Exchange 2013 Brief – Unified Messaging

Executive Overview:

Unified Messaging in Exchange allows an administrator to integrate Microsoft Exchange 2013 with an Organization’s voice infrastructure. Exchange can extend voicemail and auto-attendant functionality that integrates directly with a user’s mailbox and calendar.

Notable Features:

• Collection and Transcription of Voicemails
• Caller ID
• Contact Store
• Outlook Voice Access (OVA)
• Auto attendant

Architecture/Components:

In Exchange 2013, the Unified Messaging platform is no longer deployed as a separate server role. UM processes now run on the Client Access server and Mailbox server roles.

• Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging Call Router service (Microsoft.Exchange. UM.CallRouter.exe): Runs on a Client Access Server and proxies Session Initialization Protocol (SIP) traffic that’s generated from an incoming calls to the Mailbox Server.
• Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging service (umservice.exe): Sets up a media channel Runs on a Mailbox Server and plays voice mail greetings, processes call answering rules, and invites the caller to leave a voice message. The Mailbox server then records the voice message, creates a transcription of the message, and deposits it in the user’s mailbox.
• UM Worker Process (UMWorkerProcess.exe): Runs on a Mailbox Server and is used to interact with all incoming and outgoing requests received by the Unified Messaging service and is managed by the UM Worker Process manager.
• UM Dial Plans:  (Parameters:  Dial Codes | Outlook Voice Access | Dialing Rules (In-country and International) | Dialing Authorization | Transfer and Search)
• UM Mailbox Policies: Links UM-enabled mailboxes with a UM dial plan (Parameters: User Features | Message Text | PIN policies | Dialing Authorization | Protected Voice Mail)
• UM Autoattendant: Call answering and menu navigation features (Parameters:  Language | Greetings | Business Hours | Menu Navigation | Address book and Operator Access | Dialing authorization)
• UM hunt group: Determines which UM IP gateways to accept incoming calls from for a particular UM dial plan
• UM Performance Counters

Common Administrative Tasks:

1. Create a Dial Plan: New-UMDialPlan
2. Assign servers to a Dial Plan:
   Mailbox Server: Set-UMService -identity Server -Dialplans DialPlan
   CAS Server: Set-UMCallRouterSettings –server Server –DialPlans DialPlan
3. Set Startup mode to dual or TLS:
   Mailbox Server: Set-UMService -identity -UMStartupMode dual
   CAS Server: Set-UMCallRouterSettings: UMStartupMode dual
4. Install SSL Certificate:
   Mailbox Server: Enable-ExchangeCertificate –thumbprint ‘thumbprint’ –services UM
   CAS Server: Enable-ExchangeCertificate –Server ‘SERVER’ –thumbprint ‘thumbprint’ –services umcallrouter
5. Restart Services:
   Mailbox Server: Restart-Service –msExchangeUM
   CAS Server:  Restart-Service msExchangeUMCR
6. Configure SIP Ports on CAS Server: Set-UMCallRouterSettings
7. Configure Speech transcription: Set-UMMailbox –VoiceMailAnalysisEnabled

Top PowerShell Commands/Tools:

– Set/Get/Enable/Disable-UMService
– Set/Get-UMCallRouterSettings
– Get/Set-UMServer
– Enable/Disable-UMServer
-New/Set-UMIPGateway
– Get/Set-UMMailbox
– Test-Connectivity
– New/Remove/Get/Set/Enable/Disable-UMCallAnsweringRule
– exchucutil.ps1 script is used to create UM IP gateways and UM hunt group
References/Links:

Exchange Server 2013 Voice Architecture here.
Blogpost: Lync Integration with Exchange 2013 here.
Technet: Powershell Commands.
Tutorial: Configuring UM with 3CX
Legacy Exchange 2010 UM Architecture here.