I understand that Unity is always integrated with AD, but my question is, can a voicemail-only Unity box be integrated with any AD domain or does a voicemail-only Unity system need to be a domain controller?

It seems that voicemail-only configerations are always setup so that AD runs on Unity...I don't understand why you wouldn't just use your existing corparate AD (if one exists alreay).

Thanks

Because technically, if you were to integrate with your existing domain and Exchange, this would not VM only then. It would be UM. Which then you would need to have UM licenses, instead of VMonly license.

I think I understand...but just to clearify, if I integrate with an existing AD but leave Exchange on-box since its VM only, basiclly having two Exchnage servers in AD (one for email and one for Unity, this would be considered UM and would not work. Is that correct?

here you go:

http://forums.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/NetProf?page=netprof&forum=Unified%20Communications%20and%20Video&topic=Unified%20Communications%20Applications&CommCmd=MB%3Fcmd%3Dpass_through%26location%3Doutline%40%5E1%40%40.1ddd2dba/0#selected_message

This is coming from the best source possible. If you are still confused, contact your local Cisco Sales Engineer or Sales Manager to help out

Thanks for the link and all your replies. I do not have any plans to migrate to UM, integrate with an existing Exchange server and I am not concerned about my licenses.

I simply need to know if the following configuration is supported by Cisco:

Unity 4.2.3, voicemail only, exchange on box, added as a member server to an existing AD domain. The purpose of this is NOT to try to create a UM environment but to make adding unity users easier by importing them from AD. The install guides say to setup AD unity but it shouldn?t matter where AD is running.

If anyone else has set this up please let me know. Thanks.

This is more of a Microsoft AD question.

Unity/Exchange in VMonly is running in it's domain, seperate from your production domain.

Your production domain has Exchange running.

Exchange design rules say (per microsoft) you can only have one Exchange Org per domain. So each of your Exchange Servers will fall in the domain and share the "global Address" book.

Company XYZ Exchange Org

- Exchange Production server xx

- Exchange Unity server yy

What will happen in your Global Address book, you will this scenario listed:

John Doe jdoe@companyxyz.com

John Doe VoiceMail Jdoevmail@companyxyz.com

John Doe will have (2) AD accounts. One for Voicemail and one for email on Production.

If you link Unity subscriber account to John Doe jdoe@companyxyz.com this would need a UM license technically.

If you link Unity subscriber account to John Doe Voicemail jodevmail@companyxyz.com this would be Voicemail only.

Basically, you can do it. You will just have (2) accounts for every production users and Unity subscriber if you are Voicemail only setup in your production domain.

hope this makes sense.