Creating voice mailboxes

admin_2 · ‎12-05-2000

What is the easiest way to create Unity Voice Mailboxes when there are NT domain accts but no exisiting Exchange Mailboxes. I have tried doing a unity import using a .csv file, but I have not had much luck. I am trying to keep things as simple as possible and avoid a bunch of typing. Any suggestions? (There are over 2000 voice mailboxes that need to be created).<br><br>

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎12-05-2000

Yeah, the Unity import tool assumes there is either an Exchange account we can import from or neither NT or Exchange accounts and we’ll create them from scratch using CSV information. We can’t create Exchange accounts and associate them with existing NT accounts. The fact that Exchange and NT are two separate directories with (possibly) different aliases and the like make that a pretty tricky proposition.

For your situation, the easiest thing to do is to import the NT accounts into Exchange first. In the Exchange administrator you can select Tools | Extract NT Account List and dump all the NT account information to a CSV file. You can then select Tools | Directory Import, select that CSV file and create Exchange accounts for all those users. Once you have all the Exchange accounts created, you can use the Unity import tool to snag everyone from Exchange that’s not already a subscriber.

If you want to get real fancy you can use the Microsoft Import Header Tool to set the extension number for all the Exchange users automatically before importing them using the Unity import tool. When we pull in Exchange users to a preselection table before actually importing them (you can set extension numbers and choose which users to import here), we pull the value found in the Business Phone field and populate the extension number with it. You can use the Import Header Tool to run through all those users and dump a value from a CSV file into that field for those accounts. This tool is found on the Microsoft Exchange resource kit. If folks are interested in giving it a look, I can pop it out on my web page tonight.

Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect
Active Voice
jlindborg@activevoice.com
http://members.home.net/jlindborg

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎12-05-2000

Can you please post the Microsost Import Header Tool on your website?

Thanks.

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎12-05-2000

Sorry… I’m being a flaming bone head… the only reason you’d need the Import Header tool is to tell you what the column header name needs to be for importing fields into Exchange. It sucks in the entire Exchange schema and shows you what the name of the column should be for that field. I’ll still stick it up there if you want, but for the phone number field all you need to do is to add a column named “Phone Number” (even though it’s stored in the “Business Phone” field).

So when you run the Tools | Extract Windows NT Account List in Exchange, it will result in a CSV file that looks like this (only bigger I assume):

Obj-Class,Common-Name,Display-Name,Home-Server,Comment
Mailbox,JLindborg,Jeff Lindborg,~SERVER,,5678
MailBox,JSmith,John Smith,~SERVER,No Comment,9012

This is all the info you need to create/edit users in Exchange in bulk. It uses the “Common-Name” (i.e. Alias) to find the Exchange user and if a match is made instead of creating a new user it will change the data for the existing account which it assumes is the one that matches the NT Alias with it’s Exchange alias… which is NOT always the case. Do proceed with caution, especially if your site has gotten funky with your alias naming convention.

Anyway, to create new Exchange accounts that already have their business phone field populated or to update existing Exchange users with a new business phone field, simply edit the CSV file and add a “Phone Number” filed to the end. The file will look something like this:

Obj-Class,Common-Name,Display-Name,Home-Server,Comment,Phone Number
Mailbox,JLindborg,Jeff Lindborg,~SERVER,,5678
MailBox,JSmith,John Smith,~SERVER,No Comment,5518

If you’re editing with Excel, be careful to make sure the format is correct… it’s pretty fussy. If you have display names with commas in them for instance, they’ll be bound in quotes… leave them that way or you’ll mess up the parser. If it doesn’t like something, it’ll skip it and log the problem in a .ERR file.

If you still want me to post the header tool, I can still do that. There’s lots and lots of fields you can mess with in Exchange. It can be handy for bulk updates of your Exchange users (Microsoft wasn’t nice enough to provide a graphical tool like your friends at Lindborg Labs).

Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect
Active Voice
jlindborg@activevoice.com
http://members.home.net/jlindborg