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.

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