Call Handlers between servers

[robert.schaufler]

Does anyone have any suggestions for transferring callers between call handlers that reside on different Unity servers?

I have the following issue on a customer that has three unity servers. Call Handler 1 on Unity 1 processes a call. One of the options on Call Handler 1 is to press 1 to talk to a subscriber that resides on Unity 2. After the call is transferred and the call is not answered, the customer wants to place an option to press 1 and return to Call Handler 1 on Unity 1.

The problem is that when you set up caller input and choose to transfer to a call handler, the only options that are listed are the call handlers on the local server.

Digital networking is set up and searching between servers for Subscribers or extensions etc... is not a problem.

Does anyone know of a way to search between servers for Call Handlers? If not, is anyone familiar with a work around for this type of situation?

Thanks,

Robert

[lindborg]

Call handlers are not replicated into the directory and, as such, are not visible to other Unity servers in the directory.

The only way to go about this is to create another call handler on your 2nd Unity server that does a release transfer to a number that forwards to your original call handler (i.e. the call handler on the first system can have an extension number associated with it that's associated with a phantom extension you can dial such that the call forwards directly to the call handler - just like it would for a subscriber's phone).

I can't think of another way to hand calls off to specific call handlers between two systems...

[ROBERT SCHAUFLER]

Thanks, Jeff. This is how we handled the situation and it appears to be working OK.

I understand the logic of Call Handlers being local to the server since they are not included in the directory, but I also noticed the same issue if I attempt to forward from a call handler to a subscriber. In this case, only the Subscribers on the local server can be searched for. If I want to transfer to a subscriber on another server, I have to use the same solution that you suggested for transferring between Call Handlers.

This isn't a particularly big deal since we have a working solution, but I am curious as to why we can not search for Subscribers that are homed to a networked server from a call handler.

Thanks for the assistance!

[lindborg]

Actually, it's the same reason - the SA attaches to a call handler when you do that, even for the selection of a subscriber. Every subscriber has a call handler (called a primary call handler) associated with it on the local box. This object holds all the transfer information and such (call holding options, which transfer string to use, which greeting is active etc... etc...) - since handlers are not replicated around, this means that information is not avaialble for remote subscribers.

For auto attendant transfers (i.e. dialing a user's extension number from the opening greeting) it blindly transfers to the user's extension - since it has to be in the same dialing domain (i.e. no require a trunk access code) to be available in the auto attendant, this works. However the SA will only show objects for linking that have handler objects available to id - and that's only local subscribers and handlers (call handlers, interview handlers, name lookup handlers).