Unity Bulk Administration MWI question

[Michael Tierney]

We are in the midst of a migration from an old TDM system with its own voicemail to Unity & Communications Manager. We are moving users to Unity at a faster rate than we are actually deploying POE switches and IP Phones, so many of our Unity users have custom MWI settings that we need to include to light the message waiting indicator on their old TDM phones through the old switch. We are currently following the Unity documentation from "User Moves, Adds, and Changes Guide for Cisco Unity Connection Release 8.x" which states:

To Add MWIs for Other Extensions

Step 1 In Cisco Unity Connection Administration, find the user for whom you want to add another MWI.

Step 2 On the Edit menu, select Message Waiting Indicators.

Step 3 On the Message Waiting Indicators page, select Add New.

Step 4 On the New Message Waiting Indicator page, check the Enabled check box.

Step 5 In the Display Name field, enter a description for the MWI.

Step 6 Optionally, check the Inherit User’s Extension check box to use the primary extension for the user as

the extension on which the message waiting indicator (MWI) appears.

Step 7 In the Extension field, enter the extension for the MWI. When entering characters, consider the

following:

• Enter digits 0 through 9. Do not use spaces, dashes, or parentheses.

• Enter , (comma) to insert a one-second pause.

• Enter # and * to correspond to the # and * keys on the phone.

Step 8 In the Phone System field, select the name of the phone system that the extension is assigned to.

Step 9 Select Save.

Step 10 Repeat Step 2 through Step 9 as necessary

This process works fine for us so far, but we have hundreds of users that we need to migrate, and doing this operation person by person is tedious and error prone. I can't find any documentation for adding MWIs for other extensions through Unity BAT. Does anyone know if it is possible to do a BAT Update to create MWIs? We have already done a BAT Create to create the users and mailboxes.

Thanks very much,

Mike

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Mike,

Have you tried using Bulk Edit (with .csv)?

User with Voicemail > Users referenced in this CSV file > Next

Here's a clip that speaks to how this is run now. You first search and select all

the users you want to change and then choose Bulk Edit;

To Edit User Account Information in Bulk Edit Mode (some editing from original this example

is for Caller Input settings but you'll see the point)

---

#

Step 1 In Cisco Unity Connection Administration, on the Search Users page, check the applicable user check boxes, and select Bulk Edit.

#

If the user accounts that you want to edit in bulk do not all appear on  one Search page, check all applicable check boxes on the first page,  then go to the next page and check all applicable check boxes, and so  on, until you have selected all applicable users. Then select Bulk Edit.

#

Step 2 On the Edit Caller Input page, change settings as applicable.

#

Note The  Status message at the top of the Edit Caller Input page tells you how  many user accounts are being edited. Also note that the page is  populated only with the fields that you are allowed to edit in bulk  mode, and that the fields available for edit also depend on whether all  of the user accounts reside on the local server.

#

Step 3 If applicable, set the Bulk Edit Task Scheduling Fields to schedule the Bulk Edit operation for a later date and/or time.

#

Step 4 Select Submit.

#

Step 5 If  applicable, continue to change settings for these user accounts on the  related pages available from the Edit menu. As you make changes on each  page, select Submit before going on to the next page to make additional changes.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/8x/user_mac/guide/8xcucmac090.html#wp1049545

Try a couple of test users first to come up with the exact plan.

Cheers!

Rob

"Clocks go slow in a place of work
Minutes drag and the hours jerk" 

-The Clash

[Michael Tierney]

Thanks for the lead Rob - However, in Bulk Edit mode (whether via CSV or via checking off multiple entries on the user search screen), all I can do with MWI set the "enabled" to true / false and set "inherit user's extension" to true / false for the default MWI-1 entry (unless I'm missing something). When I edit in single user mode, I can create a whole new entry, and input the other extension I want the MWI to signal. I have those extensions in a CSV, so if there were a way to create additional Message Waiting Indicator entries, that would be ideal.

[David Hailey]

I decided to take a swag at this and I'm going to give an educated guess that you cannot do this with BAT (at least not as of 8.6).  I took a look at this on my lab and here is what leads me to that conclusion:

1.  You are correct about the bulk edit mode.

2.  I added alternate MWI extensions for a couple users on my system and then did a bulk export.  First thing is that the alternate MWI extensions are not in the bulk export file.  From there, I also noticed another item.  All of my lab users are set in standard fashion where there is a single MWI extension enabled and is set to inherit the user's primary extension.  If that is the only MWI extension for a user then the bulk export includes the actual extension number in the MWI extension field.  In addition, it will also include the switch association for that MWI entry.  However, after adding an MWI extension for a user then this is no longer the case.  Instead, the MWI extension and associated switch for that entry are blank.  See below as sample (only an excerpt of the data that is relevant):

Alias	Extension	MWIExtension	MWIMediaSwitchDisplayName
ccornell	7031011003
evedder	7031011004	7031011004	CUCM01

Above, the Eddie Vedder user is configured with a single MWI extension.  The Chris Cornell is a user that I added a second MWI extension for.

Sorry that this isn't the answer you were looking for but figured I'd share.  Obviously the data is in the database somewhere so a query/update might be an option.  However, I haven't really come across a pressing need to look at that sort of access for Unity Connection in my experience to this point.

Hailey

Please rate helpful posts!