Voicemail: creating and managing mailboxes

What it is for

A CUCM user gets voicemail when a mailbox with their extension is created in Cisco Unity Connection. EasyUC does this from the user profile and keeps the mailbox and the primary extension of the user together.

There are two entry points. The Voicemails menu item lists all mailboxes of the Unity system. The Voicemail tab in the user profile shows the mailbox of exactly this user, creates it, aligns its extension and deletes it. In the detail window of a mailbox you switch greetings on or off, define what happens after the greeting, and maintain the relay address and alternate extensions. Several texts on the Voicemail tab are German in version 4.8.7, also in the English interface, and are quoted as shown.

The connection to Unity comes either from Unity Connection → Dashboard or from the Voicemail section of the CUCM connection. If the connection in the Unity dashboard is saved for the active CUCM cluster, it takes precedence. Device requests from end users are covered in a chapter of their own.

Prerequisites

• Licence with provisioning. Without it the Voicemail section in the CUCM connection is not available.
• A Unity connection: either under Unity Connection → Dashboard or in the CUCM connection with Voicemail User, Voicemail Password and Voicemail URL.
• Seeing the Voicemails list: ROLE_APP_VIEW_VOICEMAIL_PAGE.
• Seeing the Voicemail tab in the user profile: ROLE_APP_VIEW_ENDUSER_PROFILE_VOICEMAIL or ROLE_APP_UNITY_USERS.
• Creating a mailbox: ROLE_APP_CREATE_VOICEMAIL. Changing: ROLE_APP_UPDATE_VOICEMAIL. Deleting: ROLE_APP_DELETE_VOICEMAIL. Setting the primary extension: ROLE_APP_UPDATE_ENDUSER.
• Viewing the messages of a mailbox: Enable Voicemail Mailbox is set in the CUCM connection. Users with ROLE_OWNER always see the mailbox.
• The user has a primary extension in the CUCM.
• There is at least one user template in Unity Connection.

Step by step: configure voicemail in the CUCM connection

1. Open Administration → CUCM & Provisioning → CUCM Connections.
2. On the connection, click Actions → Edit connection.
3. Switch on the Voicemail section.
4. Enter Voicemail User, Voicemail Password and Voicemail URL if you do not use a connection in the Unity dashboard.
5. Under Voicemail Number, enter the pilot number of the voicemail and select the Voicemail Profile on Line.
6. Set Voicemail server have LDAP configured? if Unity takes its users from LDAP.
7. Set Enable Voicemail Mailbox if EasyUC users may see the messages of end users. Additionally set Enable Anonymous Messages if caller name, number and subject are to stay hidden.
8. Click Save.

Step by step: create a mailbox for a user

1. Open Users → Users and click the user.
2. Click the Voicemail tab.
3. Click Load data. The data is only loaded from Unity Connection on request.
4. If the page shows Keine primäre Nebenstelle (no primary extension), click Primäre Nebenstelle festlegen and select the line.
5. If the page shows Keine Voicemail vorhanden (no voicemail), click Voicemail-Profil anlegen (create voicemail profile).
6. In the Import user into Voicemail System window, select the Unity user template under Template.
7. Click Save. The page then shows the UNITY CONNECTION MAILBOX card with alias and mailbox extension.

Step by step: greetings, relay and alternate extensions

1. Open Voicemails in the menu. The page is called Manage Voicemail.
2. Find the mailbox with the search field. The default is a search by alias.
3. Click the row of the mailbox. The detail window shows name and alias.
4. Under Call Handler: Greetings, switch individual greetings on or off and choose for each greeting what happens afterwards: Take Message or Hang Up.
5. Under Message Handler, select the action for voice messages: Accept the message, Reject the message, Relay the message or Accept and relay the message.
6. Next to Relay Address, click the edit icon, enter the address and click Save.
7. Next to Alternate Extension, click the plus icon. Select a user and one of their lines, or enter Extension and Partition directly. Click Add.

Step by step: view messages and delete a mailbox

1. Click Mailbox öffnen (open mailbox) on the Voicemail tab of the user, or Mailbox under Actions in the Voicemails list.
2. Switch between Inbox, Sent and Deleted.
3. Through the actions of a message, open Message Information with arrival time, duration, sender, subject and priority.
4. To delete a message, choose Yes, Delete it! for the deleted folder or Yes, Hard Delete it!.
5. To delete the whole mailbox, click Delete Voicemail on the Voicemail tab, or Delete under Actions in the list, and confirm the prompt.

Fields and options

Check the result and narrow down errors

• Success: the Voicemail tab shows the mailbox with the alias of the user and their extension. A test call to the extension reaches the greeting after call forwarding.
• The Voicemail tab is missing: neither is the Voicemail section switched on in the CUCM connection, nor is a connection saved in the Unity dashboard for this cluster, or the role is missing.
• You need to add a primary extension! The user has no primary extension.
• Mailbox-Nebenstelle und primäre Nebenstelle stimmen nicht überein. Mailbox extension and primary extension differ. Correct this with Mailbox-Nebenstelle angleichen.
• Sicherheitsprüfung: Der Mailbox-Alias … gehört nicht zum Benutzer …. Die Mailbox wird ausschließlich lesend angezeigt. The mailbox of another alias was found under the extension. Clarify the assignment in Unity.
• Die Rufnummer gehört als Alternate Extension zu einer anderen Mailbox. or Die Rufnummer ist die primäre Nebenstelle einer anderen Mailbox. The other mailbox is displayed read-only. In the first case Alternate Extension entfernen helps.
• The Mailbox öffnen or Mailbox button is missing: Enable Voicemail Mailbox is not set in the CUCM connection.
• If all voicemail queries fail, no Unity connection is set up for the active CUCM connection. Check the Voicemail section of the CUCM connection or the Unity dashboard.
• E-mail notifications about new voice messages are connection actions of their own and not part of these settings.