BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10

[ferrarafire]

We currently are running BES for Exchange 4.1.6 and are trying to figure out the best way to upgrade to BES 5.0 and get to newer hardware.  We have built a new machine to host the BES but we would like to impact the end users as little as possible.  We don't want to  have them reactivate their phones or have anything more than a couple of minutes downtime.  It seemed that the Upgrade via Cutover and Upgrading the database was the way to go as we would have kept our SRP and configuration.  However in the upgrade manual it appears that it would cause the users to have to reactivate their phones. 

So, should we use the Cutover via new machine and new database method?  I currently only have one SRP and I'm not sure how to get another one and make it my permanent one.  Wouldn't using this method cause even more issues as the SRP is actually changing? 

We currently don't have anything setup in our MDS on the old server but would like to use it on the new one to push the occasional application.  So we aren't worried about losing any data we currently have setup in it for now.

Any help would be appreciated.

[knottyrope]

Install BES 5 on the new hardware and use transporter to move users to the new system.,

User will only experience a 3 min outage if any for most.

[ferrarafire]

Sorry, I'm not familar with transporter.  Would that be using the new machine and new database method or new machine and upgrading the old database? 

[tng403]

You use the Transporter tool when you have 2 seperate Blackberry domains and you want to migrate users account from one to the other.  So in your case it will be the new machine and new database method. 

[ferrarafire]

Using the new server and new database won't require any action on the end users' part?  I thought it would require them to go through the enterprise activation again.  Also if I'm using that method, won't I need a new SRP and CAL's?  If so, how do I go about getting ones for the new server?  The plan is to install the new server, move the users, and licenses, and then totally deactivate the old one.  Hopefully with no noticeable impact to the end users.

Thanks for the help.

[knottyrope]

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ferrarafire wrote:

Using the new server and new database won't require any action on the end users' part? None I thought it would require them to go through the enterprise activation again. 3 minute lapse if they even notice it.  Also if I'm using that method, won't I need a new SRP and CAL's? nope they transfer over with the upgrade. If so, how do I go about getting ones for the new server?  The plan is to install the new server, move the users, and licenses, and then totally deactivate the old one.  Hopefully with no noticeable impact to the end users. Thats the nice part with transporter.

Thanks for the help.

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[tng403]

No, users will not have to reactivate their Blackberry's accounts again.  Yes you will need a new SRP ID and SRP authenticatin key which you can get from BES support for free.  Ask for the Migration Kit.  The CALs you can use the same one from your old BES.  The only caveat wit the transporter tool, is that it only support BB device version 4.0 and higher and it doesn not support version 4.3.