Understanding Unified Messaging Components

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Active Directory objects are required for the deployment and operation of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging (UM). The UM Active Directory objects connect the telephony infrastructure and the Exchange 2010 UM Active Directory environment.

UM Active Directory Objects

The UM Active Directory objects enable the integration of Unified Messaging into Active Directory and the existing telephony infrastructure. Active Directory acts as a container for all the UM objects that are created and their configuration settings. Each UM object within Exchange 2010 is necessary to support Unified Messaging in an Active Directory environment. Some UM Active Directory objects are created to logically represent a telephony hardware device but others are created to represent a telephony dial plan for an organization or to support a specific feature of Unified Messaging. The following figure shows the relationships between the UM objects found in Active Directory.

The relationships between UM Active Directory objects

There's a tightly integrated and interconnected relationship between the UM Active Directory objects and the features available in Unified Messaging. To successfully plan and deploy Unified Messaging in your organization, you need to fully understand this logical relationship between each of the UM objects.

For more information about the UM Active Directory objects, see:

• Understanding Unified Messaging Dial Plans

• Understanding Unified Messaging Mailbox Policies

• Understanding Unified Messaging IP Gateways

• Understanding Unified Messaging Hunt Groups

• Understanding Unified Messaging Auto Attendants

• Understanding Unified Messaging Servers

• Understanding Unified Messaging Users

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