Table Of Contents

Introduction

Overview: Maintaining Cisco Unity

Scheduling Maintenance Tasks

Setting Up a Test Environment

Introduction

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Overview: Maintaining Cisco Unity

All of the software and hardware associated with the Cisco Unity server requires maintenance to ensure availability. Degradation in any piece of the installed software can affect server performance. If you do regular maintenance, you can reduce the likelihood of unplanned downtime.

See the following sections in this chapter for more information:

•Scheduling Maintenance Tasks—This section provides an overview of system maintenance tasks and suggested frequency.

•Setting Up a Test Environment—This section describes the recommended test and production environments.

Scheduling Maintenance Tasks

The frequency of scheduled maintenance depends on your particular environment, taking into account such issues as system size, configuration, and traffic levels. At a minimum, we recommend that you do scheduled maintenance as shown in Table 1-1. If you already do the following tasks more frequently than we recommend, use your schedule rather than our recommendations.

Table 1-1 Maintenance Tasks and How Often to Do Them 

Task	Daily	Monthly	Other
Forward unaddressed messages to the appropriate recipients. For more information, see the "Forwarding Unaddressed Messages to the Correct Recipients" section on page 5-1.			Continually
Scan for viruses. See the "Scanning for Viruses" section on page 5-2.	X
Back up the Cisco Unity server. See the "About Backing Up a Cisco Unity System" chapter.	X
Verify that messages in the Unity Messaging Repository (UMR) are being delivered.	X
Determine whether failover has occurred.	X
Check to see whether Cisco Unity Administrator sessions are not in use and are not being freed by Cisco Unity.	X
Verify that the system backup is complete before the beginning of the next business day.		X
Verify that the backup medium has enough room to back up the entire contents of the Cisco Unity server.		X
Exchange: Check for Exchange mailboxes that are over their size limits. See the "Checking for Mailboxes That Are Over Their Size Limit" section on page 5-2.		X
Exchange: Schedule the Message Store Manager to do mailbox maintenance tasks, such as deleting old messages and running the Subscriber Message Store Status report. See the "Message Store Manager Utility" section.		X	Or, as necessary, daily or weekly
Install the latest Cisco Unity-qualified service packs and security hot fixes. See the "Recommended Service Packs and Updates Overview" section on page 8-1.		X
Run the Cisco Unity Directory Walker (DbWalker) utility to check database integrity. Fix any errors encountered by following the on-screen instructions. See the "Running the DbWalker Utility" section on page 5-3.		X
Update the system clock. See the "Updating the System Clock" section on page 5-5.		X
Check for disk fragmentation on the Cisco Unity server. If the total fragmentation appears to be more than 10 percent or if Cisco Unity files have become overly fragmented (more than 500 fragments), defragment the volume.			Offline defragmentation every six months
Exchange 5.5, Exchange 2000, and Exchange 2003: Free unused space in the Exchange database by using the Eseutil utility. Refer to Article ID 192185, "How to Defragment with the Eseutil Utility (Eseutil.exe)," on the Microsoft website.			Offline defragmentation every six months
Exchange 5.5: Run the Exchange Optimizer. Refer to Article ID 266051, "XADM: The `Understanding the Microsoft Exchange Server Performance Optimizer' White Paper Is Available," on the Microsoft website.			When you add 100 or more Exchange mailboxes or Cisco Unity subscribers
Update virus-scanning definitions. See the "Updating Virus-Scanning Definitions" section on page 5-3.			When new definitions become available
Restart the Cisco Unity server. See the "Restarting the Cisco Unity Server" section on page 5-5.			According to your current schedule, or as needed
Run and review Cisco Unity reports. See the "Generating Reports" section on page 10-2.			As needed
Monitor system resources. See the "Performance Monitoring" chapter.			According to your current schedule, or as needed
Monitor the available disk space and rate of database growth. Caution Filling a disk beyond 80 percent capacity will result in significant performance degradation. A disk filled beyond 80 percent capacity requires an increased number of data reads and writes to complete file transactions, adversely affecting Cisco Unity response time. If the disk fills up completely, the database cannot grow, and Cisco Unity will stop functioning.			According to your current schedule, or as needed
Monitor the available forums for Cisco Unity.			As needed

If your Cisco Unity system is set up for failover, you may need to do maintenance tasks specific to failover. For details, refer to the "Monitoring and Maintaining Cisco Unity Failover" chapter in the Cisco Unity Failover Configuration and Administration Guide. (The guide is available at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/fail/fail401/ex/index.htm.)

Setting Up a Test Environment

If your system resources allow it, we recommend establishing a test environment for the entire Cisco Unitydeployment. The test environment can be smaller in scale than the production environment, but should have the same configuration characteristics.

Use the test environment to validate any proposed changes prior to implementing them on the production system. This includes any upgrades or patches to Cisco Unity, the phone system, and the network, including but not limited to the automated attendant, ports, schedules, call handlers, class of service, distribution lists, languages, the mail store, and third-party software.

Document the initial configurations of both the production and the test environment, and keep a log of all changes made. Failing to do so can affect the supportability of Cisco Unity in the production environment, causing unnecessary delays if support personnel must work around undocumented changes. Also, failing to document the current environment and any changes made to the test and production systems can affect the ability to efficiently and successfully expand the system and to do major upgrades in the future.