BlackBerry® Professional Software and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express

[glwharris]

From reading the information, it looks like it is okay to install a BES Express server on a dedicated server when there already exists a BES 5.0 server accessing the Exchange server.  If I understand it right, this works but the two BES servers cannot be in the same BES Domain, but can be in the same AD tree and access the same exchange server.  Is this correct?  If so, can the same BESADMIN user be used for both BES servers?

[knottyrope]

Yes you can run both, you cant have them share the same database. You need a new database for it.

The BESAdmin account can be used for both.

Here are some tips

http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-Professional-Software/BES-SBE-BPS-4-x-upgrade-opti...

[glwharris]

I tried to install the BES Express server into the same Windows domain as an existing BES 5.0.1 server.  I used the same BESADMIN userid to set up the server.  the new BES Express server seemed to work okay.  But It was soon discovered that our old BES had stopped working and the BAS could not be logged into.  After working with RIM tech support for half a day we fixed the old BES server and un-installed the Express server. 

After trying to reinstall it, the Tech support said that the BES express had to be on it's own Windows AD domain.  And that all users added to it had to be on this new domain as well.  Not sure of the truth to any of this.  Can you verify?  Is there any documentation on how to install a BES Express Server when there already is an existing BES?  

[knottyrope]

He meant a BlacBerry domain and not AD domain.

BES express was meant to be run in same environment with other BES servers.

With a new database BES express should be fine with your other BES server.

Did you install BES Express and use the BES 5 database?

[glwharris]

The Blackberry technician did not seem to know much about this.  He initially agreed with me that it had to be in it's own Blackberry Domain.  However when we went to reinstall the BES EXPRESS software we could not find anywhere that defines a Blackberry Domain.  He then after discussing it with the others in Tech support told me that the BES EXPRESS server had to be in its own active directory domain and all the users would have to be in this new domain too.

FYI:  both the Production 5.01 BES and the BES Express were installed on dedicated virtual machines with their own local database that comes with the BES product.

So how do we avoid the problem we ran into when we installed the BB EXP before.  After the install, our production BES server stopped communicating with users and the Blackberry Administration Services could no longer be logged into.  After we un-installed the BES EXP, apparently the Production BES started sending.  Still could not log into the BAS.  We looked into the log and found an error saying the BAS could not communicate with the AD domain servers.  We added two addresses into the BES server's Host file to point to the AD domain servers and it enabled login.

So how do we avoid this the next time we install?

[jackal2001]

RIM needs to re-word their terminology.  I asked about this same issue as well.  It doesn't make sense if you need to have multiple AD Domains.

We have a BES 4.1.7.20 server and a few weeks ago installed a BESX 5.0.1.4 server.  They are both in the same Windows Domain, but they have seperate SQL Databases. 

Our BES 4.1 server was set up about 2 years ago.  When we installed BESX we did nothing with the BESAdmin account.  We didn't change anything for the BESAdmin Exchange mailbox nor did we run any PowerShell scripts on the Exchange Server.

We just installed the BESX server and told it to use the existing BESAdmin account.

Both servers are still working fine.