[cisco-voip] Unity Express: NM-CUE vs AIM-CUE

[Lawrence E. Bakst]

1. For a very small installation, 5 phones in a home, is there any reason not to prefer the AIM-CUE over the NM-CUE for running Unity Express?

I would like to do this on a 2821 and would prefer to use the single NM slot for a NM-HDA I have on hand and use an AIM-CUE For Unity Express. However if the AIM-CUE is going to be headache, I'll flush the NM-HDA and get some VIC2 cards or the EVM stuff and run a NM-CUE in the NM slot.

Jim's post kind of scared me a bit.

At 8:17 AM -0400 7/30/05, Jim McBurnett wrote:
>If there are expectations that there might be more than a dozen messages a day, consider the NM-CUE.
>The AIM-CUE has a flash drive, and is subject to flash wear....
>Also, look into a good Battery backup. I would reccomend a Liebert, with the cable that plugs in the AUX port to shutdown CUE..
>If you don't then CUE can crash on you if the system is not shutdown properly.....
>
>jim

2. With the NM-CUE do you really have to shutdown via aux port (or console?) on the NM-CUE before you turn power off on the router? That is kind of a drag. Is the also true for the AIM-CUE? Does the AIM-CUE also have console ports?

3. How prone to corruption are these cards? I have a UPS but not one that knows how to shutdown the NM-CUE via AUX-port.

4. I also heard that the AIM-CUE is very slow to boot up after a reboot/crash and that the NM-CUE boot up much faster. Is that true? Anyone comparative boot times for crash and no crash scenarios?

5. If the flash on the AIM-CUE does get corrupted what is the procedure for reinstalling? Anything stopping me from cloning the CF card when I get it and having that on hand if the CF card on the AIM-CUE gets corrupted? That would seem to be the "easy button". If that works, it would seem that AIM-CUE might be better than the NM-CUE, if it gets corrupted.

6. Anyone want to share negative AIM-CUE experiences?

I know CME pretty well but I don't have any Unity Express experience and would prefer not to make a mistake here. Any advice appreciated.

Best,

leb