topic Re: Unity 3.1(2)-Win2k PDC question in Other Collaboration Subjects

Unity 3.1(2)-Win2k PDC question

admin_2 — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 21:16:20 GMT

Unity 3.1(2) on Win2k box. Just voicemail, no email. With an NEC2000IVS2 switch. Does Unity have to be a primary domain controller? When our vendor installed the system it was not connected to the network and they didn't tell us it was configured as a PDC with it's own domain name configured. I now want to put it on our network but don't want it as a PDC. Is this possible?

Re: Unity 3.1(2)-Win2k PDC question

Fri, 01 Feb 2002 11:25:04 GMT

well, normally installing Unity on the PDC is only something you do if you don't have a choice (i.e. it's the only server in town for a voice mail only install). Unfortunately you can't easily take an installed Unity server and move it into another domain since Exchange will get unhappy and there's a number of references our SQL database and the registry that assume the domain name is static.

The Applications Team is currently testing a tool that will help you do just this, however, called the Disaster Recovery Tool (DiRT). This is one of the scenarios we're including in the test grid (among many, many others such as changing server names, switching from on to off box, switching ex55 to ex2K backends etc...). The basic idea is you use DiRT to backup your Unity data off the running box, install a new Unity server on a fresh server as a member server in your new domain then use DiRT to import all the Unity data again. All subscriber data, configuration information, switch setup etc... should come over in one shot.

If the users in your database are still visible to the Exchange server you're hooked up to, they'll be reattached and life is good. If not, these users will be created as new mail users on the fly. This sounds like what you'd have since your Exchange server isn't coming over into the new domain without some hoop-jumping. You can use ExMerge or something to get your messages over, however... can be done.

Be watching AnswerMonkey for DiRT. We're going to internal trials with it middle of next week. If things go smoothly it should be available for folks to download and use in a few weeks after that.

Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

Re: Unity 3.1(2)-Win2k PDC question

Fri, 01 Feb 2002 12:06:05 GMT

OK that sounds like that would work for us once it is ready.

But once I found out about the whole PDC thing. I found that it creates user accounts in active directory for each subscriber, I assume needed for the exchange accounts for each subscriber. (sorry not an MCSE, I do phones right now) If using this DiRT, will it make us re-link each subscriber to an existing NT/Active Directory account or will it just create new accounts as it imports them? Or am I just dense and the active directory accounts not even needed if not a PDC?

Thanks for the help,
Nathan Weddle (End user)

Re: Unity 3.1(2)-Win2k PDC question

Fri, 01 Feb 2002 12:59:05 GMT

you're not the only one confused by AD, trust me!

DiRT (and the bulk import and the fullDB import/export) will always create an NT and Exchnage account in the case of Ex55... in Ex2K there are not seperate accounts, it's all one AD account that either mail enabled or not so you don't have a choice regardless.

Short answer is we look to see if the user we're importing is in the directory already. We'll look them up by their directory ID (unique ID for all users in directory) and if that fails we'll try to find them by their distinguished name and if that fails we'll try to find them by their alias (or mail nickname in the case of Ex2K). If all three of those faile, then we'll create a new NT and Ex55 account or a mail-enabled AD account in the case of Ex2K and make them a subscriber with all the properties they had on the original system but, of course, they'll have no messages. If we find the user in the directory using one of those searches, we will bind to that user directly.

In your case I'm assuming these users are not already in the directory? Or if they are their alias may not be the same? I'm assuming the voice mail system is in it's own world and the email system in the other domain is completely seperate and the folks that installed both may not have used the same alias naming conventions. This is usually the case in such scenarios.

Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

Re: Unity 3.1(2)-Win2k PDC question

Fri, 01 Feb 2002 14:01:06 GMT

OK that makes some sense to me.

Explains why it's a PDC, since Ex55/Ex2k needs the AD so it can have accounts for each subscriber. And yes the user alais and names would be a problem. Some have voicemail that don't have email, etc.....

The voicemail is a completely seperate piece for us currently. We picked Unity since we might use a Cisco IP solution in the future(and I now see what's in store for me) and we went from 6 Reparte boxes to one Unity. We weren't look for the unified messaging features, neat but not needed by us. We don't really need this box to interact with our existing servers and AD setup. I can just leave it as a stand alone more or less, but (here it comes) I wanted to connect it to the network to be able to remote access it with PCanywhere and/or telnet instead of driving to this location. And re-installing and getting everything reconfigured is not really an option right now.

Could I un-bind services from the NIC and just use IP to remote access, with out the box interferring with our existing network, trying to replicate it's AD out to other PDCs, etc.... (again not an MCSE) Or would that cause a problem with the box? Am I crazy? Or is the re-install link to existing/creat new AD accounts my only viable option?

Thanks for the help,
Nathan

Re: Unity 3.1(2)-Win2k PDC question

Sat, 02 Feb 2002 09:43:07 GMT

If all you want is remote access, reinstalling Unity and moving all the subscribers over seems rather extreme. Can't you setup a one way trust between the Unity and corporate domains to gain access via IP? Really, you wouldn't even need to go that far if it's just one or two folks that need access... just make sure they have accounts with domain rights on the Unity domain that they could authenticate with when they got challanged. It should be a simple matter to fire up pcANYWHERE on the corporate network and point it at the IP address of the Unity server, authenticate with an account with rights on the Unity network and go about your business.

Assuming these boxes are in completely seperate forrests (sounds like they are), the users on Unity aren't going to show up in the AD for your corporate network unless you go out of your way to setup trusts. Or is there more to this than I'm seeing?

Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)