We wanted to stand up a new BES using Windows 2003 Server, since we will be migrating from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 in the very near future, but according to the RIM installation guide for BES 4.0 Windows 2000 SP4 is required to support Exchage 5.5.

Has anyone learned/dscovered if, in fact, a BES running on W2k3 can support Exchange 5.5, contrary to the RIM docs???

there may be bigger issues to discuss first. The main one being, do you already have a Windows 2003 server deployed in your company? Also, the underlying OS would seem to be irrelavant to BES if it was going to be a stand alone machine. BES only needs to connect to Exchange via an Exchange connector. RIM recommends using the Exchange System manager to do that, but in reality, you can do it with any MAPI interface that will connect to Exchange.

RIM's documentation may state that but guess what.... So does Microsofts. Have you tried installing Exchange administrator on an windows 2003 Server... it doesnt work.... Install ESM 2003 with Exchange 5.5 administrator suppot.