Upgrading from 2.4.6 to 3.0

admin_2 · ‎10-19-2001

I have a customer that has Unity 2.4.6, in a unified environment, with the original Exchange 5.5 run-time edition that comes with Unity installed on the Unity box in the same site an e-mail server with Exchange 5.5 on it. (Unified). They are upgrading to Unity 3.0. They have a SASU contract and I have ordered the upgrade from Cisco's website. What comes with the Unity upgrade kit? Do I get all the software needed to sucessfully upgrade including Exchange 2000 runtime edition and any of the SQL components needed? Does a new key or a key upgrade automatically get shipped as well? Part of the upgrading to 3.0 documentation I have read indicates that Exchange does not even need to be installed on Unity in a unified environment. Can that be right? I really need to know what new software I will need to purchase to take them to Win 2K (I know I need to get the O.S. myself) and Exchange 2000 that does not come with the upgrade kit that will still keep them unified. (FYI The customer is upgrading their e-mail to Exchange 2000 at the same time as we are upgrading the Unity to 3.0). Other posts on the forum indicated that 5 CD's were included in the upgrade kit. <br>Thanks in advance for the what exactly do I need information. <br><br>

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎10-20-2001

I can’t speak to the details of what you actually get with the upgrade kit, someone like Jami or Anil will need to help you with that. I can, however, confirm that Unity 3.0 does support not having Exchange installed on the local box now (you can do it on or off box now).

Since we’re using SQL as our primary back end in 3.0 and Exchange is only being used for a small amount of directory services and is acting as the message store, it is no longer necessary for it to be on the local server for performance reasons as it was in 2.x.

The 3.0 installation is done in two stages… the first stage installs everything up to the Exchange connector itself. The 2nd part of the setup (which can be run on customer site later after you’ve done part 1 setup if you like… that’s the idea) asks you if you’re using Exchange 5.5 or 2000 and then asks you to “point” us at the correct Exchange server. It can be on the local box or it can be on a server external to us.

Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

kechambe · ‎10-21-2001

If you are running Unity 3.0 in a unified messaging environment you don't want to install Exchange 'on box'. Like Jeff said, Unity 3.0 does not use Exchange like it did in 2.X. All that installing Exchange 'on box' does is add extra unnecessary load to the server.

If your customer is going to upgrade Exchange at the same time as Unity make sure that you run the Full Database Export tool and Unity Uninstall BEFORE you install the first Active Directory Connector. Upgrade at least 1 of the servers to Exchange 2000 before you run part 2 of the Unity setup. Then during part 2 of setup you can point it at that Exchange 2000 server.

Make sure to put those Exchange 2000 servers on SP1. Exchange 2000 pre-SP1 is a nightmare.

Keith

Keith Chambers
Unity Technical Lead
Unified Voice Team, San Jose
Cisco Systems
kechambe@cisco.com