Voicemail Pro Server Installation Best Practices

The 4 Characteristics to help you deploy and setup the VM Application.

In this week’s post, “Voicemail Pro Server Installation Best Practices,” you will learn the 4 characteristics to help you prepare the server environment, get the Voicemail Pro pre-configuration procedures done, while deploying the application. Setup the Operating System elements to allow the Voicemail suite to work in conjunction with any security components, forming part of the Server or customer’s Domain.

When playing the roll of Software Specialist, we have to be aware of the different components where the new Voicemail Pro Application is going to be implemented. Throughout time, I have had my fair share of problems, where the Voicemail Pro wouldn’t work as designed. Dealing with issues such as, dead Voicemail after 2 hours, Voicemail to Email not working, dead air when calling the main number and issues transferring to the correct destination.

The following are the 4 characteristics to help you battle through these issues=

• 1.- Understand the elements
• 2.- Deploying the Software
• 3.- Post Installation Procedures
• 4.- Getting Started with Templates

 

1.- Understand the elements

The Voicemail Pro Core Suite can run in different Operating Systems, from a physical or virtualized configuration, allowing us to choose from different types of installations, selecting different components.

Customer’s environment

Once you have decided the type of deployment to perform, it is time for you to get the Server Environment setup. If this server is part of Domain Controller, a Domain Account has to be created as a local Server Administrator with local Admin rights.

Tweaking the OS

The following are some other elements to consider when configuring the Operating System:

Anti-virus – It is not recommended, but in the case of company policies, then you should include the Voicemail Pro, Avaya folders, and programs into a white list form.

Windows Defender – This feature should be turned off if possible.

Windows Firewall – Disabled, or configured utilizing the Avaya Firewall Batch file to auto configure the Avaya ports in the Firewall’s exception list.

.NET and IIS – These are windows services that need to be installed, especially if using the Web-services features, such as Voicemail to Email, Campaigns, UMS, etc.

Network Interface Cards – These should be set to 1G or 100 Full Duplex with Auto negotiation turned off. Keep in mind the network switch has to clock at the same speed as the Server’s, with the same duplex and negotiation settings.

Static IP Addressing – Assign a dedicated IP Address to the Server and confirm with the Network administrator that is part of the DHCP Address Reservation.

Power Save – Normally Servers don’t come with Power Saver options on, but when using a different OS you need to create a separate rule to mimic this behavior, where the PC won’t shut down any of its components to save power, except the Monitor.

Auto Start – Servers and PCs needs to be set to Auto Start on Power On, which forces the computer to start once it detects power. The majority of OS will need someone to press a button in order to start. This can become an issue if nobody is available to perform this task.

This is a BIOS feature that requires you to update the Power Management.

2.- Deploying the Software

When installing the Voicemail Pro software, a local administrator account is needed when first installing the Voicemail Pro program. By now you should have the Server connected to the network with IP Addresses, network port configurations, etc.

Selecting type of Voicemail Pro installation

Stand-Alone Mode

It is the least complex deployment, where the system administrator can deploy Voicemail Pro with the default components which installs everything except UMS and Campaigns.

Client-Mode – For Voicemail Pro configuration and database update, the Client acts more like an application that can be loaded to connect to any Voicemail Pro Database by using a user and login.

Typical and Custom – These are the other two options left, where you can install Campaigns with the Typical mode, or everything available with the Custom mode.

The Custom installation allows you to disable unwanted Languages prior to installation.

3.- Post Installation Procedures

While installing the Voicemail Pro suite, you have to enter the Voicemail Pro administrator account credentials. It is recommended to use a domain account that resides as a administrator in the voicemail server. This helps the system administrator to integrate any web features later on.

Post Installation Maintenance

It is a good practice to reboot the server to test any domain policies applied to any domain users, see if there are any rules applied that might conflict with the voicemail application.

AvayaFW Batch – This file auto assigns any ports associated with Avaya applications to the local Windows Firewall exception list by scanning the local OS.

4.- Getting Started with Templates

If you configure many Voicemail Pro systems, I recommend to have a template that allows you speed up the configuration process. The following Modules can be included in the template=

Recordings – This Module is used to have the end-user record the voicemail automated attendant prompts and any type of announcements to be used by the voicemail and IP Office systems.

Attendant – This Module is responsible for testing any Holiday and Time conditions, and route calls accordingly.

DayAutoA – As the name implies, this Auto Attendant is used to route callers who call during business hours.

NightAutoA – For those calling after hours, you want to have a night routing mechanism to let the callers leave messages straight to General Mailbox, call on-call personnel, ring specific 3rd shift departments, etc.

HolidayAutoA – Very similar to the “NightAutoA”, this Module contains off hours routing decisions, alerting customers the reason of why the business is closed.

InclementAutoA – Inclement Weather’ – This Module routes callers the same way as the HolidayAutoA, advising callers the business is closed due to bad weather.

Resources

Avaya Windows Firewall Batch File