Running the External User Import Utility. 3

Overview

You use the External User Import utility to create multiple AMIS and Bridge subscribers at one time, with data from a comma-separated value (CSV) file.

Before creating subscriber accounts, make sure that you have set up the appropriate subscriber template. For details, refer to the “Subscriber Template Settings” chapter of the Cisco Unity System Administration Guide (available on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/unity31/sag/index.htm).

Depending on your installation, the users of the remote voice messaging system may already have Windows accounts and Exchange mailboxes on your local network. Therefore, when you create AMIS or Bridge subscriber accounts for these users, you can start to clutter up the Exchange address list with duplicate listings—the existing user account and a contact (or custom recipient for Exchange 5.5 users). Both listings are viewable in Outlook.

Cisco Unity delivers only voice messages to AMIS and Bridge subscribers. If someone sends an AMIS or Bridge subscriber an e-mail or fax message, Cisco Unity returns a non-delivery receipt (NDR) to the sender. Therefore, you may want to hide the AMIS and Bridge subscribers from the Exchange address list to prevent someone from inadvertently e-mailing them.

To prevent all Bridge subscribers from being listed in the Exchange address list, in the Cisco Unity Administrator, go to the Network > Bridge Options page and uncheck the "Show Created Subscribers In E-mail Server Address Book" checkbox.

To prevent AMIS subscribers from being listed in the Exchange address list, you will need to hide them by using the Microsoft Exchange 5.5 Administrator or Windows Active Directory for Users and Computers (click View > Advanced Features to see the Exchange Advanced property page). Bridge subscribers can be hidden in the same way. When recipients are hidden, Cisco Unity is still able to deliver voice messages to them.

Although AMIS subscribers can be included in distribution lists, you may want to carefully consider which distribution lists will include AMIS subscribers, due to the lengthy transmission time for AMIS calls. If you create distribution lists that contain only AMIS subscribers, you may want to hide the distribution lists from the Exchange address list. The distribution list settings in the subscriber template allow you to specify which public distribution lists the AMIS subscribers will be assigned to. To adjust to the distribution list settings, in the Cisco Unity Administrator, go to the Subscribers > Subscriber Templates > Distribution Lists page of the subscriber template that will be used to create the AMIS subscriber accounts, and make changes as appropriate.

Preparing the CSV File

Before running the External User Import utility, create a CSV file that contains the needed information about the AMIS and Bridge subscribers. The first row in the CSV file must contain column headers that identify the type of data in the column. The information in the subsequent rows contains the subscriber information to be imported. See “CSV File Column Headers” for detailed descriptions of the column headers.

To prepare the CSV file for the External User Import utility

In the database that contains the data with which you want to create AMIS or Bridge subscribers, save the data as a CSV file. If not using data from the remote voice messaging system, create the CSV file from scratch.
Open the CSV file in a spreadsheet application or any text editor.
In the first row of the CSV file, create column headers. The file must contain at least these column headers:

LAST_NAME, FIRST_NAME, REMOTE_USER_ID, EXTENSION

All column headers must be in uppercase and spelled as shown. Column headers can appear in any order.

Separate values by commas. Do not use a tab, spaces, or a semicolon to separate values in the file.

See “CSV File Column Headers” for more information about the optional fields.

Enter subscriber information in the CSV file, as needed. Save and close the file.
Copy the file to the Cisco Unity server or to a folder that you can browse to from the server.

CSV File Column Headers

Column Header

Description

FIRST_NAME

(required)

Enter the first name of the subscriber. Use any combination of letters, numbers, and the “-” (dash) character, up to a maximum of 25 characters.

LAST_NAME

(required)

Enter the last name of the subscriber. Use any combination of letters, numbers, and the “-” (dash) character, up to a maximum of 25 characters.

REMOTE_USER_ID

(required)

Enter the number that the remote voice messaging system uses to route messages to this subscriber. A maximum of 64 digits is allowed.

EXTENSION

(required)

Enter the extension of the subscriber on Cisco Unity. A maximum of 30 digits is allowed. The extension must be unique among all extensions on the local Cisco Unity server and within the dialing domain, if there is one.

ALIAS

(optional)

Enter the alias for the subscriber. Use any combination of letters, numbers, spaces, and dashes, up to a maximum of 20 characters. The alias must be unique among the subscribers on the local Cisco Unity server.

If the alias is not specified, it is constructed from the first and last names, based on the rule in the subscriber template selected during the import.

DELIVERY_LOCATION_ID

(optional)

Enter the Dial ID of an existing delivery location on the local Cisco Unity server to associate with the subscriber. A maximum of 10 digits is allowed.

If both SUBSCRIBER_TYPE and DELIVERY_LOCATION_ID are specified, then the SUBSCRIBER_TYPE value must match the Destination Type of the specified Delivery Location, or else the subscriber record is rejected during the import. If the SUBSCRIBER_TYPE value is not specified, the type of the subscriber is determined from the Destination Type of the DELIVERY_LOCATION_ID.

Both the subscriber type and delivery location ID can be specified on the Select Default Values dialog box during the import.

DISPLAY_NAME

(optional)

Enter the subscriber display name. Use any combination of letters, numbers, spaces, commas, and dashes, up to a maximum of 40 characters. If a comma is included in the display name, then it must be enclosed in quotation marks.

If the display name is not specified, it is constructed from the first and last names, based on the rule in the subscriber template selected during the import.

SUBSCRIBER_TYPE

(optional)

Enter the type of subscriber to create. Only the following values are allowed:

5—Creates an AMIS subscriber.

7—Creates a Bridge subscriber.

If the SUBSCRIBER_TYPE value is not specified, the type of the subscriber is determined from the Destination Type of the DELIVERY_LOCATION_ID (if specified).

Both the subscriber type and delivery location can be specified on the Select Default Values dialog box during the import.

Running the External User Import Utility

After the CSV file is ready, you run the External User Import utility to create AMIS subscribers.

To create AMIS and Bridge subscribers by using the External User Import utility

On the Cisco Unity server, start the ExternalUserImport utility.
Click Next. On the “Select CSV File and Log Location” dialog box, specify the name and location of the following files:

CSV File—This file contains the subscriber information to be used in the import. When you select a CSV file, the utility scans the file to ensure that the required columns are included.

Log File—This file contains a report of what happened during the import, such as the users that were added and errors that were encountered.

Error Log File—This file contains all of the rows from the CSV file that were either rejected because of illegal formatting, or removed from the import by unchecking the row in the grid on the “Select Users To Import” dialog box (see Step 5).

Click Next. On the “Select Default Values” dialog box, enter the following information:

Subscriber Type—Set the value to use in rows that do not contain a value in the SUBSCRIBER_TYPE column.

Delivery Location—Select the delivery location to use in rows that do not contain a value in the DELIVERY_LOCATION_ID column.

If the CSV file does not contain either of these columns, then the values that you select here are used in the import.

Click Next. On the “Select Subscriber Template” dialog box, select the template on which to base the new subscriber accounts. The template affects most subscriber settings. You can specify only one template for each run of the External User Import utility. To use more than one template, you must run the utility multiple times.
Click Next. On the “Select Users To Import” dialog box, a grid that contains the subscriber data to be imported is displayed. Before displaying the grid, the utility checks the following information in the CSV file:

Each row is checked to ensure that it is properly formatted and contains the required information.

The extension and alias values are checked against the existing subscribers accounts to ensure uniqueness.

The values in the DELIVERY_LOCATION_ID column (if included in the CSV file) are verified.

Any errors are reported here and also recorded in the error log file.

To exclude a user from the import, uncheck the box in the first column. As needed, you can edit the Extension field by double-clicking a cell and entering a new value.

Click Import to begin the import.

When the import is finished, a dialog box displays the number of users that were imported and information about any errors that were encountered. The dialog box also contains links to the Log file and Error Log file.

When the utility rejects a row from the CSV file, the row is written to the Error Log file and an ERROR_REASON column is added to the beginning of the row with a brief explanation why the row was not used for import. You can edit the Error Log file to correct the errors, remove the ERROR_REASON column, and then use the file as a CSV source file.

Note that after the accounts are created, if you change the Remote Mailbox Number for any subscribers, then you need to run the Extension Address utility. (To run the utility, click Start > Programs > Unity > Extension Address Utility, and then click Update.)

Revision History

Version 1.0.150

Fixed problem where the location object alias instead of the location ID was being used to construct the remote address for Bridge and AMIS users (CSCdx93010)

Version 1.0.131

First release of utility