45 minute delay in new voicemails coming through - Unity 4.0(5)

[rogerthread]

We're running unity 4.0(5) and every few weeks we need to restart it as users complain there is a 45 minute delay in new voicemails coming through.  The server Unity is running on seems fine, lots of disc space, 2Gig RAM, W2K.

I've increased the SQL available memory and now I'm stuck on what to do next, as the sytem is 4 years old I would like to check the old messages have been deleted - yet i can't see the setting for this on Unity ?  Any thoughts on what might be going on much appreciated.

Updated as requested - This is just a unity and call manager install (there is a connector to Exchange), problem is - someone leaves a voicemail on an unansered phone, but it takes 45 minutes for the unity server to think about it and push the voicemail notification to the phone.-

[Tray Stoutmeyer · Accepted solution]

We need more info on this and it also sounds like you are asking about more then 1 issue. Is this unified messaging or voicemail only? Is the Exchange server on it's own server or is it on the server with Unity? How do people know there is a 45 minute delay? Please provide more details and we can help you better.

Thanks!

Tray

[rogerthread]

Thanks - updated the description - its a 45 to 1 hour delay for unity to tell the cisco phones there is a new voicemail

[Tray Stoutmeyer]

Ok so someone leaves a message and the MWI light on the phone doesn't like for up to one hour after the message was left. How are you verifying this? Again, is this unified messaging where people get their voicemail in their Outlook? Is it voicemail only where they only get it on their phone? Where is the Exchange server (on the Unity box or off on it's own box? Is the Exchange in the same location/building as the Unity server?

Tray

[rogerthread]

When the delay happens it can range from 5 to 60 mins, the message delivery to outlook and the redlight indication allways happens within seconds of each other and as such the delay must be 'inside' unity even though the server is not stresses.  Both the Unity and Exchange servers are in the datacentre and on the same subnet. 

[Tray Stoutmeyer]

What you have indicated is not Unity at all if the voicemail hits Outlook and the light comes on right after but the message was left 45 minutes before it finally arrives in Outlook. That would be an exchange issue. So I will ask the question again, where is Exchange? Is the server on the Unity server? Is the Exchange on it's own server separate from Unity? This does not sound like a Unity issue. It would be a Unity issue if the message arrived in Outlook and the MWI took 45 minutes to light up on the phone. Since they happen very quickly, it sounds to me like the message doesn't arrive in Outlook until 45 minutes after you left it. That is a delay on the Exchange side.

Tray

[rogerthread]

Thanks - but I'm confused - I thought Unity was responsible for storing the messages and controling the red lamp on the phone and if theres a 45 min delay for this to occur then it would be within Unity.   I thought the Exchange part was just an optional add on ?  So if exchange is in some manner slowing things down any tips on where I could look into exchange to purge messages.  Exchange is a separate server but in the same data centre / same LAN switch.

[Tray Stoutmeyer]

Ok so let's discuss here a minute. You do have a point however most of the time if the email isn't even being delivered to the Outlook client for 45 minutes or so, it's Exchange because Unity monitors the Inbox on Exchange for every user and won't act on any new messages until they actually arrive. That is why I am pointing you to the Exchange server. One more thing you can do to make sure it is absolutley not Unity is to check the x:/Commserver/UnityMTA folder and leave a test message for someone and see if a file comes into that directory with their alias on it and sits in there for 45 minutes before going to Exchagne. It shouldn't but it could so check that. If you never see it hit that directory in Unity and it arrives 45 minutes later on Outlook, it was sitting in Exchange for 45 minutes and it is indeed an Exchange issue. The way MWI work is that Unity can't start the process until it sees a new message in the Inbox (ie Outlooks or Exchange). If the new message doesn't get delivered for 45 minutes, Unity doesn't see it until then and you said it does light the MWI as soon as the message arrives in Outlook so that proves my point. Ok, so back to Exchange. I would look to see when the last time is that you rebooted it and try that first. If you still have delays you can look in the queues in the Exchange System Manager to see if messages are getting delayed and held up there. Do an overall health check on the Exchange to see if there are any performance issues. Download and run the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer tool and fix anything it recommends. You can get it by Googling Exchange Best Practices Tool 2003. It's easy to use and it tells you what needs fixing and exactly the steps to do it.

Tray

[rogerthread]

Well I must say thank you it looks closer to exchange than expected.  Looking inside that MTA directory was very revealing... we see 820 objects within the MTA folder (ie wave file and text files), presume its safe to delte them, many of them are for EAdmin,and are quite old?  We did a test voicemail and as you say it hovered around in this folder for about 8 minutes before the red light and outlook both showed new message at the same time.    It was only 8 minutes as the problem has been 'temporarily fixed' by doing a fortnightly reboot of Unity (8 minutes still seems long when emails are instant).   What was very interesting was one user (the one that complains the most) had a quite long message in the MTA folder and by increasing her exchange mailbox size the voicemail dissapeared.  So we're not 100% sure it's 'fixed' but seem to have a better idea on how it all hangs together, the thing is there is no queuing on the Exchange Server and Emails delivery is instant. 

What happens to the wave file one its left the MTA folder, a copy is sent to Exchange but is there some subdirectory in unity that stores them for when you access voicmails via an IP phone, we'd love to see if its full.  On the logs we're getting failure messages with the Cisco CSVPIM connector ?

[Tray Stoutmeyer · Accepted solution]

So this is why I asked to have you check UnityMTA first before we just assume it's Exchange totally. It may be that some of those old messages are corrupt and are getting in the way of the new ones. If they are very old, move them to the failed folder in the UnityMTA directory and see if that speeds things up for the newer messages. If so, then go to the failed directory and delete the old messages.

Tray

[rogerthread]

Thanks tstoutme

I’m pleased to report  closure on the Unity voicemail delay problems.  It was mostly down to Unity  needing a ‘good clearout’ it was spending too much time looking at undelivered  old messages in it’s D:\CommServer\UnityMTA folder.

There was also a  specific problem with a key user who had a full exchange mailbox  delaying new message delivery for her (probably until she had deleted a few other messages).  Anyway we're back on the road, your assistance was  very much appreciated !!!

[Tray Stoutmeyer]

Glad we could get it figured out!

Tray