4.0(3), 4.0(4) or 4.0(5)

[benhanson]

I'm about to upgrade my Unity server from 3.1(5) to 4.x. Ordered upgrade CD's back when 4.0(3) was out, now there are two more realeases. I don't see anything earth shattering in 4.0(4), but the live record function in 4.0(5) looks like it might be worth it. Anyone have an opinion on stability of these 3 releases?

[Ginger Dillon]

Hi -

Aside from the Unity application, there may be other things for you to consider in your infrastructure, such as Windows 2003 on the Unity server, or upgrade to Exchange 2003 SP1, or client upgrade to Windows XP SP2. For this OS support, you'd want to be at Unity 4.0(4) and ViewMail for Outlook 4.0(4) for unified messaging installations. 4.0(4) has very nice features if you are networking multiple Unity servers - such as crossbox login, transfers, and directory handling, but you indicated one server in your post. We are working with Unity 4.0(4) SR1. It has been extremely stabile and I am very pleased. When we were at 4.0(3), we experienced occasional port hangs, but do not experience that with 4.0(4). I would investigate ES 48 and 58 with TAC for applicability to your environment, I have these applied to our servers. The ES58 addresses ability to change password in Subscriber templates via the SA. Unity 4.0(5) is required to support Windows 2003 SP1 so we will be preparing for this upgrade soon. The broadcasting functionality in 4.0(5) is where we want to be ultimately too.

Sincerely,

Ginger

[fn3247]

Ginger, have you talked to anyone at Cisco about changes to the broadcast functionality going forward? Just curious, since you were targeting that... When messages are sent it does not light MWI in 4.0(5), but may (likely) in a future release I guess.

Fred

[Ginger Dillon]

Hi Fred -

I just learned about the MWI myself from reading the release notes today. If this was an emergency message, having the MWI triggered would be of value. However, there are 3rd party applications that do emergency broadcast to the IP phone and trigger MWI, such as Berbee's InformaCast. From my understanding, the Unity broadcast is played when a user checks voicemail from the phone. Typically our customers don't check voicemail via the TUI unless prompted by the MWI or by calling in from home etc. so I don't feel we are losing functionality. Having the system broadcast will still be of great value to us.

Sincerely,

Ginger

[fn3247]

So far my experience with 4.0(5) has been excellent. There are some changes to the media bar used in the admin gui that I initially had some problems with (as in, it was not loading when I went to a page that featured one), those had to do with how my machine was authenticating to the admin web pages. 4.0(5) however is of course still relatively new and did incorporate a lot of changed functionality.

I would point out here that 4.0(4) along with the ES patches that Ginger mentioned above has become a *very* widely installed release to date with excellent result. If stability is your principal concern today and you can do without the feature set in 4.0(5), I would personally elect to use 4.0(4) right now.

Fred

[gordon.hawkins]

If I am running 4.0(4) what ES do you recommend I be at?

[Ginger Dillon]

Hi Gordon -

I would definitely apply 4.0(4) SR1 which includes corrective fixes. Although the ES 48 and 58 have worked for my particular case and others in this forum, I don't think an ES "level-set" is recommended per say. These usually depend on whether you are encountering a specific problem or not. Also, if Cisco finds an ES is required for its customer base, you typically find these on the Voice software download page.

Regards,

Ginger