How to Create a New Unified Messaging Auto Attendant
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3
This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Console and the Exchange Management Shell to create a new Unified Messaging (UM) auto attendant. After you create a UM auto attendant, incoming calls to an organization's external telephone number that a human operator would ordinarily answer are answered by the auto attendant. After you have created a non-speech enabled or speech-enabled auto attendant, you must create and configure key mappings for the auto attendant to function correctly. To create key mappings for an auto attendant, see the following topics:
How to Enable Business Hours Key Mappings on a Unified Messaging Auto Attendant
How to Enable Non-Business Hours Key Mappings on a Unified Messaging Auto Attendant
Note
In Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, you can create multiple UM dial plans and multiple UM auto attendants. A UM Auto Attendant object can be configured to use only a single UM dial plan. However, you can have multiple auto attendants assigned to a single dial plan.
Note
Although the name of a new UM auto attendant can include spaces, the name cannot includes spaces if you integrate Unified Messaging with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 or Microsoft Lync Server. Therefore, if you have created an auto attendant that has spaces in the display name, and you are integrating UM with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 or Microsoft Lync Server, you must first delete that auto attendant, and then create another auto attendant that does not have spaces in its display name.
Before You Begin
To perform this procedure, the account you use must be delegated the Exchange Organization Administrator role.
For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Exchange 2007, see Permission Considerations.
Also, before you perform these procedures, confirm the following:
A UM dial plan has been created in the Active Directory directory service.
You have located and recorded the pilot number for the UM auto attendant.
Procedure
To use the Exchange Management Console to create a new auto attendant
In the console tree of the Exchange Management Console, expand the Organization Configuration node.
In the console tree, click Unified Messaging.
In the work pane, click the UM Auto Attendants tab.
In the action pane, click New UM Auto Attendant.
In the New UM Auto Attendant wizard, in the Name box, type the name of the auto attendant. This will be the display name for the auto attendant.
In the Select associated dial plan section, click Browse.
In the Select Dial Plan window, click the dial plan, and then click OK.
In the New UM Auto Attendant wizard, in the Extension numbers text box, type the telephone extension number for the auto attendant, and then click Add.
In the New UM Auto Attendant wizard, select Create auto attendant as enabled if you want to enable the auto attendant as soon as the wizard is finished.
In the New UM Auto Attendant wizard, select Create auto attendant as speech-enabled if you want to enable speech recognition on the auto attendant as soon as the wizard is finished.
In the New UM Auto Attendant wizard, click New.
On the New UM Auto Attendant wizard completion page, click Finish.
To use the Exchange Management Shell to create a new auto attendant
Run the following command:
New-UMAutoAttendant -Name MyNewAA -UMDialPlan MyDialPlan -PilotIdentifierList 51000 -Enabled True
For more information about syntax and parameters, see New-UMAutoAttendant.
For More Information
For more information about Unified Messaging auto attendants, see Understanding Unified Messaging Auto Attendants.
For more information about how to manage auto attendants, see Managing Unified Messaging Auto Attendants.
For more information about how to install the Unified Messaging server role, see How to Perform a Custom Installation Using Exchange Server 2007 Setup.