Voice Mail Only considerations

[kc-ah]

Anyone know of a document that collects and/or describes the 'exceptions' and Best Practices for a VM only install? Such as the requirement that it be Exchange 2k and not 03 (which some people are finding out too late. . .) ?

I have to do such an install in a couple of days and don't want any unnecessary Gotchas. For example, should the Unity box be in its own domain, or can it co-exist peacefully as a member server in a domain that already includes Exchange servers? What about ADSchemaSetup.exe in VM-only environments?

Any pointers would be appreciated. (Cisco Unity Installation Guide 4.0(4) does not even contain the phrase 'voice mail only'!)

[lindborg · Accepted solution]

check the broader install guide page here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps2237/prod_installation_guides_list.html

the 4.0(5) install guides are broken up into Unified Messaging installs with Domino or Exchange and with failover or not failover. There are also two guides for voice mail install (meaning voice mail only install) with Exchange 2000 - one for failover and one for not.

It should contain all the details for such things you need. Then there's also the "System Requirements and supported hardware and software" guide for 4.x here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps2237/prod_system_requirements_hardware09186a0080117617.html

there's a section in there for voice mail only requirements (this is where it mentions Exchange 2000 only).

[kc-ah]

Wow - didn't think I might get an answer from the Answermonkey himself! Thanks, Jeff - that was just what I needed. The Cisco-speak "Voice Messaging" versus "Unified Messaging" had thrown me off.

[aamercado]

Jeff

Just to piggyback off this thread:

We plan to migrate from legacy pbx/octel250 and install 3 cm clusters. 2 cluster are LAN (yes, there is a business requirement for 2 clusters Lan) and will house 1000users and 3rd cluster will house only 100 user and is across a T1 wan

They currently have a AD/E2k same server co-resident basic MS infrastructure which we are not allow to integrate due to lack of HD space and only bought 4 unity servers...so I plan to do VMO Failover and a E2K on the 2-LAN cluster and across the WAN the 4th MCS will be VMO. We plan to migrate to full redundancy on the WAN side as well as UM on both LAN/WAN.

I just need a sanity check on this design so:

a. Is this good design? and if so, can I do ISN part of the digital networking btwn Unity Lan and Wan?

TIA