Networking stand alone Unity

[lolu.oshunbiyi]

I would like to network 4 Unity Voicemail only servers two running Exch 5.5 on the Unity and two running Exch 2000 on the Unity, using SMTP Blind addressing. Would I be correct to install IMS and the 5.5 IVC on the Stand alone 5.5 Unitys and the SMTP connector and the 2000 IVC on the 2000 Unitys? What kind of perfomance overheads are there with this?

Many Thanks

[kechambe]

You have it right. The Voice Gateway (IVC) is needed to preserve the custom message properties.

Overhead of the Voice Gateway is negligible.

Unfortunately the Exchange 5.5 Voice Gateway has quite a few defects that may prevent it from working. You should contact TAC to get the Unity3.1.4_and_3.1.5_VoiceConnectorHotfix.zip file. The file contains a new build of the Voice Gateway for Exchange 2000 and 5.5.

Also, VPIM will be supported with Unity 4.0(1). VPIM is a standards based SMTP messaging protocol which allows for the spoken name to be sent with the message. VPIM will only be supported in Exchange 2000 and mix mode installs however. So at some point you way want to look at upgrading the Exchange 5.5 machines to Exchange 2000 and switching to VPIM.

Keith