Table Of Contents
Product Bulletin No. 1408
Introduction
Affected Product Part Numbers
ISA Boards
ActiveFax
Non-Standard Legacy PBX Switch Integration Support
Upgrade Path
Rationale
Support
Product Bulletin No. 1408
End-of-Sale for certain
Cisco Unity Components
Introduction
This product bulletin addresses issues associated with the End of Life (EOL) for certain components available in Cisco Unity 2.46: support for ActiveFax, Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) voice boards, and certain legacy PBX integrations will be affected.
This is not an End-of-Sale (EOS) notice for Cisco Unity 2.46.
As of February 14, 2001, (the close of the Active Voice acquisition) Cisco stopped selling ActiveFax, ISA voice boards, and non-standard legacy PBX integrations with Cisco Unity. Cisco Unity 2.46 continues to maintain support for these components, and upgrades to Cisco Unity 2.46 systems from prior versions that include any or all of these components are still supported.
Support for ActiveFax, ISA voice boards, and non-standard legacy PBX integrations will not be continued with the release of Cisco Unity 3.0.
Cisco Unity 2.46 will continue to support ActiveFax, ISA voice boards, and legacy PBX integrations for two years from the date of this EOS notice. Cisco Unity 2.46 customers who utilize ActiveFax, ISA voice boards, and non-standard legacy PBX integrations can still receive technical support by purchasing a Software Application Support (SAS) agreement for Cisco Unity 2.46.
The effective dates are provided in Table 1 below.
Table 1 EOS Details
Affected Products
|
|
Cisco Unity
|
End-of-Sale Date
|
February 14, 2001
|
End-of-Sale Announcement
|
June 22, 2001
|
End-of-Support Date
|
June 22, 2003
|
Affected Product Part Numbers
Cisco Unity 2.46 EOS components do not have their own part numbers as they were not sold by Cisco Systems.
ISA Boards
Upgrades to Cisco Unity 2.46
•
ISA boards were not sold with new Cisco Unity systems starting on February 14, 2001.
•Customers with Cisco Unity 2.45 or lower version systems (pre-Cisco Unity 2.46) with ISA boards are able to upgrade to Cisco Unity 2.46, but will not be able to upgrade to Cisco Unity 3.0.
•An upgrade path to Cisco Unity 2.46 exists with current Cisco part numbers
•Additional ports in Cisco Unity 2.46 are not available with ISA boards.
•ISA and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) boards cannot be combined in a Cisco Unity 2.46 system.
Upgrades to Cisco Unity 3.0
•There is no upgrade path to Cisco Unity 3.0 for systems with ISA boards.
•Users upgrading to Cisco Unity 3.0 must migrate to PCI boards. NOTE: migrating to PCI boards may require a new server depending upon the number of available PCI slots in the existing server.
•Supported PCI boards are available from Cisco, but may be purchased from other sources as well.
•Supported PCI voice boards include:
- D/41E-PCI (4 port PCI board)
- D/120JCT-LS (12 port PCI board)
•Special discounts for customers upgrading from ISA to PCI boards are not available.
Latest SW version with ISA board support:
•Cisco Unity 2.46.
Customer Impact
•Customers who attempt to upgrade to Cisco Unity 3.0 with ISA voice boards will not receive Technical Assistance Center (TAC) support.
Marketing Messaging
•ISA voice boards are nearing obsolescence and newer generation servers qualified for Cisco Unity 3.0 do not include ISA slots.
Sustaining Support
•TAC support for ActiveFax, Legacy PBX Integrations, and ISA boards on Cisco Unity 2.46 will be provided for two years following the EOS date of these components with a SAS agreement.
ActiveFax
Upgrades to Cisco Unity 2.46
•ActiveFax was not sold with new Cisco Unity systems starting on February 14, 2001.
•Customers with Cisco Unity 2.45 or lower version systems (pre-Cisco Unity 2.46) with ActiveFax are able to upgrade to Cisco Unity 2.46, both on the same Cisco Unity server and on a separate Cisco Unity server, but will not be able to upgrade to Cisco Unity 3.0.
•An upgrade path to Cisco Unity 2.46 exists with current Cisco part numbers.
Upgrades to Cisco Unity 3.0
•There is no upgrade path to Cisco Unity 3.0 for Unity systems with ActiveFax. Users upgrading to Cisco Unity 3.0 must migrate to a supported third-party fax server (see below) or forgo fax functionality.
•All Cisco Unity 3.0 Unified Messaging systems include third-party fax server integration at no additional cost.
•Customers must provide their own third-party fax server if they wish to upgrade to Cisco Unity 3.0 and maintain fax functionality.
•Cisco cannot provide discounts on third-party fax servers.
•Qualified and supported third-party fax servers are:
- Omtool Fax Sr. Version 3 or higher
- Interstar Technologies LightningFax Version 5.5 or higher
- Fenestrae FAXination Version 4 or higher
- AVT RightFax Version 6 or higher
- Optus FACSys Version 4.5 or higher
- FAXCOM for Exchange Version 6.19 or higher
- Esker FaxGate Version 7 or higher
Latest SW Version with ActiveFax Support
•Cisco Unity 2.46.
Customer Impact
•ActiveFax is being formally removed from Cisco Unity 3.0.
•Upgrade to Cisco Unity 3.0 with ActiveFax is not possible and will not receive TAC support.
Marketing Messaging
•ActiveFax is an SMB-class fax server. Cisco Unity currently supports integration with several third-party enterprise-class fax servers that are common in enterprise customer organizations.
Sustaining Support
•Support for ActiveFax, Integrations, and ISA boards on Cisco Unity 2.46 will be provided for two years following the EOS date of these components.
Non-Standard Legacy PBX Switch Integration Support
Upgrades to Cisco Unity 2.46
•Non-standard legacy PBX integrations were not sold with new Cisco Unity systems starting on February 14, 2001.
•Customers with Cisco Unity 2.45 or lower version systems (pre-Cisco Unity 2.46) with non-standard legacy PBX integrations are able to upgrade to Cisco Unity 2.46.
•Upgrade path to Cisco Unity 2.46 exists with current part numbers.
Upgrades to Cisco Unity 3.0
•There is no upgrade path to Cisco Unity 3.0 for systems with non-standard legacy PBX integrations.
•Users upgrading to Cisco Unity 3.0 must migrate to CallManager (or a standard supported legacy PBX integration).
•The SMDI integration with CallManager is not supported in Cisco Unity 3.0. The only supported CallManager integration is the Skinny integration (requires no voice boards).
•Standard Supported Legacy PBX Integrations
- Lucent Definity G3 (Analog)
- Lucent Definity Gx (Calista)
- Nortel Meridian 1 (Calista)
- NEC NEAX2000 (MCI)
- NEC NEAX2400 (MCI)
- Centrex (AT&T 1AESS, AT&T 5ESS, and Nortel Networks DMS100) (SMDI)
- Ericsson MD-110 (SMDI)
- Mitel SX200 (Analog/ONS)
- Mitel SX2000 (Analog/ONS)
Latest SW Version with Non-standard Legacy PBX Support
•Cisco Unity 2.46.
Customer Impact
•Switch files for non-standard legacy PBX integrations are being formally removed from Cisco Unity 3.0.
•Upgrade to Cisco Unity 3.0 with non-standard legacy PBX integrations is not possible and will not receive TAC support.
Marketing Messaging
•The standard supported legacy PBX integrations cover approximately 80 percent of the enterprise unified messaging and voice mail market. Each integration is supported standalone or in a dual switch mode that helps customers migrate to CallManager.
Sustaining Support
•Support for ActiveFax, non-standard legacy PBX integrations and ISA boards on Cisco Unity 2.46 will be provided for two years following the EOS date of these components.
Upgrade Path
We encourage customers with ActiveFax, ISA voice boards, and/or non-standard legacy PBX integrations that are currently running versions prior to Cisco Unity 2.46 to upgrade to Cisco Unity 2.46, the final version to support upgrades with ActiveFax, ISA voice boards, and non-standard legacy PBX integrations.
How customers can upgrade:
•Purchase a Cisco Unity 2.46 upgrade.
•Through their SAS or Software Application Support plus Upgrades (SASU) contract.
Rationale
This component EOS action serves several purposes:
1. It focuses Cisco Unity more tightly on its enterprise target market. Enterprise customers typically already have a third-party fax integration, and ActiveFax was an SMB-class fax server that is not scalable to the Cisco Unity target customers. ISA boards are nearing obsolescence and newer generation servers do not offer ISA slots. The supported list of legacy PBX integrations cover over 80 percent of the legacy PBX market and provide sufficient coverage for the enterprise market.
2. It will reduce the time required for Cisco Unity releases by significantly reducing the number of configurations that have to be accounted for in the Development and Quality Assurance process.
3. It will improve TAC support by reducing the number of configurations currently supported.
Support
SASU contracts will be available for all versions of Cisco Unity, and will be the only software contract offering available moving forward with Cisco Unity 3.0.
SAS software contracts will continue to be available for Cisco Unity 2.x versions only.
Note: Some SASU customers may not be able to upgrade to Cisco Unity 3.0 due to the component limitations listed above.
Customers with software support contracts are entitled to 24-hour telephone support through the TAC. Cisco is committed to supporting the product components referenced in this announcement (ActiveFax, ISA voice boards, and certain non-standard legacy PBX integrations) in Cisco Unity 2.46 until June 22, 2003 (two years after this EOS announcement).
