BlackBerry® Enterprise Solution

[RichmondFish]

I have 2 BES 4.14 servers in a Blackberry Domain.  I need to add a 3rd server to this domain to help with our client growth.  Is it appropriate to add the 3rd server to the Blackberry Domain as a higher version (4.15 or 4.16)? My goal was:

1) Shut down the 2 BES in the domain.

2) Install 3rd server as 4.15 or 4.16 to upgrade the besmgmt database and to get the box online.

3) Bring up the other two servers.

4) Manage everything from higher version Blackberry manager.

What will result is 2 servers at 4.14 and 1 on 4.15 (or 4.16-->still testing this code)

From testing this out it appears to do fine.  One of the servers we have at the 4.14 code stream has poor performance so I am afraid to upgrade in place so migrating the users to the newer box in the domain will be a good option.  

Has anyone out there run a hybrid version domain?  Have you had issues?

[knottyrope]

Upgrade the old ones first to 4.1.6 then add the new one.

Updates are culmative and have all the previous patches.

RIM does not support mixed versions on the same database.

When I upgraded mine it was pretty fast going, only like 15 min.

[AndyDufresne · Accepted solution]

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knottyrope wrote:
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RIM does not support mixed versions on the same database.

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That information is incorrect.  You can run multiple versions of BES off of a BESMgmt database.  The caveat, is that you must use a BlackBerry Manager that is the same version as the database schema.

 RichmondFish: The procedure you listed is correct and will work.  The keys are making sure that the other 2 BES are offline while you're upgrading the database, and that you only use the BlackBerry Manager from the new server to manage all of the BES.

[knottyrope]

GO have fun with that then.

And one day when someone opens the wrong one, poof.

[AndyDufresne]

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knottyrope wrote:

GO have fun with that then.

And one day when someone opens the wrong one, poof.

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No poof by someone opening it; only potentially by making  changes.

Easy solution; rename the executable.

[knottyrope]

Dont forget about MMC.

It would irritate me to know an admin would keep servers that

were doing a common thing would be patched at different levels.

[RichmondFish]

Appreciate the information!  I felt like I was right but it is good to have someone else concur.  Thank you very much!

Dont forget about MMC.

It would irritate me to know an admin would keep servers that

were doing a common thing would be patched at different levels.

Ideally nobody would want to run mixed version in the same domain if possible.  But at some point you have to pull the trigger and upgrade one if you have multiple servers and go from there.  In my case I am so tight on space on the C:\ drive that I cannot install additional software.  I do not like to do server rebuilds if possible.  Bring up the new server on the higher code stream will afford a little burn in time and since the servers are all in the same domain, I can use the BES mgr to move the people from the cruddy box to the new box.

[AndyDufresne]

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knottyrope wrote:

Dont forget about MMC.

It would irritate me to know an admin would keep servers that

were doing a common thing would be patched at different levels.

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What about MMC?