If I have two servers:

1) BES Admin and Monitoring
2) BES Core

Can I patch server 1 in advance of patching 2, or must they be done at the same time? We generally patch #2 off hours, but if I can patch #1 well ahead of time, it would be very beneficial.

I guess the main concern is that the SP on #1 will upgrade the config database and make it unusable for #2.

If you upgrade BES to SP3, then you won't be able to use BAS until it is also upgraded to SP3.

In my experience, I haven't been able to upgrade the BES until the BAS has been upgraded.

But can I upgrade the BAS on Monday and wait to upgrade the BES until off-hours / later in the week?

Also, thank you for gracing my thread! Your blog is fantastic.

Have a look for the correct order and steps of the SP upgrade:

KB24541-Best practices for installing service packs for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0

The patching order is helpful and confirms what I've seen as the proper steps in the past, but unfortunately does not fully answer the question of whether the BES will function after a database upgrade but before a BES upgrade.

Thank you, regardless. These steps are important to know.