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Designing the right configuration for your business is the first step toward setting up a robust and scalable
system. Configuration options for Cisco Interaction Manager are many—ranging from a simple single-server
installation to many flavors of distributed installations. This chapter describes available configuration options,
best practices for distributed-server installations, and considerations that will help you determine how many
partitions to install. See Cisco Unified Web and E-Mail Interaction Manager Solutions Reference Network
Design Guide for deployment recommendations for various scenarios.
A reference sheet is provided on page 97 to help you record your configuration choices and related details. You
will need to refer to this sheet often during the installation process.
If this installation is the first step towards installing Maintenance Release (MR) 4.2(5), refer to “Appendix B:
Path to Maintenance Release 4.2(5)” on page10 4 for a flowchart depicting the various tasks that must be
completed to get to MR 4.2(5).
Configuration options
A Cisco Interaction Manager installation has five components. They are:
1. File server, which is always installed on the same machine as the primary application server
2. Database
3. Application server
4. Web server, which in the case of Unified WIM is installed on a separate machine outside the firewall for
security reasons
5. Services server
You can install these components in any of the following three types of configuration:
1. Single server or collocated: All components are on a single server. This is the simplest type of
configuration. A true single-server deployment is possible only for Unified EIM installations. If the
installation includes Unified WIM, it becomes a collocated deployment, where the web server is installed on
a separate machine outside the firewall.
2. Split server or collocated: Components are split across two servers. The database is on one server, while all
other components are on the other server. A true split-server deployment is possible only for Unified EIM
installations. If the installation includes Unified WIM, it becomes a collocated deployment, where the web
server is installed on a separate machine outside the firewall.
3. Distributed server: Components are distributed over three or more servers. A wide range of options is
available for distributed-server configurations (See Cisco Unified Web and E-Mail Interaction Manager
Solutions Reference Network Design Guide and Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (CCX) Configuration
& Ordering Tool for deployment recommendations). The database is usually installed on a dedicated server,
and the other components are spread over two or more servers. If the installation includes Unified WIM, the
web server is installed on a separate machine outside the firewall.