CISCO UNITY CONNECTION V8.6 AND EXCHANGE 2013??

[nate fitzgerald]

MY COMPANY IS GOING FROM EXCHANGE 2010 WITH UNITY CONNECTION TO EXCHANGE 2013

WE HAVE NOT MADE THE CHANGE YET AS I AM WONDERING WHAT ALL IS INVOLVED ON THE UNITY SIDE

WE ALSO RUN ACTIVE DIRECTORY 2012 WE HAVE UNITY CONNECTION 8.6.

I COULD NOT FIND ANY INFO ON THE WEB GOOGLE,BING CISCO.COM OR MICROSOFT.COM/EXCHANGE

ANY HELP OR INSIGHT ON WHERE TO LOOK IS MUCH APPRECIATED THANKS

NATE

[Brad Magnani]

Hi Nate,

Exchange 2013 has not been qualified.  Once it's officially released, Cisco has 60 days to announce the support and functionality with our products.  This is why you haven't found anything about it.  QA has it on their radar.  If you move to 2013, it may not work with UC and you will not be supported by Cisco TAC.

Here are the system requirements and compatibility for Unity Connection with unified messaging (Single Inbox feature):

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/8x/requirements/8xcucsysreqs.html#wp459928

Hope that helps,

Brad

[dchyla]

Brad,

Exchange 2013 went RTM at the beginning of December. While the updates to Exchange 2007 and 2010 that allow coexistence have not been released, 2013 is supported in production environments. I hope we can get some news soon on Unity support.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/12/03/exchange-server-2013-reaches-general-availability.aspx

Thanks,

Dean

[cnuche]

Last update about this is that Exchange 2013 (& Office 365 w/ 2013) testing with CUC 9.1 is completed, but testers found some defects. So no official support until those are fixed.

Developers are fixing those defects in 8.6.2 first to fold into  the upcoming SU scheduled for early April.  Then those  fixes will be added to 9.1 with a target of Mid-Late April for a 9.1 ES.

So NO official support yet, official support is comming on Mid-Late April, (if no other issues comes up).

Christian Nuche

PDI HD Team.

[will.schroeder]

Are things still on track for official support before May?

[j.house]

Any new updates on this?

[will.schroeder]

I understand you did state mid-late April provided no further complications occur, however, it's mid May with no update. Can you please update us on the status? I have a few customers that want to make the move to Exchange 2013 but are holding off solely for official Unity Connection support.

[nate fitzgerald]

Yeah, same goes with our company as well as some of our customers. We have AD 2012, we want to move to Exch 2013 and we currently run Unity 8.6.

We are doing the same holding off on the upgrade until we know there is support.

Thanks

[will.schroeder]

I contacted Cisco reseller support after not being able to find an update anywhere (latest release notes for all versions make no mention of Exchange 2013).

The best information I could get was that an internal document indicated that as of May 2nd they were starting testing and it will be at least 2 weeks for testing (this document was referring to 9.x). Essentially, no strong estimated timeline at this time.

The only other information he could provide was that an internal document as of April 25 8.6.2 was to get an update to provide support for Exchange 2013 "any day now" and that 9.1.1's update would likely be a few weeks after 8.6.2s. However, there was no follow-up to it and that was almost 3 weeks ago. However, he's still looking and will be emailing me an update when he's found more info (I'll update if I get any helpful info).

[Steve Snodgrass]

Any new info on this?  I have Unity Connection 9.1.1 and we are interested in Exchange 2013 support as well.

[tmoore]

Wondering if anyone has this working with Unity Connection 8.6 with single mailbox on Exchange 2013. It looks like it is now supported with 8.6(2a)SU3 which came out in May.  But has anyone been successful in getting it to work? 

[will.schroeder]

I just upgraded to 8.6(2a)SU3 and made modifications to our AD account based on this document:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/8x/unified_messaging/guide/85xcucumg020.html

While my 2010 servers still exist it is pointed directly at the 2013. Prior to this I already had all my mailboxes in 2013. When I tested, moving them and leaving Unity pointed at the 2010 servers made everything continue to work properly. After about 4-5 days, suddenly the messages made it to the mailbox but if you deleted from there it remained on the phone. Since doing this and pointing to 2013, that issue has disappeared.

I will post a final update after I've completely decommissioned the 2010 portion (probably in 5-10 days).

[will.schroeder]

My 2010 servers have been shutdown for a little over 2 days now. While they won't be removed from the environment until Monday, I'm happy to report everything is working as it should.

Note: My organization does not use the text-to-speech for emails. If anyone here does and is concerned before switching, I could see about getting it turned on and test it.

[will.schroeder]

It was pointed to a simple A record for a VIP but that was back to a one server or the other at some point during this process.

I want to say that at some point I did start having trouble with marking messages unread and then being able to listen to them or the MWI coming back on. It was awhile ago though and I have a sketchy memory sometimes. I recall it working fine with the 2010 server for some time (and all mailboxes on 2013) but then after a few weeks suddenly having those problem. They were short-lived because I was able to upgrade not too long after.

I didn't have to re-create any accounts. I followed a Cisco document on how to integrate it, the document included 2013. Most of the items were already done due to the previous integration with 2010. There was very little I had to modify. When I switched it to the 2013 environment, the switch was the same A record, I modifed the IP on it.

[wkhanagov]

Will,

I'm curious if prior to upgrade you were pointed to a specific 2010 server or allowed Unity Connection to search.  Also, did you have to re-create subscriber accounts in Unity Connection or did they get updated automatically?

Thanks!

-William