What is the difference between 'Blackberry MDS Services' and the 'Mobile Data Service feature of the Blackberry Enterprise Server'? I have the Mobile Data Service feature enabled on my BES 4.0 and it is working fine. As the Admin, I'm really the only person on my network that uses the MDS for anything other than the Blackberry Browser. However, when making preperations to upgrade to 4.1.4 I started seeing references to MDS Services and it looks like a seperate installation. I'm not sure what it offers me and whether or not I can just continue utilizing the Mobile Data Service after I upgrade to 4.1.4.

You do not need to install BlackBerry MDS Services, the base install of BES includes the MDS Connection service which is the old 4.0 MDS renamed.

Installing the BlackBerry MDS Services also requires a new separate SQL database so adds complexity and chance for issues. You can always install it down the road if you need to.

FYI here is a post I did just on this topic: BlackBerry Enterprise Server on Domino Discussion: MDS What?

Thanks!

mahoward is right, the MDS is for pushing applications to the BBs.

If you have chosen the second option, after the reboot you are prompted to install 2 new databases - mdss and mdss_dis. Is there anyway that you can now back out of this installation? I was upgrading from 4.1.2 to 4.1.4 and the MDS service is now offline and when I run the Blackberry Server configuration I am prompted to run the Setup.exe again.
Thanks

Run setup.exe and complete the install then disable MDS Services. You might need 4.1.4 full install, I haven't tried installing BES 4.1.2 when the DB was at 4.1.4. If you have the full 4.1.4 installer you could clean uninstall your BES and reinstall without the MDS Services.

Thanks. I thought it would be easier to rollback so I restored the database and server back to their original states which worked fine.
I then reinstalled the service pack and chose the first option this time and it went through fine. I then ran the mr5 patch and that seemed fairly straightforward too, however I now get an error when I launch the Blackberry Server Configuration icon - "Please run Setup.exe to complete the installation before launching the Blackberry Server Configuration Panel". The last time I saw this the MDS wasn't functioning at all as it was half way through upgrading it, however this time, because I chose the first option, there is still access to the internet from the handhelds, however users are now prompted to enter credentials to get past the proxy. I had already configured a service account to do this before, and those settings are still in the console, however I believe due to the error I am seeing when launching the Control panel icon, that this is why we are being forced to enter our own credentials. I have looked to uninstall mr5 but there is no option in Add/Remove to do this. It just says "Blackberry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange".

The versions I currently have are:
Blackberry Enterprise Server version: 4.1.4.16
MDS version: 4.1.4.26

Thanks
Marshall

How did you rollback? Did you have an image of the machine before the upgrade? You didn't start the upgrade as one account and then complete it as another? When you were installing the SP and the BES rebooted did the install window pop up again after the reboot?

That's right, we had an image of the server and a backup of the database.

After the reboot I actually logged in with a domain admin account and was then prompted to log in with the account which I did the upgrade with, so I loggged out and back in with that account, but no window popped up automatically. The first time I did the install, I logged back in with the besadmin account after the reboot and it then wanted to proceed with the second half of the install.
Is it possible that even tho I was prompted to log in with the user doing the upgrade, it didn't manage to finish off what it needed to do? Is there a way to finish it off or am I looking at another rollback to do it again?
Thanks
Marshall

You can log in as BESAdmin and run setup.exe again. That way you don't have to roll back.

Thanks gibson. I did just that and setup continued from half way down as it hadn't completed the last half so that was great. Once this was done, all started working as it should, except for an internet pass through issue. Prior to the upgrade we had setup a service account to browse the internet for a user so they didn't need to authenticate through the proxy themselves. This no longer worked, and users were being prompted for their credentials, so we've now allowed the server through the proxy without authentication, but this is very much a work around. Accessing the intranet a user is prompted several times in a row, just like in the original case of accessing the internet. Hitting cancel actually gets you through to the page, or most of it. I am a bit confused as to whats triggering this constant authentication requirement. Before we made the change to allow the server through without authentication, you'd probably get 25 requests for authentication in a 5 minute span of browsing to 3 different sites.
Marshall.