Unity 4.0 Deployment Model

[nepifano]

Quick Question: Distributed Unity Architecture

Although not recommended my Cisco, is it possible to install Unity within a clients premise and have the Exchange message stores residing off site ie. remote Central Office. Anyone implement a solution like this or know the drawbacks.

Thanks.

[kechambe]

We are revving up to release a new edition of the Unity Design Guide which will cover the network topology required between the Exchange and Unity servers.

In a nutshell, this is not a supported configuration. All Exchange servers which a Unity server services mailboxes on must be on the same LAN. The implications of not adhering to these design practices are catastrophic from a system performance standpoint. See:

http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/bugtool/onebug.pl?bugid=CSCea68581

Microsoft has delivered a patch for MAPI to us and we have made efforts to optimize 4.0(4) to work with the patch. However, all servers on the same LAN will still be a requirement for the foreseeable future.

Thanks,

Keith