Cisco Unity Connection not relaying voicemails outside the organization

[smattcmgr]

Hi all, we are running Cisco Unity Connection version: 8.6.2ES25.21900-25.  It has been set up to accept voicemails for Exchange 2010 users (in other words email messages with WAV attachments) and deliver these to their inboxes; this works with no problem.

I have two users who would like to receive these emails at their outside account, however the messages are never sent.  I have tried the following:

Changed the users corporate email addresses from "user@mycompany.com" to "user@externaladdress.com."

Unchecked the option to "Generate SMTP Proxy Address From Corporate Email Address."

On the "Message Actions" page for their account I have configured voicemail and email to "Relay the message" and entered their external SMTP addresses.

Confirmed the smart host setup is OK (points to our Exchange 2010 CAS which has firewall rules in place to permit it to send mail outside the organization.

Confirmed the Exchange 2010 CAS will accept SMTP messages from the subnet the Unity Connection server resides in.

If I switch the user SMTP settings BACK to their original internal SMTP addresses for my company the messages are then immediately delivered properly to these addresses.  This signifies to me that Unity is periodically trying to send these items but they just aren't going out.  No sign of the messages in any user report I ran in Unity nor message tracking in Exchange.

I also tried setting up an Outlook rule to forward these voicemail messages to the recipients external addresses but this did not work and after doing some research I see that the way in which Unity delivers the messages to these recipients internally (via EWS) is the reason why.  I wonder if this is the same reason these are not going out to their external SMTP addresses.

Thanks for any assistance provided!

[hoffmann74]

Following up on this question. We are on Unity 9.1.2 and have the same issue. Voicemails are relayed without issue to internal Exchange users, but we are unable to relay messages to any e-mail addresses outside of Exchange. 

Trying to troubleshoot, our Sys Admin set up our Unity server as an Relay Connector in Exchange, but that did not do the trick.

[Elliot Dierksen]

That certainly sounds like relaying is being denied by your Exchange server. You can look at message tracking, or download the SMTP logs from CUC via RTMT. I strongly suspect that is what it will tell you.

[the Q]

Hi,

same need... on Cisco Unity Connection Administration, Version 9.1.1.10000-32.

Have any of you guys succeeded at this or care to share insights?  We just acquired a second company/domain.  We have Unity send voicemails to email, and now we have users on two different email domains. 

It looks like Unity holds only one SMTP domain, and I'm not sure what Smart Host is yet.  It looks like it's just for notifications ... ?

[the Q]

Existing:

Corp1.com - current users

Corp2.com - new domain and new users

I could buy another domain and use that as the Unity SMTP server, and set it up with subdomains:

corp1.mailRelay.com

corp2.mailRelay.com

Then set everyone up in Unity as username@corp[1or2].mailRelay.com

Then of course do some relay rules. 

But that sounds like a huge painful ordeal to get up and running.  It would be just fantastic if Unity had a way to handle this. 

[the Q]

I gave this a try.

In Unity>>User>>JaneDoe>>Edit>>Basics, down at the bottom I set 'Corporate Email Address' to janedoe@corp2.com

Then I go over to Edit>>Message Actions and see this at the top of the screen:

Status
[message] Single-inbox address is janedoe@corp2.com.
[message] UM service Email action is: Relay the Message.
[message] UM service Fax action is: Accept the Message.
[message] Voicemails will be synchronized to janedoe@corp2.com and retained on Connection.
[message] Receipts will be synchronized to janedoe@corp2.com and retained on Connection.
[message] Faxes will be retained on Connection.
[message] Emails will be relayed to single-inbox address janedoe@corp2.com.

>"Voicemails will be synchronized to janedoe@corp2.com"

Yes, this is what I want !

But it doesn't work.  I leave a message and it never emails it to JaneDoe. 

Is there more I need to do?  There must be.

Firewall?

Permissions?

Smart Host?

proxy?

...

Any ideas?

[the Q]

So, in 'Message Actions' it says:

[message] Emails will be relayed to single-inbox address janedoe@corp2.com.

So why doesn't it send the voicemails to me?

[dianareyes]

Good afternoon,

Have any of you succeeded at this?  I'm running across the same issue and unfortunately,  the SMTP logs/traces > Message tracking do not provide much issue details;

traces output:

class=com.cisco.unity.smtp.client.CsUnitySmtpClient;Checking SMTP Pickup Folder.
class=com.cisco.unity.smtp.client.CsUnitySmtpClient;Pickup Folder Monitor: No New Messages found
class=com.cisco.unity.smtp.client.CsUnitySmtpClient;Checking Network Pickup Folder.
class=com.cisco.unity.smtp.client.CsUnitySmtpClient;Network Pickup Folder Monitor: No New Messages found

[DENNIS WEIKEL]

I've been troubleshooting the same issue.  The functionality broke unexpectedly.  

Our Environment:

    Cisco Unity Connections 11.5

    Local Bridgehead server
    Office 365 

Voicemail messages are successfully delivered Office 365 users.  

Issue is only experienced when smart host is utilized.  SMTP messages are successfully delivered on Local Bridgehead server which communicates with Office 365.  Microsoft has been unable to determine what happens to SMTP messages after they egress to their network. 

Problem is isolated to Message Relay.  Has anybody experienced this issue or know of a workaround ?  

[ajoberman]

We are in environment 10.5 and are having the same issue.  Outside email does not receive the relay message and attachment. We have also tried sending a relay to a shared mailbox that also does not get received. If we send to a regular office 365 email we have no issues.

If anyone has an answer we would greatly appreciate it.