Migration from Unity to Unity Connection - Voice messages

[gkeel]

I am preparing to migrate from Unity 7.x to Unity Connection Vers 8.6.

My Unity 7.x was with an Exchange integration (so all of the Unity voice messages were stored within the Exchange message store and not on the Unity server).

Although I see where Cisco does not recommend migrating messages, I was wondering how the migration would work if the messages were on the Exchange server and not on the Unity server.

Can someone give me some idea of how that would work?  Unfortunately, I don't know how many voice messages there may be out there or which users would possibly have them.

Thanks in advance

[David Hailey · Accepted solution]

Unity is dependent upon Exchange for message storage and delivery.  In a voicemail only configuration, the Unity server is typically integrated with a standalone (and often co-resident) installation of AD & Exchange.  If you are migrating from Unity in a voicemail only configuration to Unity Connection and you choose to migrate messages then COBRAS export can pull Unity subscriber messages out of Exchange and then import (i.e., deliver) them back into a subscriber mailbox on Unity Connection (Unity Connection performs message delivery and storate on-box, it is not dependent upon Exchange or any other backend system).

If the Unity server is configured in a Unified Messaging fashion (i.e., Unity is integrated with a corporate Exchange environment and users receive messages in their corporate inbox), then you generally don't need to migrate message  over to Unity Connection.  This is particularly true if you are setting up Unity Connection for Single Inbox integration with the same corporate Exchange environment.

Migrating messages can take a while depending on the size of the system, number of messages, etc.  However, you can also choose to only migrate a subset of messages with COBRAS (e.g., last 30 days, etc).  One easy way to find out how many messages are on the system is to do a test run of COBRAS export and include messages for all subscribers.  The log files are pretty detailed and you can use them to get some good metrics.

The COBRAS help file is another good resource for info:  http://www.ciscounitytools.com/Applications/General/COBRAS/Help/COBRAS_Briefcase/COBRAS_Briefcase.htm

Hailey

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[Frank]

When migrating from Unity Unified Messaging to Unity Connection Unified Messaging should Unity Connection recognize voice messages on exchange that were left from Unity?

[David Hailey]

From a system perspective, Unity Connection has its own message store that is independent of Exchange so it will only be aware of messages that are stored locally (e.g., via migration or new).

There is also a "Hot Mode" migration from Unity to Unity Connection but it does not apply to all scenarios (requires specific Unity release and networking between systems).  There is some consideration for messages there that is a bit different than the standard migration ("Briefcase" mode).  It may not apply to what you're asking but for good measure you can take a look at the following for more details:

http://www.ciscounitytools.com/Applications/General/COBRAS/Help/COBRAS_HotMode/COBRAS_HotMode.htm#_Toc292471833

Hailey

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[Rob Huffman]

Hailey,

As always, great advice and knowledge +5 from the "Cowtown"!

Cheers!

Huff