Getting the Exchange UM Test Phone to work

I am done with the setting up of the Exchange 2007 messaging transport infrastructure and moved all the mailboxes at the main site to Exchange 2007. Now I finally can focus on the real charm of Exchange Server 2007 — Unified Messaging!

To start off, one needs to set up servers that run the Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging role. I’ve got two of these installed – running on Windows Server 2008 x64. I then configured the following:

• UM Dial Plans (with subscriber access numbers)
• UM Mailbox Policy

Next you need a client machine (PC with a sound card) to run the Exchange UM Test Phone application. Here’s the catch: If you’re running 64-bit version of Exchange Server 2007 (which you would, if it’s a production environment), you need a client machine running a 64-bit OS to run the test phone application. No, chances are that you cannot use one of your 64-bit servers, because they don’t usually have sound cards in them. If you try to run the test phone from the 32-bit OS or without all the files I mention below, the application crashes.

So, I set up the Windows Server 2008 x64 OS on a Dell Optiplex 755 and then installed drivers for the sound card. I disabled the Windows Firewall as well. I also disabled all unnecessary network cards. Next, I copied the whole \Exchange\Bin folder directly off the Exchange 2007 UM server and pasted it in a new folder on my test PC. Then I copied the contents of the \Exchange\Public folder too in the same folder. The \Exchange\Bin folder contains the test phone application (ExchangeUMTestPhone.exe file).

Then I ran the following commands in the command prompt, to enable the desktop experience:

ServerManagerCmd -i Desktop-Experience

A server restart ensued and then I opened the test phone application (ExchangeUMTestPhone.exe file). It started happily.

Let’s get back to the UM Server. On the UM server, you need to create a UM IP Gateway. Normally this should be your hardware VOIP gateway IP, but if you want to test with the UM Test phone, you need to set this to the IP of the test phone computer. Next, you create a UM hunt group, in which you specify the same gateway you created in the previous step.

• In the setup window, I entered the IP address of my UM server in the Server Address field
• SIP Port is 5060 (default)
• Call security is Unsecured in my case
• Logging options: Both

To test the Outlook Voice Access, simply click on the Call button (green handset icon) on the test phone. Exchange 2007 will answer your call, greet you and ask you if you want to open your mailbox or just reach another user by voice. Outlook Voice Access is so cool! It is an exciting experience.

Now that the Exchange UM server is tested and working fine, I will wait for our VOIP guys to create a hunt group for the subscriber access number so that calls made to our subscriber access number (a.k.a Exchange’s phone number) gets forwarded to the IP address of the Exchange UM server and we can go-live!

See the Call Reference Guide to know the Voice navigation options.

Related posts
Configuring Outlook Voice Access
Setting up the Exchange UM Test Phone
Preparing for Unified Messaging – Part 1
Preparing for Unified Messaging, Part 2
Preparing for Unified Messaging, Part 3
Preparing for Unified Messaging, Part 4

Shijaz Abdulla is a Partner Technology Advisor at Microsoft, helping their top tier partners build on their Microsoft practice. He is also a trusted advisor to medium enterprise customers in Qatar. He is a blogger, tech enthusiast, and a Microsoft evangelist.

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