Deploying UM and OCS 2007 R2 Integration

If you want to implement OCS 2007 R2 or later into your Exchange 2010 UM, your environment should consider the following requirements:

• One or more OCS 2007 R2 Front-End servers.
• At least one OCS 2007 R2 Mediation server connected to your PBX or phone system.
• UM server roles require a digital certificate that is enabled for UM service on that server.
• One or two phone numbers per OCS Location Profile—at least one for Subscriber Access and optionally one for an UM auto attendant. Particularly if you want to connect multiple office locations, you should consider at least a subscriber access number that is in the local phone range, but you can use a single UM auto attendant for the company.

Follow these steps to install OCS 2007 R2 integration for UM:

1. Create a UM dial plan for each of your available OCS Location Profiles:
   1. The dial plan name should, for example, include information about Exchange UM and only include characters supported by an OCS 2007 R2 Location Profile (such as no spaces).
   2. URI Type = SipName
   3. VoIP security = Secured or SIPSecured (OCS 2007 does not support unsecured VoIP security!)

   Note

   Make sure that your Office Communicator client encryption level reflects the VoIP security setting. If you configure VoIP Security as SIP Secured, you need to set it either to Rejected or Optional. If you use Secured as VoIP Security level, it must be either Required or Optional.

2. Configure your UM dial plan(s) with the correct OCS Location Profile Subscriber Access phone number.
3. Associate the UM server with the UM dial plans and make sure Startup Mode is Dual. If Startup Mode is changed, you need to restart the Microsoft Exchange UM service.
4. Run the ExchUCUtil.ps1 script found in the \Scripts folder. The script will perform the following tasks:
   1. Create one UM IP gateway for each OCS 2007 Enterprise Pool
   2. Create a UM hunt group for each UM IP gateway with their respective Pilot Identifiers
   3. Grant OCS 2007 servers permission to read Exchange UM objects in Active Directory
5. Use the Set-UMIPGateway cmdlet to configure the Port parameter of every created IP gateway to port 5061. You also use this cmdlet to disable outbound calling for all but one UM IP gateway. This is usually the gateway that is likely to handle the most traffic.
6. Run the Get-UMDialPlan -Id |flPhoneContext cmdlet in EMS and remember the PhoneContext property—you'll need to create an OCS Location Profile with that exact name.
7. Create and configure required UM auto attendant(s). Assign them the correct UM dial plan and the access phone number from the OCS Location Profile.
8. On your OCS 2007 R2 Front-End server, create an OCS Location Profile in OCS 2007 R2 for the UM dial plan you created that matches the PhoneContext name.
9. Run the OcsUMUtil.exe tool found in the C:\Progam Files\Common Files\Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2 folder. The tool will verify that OCS Location Profile and UM dial plan names match and allow you to create contacts for your Subscriber Access as well as auto-attendant access numbers.
   
   
   
   
   Notes from the Field—Unified Messaging Transitioning and Extension Dialing
   
   Gary A. Cooper
   Senior Systems Architect, Horizons Consulting, Inc., United States
   Within our organization, we had been utilizing Exchange Server 2007 UM in conjunction with Office Communication Server 2007 R2. This solution worked well, but we required the new features in Exchange Server 2010 UM—specifically RMS-protected Voicemail and Voicemail Preview. When we originally configured Exchange Server 2007 UM, we did not have enough Direct Inward Dial (DID) numbers for each mailbox that was UM-enabled, so we instead configured Exchange Server 2007 UM to use the auto attendant to answer all inbound calls and then to prompt the caller to select the appropriate person to contact. This worked well until we introduced Exchange Server 2010 and DID numbers.
   
   
   To implement Exchange Server 2010, we had to create a new dial plan for OCS to route properly to the new UM server. This now forced each user to have two new EUM address entries after we moved their mailboxes to Exchange Server 2010 and migrated their UM to Exchange Server 2010 UM (by removing their old UM settings and re-provisioning them).
   
   
   • EUM: FirstName.LastName@Contoso.com;phone-context=
   • eum:;phone-context=
     
     
   In testing, what we found was that if a call came into OCS for a mailbox we had already moved to Exchange 2010 UM, the main number would be answered by the auto attendant in Exchange Server 2007 UM; then, when the older UM server tried to route the caller to the Exchange 2010 UM server, it would error and tell the caller "The call has failed, please press '0' (zero) for the operator or dial someone by name or extension to reach them directly." If the caller tried to dial by name or extension number to mailboxes still on Exchange Server 2007 UM, it worked without issue. Behind the scenes, Exchange UM couldn't find the migrated mailbox and would route the call back to OCS 2007 R2, which would route it back to Exchange UM, and so on, and eventually the call failed and the caller was dropped.
   
   
   In working with Product Support Services, we determined that Exchange 2007 was still looking for the proxy address for its dial plan in the following format:
   
   
   • eum:;phone-context=
     
     
   We determined that when the caller entered the extension (such as - 204), Exchange Server 2007 UM would search for the user in the current dial plan (the dial plan associated with the auto attendant that answered the call)—in this case the Exchange 2007 Sip_Name dial plan. It did this search by constructing the EUM address (204; phone-context=.< Exchange 2007 Dial plan GUID>) and then searching all Active Directory users to check whether any user had this stamped in their proxy addresses. However, the migrated mailbox that has been moved to Exchange 2010 UM-has been provisioned on the new Exchange 2010 Sip_Name dial plan, so it no longer has the Exchange 2007 proxy address, and so the user object is not located.
   
   
   The solution we ended up implementing was to add the legacy EUM proxy address back to the mailbox object, thus enabling extension dialing from both Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 UM services.

Testing Unified Messaging Functionality

Testing the UM functionality is a bit trickier than testing other features such as message routing because it involves multiple components in the testing process such as voice, mailbox access, and so on. Only when testing this functionality end-to-end can you make sure it is working as expected. Several tools are available for testing your UM functionality.

UM Troubleshooting Tool

The UM Troubleshooting Tool is available with Exchange 2010 SP1 as a separate download to proactively test the voice mail functionality and identify any issues. The Troubleshooting Tool is able to simulate a call from OCS or IP gateway to your UM server and verifies that the UM communication is working as expected. It verifies that a call can be established, verifies that the audio flow from the UM server works, and prepares quality metrics for recorded audio.

You can install the UM Troubleshooting Tool on a workstation or server. The recommendation is to use an administrative workstation. It is available in x86 and x64 versions and requires the following prerequisites to be installed:

·         Windows PowerShell v2

·         .Net Framework 3.5 SP1

·         Unified Communications Managed API (UCMA) v3.5

The UM Troubleshooting Tool provides you with a shell similar to the EMS and allows you to test UM connectivity with the Test-ExchangeUMCallFlow cmdlet, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Microsoft Exchange UM Troubleshooting Tool

 

If you want to use the UM Troubleshooting Tool to test your UM server, you need to create the following:

·         A UM dial plan with Telephone Extension as the URI type and Unsecured as VoIP security

·         A UM IP gateway that points to the IP address of the workstation you installed the UM Troubleshooting Tool on

·         A UM-enabled mailbox with an extension

After you create the prerequisites, run the Test-ExchangeUMCallFlow -Mode GatewayEmulator -VoIPSecurity Unsecured -NextHopAddress -Diversion cmdlet to verify that the UM server is working correctly.

Note

You can use this tool to run against Exchange 2010 UM SP1 servers only!

Exchange UM Test Phone

The Microsoft Exchange UM Test Phone is a software phone that you can use to connect to your UM server and simulate specific IP gateway settings. It is based on the Exchange Speech Engine and can be used to troubleshoot connectivity.

The UM Test Phone (ExchangeUMTestPhone.exe) is no longer available on the Exchange 2010 DVD, but you can get it from an Exchange 2007 DVD and use it against your Exchange 2010 UM server.

Important

UM uses the Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core SDK (UCMA) in Exchange 2010 SP1; the Exchange UM Test Phone cannot connect anymore to run against SP1. You can only use it with Exchange 2010 RTM.

You can install the Exchange UM Test Phone on a workstation or server that includes a microphone and speakers so you can verify that the speech is accurate and correct. Like the Exchange 2007 installation files, it is available in x86 and x64 versions. The UM Test Phone is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Using the UM Test Phone 

Detailed information about how to test your UM server with the UM Test Phone can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997146(EXCHG.80).aspx.

Enabling Mailboxes for Unified Messaging

For most people, enabling a mailbox for UM might seem straightforward, but it is not done in the properties of the mailbox on the Mailbox Features tab, but using Enable Unified Messaging in the Actions pane in the EMC as seen in Figure 1, or by using the Set-Mailbox cmdlet.

Figure 1: Enabling Unified Messaging for a mailbox

When you enable a user account for UM, you must specify a UM mailbox policy and an extension, and you must assign a PIN or configure the system to generate the user's initial PIN. After enabling a user for UM, Exchange Server sends the user an e-mail message indicating that the account is enabled. The message also contains the PIN. The user must use touch tones to input a PIN when accessing the UM-enabled mailbox. Speech recognition is not enabled for PIN input.

Since Exchange 2010 SP1 you can also add a mailbox to a secondary UM dial plan. This is especially helpful if your user has multiple phones that are not part of the same UM dial plan. For example, one of your users might be part of an OCS dial plan as well as an UM dial plan that has a direct connection to an IP gateway using the URI type Telephony Extension. You configure a secondary UM dial plan using the Set-Mailbox -SecondaryAddress -SecondaryDialPlan cmdlet.

Operating UM in a Multi-language Environment

Providing UM to your users in a multi-language environment requires additional considerations so that your users receive voice prompts for their local language. Consider the following when planning a multi-language implementation:

• Create one UM dial plan for every language you support. For example, if you set up a UM server for Germany, you should configure a UM dial plan with its own subscriber number that has German configured as default language in Language Settings.
• You can only define a single text message in a UM mailbox policy. If you are in a multi-language environment, you should consider either adding a text message for all languages or using a common language only.
• Minimize the number of languages to only the needed ones. Every language installed requires time for grammar generation and language specific work. If you do install all 26 languages, this might never be finished.

Note

You should consider a Subscriber Access number for every primary language that you want to support so that your local users can access their mailboxes in their local language.

Notes from the Field—Changing Language for Voice Mail

Korneel Bullens
Team Coordinator Unified Communications, Wortell, Netherlands

One of the questions I hear from my customers is "Why do I get my OVA greeting in English while my colleague has a Dutch or English intro?" This is a simple challenge. When your mailbox is created and you log on to Outlook or OWA, you encounter a language selection process. The language you pick is the language used on your voice mail. You can change this by opening Outlook Web App and changing your regional settings back to your desired language.

Foreign Language Support | International Considerations of Unified Messaging

Unified Messaging provides language packs to satisfy international UM requirements. In multiple-language environments, you should install the applicable UM language packs because some UM users prefer their voice prompts in a different language or because they receive e-mail messages in multiple languages that they need to access using OVA. If you do not install the UM language pack for a particular language, e-mail messages in that language will be illogical and incoherent when relayed to the user. OVA uses the following language selection behavior in the release version of Exchange 2010:

1. Try to find an exact match from the OWA language setting.
2. If no match is found, look for a language with the same parent language name. If multiple languages with the same parent language name are installed, the language that is last installed on the UM server wins.
3. If still no match, pick the latest language installed on the UM server.

Exchange 2010 SP1 changes the language selection behavior as follows:

1. Try to find an exact match from the OWA language setting.
2. If no exact match is found, fall back to a matching fallback language (en = en-US, fr = fr-FR, es = es-ES, pt = pt-BR, and so on).
3. If no fallback language is installed, use the default language of the UM dial plan.

Several key components rely on UM language packs to enable users and callers to interact effectively with Exchange Server 2010 UM in multiple languages. Each language pack includes:

• A Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine to read and convert messages when OVA users access their inboxes.
• The prerecorded prompts used to configure UM dial plans and auto attendants.
• ASR support for speech-enabled UM dial plans and auto attendants.

To install a language pack, use Setup.com /AddUMLanguagePack found in the Exchsrvr\Bin directory of the Exchange Server installation. Once you install your language packs, you can change the default language configured for each dial plan.

Note

Users automatically use the default language if their configured language setting in Outlook Web App is not available as a language pack. For example, if you install only the English and German language packs, and the English language pack is the default on the dial plan, a user with the French language configuration in Outlook Web App will hear English prompts.

In Exchange Server 2007, each language pack included the TTS engine but only supported ASR for U.S. English. In Exchange Server 2010, all available language packs contain ASR support. However, not all language packs support Voicemail Preview.

Note

You can access and download all available UM language packs at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638119.aspx.

Configuring UM IP Gateways & UM Hunt Groups

Configuring UM IP Gateways

You are required to create an IP gateway when you don't use OCS 2007 R2 in your environment and want to connect directly Exchange 2010 UM to your IP PBX or IP gateway. If you use OCS 2007 R2, the task of creating an IP gateway per OCS Pool will be done by the ExchUCUtil.ps1 script.

To create an UM IP gateway, you need the following information:

§  The name of the UM IP gateway

§  The IP address or FQDN of the IP gateway or IP PBX that you want to connect to

§  The UM dial plan the UM IP gateway will serve

To create a UM IP gateway, you can use the New-IPGateway cmdlet in the EMS or use the EMC as shown in Figure 1.

 

Figure 1: Creating a new UM IP gateway

Configuring UM Hunt Groups

For every UM IP gateway you also need at least one UM hunt group. To create a UM hunt group you need the following information:

§  Name of the UM hunt group

§  The pilot identifier for this UM hunt group

§  The UM dial plan the UM hunt group is part of

You can create the UM hunt group in the EMC, as shown in Figure 2, or you can use the New-UMHuntGroup cmdlet.

 

Figure 2: Creating a new UM hunt group

Call Answering Rules | Planning for Unified Messaging

Call Answering Rules or Personal Auto Attendants allow your users to create and customize rules to enhance the experience that callers have when their calls are answered. For example, the call answering rules can include features such as special greetings by contact or time of the day. Using call answering rules, the caller can for example decide to:

• Leave a voice message for the UM-enabled user.
  
  
• Transfer to an alternate contact of the UM-enabled user.
  
  
• Transfer to an alternate contact's voice mail.
  
  
• Transfer to other phone numbers that the UM-enabled user configures.
  
  
• Use the Find-Me feature or locate the UM-enabled user via a supervised transfer.

Your UM-enabled users can configure up to eight call answering rules in OWA Options or ECP, as shown in Figure 1.

 

Figure 1: Configuring Call Answering rules

Call answering rules consist of conditions, a greeting and menu, and actions. You can configure call answering rules in Outlook Web App Options.

Condition

The following conditions for call answering rules are available:

• If the caller is: calling from a phone number, this specific contact, or in my contacts folder.
• If it is during this period: working hours or nonworking hours to a specific time defined.
• If the user's schedule shows a status of: free, tentative, busy, or away.
• If you turn on automatic replies, such as when you turn on an automatic Out of Office message.

Greeting and Menu

Greeting and Menu is the area where the caller can take specific actions that users predefine. For example, after hearing a greeting that you previously recorded, you can provide a prompt so that the caller can dial you at home.

Note

When the users create their greetings, they have to take care of the entire caller menu—the auto attendant will no longer prompt the caller.

Actions

Actions define the tasks that occur when callers choose specific menu selections. You can select the following actions:

• Find Me At The Following Numbers Defines a recording text, the number key to press to transfer, and enables you to call two phone numbers for a specific time.
  
  
• Transfer The Call To Defines a recording text, the number key to press to transfer, and either a phone number or a contact—or indicates that the call should transfer directly to voice mail.
  
  
• Leave A Voice Message Directly transfers the caller to voice mail.

UM Auto Attendants | Planning for Unified Messaging

Using a UM auto attendant, you can create a voice-menu system that enables your callers to navigate through voice menus to locate or transfer calls to your UM-enabled users or departments. You can create and use your own voice prompts so that you're able to fully customize the UM auto attendant to your own needs.

The UM auto attendant uses a series of WAV files that callers hear instead of a human operator. The callers can navigate the menu system, place calls, or locate users using DTMF or voice inputs.

Note

You can join auto attendants together to form multi-level menus.

The UM auto attendant allows you to provide the following:

• Corporate or informational greetings, such as business hours or directions to a location
• Custom corporate menus that you can customize to have more than one level
• A directory search function that enables callers to search the organization's name directory
• The ability for callers to connect to the telephone of—or leave a message for—UM-enabled mailboxes

You are not limited in the number of UM auto attendants you can create, and each auto attendant can support an unlimited number of extensions. However, you should design menu systems for auto attendants carefully to ensure that the user has a positive experience. If you design them incorrectly, users can become very frustrated if the time it takes to connect correctly is lengthy or navigating the system is difficult. You should especially consider creating additional UM auto attendants if you are operating in a multi-language environment so that you can provide a dial-in number for each language.

When you create a UM auto attendant, you must provide the associated UM dial plan and extension number(s) to access the UM auto attendant. After creating the UM auto attendant, you can configure alternative greetings by specifying the WAV files to use. You also can configure different settings for work and non-work hours and features such as call transferring. You can create auto attendants in the EMC or by using the New-UMAutoAttendant cmdlet in the EMS.