I am attempting to move my existing 4.1 BES to new hardware with new Windows server name & from MSDE to SQL 2005. I know next to nothing about SQL and I am stuck at the Task 3 instructions on updating the BB Config DB Schema. I don't know if I need to do this or not because its asking if the BES was installed to create a blank BB Config DB on a new MS SQL server instance, and I don't know what an instance is & I have not been instructed yet by the knife-edge cutover to install my new BES yet.

Anyone know what the heck I should be doing here?

You can use the createdb.exe tool to create a "blank" BESmgmt database which will update the SQL Server Master database errors table with BlackBerry specific error information. Once you have done this, you can delete the "blank" database and migrate your production db to the SQL server.

So when do I install the BES software on the new server?

After you have migrated the database over to the new SQL server, then do the software install on the new server...during the install you will point this server to the new db location. Just make sure you have stopped (and disabled) all BES services on the old server before you start them up on the new server.

By the way, you can also create the "blank" during installation (before migrating the db) by pointing the BES to the new SQL server. After installation is complete, you would delete the "blank" db and migrate at that point. It just so happened that this worked for me during one migration but failed on another, which is why I had to break out the createdb.exe utility.

Thanks. I'll try the blank db during the install & then migrate over. What's the easiest way to migrate my MSDE db from the old server to the new server running SQL 2005? I have the db backed up using Enterprise Manager on another SQL2000 server I have, and my existing BES services are stopped, but how do move it to the new SQL server?

Is there any reason that you cannot upgrade the SQL 2000 server to 2005? I ask because we ran into some issues trying to restore a SQL 2000 db to SQL 2005. This is the process that I would try to do first...

1. Stop the BES services on your current server and disable them.
2. Kill any reminant SQL connections and perform a fresh backup to the SQL 2005 server.
3. Install the BES software on your new BES server and point it to the SQL 2005 server during the db creation part of setup.
4. At the end of the setup program, uncheck the "start services" box and finish.
5. Delete the "blank" BESmgmt db that was created by installation.
6. Do a restore of your production BESmgmt db and attach it on the SQL 2005 server.
7. Start the BES services on your new BES server.
8. As an optional step, you could upgrade your SQL 2000 server to 2005 and enable one way replication of the BESmgmt db to it for DR purposes.

If that doesn't work because of a SQL 2000 to SQL 2005 problem (like we had), you can do the following...

1. Stop the BES services on your current server and disable them.
2. Kill any reminant SQL connections and perform a fresh backup to the SQL 2000 server.
3. Install the BES software on your new BES server and point it to the SQL 2000 server during the db creation part of setup.
4. At the end of the setup program, uncheck the "start services" box and finish.
5. Perform an in place upgrade on the SQL 2000 server to SQL 2005.
5. Delete the "blank" BESmgmt db that was created by installation.
6. Do a restore of your production BESmgmt db and attach it on the newly upgraded SQL 2005 server.
7. Start the BES services on your new BES server.

This would have you running on your "old" SQL 2000 server. If you want to move the db to your new SQL 2005 server, then do the following instead...(much is the same but a few extra steps)

1. Stop the BES services on your current server and disable them.
2. Kill any reminant SQL connections and perform a fresh backup to the SQL 2000 server.
3. Install the BES software on your new BES server and point it to the SQL 2000 server during the db creation part of setup.
4. At the end of the setup program, uncheck the "start services" box and finish.
5. Perform an in place upgrade on the SQL 2000 server to SQL 2005.
5. Delete the "blank" BESmgmt db that was created by installation.
6. Do a restore of your production BESmgmt db and attach it on the newly upgraded SQL 2005 server.
7. Perform a backup of the newly attached BESmgmt db and copy the backup file to the new SQL 2005 server.
8. Use the createdb.exe utility or BlackBerry Server Configuration utility to create a "blank" BESmgmt db on the new SQL 2005 server.
9. Delete the "blank" BESmgmt db and then restore and attach your production BESmgmt db on the new SQL 2005 server.
10. Start the BES services on your new BES server.
11. Optional step...setup one way replication between the SQL 2005 servers for DR purposes.

Lets try this.
Here is my current setup...
Windows 2003 SP2 member server running MSDE & BES 4.1.3 Software.
Windows server name = publicworks
BES server name = BES-SERVER1

The above server is going to be removed from my network.

New configuration...
Windows 2008 SP1 DC Server running SQL 2005
Windows server name = COA-1
Future BES Server name = BES-SERVER1

This is the server I am going to install the BES software to and this is the server I want my existing db moved to.
I am looking for a solution to get my existing (MSDE) db from the old server to the new server running SQL2005. As I stated earlier, I know next to nothing about SQL so this is all new to me. I'm not sure what an "instance" is and I have no idea what these commands like "osql -E -S <SQL_Server_Name>\<instance_name>" do or if I need to do any of them.

Also, when I mentioned I had a SQL2000 server, I was just using the enterprise manager from that server to attach to my BESMgmt db to do a backup since I do not know how to do a backup with MSDE since MSDE does not have enterprise manager.

Theoretically, the backup from SQL 2000 should restore to SQL 2005 and be upgraded to SQL 2005 in the process...this bombed out for us so we had to take the long road (the 11 step process I outlined).

So all you should have to do is backup and restore to move the database...theoretically speaking that is.

By the way, an instance is a virtualization thing for SQL...you can have multiple instances of SQL running on the same server. If this is the case, you have to specify which instance of SQL you want to create the db on. This is specified in the following format "servername\instancename" when entering the SQL information during BES setup.

Does the instancename have to pre-exist or can I create a new instance during the setup? I'm assuming by your description that an instance would be like multiple db's running on one SQL server, correct?

Sorry so much information...I just finished doing serveral BES hardware refreshes and moving databases over from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005 a couple of weeks ago.

As far as installing BES, the instance name has to pre-exist...you create the instance during the installation of SQL Server.

An instance can have multiple dbs running in it...an instance is really used to isolate running copies of SQL server. So what you might have is perhaps an 8 way server running multiple 4 instances of SQL with each instance assigned 2 processors each or some variation of that.