and compliance considerations
Describe the dual-store message architecture in more detail
Describe how to configure integrated messaging in Cisco Unity Connection
Describe how to configure unified messaging in Cisco Unity Connection and gives an overview of the configuration requirements in Exchange
Describe what happens if the Exchange administrator moves a mailbox in the Exchange environment
List some instances that require restoration of an individual mailbox or a server
This chapter explains the single inbox feature of unified messaging. Single Inbox allows users to receive their voice messages in the company mail inbox with the proper message waiting indicator (MWI) synchronization when users are reading the e-mail on a PC or listening to the messages on the phone.
Unified Messaging Terminology
In Cisco Unity Connection, Cisco gathered several existing features under the rubric of unified messaging. These features include the following:
The single inbox feature synchronizes voice messages in Cisco Unity Connection and Microsoft Exchange mailboxes. In most cases, Unified Messaging refers to the single inbox feature where the end users receive their voice messages in the company mailbox.
Text-to-speech (TTS) access provides access to Exchange e-mail.
Access to Exchange calendars allows users to do meeting-related tasks by phone. For example, users can hear a list of upcoming meetings, or accept or decline meeting invitations.
Access to Exchange contacts allows users to import Exchange contacts and use the contact information in personal call transfer rules and when placing outgoing calls by using voice commands.
Users can be notified of upcoming Cisco Unified MeetingPlace meetings on the phone, or can schedule and join MeetingPlace meetings.
Transcription of Cisco Unity Connection voice messages using Cisco SpeechView.
Single Inbox High-Level Architecture
Figure 6-1 presents the unified messaging architecture. Unified messaging in Cisco Unity Connection provides message synchronization and a dual-store message architecture. Cisco Unity Connection does not use Microsoft Exchange as the message store, and instead includes its own authoritative message store.
Messages that are left on Cisco Unity Connection are synchronized to the Exchange servers. This approach allows the different Cisco clients to use Cisco Unity Connection via their application programming interfaces (APIs) and allows the Exchange clients to use the Exchange via their APIs. If Exchange goes down, Cisco Unity Connection is still operating and voice messages can be left and received. Users still have full access to voice mail from Cisco clients to Cisco Unity Connection.
Single Inbox Functionality
This section describes the single inbox functionality with Exchange integration and voice-message synchronization.
Unified messaging provides single inbox access to your voice mails. With single inbox, the MWI is synchronized on both systems. When an unread voice message is opened in the e-mail client—for example, the company Microsoft Outlook inbox folder—MWI is turned off on the phone.
The status for messages is also synchronized. If a user reads a message in Exchange, it is marked as read in Cisco Unity Connection. The new, deleted, or priority status is also synchronized, as well as the subject line. Secure and private messages are supported. Mobile clients like iPhone and BlackBerry work automatically because the voice mail comes into the Microsoft Exchange box and the message is picked up by the mobile phone client.
The personal call transfer rules can be based on the calendar information concerning the user’s free or busy status.
Unified Messaging Benefits
This section describes the benefits of using unified messaging in Cisco Unity Connection. With Cisco Unity Connection unified messaging, a schema extension is not required.
Cisco Unity Connection does not rely on the hub transport (the edge transport servers in Exchange) to deliver voice mails from Cisco Unity Connection. Cisco Unity Connection does not depend on the mailbox server rules because Cisco Unity Connection is just synchronizing the messages into Exchange.
Cisco Unity Connection unified messaging reduces the dependencies on Exchange and Active Directory. If the message synchronization is not working because the Exchange infrastructure is not available, callers can still leave messages and users can still receive their messages. The communication between Cisco Unity Connection and Exchange is a two-way synchronization.
Cisco Unity Connection is the authoritative message store, but if a message is deleted in Exchange via Microsoft Outlook, for example, the message is also deleted in Cisco Unity Connection and vice versa.
If a user sends a message to an Exchange distribution list (or example, a voice mail using ViewMail for Outlook), the message is received in a Cisco Unity Connection inbox and in Exchange. The message will be synchronized between both systems.
When using secure messages in Cisco Unity Connection, the messages are not synchronized into Exchange. Cisco Unity Connection synchronizes a pointer instead, so that the message can be streamed from Cisco Unity Connection. Secure messaging does not allow audio files to leave the system (for example, as an attachment to an e-mail).
Exchange E-mail Integration Options
This section describes the mail systems that are supported for a single inbox comprising both e-mail and voice mail.
Cisco Unity Connection supports Exchange 2003 or later and also supports different versions running at the same time, as illustrated in Figure 6-2. If you are migrating from Exchange 2003 to 2010, and you are moving mailboxes over to the migrated Exchange Server, Cisco Unity Connection must track these moves. Cisco Unity Connection can autodetect mailbox moves in the Exchange infrastructure. Cisco Unity Connection can be local or placed across geographical boundaries from the Exchange Servers with which it is synchronizing.
Office 365 and Lotus Notes are supported as well. However, additional third-party software is required for Lotus Notes. Go to http://donomasoftware.com/donoma-unify-for-lotus-notes / for more information.
Cisco Unity Connection Deployment Options
This section describes the different Cisco Unity Connection deployment options.
Cisco Unity Connection can be deployed as a voice-mail-only solution where the users receive their messages only via the phone. The message is indicated with MWI lights on the phone.
With Integrated Messaging, the voice messages are sent to a mail client such as Microsoft Outlook via Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), but the voice messages appear in a separate inbox folder in the mail client when using it for company mail as well.
Cisco Unity Connection unified messaging brings many functions together: Users can still use the phone but also get voice messages in their company mail account. With unified messaging, the MWI is synchronized on the phone when messages are read or listened to in the mail client. Active Directory schema extensions are not required for any of these solutions.
Security, Compliance, and Discoverability
This section describes the security and compliance considerations.
The Cisco Unity Connection Unified Messaging architecture supports secure messages and private messages. The unencrypted messages are kept on the Cisco Unity Connection server, and Cisco Unity Connection sends the messages securely to the client. Cisco Unity Connection does not synchronize a secure message into the Microsoft Exchange message store, but instead provides only a pointer to the message in Cisco Unity Connection. To stream these messages from the mail client, use the Cisco Unity ViewMail for Outlook (VMO) plug-in.
Organizations that are worried about compliance and discoverability of voicemail in their e-mail systems might not want to use unified messaging. For those customers, you can still offer integrated messaging from a client perspective, in which voice mails are not synchronized in the Microsoft Exchange store.
Message Synchronization Architecture
This section describes the dual-store message architecture in more detail, as illustrated in Figure 6-3.
Cisco Unity Connection does not use Exchange as the only message store. When Exchange is not available, Cisco Unity Connection uses Cisco Unity Message Repository, which allows callers to leave messages for users when their primary Exchange Server is offline. New messages are logged and synchronized after the connection to Exchange is reestablished.
Note
Cisco Unity is end of life and is the prior product from Cisco Unity Connection. Cisco Unity was built on the Microsoft operating system and did utilize Microsoft Exchange directly.
Cisco Unity Connection uses APIs to move messages into the Exchange store. The web-based APIs that are used by Cisco Unity Connection are Exchange Web Services (EWS) for Exchange 2007 or later and WebDAV for Exchange 2003.
In summary, the message synchronization architecture is based on the following:
Message synchronization is used instead of moving the messages off-box.
Web APIs are used instead of management APIs (MAPIs).
Microsoft EWS are used for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and later.
WebDAV is used for Microsoft Exchange 2003.
The figure also shows what the unified messaging architecture looks like from the perspective of a developer. The synchronization service in Cisco Unity Connection interfaces with Exchange. Cisco Unity Connection clients continue to access Cisco Unity Connection via their commonly used interfaces.
Synchronization Behavior
A voice message that is received in Cisco Unity Connection is synchronized to Exchange. If a voice message is deleted in Exchange by using a Microsoft Outlook client, or in Cisco Unity ViewMail for Outlook, the voice message is also deleted in Cisco Unity Connection. If the voice message is marked as read on the phone, it is marked as read in Microsoft Outlook. The message state is also synchronized.
If a user moves a voice message from the inbox into an Outlook (.pst) file or folder, the voice message is deleted in Cisco Unity Connection. If the user moves that message from the .pst file back into the inbox, the voice message is resynchronized with Cisco Unity Connection and appears as a new message or indicates the state of the voice message. Users can move voicemails in and out of personal folders. Once the user moves the voice message out of the inbox, the voice message is not synchronized with Cisco Unity Connection, and the voice message is deleted.
Note
The message properties are synchronized and the status of the voice message as read, deleted, or new is synchronized. Therefore, the MWI is synchronized.
What happens when a voicemail is set to expire—for example, in 20 days—but the user drops the message into an Outlook folder before the expiration? The voice message will expire on Cisco Unity Connection and the message is deleted, but the message will not expire in Microsoft Exchange. If a customer is worried about that message still being in Exchange, the administrator must turn on secure voice mail for voice messages to keep the voicemails out of the Exchange store. In that case, the subject line is synchronized. If a user changes the subject on the voice message, this change is synchronized, and the priority is also synchronized. The message sensitivity and security are only initially synchronized, but if these parameters are changed in Microsoft Outlook later, that change is not synchronized.
Configure Integrated Messaging
This section describes how to configure Integrated Messaging in Cisco Unity Connection.
Integrated messaging does not require many configuration steps compared to unified messaging. In Cisco Unity Connection Administration, configure the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server to allow incoming connections from untrusted IP addresses, which is not the default setting. Otherwise, the mail client will answer with an error message “550 5.5.0 Connection Refused,” indicating that the connection is refused by the server.
Go to the Class of Service template and allow the users to access their voice messages via IMAP by checking the Allow Users to Access Voice Mail Using an IMAP Client and/or Single Inbox check box. This parameter has three subparameters:
Allow IMAP Users to Access Message Bodies: Users have access to the entire voice mail.
Allow IMAP Users to Access Message Bodies Except on Private Messages: Users have access to the entire voicemail, unless the message is marked private, in which case they have access only to the message header.
Allow IMAP Users to Access Message Headers Only: Users have access only to message headers.
The parameter to allow IMAP access to messages must also be enabled for unified messaging or if you want to allow Cisco Jabber users to access voice messages.
Set up the mail client. Assuming that the user exists in Cisco Unity Connection with the minimum requirements of a configured alias and an extension, you can start setting up the mail client.
Depending on the mail client, the setup might be slightly different. When using, for example, Outlook Express, enter the name and the mail address. Then configure the IMAP protocol and the incoming and outgoing mail server IP address or hostname. Finally, enter the account name (Cisco Unity Connection alias) and the password. Finish the Account Setup Wizard and synchronize the folders from the mail server.
Account Verification
To test integrated messaging, leave a voice message for the user. After leaving the message, the mail client should instantly show a new message. As shown in Figure 6-4, John received a voice message from Jane. The audio file is attached. You can double-click the attached audio file and play the message with a media player. MWI is synchronized as well, when setting the voicemail status to Read.
The SMTP domain that you see in the figure can be changed in the SMTP server configuration as well. The name is generated by the hostname that you entered during the Cisco Unity Connection installation.
Task List to Set Up Unified Messaging Single Inbox
This section describes how to configure unified messaging in Cisco Unity Connection and gives an overview of the configuration requirements in Exchange.
Besides checking that you have the correct software version in place for unified messaging, follow these steps to set up single inbox:
Add a smart host and modify the SMTP domain.
When integrating with LDAP, make sure that the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Mail ID field is synchronized with the LDAP Mail field. During the integration process, this synchronization causes values in the LDAP Mail field to appear in the Corporate E-mail Address field in Cisco Unity Connection. Unified messaging requires that you enter the Exchange e-mail address for each Unity Connection user. On the Unified Messaging Account page, each user can be configured to use either of the following values:
The Corporate e-mail address that is specified on the User Basics page
The e-mail address that is specified on the Unified Messaging Account page
Update class of service settings as required and enable single inbox.
Decide whether you want Cisco Unity Connection to communicate with a specific Exchange 2013, Exchange 2010, or Exchange 2007 client access server or Exchange 2003 server, or if you want Unity Connection to be able to search for and communicate with different Exchange servers as required. Unity Connection determines whether to use the HTTP or HTTPS and whether to validate certificates based on settings in the applicable unified messaging service.
Confirm that all of the Exchange servers that Unity Connection will access are configured to use the desired authentication mode (basic, digest, or Microsoft Windows NT LAN Manager [NTLM]) and web-based protocol (HTTPS or HTTP). If you want to configure Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt the communication between Unity Connection and Exchange, configure Exchange to use HTTPS for the web-based protocol.
Create an Active Directory account for Unity Connection unified messaging services, and grant the applicable permissions to the account.
Add proxy addresses to Unity Connection user accounts.
Configure one or more Unity Connection unified messaging services and assign them to the users. Then test the unified messaging services.
For security, upload certificates to the servers.
Exchange Mailbox Moves
This section describes what happens if the Exchange administrator moves a mailbox in the Exchange environment.
The option to specify an Exchange Server or allow Cisco Unity Connection to search for an Exchange server depends on whether Cisco Unity Connection supports the detection of moved mailboxes.
If you want to support Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010, or 2013 mailboxes, you may have to create multiple unified messaging services to support the various versions at the same time.
Exchange administrators often move mailboxes, especially when migrating to a new software version. If Cisco Unity Connection is set up to search for the Exchange servers automatically, it will automatically detect mailbox moves.
However, if you specify an Exchange server, the move may or may not be detected. The Cisco Unity Connection administrator may have to manually update the user mailbox settings for the unified messaging servers.
Back Up and Restore of Mailboxes
This section lists some instances that require restoration of an individual mailbox or a server.
During a restore process on the Exchange infrastructure, disable the unified messaging account for a certain user or disable the unified messaging service itself if a complete Exchange server is down.
After restoring the Exchange server or a mailbox, enable the Cisco Unity Connection unified messaging service again for all or a single user.
In the event of a complete loss of an Exchange server, stop all unified messaging services and once the Exchange servers and mailboxes have been restored, enable the Cisco Unity Connection Unified Messaging service again.
For more information, see Restoring Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes in Cisco Unity Connection 10.x When Single Inbox Is Enabled at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/10x/unified_messaging/guide/10xcucumg040.html.
Summary
This section summarizes the key points that were discussed in this chapter:
Unified messaging synchronizes voice messages from Cisco Unity Connection to Exchange. Microsoft clients access the Exchange Server and Cisco clients access the Cisco Unity Connection server. A change on any system is synchronized instantly by the synchronization service.
When using integrated messaging, the mail clients connect via IMAP to the Cisco Unity Connection server. The client shows an additional mail folder in the mail client, which is only used for voice messaging with Cisco Unity Connection.
Create a unified messaging service and enable the capabilities for that service. Assign the unified messaging service to the end users and verify that the corporate mail address is configured correctly. When configured successfully, the voice message appears in the company mailbox.
Review Questions
Answer the following questions, and then see Appendix A, “Answers to Review Questions,” for the answers.
1. A single store message architecture allows users to access their voice messages with a Microsoft Outlook client in one single inbox.
a. True
b. False
2. When the SMTP server is not configured to allow an incoming connection from untrusted IP addresses, which error message do you see?
a. 550 5.5.0 Address rejected
b. 550 5.5.0 Connection Refused
c. 550 5.5.0 Invalid EHLO/HELO
d. 550 5.5.0 SMTP Error
e. 550 5.5.0 User unknown
3. WebDAV is the API that is used between Cisco Unity Connection and Microsoft Exchange 2007 or later for unified messaging.
a. True