I've got a test BES setup (runing the new single user BES Express 4.1)

I keep getting a situation where BlackBerryAgent.exe is consuming as much CPU as it can - often 90% or so. The system idle task doesn't get a look in.

If I use BlackBerry Manager to re-start the BES services the CPU usage goes back to normal.

I've done a search on the RIM support site and couldn't see anything relevant (there's talk about a BlackBerryAgent CPU problem, but it was supposedly fixed some time ago, so I'd expect 4.1 to be OK).

Anyone got any ideas?

BUMP

Am I really the only person suffereing from this one? If so, I guess it must be down to the config of the server, so I'll try a re-install of BES on a different server.

P.

I saw another post on the same sort of issue that you are having. The BlackBerryAgent.exe job is to scan the user’s mailboxes. Are you running SQL or MSDE, is the high CPU limited to one messaging agent or more then one? How many Exchange servers do you have with BlackBerry enabled mailboxes? How many users are on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server?


In the other post is said that they have seen a users mailbox with corrupt entries and after removing the user it fixed the issue. If you are able to narrow it down to a user you could xmerge the information from his mailbox and create him a new exchange mailbox.

Cheers

It's a BES Express with just me connected to it (so not under any particular strain). The high CPU thing seems to happen every three or four days, and then re-starting the BES seems to cure it - as such I don't think it's related to my Exchange mailbox (else it would be running at high CPU more often - don't you think?). Oh, I am running MSDE BTW.

Thanks for the help,

P.

It could also be MAPI related. What version of MAPI32.dll is on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the Exchange server? You want to make sure that the version of MAPI is the same between the two; you may just need to apply the latest service pack for Exchange on the BES.

Cheers,
Ash

I submitted a post about this. We have the same issue on our 4.0 BES server (100 users) and RIM has no idea as to why it's happening. The only things that I have found that could be causing the issue are: too many pending messages (not sure how many that is) for a Blackberry and having blackberry alerts being sent from the server. If 4.1 has the issue, then there went my fix.

Edited to add the corrupt mail item problem was the third potential reason for the CPU spike. The problem is there is no way to figure out which user has corrupt items in their mailbox.

I'm seeing this on my two BES Systems. Each system has 2 BES (4.1.4) and Exchange 2003. We have been running fine on 4.1.4 for a few weeks. Yesterday and today I have noticed that CPU is pegged at 100% with 2-3 BlackberryAgents taking up the processor. Also, the BBAgents are sucking the physical memory dry (the servers have 4 GB RAM). If I shutdown the BES Controller and the agents go down the CPU returns to normal and my memory returns.

On phone with RIM now. They are saying there is a memory leak associated with S/MIME and 4.1.4. No known solution at this time. Great!!! Lovin' my job.

guh ... keep us posted on this; i haven't seen anything like this with 4.1 SP4 yet.

Any updates to this, we are having a similar issue


Thanks


...Chubbs

Only update I have is that RIM wants me to run Performance monitor for a day and give them the logs. I can give them the logs without running PerfMon, 100% Processor and almost no memory.

The BES servers have 4 GB of RAM, once the BES Controller starts (and the BlackberryAgents) the processor hits 100% and the RAM starts going down. Once RAM as been reduced to < 1GB (takes about 30 minutes), the processor settles down to a reasonable level. If the BES Server is allowed to run the memory will still drop, but at a much slower rate and the Virtual memory will decrease till there is nothing left. Only thing left to do is restart the BES Controller and start the process over.

Looking more into Zenprise and Boxtone to find out more what is happening in the background.

RIM said they are able to reproduce the problem and have developers working on it. No solution time known.

Alan

This doesn't affect just 4.1.4 though, it affects all versions of 4.1 but it has been mostly seen in 4.1.4.

AlanM: Do you have a set limit size on your attachments? If you have an unlimited attachment size then it could be escalating your problem. BES would have an issue with huge S/MIME encrypted messages.

I'll have to check the attachment size.

Got the patch (new blackberryagent.exe) last week. CPU and memory leak seem to have cleared. Our user's large mailboxes (have several mailboxes over 10 GB, those from WES should know this) compounded the issue because everytime we had to restart the BBAgents they'd rescan the mailboxes, which because of their size drove the utilization higher.

where is the patch located? did it require a reboot?

patch was provided directly from RIM. Haven't looked this week to see if it was a hotfix yet. Since it was the BlackberryAgent.exe it just required a shutdown of the BES Controller and then start up of the Controller. Users won't see any downtime.

Thanks for the info, I will get on the phone with T Support . . .

Of coarse, I called T Support and they have no clue about this patch....what is the name of the file, so I can tell this T Support guy.

Thanks

....Chubbs

Chubbs, check your PM

ooooh, me too me too.

Please, me too, i suffer sometimes when i have to persuade the people to clean their mailbox to reasonable size ...

Please, me too, i suffer sometimes when i have to persuade the people to clean their mailbox to reasonable size ...

Sorry for the double post, forums DB went down :-/

Fix I received was to address a memory leak that BES 4.1.4 had with S/MIME. Where I work S/MIME is a requirment for some emails. Symptoms were high processor utilization caused by the BBagent.exe and processor would remain high until physical memory was pretty much exhausted. I would also see an increase in the page file growth. I believe the large mailbox sizes of one of my Exchange systems caused more work for the BBagents (my observations).

Since the patch, processor utilization has become more reasonable and I only see a spike or two that concern me (processor % usually drops to normal soon after spike).

That's my story (disclaimer). Your mileage may vary.

Does this issue happen on 4.0.6 as well? I am actually in the process of upgrading the Server 2003/BES 4.1.3 (or 4) and we are currently experiencing these issues on our 2000 server talking to an exchange 2000 environment (soon to be Ex 2003). What about RPC's to exchange? Is there a calculator out there that can help me figure out how