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System Administration Guide for Cisco Unity Connection Release 2.x
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Index
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Preface
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Configuring the Browser on an Administrator Workstation
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Accessing and Using Cisco Unity Connection Administration
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Administrative Tools
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Call Management Overview
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Creating a Call Management Plan
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Managing Call Handlers
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Managing Directory Handlers
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Managing Interview Handlers
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Managing Call Routing Tables
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Managing Schedules and Holidays
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Managing Restriction Tables
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Cisco Unity Connection Conversation
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Changing Conversation Settings for All Users
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Changing the Audio Format of Recordings and Media Streams
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Managing Recorded Greetings and Recorded Names
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Specifying Password, Logon, and Lockout Policies
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Messaging
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Specifying Mailbox Size Quotas
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Changing the Message Aging Policy
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Setting Up SMTP Message Notifications
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Securing User Messages: Controlling Access, Distribution, and Longevity
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Securing Cisco PCA and IMAP E-Mail Client Access to Cisco Unity Connection
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Setting Up Broadcast Messaging
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Managing System Distribution Lists
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Managing the Phone System Integrations
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Setting Up Phone View
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Using VPIM Networking
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Integrating with Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express
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Configuring Service Parameters
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Configuring Enterprise Parameters
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Installing Plugins
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Configuring Access to Exchange E-Mails Through TTS
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Configuring Access to Exchange Calendars and Contacts for Personal Call Transfer Rules
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Generating Reports
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Managing Licenses
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Feedback
Table Of Contents
How Cisco Unity Connection Handles Messages That Cannot Be Delivered
How Cisco Unity Connection Handles Messages When System Components Are Unavailable
How Cisco Unity Connection Handles Messages That Are Interrupted by Disconnected Calls
How Cisco Unity Connection Handles Messages When Mailbox Quotas are Exceeded
Message Delivery and Sensitivity Options
Messaging
After you have implemented a call management plan and determined conversation versions and options, you are ready to focus on how Cisco Unity Connection will collect, handle, and store messages. This chapter outlines the types of messages that are available in Connection, and discusses how Connection handles the recording, delivery, and storage of messages.
See the following sections:
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Message Delivery and Sensitivity Options
Types of Messages
Cisco Unity Connection supports a number of different types of message that can be used depending on the needs of the organization.
Outside Caller Voice Messages
Callers who are not Cisco Unity Connection users—and those who have not logged into Connection—can reach user mailboxes to leave messages in a number of different ways, depending on the Connection configuration. A caller can call the main phone number for the Connection server and spell by name or enter an extension to reach the user by using a directory handler, or can be directed to the user mailbox (or to a distribution list) through a call handler. Or, the caller can call the user extension and be forwarded to Connection when the user does not answer, and then leave a message.
Connection identifies the senders of these messages as unidentified callers. When an unidentified caller leaves a message, the From field of the message displays "UnityConnection@<servername>" in Cisco Unity Inbox or an e-mail client, if applicable. The Subject field displays the phone number of the caller, if it is available.
Messages from outside callers can be forwarded to other users, but cannot be replied to.
User to User Voice Messages
Users can call Cisco Unity Connection and log in, then send a message to one or more other Connection users or to a distribution list. Connection identifies the sender of the message as a user; when the called user later listens to the message, Connection plays the recorded voice name of the user (or displays the user name when the called user views the message in a Cisco web application such as the Cisco Unity Inbox, or from an IMAP client).
Alternatively, a user can call the extension of another user and be forwarded to Connection when the called user does not answer, and then leave a message. In this case, if Identified User Messaging is enabled and supported by the phone system, and the user is calling from their primary extension or an alternate device, Connection recognizes that the calling extension is associated with a user and identifies that user as the sender of the message.
Note
Identified User Messaging is enabled by default. You can disable it for all users by using the Disable Identified User Messaging Systemwide setting on the System Settings > Advanced > Conversations page.
Users can reply to or forward messages from other users. Depending on their class of service, users can also "live reply" to a message from another user by calling the sender after message playback.
E-Mail Messages via TTS and IMAP
By using the IMAP protocol, Cisco Unity Connection can access e-mail messages that are stored in user mailboxes in Microsoft Exchange so the messages can be played via Text to Speech (TTS). User access to TTS for e-mail messages is controlled by a class of service setting.
System Broadcast Messages
System broadcast messages are recorded announcements sent to everyone in an organization. System broadcast messages are played immediately after users log on to Cisco Unity Connection by phone—even before they hear message counts for new and saved messages. Users must listen to each system broadcast message in its entirety before Connection allows them to hear new and saved messages or to change setup options. They cannot fast-forward or skip a system broadcast message.
Note
See the "Setting Up Broadcast Messaging" chapter for more information on setting up and using system broadcast messages.
Notifications
Cisco Unity Connection can send message notifications in the form of text messages to e-mail addresses, and also to text pagers and text-compatible cell phones. When a message arrives that matches the criteria selected in the message notification settings, the Connection Messaging System sends a text message entered by you or the user, such as "Urgent message for Technical Support." Connection can also dial a phone number to alert the user of a new message and allow the user to enter credentials to log in and listen to the message.
By default, if Connection sends a notification of a new message to a device (such as a cell phone) and the device forwards the call back to Connection because the device did not answer, Connection will reject the forwarded message notification call. As a result, the user mailbox will not be filled with forwarded message notification announcements. Because Connection rejects the forwarded message notification call, the call does not create a new message for the user and does not trigger a new message notification call.
See the "Setting Up SMTP Message Notifications" chapter for more information on setting up various types of notifications.
Receipts
Users can request a read receipt when sending a message. As soon as the recipient listens to the message, the receipt is sent to the message sender. New receipts activate the message waiting indicator on the user phone and can trigger message notifications.
When a voice message cannot be delivered, if the sender is a user and is configured to accept receipts, Cisco Unity Connection alerts the sender with a nondelivery receipt (NDR). The NDR contains a copy of the original message, which the user can use to resend the message at a later time or to a different recipient.
Interview Handler Messages
By using interview handlers in your call management plan, you can have Cisco Unity Connection collect information from callers by playing a series of questions that you have recorded, and then recording the answers offered by callers. For example, you might use an interview handler to take sales orders or to gather information for a product support line.
When all the answers have been recorded, they are forwarded as a single voice message, with beeps separating the answers, to the recipient (user or distribution list) that you designate in the interview handler configuration.
See the "Managing Interview Handlers" chapter for more information.
Live Record Messages
Live record allows users to record conversations while they talk to callers. The recorded conversation is stored as a message in the user mailbox, and the user can review it later or redirect it to another user or group of users. Operators in your organization may find live record particularly useful.
Live record is supported only when Cisco Unity Connection is integrated with a Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CM) (formerly known as Cisco Unified CallManager) phone system. To set it up, you set a forward routing rule in Connection Administration, modify the phone system as needed, and then tell the user how to conference the phone system DN to activate the feature during a call. (The live record beep can be adjusted on the System Settings > Advanced > Telephony page in Connection Administration.)
While there is no class of service or user account setting required to enable the feature, note that the maximum duration of a live record message is controlled by the maximum message length for the class of service of the user. In addition, live record does not work for users who have full mailboxes. When a user who has a full mailbox tries to record a call, the feature will seem to work normally, but the recorded conversation will not be stored as a message in the user mailbox.
Message Recording
Typically, Cisco Unity Connection uses the same audio format (or codec) for recording a message that the playback device uses. For example, if users listen to messages primarily on a phone system extension, Connection should record messages in the same audio format that the phone system uses. If the users listen to messages on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), however, Connection should record messages in the audio format that the PDAs use (such as GSM 6.10).
You should consider the following when setting the audio format for recording messages:
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For example, sound quality suffers when messages that are recorded in the G.729a audio format are played back on devices that use the G.711 Mu-Law audio format. However, sound quality is preserved when messages that are recorded in the G.711 Mu-Law audio format are played back on devices that use the same audio format.
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To Change the Audio Format for Recording Messages
Step 1
Step 2
If the playback device uses a different audio format, Connection must transcode the messages, greetings, and names into the applicable audio format or the playback device will not be able to play them.
Step 3
Message Delivery
In most cases, Cisco Unity Connection delivers messages from callers by using a standard process—Connection logs on to the sender account (either the Unity Connection Messaging System account for unidentified caller messages, or the user voice mailbox), composes and addresses the message to the recipient or to the members of the recipient distribution list, and delivers the message.
Default Recipient Accounts
The default Cisco Unity Connection configuration includes several accounts that play a role in message delivery or receive messages when callers are routed to one of the default system call management objects.
Operator
When a caller to Connection dials the operator and no operator is available, the caller can leave a message, depending on the call transfer settings for the Operator call handler. By default, messages left in the Operator call handler are sent to the voice mailbox of the Operator user. We recommend that you assign someone to monitor this mailbox, or reconfigure the Operator call handler to send messages to a different user or to a distribution list.
During installation, the Operator account is assigned randomly-generated voice mail and web application passwords. To log on to the account, you must change the passwords by using Cisco Unity Connection Administration.
UndeliverableMessagesMailbox
By default, this mailbox is the only member of the Undeliverable Messages distribution list. We recommend that you assign someone to monitor this mailbox, or add a user to the Undeliverable Messages distribution list, to monitor and reroute (as appropriate) any messages that are delivered to the list.
During installation, the UndeliverableMessagesMailbox account is assigned randomly-generated voice mail and web application passwords. To log on to the account, you must change the passwords by using Cisco Unity Connection Administration.
Unity Connection Messaging System
This account acts as a surrogate sender for messages from unidentified callers. Thus, user messages from unidentified callers are identified as coming from the Unity Connection Messaging System mailbox (UnityConnection@<servername>).
The alias for this account is UnityConnection. This account can be viewed in Connection Administration, but cannot be modified or deleted.
How Cisco Unity Connection Handles Messages That Cannot Be Delivered
Occasionally, messages cannot be delivered to the recipient that the caller intended to reach. The system behavior in this case depends on the type of sender and the reason that the message could not be delivered.
In general, if Connection cannot deliver the message because of issues that are not likely to be resolved (for example, the caller was disconnected before addressing the message, or the recipient mailbox has been deleted), the message is sent to the Undeliverable Messages distribution list, and Connection sends a nondelivery receipt (NDR) to the sender.
Note that the sender will not receive a nondelivery receipt in the following cases:
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However, if the original message is malformed or contains non-voice messaging content, instead of sending the message to the Undeliverable Messages list, Connection will place the message in the MTA bad mail folder (UmssMtaBadMail). This folder is automatically checked nightly by the Monitor Bad Mail Folders task, and if messages are found, an error is written to the application event log indicating troubleshooting steps.
Caution
How Cisco Unity Connection Handles Messages When System Components Are Unavailable
During temporary outages, the system behavior depends on the nature of the outage.
Message Delivery Components
If the components involved in message delivery on the Connection server are unavailable (for example, if Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or MSDE is down), Connection will queue any messages that are recorded by users or outside callers, and deliver them when the component becomes available.
Groupware Server Is Unavailable
If Connection is configured to allow users Text to Speech (TTS) access to e-mail messages stored in Microsoft Exchange, and network or other conditions slow or prevent responses when Connection attempts to retrieve messages from Exchange, Connection will announce to users that e-mail is unavailable when they attempt to access e-mail messages. The time period that Connection will wait for a response from Exchange defaults to 4 seconds, and is configurable in Connection Administration. Do the following procedure to change the length of the timeout.
To Change the Timeout Period That Connection Waits for a Response for TTS Access
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
The change takes effect immediately.
How Cisco Unity Connection Handles Messages That Are Interrupted by Disconnected Calls
You can change how Cisco Unity Connection handles messages that are interrupted by disconnected calls while users are in the process of sending, replying to, or forwarding messages. Calls can be intentionally or unintentionally disconnected—for example, when a user hangs up or when a cell phone loses its charge or signal.
By default, Connection sends a message when the call is disconnected in the following circumstances:
You can configure Connection to delete interrupted messages unless users have pressed the # key to send their messages. Thus, if a call is disconnected before a user has a chance to press #, Connection deletes the message rather than sending it.
The setting is applied systemwide to all users who are associated with the Connection server. You cannot make the change for an individual user or a specific group of users.
To Change How Connection Handles Messages That Are Interrupted by Disconnected Calls
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
The change takes effect immediately.
How Cisco Unity Connection Handles Messages When Mailbox Quotas are Exceeded
Message handling when send or send/receive quotas have been exceeded depends on whether the sender is an outside caller or a user.
Quota Handling for Outside Caller Messages
By default, if an outside caller attempts to send a message to a user whose send/receive quota has been exceeded, Cisco Unity Connection will indicate to the caller that the recipient mailbox is full, and will not allow the caller to record a message for the recipient.
If the recipient mailbox has not yet exceeded the send/receive quota at the time an unidentified caller records a message, but the quota is exceeded in the act of delivering the message, Connection will deliver the message regardless of the quota.
Quota Handling for User-to-User Messages
If a user whose voice mailbox has exceeded the send quota logs in to Connection and attempts to send a message to another user, Connection will indicate that the send quota has been exceeded, and will not allow the sender to record the message. If the user calls another user and is forwarded to a voice mailbox, the user will be able to leave a message, but the message will be sent as an outside caller message.
If a user attempts to send a message to another user whose mailbox has exceeded the send/receive quota, or if the quota is exceeded in the act of delivering the message, Connection will send a nondelivery receipt to the message sender.
Connection delivers read receipts and nondelivery receipts to users regardless of whether their quotas have been exceeded.
Message Delivery and Sensitivity Options
Message delivery and sensitivity options allows administrators and users to control when a message is delivered, who can access it, and whether it can be redistributed to others. In some cases, message sensitivity can also prevent users from saving a voice message to their hard drives or other locations outside the Connection server.
Connection offers the following message delivery and sensitivity options for users and outside callers:
Urgent messages are delivered before normal messages.
Users can always mark a message urgent. When unidentified callers leave messages for users or call handlers, they can mark the message urgent only if the user account or call handler is set up to allow them to do so on the Edit >Messages page.
Private messages can be sent to anyone, but the message cannot be forwarded or saved locally as a WAV file by a recipient listening to it over the phone or from the Cisco Unity Inbox. Recipients who listen to a private message via an IMAP client can forward the message, and can save it. (See the "Message Security Options for IMAP Client Access" section on page 21-3 to learn how to prevent this.)
User-to-user messages can be marked private. Outside callers cannot mark a message private.
Only Connection users can receive a secure message. The message can be played and forwarded over the phone and from the Cisco Unity Inbox, but it cannot be accessed from an IMAP client. The message cannot be saved locally as a WAV file.
User-to-user messages can be marked secure (or private and secure) only when the user class of service settings allow it. Outside callers cannot mark a message secure (or private and secure). Instead, the Unidentified Callers Message Security check box on the Edit > Messages page for a user account and call handler determines whether Connection automatically marks messages from outside callers secure, or delivers them with normal sensitivity.
The "How Connection Handles Messages That Are Marked Private or Secure" section on page 21-1 details how Connection handles private and secure messages.
Message Storage
Cisco Unity Connection stores voice messages as WAV files on the Connection server and stores information about the messages in a database.
Depending on the number of Cisco Unity Connection users, the number and duration of messages they receive, and the settings that you specify for the message aging policy and for quotas, it may be possible for the hard disk on which messages and greetings are stored to fill up. This would cause Connection to stop functioning. As the hard disk approaches maximum capacity, you may also encounter unexpected behavior.
The Edit Disk Capacity Configuration page lets you specify a maximum capacity for the hard disk on which messages and greetings are stored. When that hard disk fills to the specified percentage limit, the Connection conversation changes, and Connection users are no longer allowed to send voice messages to other Connection users. Connection also logs an error, which can be viewed on the System > Server > Disk Usage page in the Real Time Monitoring Tool. Outside callers can still leave voice messages until the hard disk fills up. Note that you can still send a broadcast message even when the hard disk exceeds the specified limit.
We recommend that you specify a value no greater than 95 percent.
If the hard disk exceeds the value that you specify, instruct Connection users to immediately delete unneeded voice messages. In addition, to prevent a recurrence, you may want to reevaluate the following:
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Note
Message Access
Connection users can always access their new and saved voice messages by phone by using a touchtone or voice-recognition conversation. You specify whether users can access their deleted messages.
Depending on their class of service settings, users may also gain access to voice messages from other applications, such as the Cisco Unity Inbox and the Cisco Personal Communicator. When set up to do so, users can access Connection voice messages from an IMAP client.
Finally, Text to Speech (TTS) allows users to access e-mail messages by phone.
