Tips for migrating Unity users from v4 to v8

[jeremy.t]

Could someone please give me some advice on migrating thousands of users from Unity 4.0(5) to 8.0(3.3). The new servers are built and tested and now we need to migrate the users in a phased approach. The steps as far as I can see are;

1. Delete user from Unity 4 server

2. Change the voice mail profile on the users extension number on CallManager (7.1.5)

3. Import the user into Unity 8 (Import Existing Exchange User)

4. Change users ViewMail options in Outlook to the Unity 8 DNS name

5. Advise users of password change and to re-record their greetings

What tools are there that can help with this? The phased approach will initially be for the IT department (spread over many office locations) then we would want to roll it out location by location.

I would really appreciate tips from anyone who has done something similar.

Many thanks

[jeremy.t]

Anybody got any tips for migrating between versions?

Thanks

[jeremy.t]

I assume I must have to migrate users individually as there are no suggestions...

[barry]

Hi Jeremy

COBRAS is the tool you need. This allows you to migrate users from Unity into Connection including their password / PIN settings, greetings and existing voicemails.

http://www.ciscounitytools.com/

Install the COBRAS export tool onto the Unity server itself. You can migrate users as and when you're ready. The tool itself is very easy to use and the documentation on the above site explains things very well.

HTH. Barry

[jeremy.t]

Hi Barry, thanks for your reply. I looked at COBRAS a while ago and for some reason didn't think it was the right tool.

You mention from unity into connection, mine are both unity (not connection) and both are fully integrated with Exchange. Is COBRAS still the tool for the job?

I assume I can do the CallManager voicemail profile change with BAT.

[barry]

Hi Jeremy

Yes, you can still use COBRAS for this. One word of warning, if you use COBRAS to export / import the VM messages themselves your users will probably end up with two copies within Exchange. Your new version of Unity won't be clever enough to know that the imported message is already contained within the Exchange mailbox (and I don't blame it!) . You are probably better off not doing the export / import of the messages as this causes confusion, just the per user settings.

Yes on the CUCM BAT stuff. Create a new VM profile and assign it to the DN via BAT.

Barry

[jeremy.t]

Thanks for the advice Barry. I'll give it a try next week.