Unity 5.0 - accessing a Subscribers VM's with an alternate account

andy_vvc2 · ‎05-28-2009

We run Unity 5.0 (standalone - no AD integration with our Outlook Exchange).

Is it possible to "blindly" delegate access to a Subscribers voicemails WITHOUT the Subscriber knowing? ie somekind of Admin access to saved/stored voicemails on a Subscribers account.

If this is possible, where can this be done? Is ths through the Unity GUI and Tools Depot, or would this have to be done at an Exchange level?

I have seen a few posts from users who have been able to delegate access to email folders in Exchange - thus access to voicemails. We dont integrate with our AD infrastructure or Outlook, so we just use normal Exchange which comes with Unity and sits on the Unity servers acting as the message store.

Any advice appreciated. I can't see an obvious delegate/Admin function in Unity GUI, so i assume this must be an Exchange tweak on a per-subscriber basis?

Rgds

Brandon Buffin · ‎05-28-2009

There is no way to do this from within Unity to my knowledge. You can modify the security on the voicemail user's AD account to allow this access. You can do this from ADUC on the Unity server.

Hope this helps.

Brandon

Bradford Magnani · ‎05-28-2009

In addition to what Brandon mentioned... the closest you may get without the user knowing, is to view their mailbox from Outlook Web Access. Although you won't be able to listen to the voice mail over the phone, you could save off the .wav files and listen to them on your PC.

Also, depending on what you consider "without the subscriber knowing", you could potentially add your # as an alternate extension on their subscriber account so that you have phone access to their messages. Just remember that anything you listen to, mark read, etc. will be reflected on the user's phone, which might give you away.

Hope that helps,

Brad

andy_vvc2 · ‎05-29-2009

Thanks for th responses guys. Most appreciated.

Brad - there is an "Alternate Extension" option from within the Unity Web GUI (web/sa URL). However, i cant add my own extension here - it requests a unique one. Am i correct in thinking that I would need to create a "new" extension here to act as an Alternate Extension?

Also - once set, how does an Alternate Extension work? Surely it would still need the users password to access the account? (I ask this in light of the fact that i cant add my own extension to a colleagues account because it isnt unique - so my thoughts of using my own password to access his account and test this go out of the window :o)

Rgds

Bradford Magnani · ‎05-29-2009

Andy,

Yes, you're correct it has to be a new DN. You could always add another line appearance on your phone and enter that extension. Alternate extensions are basically an "alias", so Unity will recognize you as if you were the person calling in from their primary #. This is most often used for entering cell phone #'s so that when you call from your cell phone, Unity recognizes it as you and dumps you into your mailbox rather than sending you to default opening greeting.

Hope that helps,

Brad

andy_vvc2 · ‎05-29-2009

Thanks Brad - just tried this with an alternate line on my IP phone linked to a colleagues Unity account as an "Alternate Extension". If i pick up my handset, then press the "Line" button next to the alternate extension, i can then dial 7000 for voicemail. This takes me to the login prompt for my colleagues voicemail - excellent!

However, at this stage i can go no further without knowing my colleagues login password for voicemail... anyway to work around this?

I've also tried adding myself to my colleagues Exchange account on Unity (adding my Unity Exchange account to his under: AD Users and Groups, Users, Properties, Exchange Advanced, Mailbox Rights, "Read" and "Full" rights) This didnt seem to allow me access to his VM's under my own profile when i then logged into Unity....is this just Exchange level access (ie OWA and not via Unity dial-in from my IP Phone?)

Thanks once again guys!

Bradford Magnani · ‎05-29-2009

Yeah... you'll need to know the user's PIN to get in. The Exchange configuration shouldn't affect anything other than administrative functions. Unity won't know about that. Brandon may be more familiar with that piece of it.

If its a voice mail only solution, OWA would be your best bet because the users never once use the active directory password, or know it exists for that matter. So, you can change that to whatever you want and login to OWA for that user.

Brad