cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
686
Views
0
Helpful
11
Replies

Can I change the { From:} default text when Unity sends email

douglas.heppler
Level 1
Level 1

Hello,

The default {From:} text in the email Unity sends to a subscriber has "Unity Messaging System and server name {rw234whatever}. Can you customize the From: information in Unity to place the customers name in for example?

We're running Unity 4.0.3 with CCM 3.3.3, Unified.

Thanks,

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

lindborg
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

For messages left from unidentified callers, all the messages are sent on behalf of the Unity Messaging System account which is what the FROM text is generated from.

If you want to change the display name of this account to read something other than "Unity Messaging System - (server name)" you can. The account in question is the one with a name of "UNITY_(server name)" - just change the display name, don't fiddle with other properties in there or you could foul us up.

In earlier versions of Unity we used to force all the properties, including the display name, to conform to the defaults so such a change would get over written the next time you restarted Unity for whatever reason - that logic has been removed so this should work OK for you.

View solution in original post

11 Replies 11

lindborg
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

For messages left from unidentified callers, all the messages are sent on behalf of the Unity Messaging System account which is what the FROM text is generated from.

If you want to change the display name of this account to read something other than "Unity Messaging System - (server name)" you can. The account in question is the one with a name of "UNITY_(server name)" - just change the display name, don't fiddle with other properties in there or you could foul us up.

In earlier versions of Unity we used to force all the properties, including the display name, to conform to the defaults so such a change would get over written the next time you restarted Unity for whatever reason - that logic has been removed so this should work OK for you.

Hello,

In AD, we changed the the display name on the account Unity_{servername} but it still gives us the From: Unity Messaging System {servername} on the email when the call comes in from the PSTN. The subject field has Subject: Message from {519XXXXX etc.} Is there something else that needs to be done?

Thanks,

OK… this is somewhat more complicated than it used to be in Ex55 land! When you create a user in AD whatever full name (display name) you give it is apparently what will show up in the From field forever and ever no matter what you do – there’s nothing you can change in ADUC or, in fact, in ADSI that I could find that would alter this guy. Very annoying.

As such you need to create the Unity Messaging System account with the display name you want from the get go. There is a fairly easy way to do this but it does require a couple Unity restarts so you’ll have to plan ahead for this I’m afraid.

Step 1. Add a new registry key that tells Unity you want to use a different display name when creating the Unity messaging system account should it go missing – folks often delete that account without knowing what it is so there’s logic to create it on the fly at startup time if it’s not found. The key in question is under:

HKLM\Software\Active Voice\DOH\1.0\

The key is a string value you need to name “SystemMailboxDisplayName”. Stick in the name you want to appear in the “from” field for outside caller messages here.

Step 2. Shut down Unity

Step 3. Delete the Unity Messaging System account in Active Directory.

Step 4. Delete the Unity Messaging System account from SQL in the subscriber table – it’ll have an alias of “Unity_(server name)”. You can do this in SQL enterprise manager or you can use Query Builder from MS or use the query builder in CUDLE – you’d use “DELETE FROM Subscriber WHERE Alias=’Unity_(server name)’” in the query window for that.

Step 5. Delete the Messaging profile for the Unity messaging account – you’ll find this in KHEY_Users\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\windows Messaging System\Profiles\Unity System Profile. Just delete the entire branch. It’s sometimes easiest to find this by just searching the registry for “Unity System Profile” since there should be only one.

Step 6. Start Unity. This will recreate the profile, the account in AD and the SQL entry for the Unity messaging system account with the string you used above.

Step 7. Call in and leave a message for a subscriber as an outside caller. If you get the failsafe message (i.e. “I’m sorry, the system is temporarily unable to complete your call…”), restart Unity again – for reasons I’m not real clear on this sometimes is required here – probably due to timing issues. In my testing I had to do this 2 out of 3 times on my box. Regardless, after the 2nd restart it always works fine.

You should now see the “from” field as you wish.

I’m going to bang around in Microsoft’s archives for a bit and see if I can find where they hide that string they use there – I found other people on the newsgroups having the same problem but no definitive answers on what to do about it other than creating a new account (which is what they were told to do). If I find something, I’ll follow up out here.

Well...... I like the part "Regardless, after the 2nd restart it always works fine." I'll schedule an off hours time frame with the customer to complete this. After we finish I'll also update you here. Thanks for the quick response and detailed instruction.

Doug

Actually, I don't think the 2nd reboot was really necessary in my tests - doing some more tests it looks like a simple RUS issue where the mailbox store for the new Unity Messaging System account was just not yet created by the RUS process yet - wait a bit and it comes on line.

One other thing I should have told you earlier. We are running off box Exchange 2003 in an Windows 2003 Active Directory environment. Not sure if this makes a difference but I wanted to make you aware.

Thanks,

Doug

That shouldn't make a difference - so long as we can create the account (which we must have been able to or the setup would have choked long before now) we should be cool here...

Hello,

I was testing in my lab and discovered after changing the display name in the properties of the Unity_{servername} account in Active Directory and doing a reboot of the Unity server. The {From:} field did change to the new settings. When we previously tried this on the customers server we did not do a reboot.

I would perfer to try this before I try the second work around. With your blessing?

Thanks,

That didn't work for me in my tests on my box here... not to say that it wont work for you but I'd be at a loss to explain the differences.

Ok, I'll try the simple fix first tomorrow evening and update you on the results. If it doesn't work on the customers set up I'll schedule the second work around and go from there.

Also, I noticed there is a new Operating System upgrade for Call Manager 3.3.3 OS-upgrade-2-0-5 SR3. Is there an equivalent new Microsoft patch for Unity that I should apply to the Unity server? The last patch I applied was MS SP-4

Thanks,

Hello,

I changed the display field in Active Directory for the System Messaging Account and did a reboot of the Unity server. The Displayed name was successfully changed. We are using Exchange 2003 off box and this worked.

Thank you very much, your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Doug Heppler