This blog is a step by step guide on Exchange Server 2013 Unified Messaging Integration with a PBX System. We will be configuring Exchange 2013 Server to work with an existing PBX and enable Voicemail, Auto attendant and Voicemail functionality.

·         Ensuring host machine connectivity to Virtual Machines.

·         Installing the PBX Server.

·         Configuring PBX settings.

·         Installing Softphone and registering it to the PBX Server.

·         Configuring UM Settings on the Exchange 2013 Server and Enabling users.

·         Enabling User for Unified Messaging & Testing voicemail, Auto attendant and Outlook Voice access.

          a) This step is essential to make the Softphone register the PBX Virtual machine and leave Voicemails or     Calling  the OVA(Outlook voice access), Auto attendant. We will ensure out 10.0.0.x network should be able to talk to the Host machine network.

         b) On the Host machine, in the Hyper V Console right on any virtual machine in the 10.0.0.x network and select “Settings”. Make a note of the “Local Area Connection 2- Virtual Network”

        c)       Open Network Connections on the Host machine and find out the NIC that lists this name. We will be assigning an address in the 10.0.0.x to it.

         d)      Go to the properties of this NIC and assign an IP address. I have assigned 10.0.0.67 in my lab.

         e)      The next step is to verify connectivity between my host and Virtual Machine. We will ping the SNOMPBX VM IP 10.0.0.5. You should get a successful reply.

         f)       The host machine is now ready to connect to PBX. Let’s Move on to installing the SNOM PBX Server. Do not proceed to the next step without ensuring connectivity between Host and VM Networks as it is crucial for the success of this exercise.

        a)  Mount the SNOM iso in the VM dedicated to host the PBX. SNOM PBX can be installed on a Windows Server    2008 R2 SP1 machine and the installation is pretty straightforward. The iso is just 17.9 MB.

        b)      Extract the zip file and run snomone.exe

         c)       Follow the steps in the installer and you should be finished.

         d)      On the SNOMPBX server open a browser and go to https://localhost/ . If you see the login screen then installation is successful.

       e)      Since this is a trail version, you need to activate the free license to allow the softphones to register. To do that watch out for the Exclamation mark on the Home page and click on the link in the screenshot below.

         f)       Select “User Evaluation Copy” and click save.

        g)      We have now successfully installed the PBX Server. Let’s move on and dig into its configuration.

a)      We have the PBX installed. Now we will be creating a Trunk, Extension and register a softphone to the SNOM Server.

b)      Click Home on the Snom page and click on “Trunks”

c)      In the new Trunk field, Type in a Trunk name, e.g. : Exchange UM and Click “Create”.

 d)      You will see Exchange UM listed like in the screenshot above. Click on it and here’s where we would be configuring the main PBX settings.

e)      Type in the settings as mentioned below and in the screenshot

Type – SIP Gateway

Trunk Destination – Generic SIP Server

Domain – IP Address of the Exchange UM Server

*Proxy Address – sip:ExchangeUM.domain.com:5060;transport=tcp

*note: The proxy address field is important. The sip field contains the Exchange server FQDN. Take care to ensure there is no typo in this field as an incorrect entry would cause issues.

f) The other fields can be safely ignored. Click on Save at the bottom of the page.

g)  Click on Dial Plans at the Top of the page and create a dial plan with the name “Exchange”.

h)  Click on “Edit” at the right side of the Dial plan that you create and you will get a page similar to the screenshot below,

i)  Select the Trunk that we created earlier (ExchangeUM in this example) and input * and * in the Pattern and Replacement fields. Click on “Save”.

j)The unassigned Trunk for some reason does not go away, so we have to change the priority of our Trunk dial plan to a lower value.

k)   We have the Trunks and Dial plans created. Now, create the extension which will be used to login to the softphone. Click on “Accounts” at the Top of the webpage.

l)    You would see default extensions listed there. We will edit those extensions and create our own which would then be used to logon to the softphone.

m)    Click on one of the extensions and edit the following fields, once done click “Save”. Follow the same procedure to create more extensions.

Account Number – 4001 (example extension)

Dial Plan – Exchange (Created in step g )

First Name & Last name – Name for the extension (I have named this similar to my UM enabled Mailbox account)

SIP Password – Key in any simple password

Web Password – Same as above. I have kept both the passwords same for this example.

n)      Edit the Settings and make the SNOM PBX aware to send any unanswered calls to an External Voicemail System.

o)      Click on “Settings” in the top of the PBX webpage.

p)      Scroll down to “Voicemail/Mailbox” Settings and edit the “External Voicemail System” field to ‘$u’.

Note – I’ m not quite aware what $u settings implies. This was taken from the SNOM Configuration guide.

q)      Also change the settings in “Maximum voicemail” duration and “Voicemail size”.

r)       Snom system is now configured. Proceed with installing the softphone on the host machine.

a)      We will use the 3CX free softphone for this article. Download the msi from https://www.3cx.com/voip/softphone/ on the Host machine as this is where this phone would be running.

b)      Follow the wizard to complete installation.

c)       Keep the “Launch 3CXPhone” option selected and click on finish. This will open the softphone and present you with below options,

d)      Click “Create Profile” and click “New”

e)      Add the following settings to configure the Softphone.

    Account Name: 4001 (Extension name created in SNOM or Display name of the account)

    Caller ID: 4001 (You can also type your account name here)

    Extension: 4001

    ID: 4001

    Password: Password created during Extension creation in the PBX Console.

   Specify the IP of your PBX/SIP Server – I am in the office – Local IP: IP address of the SNOM Server.

f)       Click on OK and you should see the Softphone status change to “On Hook” which means the Phone has successfully registered to the PBX Server.

Note – The success of this operation is dependent on connectivity between your PBX VM and Host. 

Configuring UM Settings on the Exchange 2013 Server and Enabling users

 We now move on to Exchange server and configure the UM Settings. We would first be creating a Dial plan followed by configuring the Auto attendant and Subscriber access numbers.

If you are new to UM Terminology, refer the below link which gives a short description on the terminologies used in Exchange Voicemail.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633462(v=exchg.150).aspx

a)      Logon to the Exchange 2013 server. Open the Exchange Control Panel by using the link https://servername.domain.com/ecp . Login using Admin credentials.

b)      Click on Unified Messaging and click on the “+” sign to create a new Dial Plan.

c) Add the following fields.

Extension Length: 4 Digits (As we have created 4 digit extensions in SNOM).

Dial Plan type: Telephone extension.

VOIP security mode: Unsecured.

Country/Region code:  Not really useful in our demo as we are going to test internal extensions only.

c)      Click “Save” and the dial plan is created. We will now edit the Dial plan properties (See highlighted area) to create a Subscriber Access (Outlook voice access) number & an Auto Attendant number.

d)      Click on “Configure”. We will configure Subscriber access (Outlook Voice Access) and create a Dialing rule group.

e)      Click on “Outlook Voice Access” and add a number. We are using 4 digit numbers for this and the Auto attendant for simplicity. You can user any number that you want. You will need to ensure Dial plans are created in PBX to route the calls to Exchange.

f)       Click on “dialing rules” and click “+” below “In-country/region dialing rules”.

g)      Add the following fields to create a dialing rule and click “OK  ” after filling the below fields..

Dialing rule name: Allow all calls

Number Pattern to Transform:  * 

Dialed Pattern: *

Comment: Allow all calls

Note - By adding * we are allowing all calls to flow if this group is applied.

h)        Follow the same procedure to create a rule group for “Authorized international dialing rule groups”. Click “Save” once finished.

i)        Click on “dialing authorization”. We will add these two groups here. Click “Save” once you add the “All calls” dialing group.

j)      You would still be in the Dial plans page. Scroll down to the “UM Auto Attendants” and click on the “+” sign to create a new Auto attendant. Fill the following properties to create it.

Name: Auto attendant name

Select “Create this auto attendant as enabled”

Select “Set the auto attendant to respond to voice commands”

Add the Access numbers – This is the number that will be used to dial into an Auto attendant (e.g. : 4003)

k)        Go back and edit the Auto attendant properties.

l)   Click on “Address book and operator access”. Select the following options, and then click “Save”

“Allow callers to dial users”

“Allow callers to leave voice messages for users”

m)      Click on “dialing authorization”. We‘ ll add the authorization rules created earlier (i.e. : All calls). Ensure the following options are checked  and click “Save”,

                 Allow calls to any extension

n)      Scroll up in the Dial plan properties and click on Configure. We will configure Subscriber access (Outlook Voice Access) and create a Dialing rule group.

o)      Click on “Outlook Voice Access” and add a number. We are using 4 digit numbers for this and the Auto attendant for simplicity. You can user any number that you want. You will need to ensure Dial plans are created in PBX to route the calls to Exchange.

p)      Click on “dialing rules” and click “+” below “In-country/region dialing rules”.

q)       Add the following fields to create a dialing rule and click “OK” after filling the below fields..

Dialing rule name: Allow all calls

Number Pattern to Transform:  * 

Dialed Pattern: *

Comment: Allow all calls

Note - By adding * we are allowing all calls to flow if this group is applied.

r)       Follow the same procedure to create a rule group for “Authorized international dialing rule groups”. Click “Save” once finished.

s)      Click on “dialing authorization”. We will add these two groups here. Click “Save” once you add the “All calls” dialing group.

t)      Restart the Mailbox Assistants service on the Exchange server as the grammar files needed for Auto attendant are not created instantly.

u)    The Unified Messaging Configuration is ready. We should now be able to successfully test leaving Voicemail from the soft phone and make a call to the Auto attendant.

         a)  In the Exchange admin center click on “Recipients”. On the right, below “Phone and     Voice” features click on “Enable”

         b) Select the Default policy in “UM Mailbox policy” click “OK” and “Next”

         c)  Add the Extension number (Defined in PBX) 4002 and uncheck “Require the user to reset their PIN the first time they sign in”. Click “finish”

        d)  If you wish to view the properties, Edit the mailbox properties and click “mailbox features”. Click “View Details” on Unified Messaging properties.

       e)  We now need to know the PIN number (Since we set it to automatic) to access mailbox through the phone (Outlook Voice Access). Check e-mail for the user who has been enabled for UM and you should see a Welcome e-mail with all the details.

       f)  On the Host machine, open the 3CXPhone software. As we have configured the phone profile previously, we should be able to see the phone status as “On Hook”.

      g)  Dial 4002 (User enabled for UM). Since 4002 is not active on any pbx phone, you should hear Voicemail prompt. Leave a voicemail for the user and end the call.

      h) Wait for some time and you should get an e-mail in the user’s inbox with the below format.

        i)  Similarly, you can dial 4003 from the 3CX phone to reach an Auto attendant. If you hear “Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Auto Attendant” then your AA is working as expected. You can now leave voicemail for users or make calls by simply dialing an UM enabled user’s extension.

Note – When you are dialing a user through an auto attendant, a separate instance of 3CX phone should be running as the AA will dial out that PBX phone.

        j ) To access your mailbox through the phone, dial 4004 from the 3CX Phone. You will be asked to enter your pin to access your mailbox.

This completes our exercise of Configuring UM with a PBX. Note that we have to ensure the VM-Host connectivity is maintained to ensure we connect to PBX and Exchange Auto attendant successfully. Please feel free to leave your comments and Feedback.