Surely there must be a correct order for BES services to start.

My machine is a bit slow to start, and the dispatcher server seems to sometimes generate a SRP 10061 errors. They are in at least 4 of the log files.

If I start Dispatcher first; them the rest all is well.

Anybody have good ideas?

No specific order required for service startup at all. What version BES are you on (including SP), as quite often there are errors that flag up which are actually red herrings and not problematic at all??

There really must be an order. The services all talk to each other.

If they cannot connect and time out durring startup because of to many retries it messes up the world.

For one thing they cannot start before Exchange if on the same box; and SQL Server stuff for sure.

The only reason most people never have problems is they have a BES server that has only BES on it.

Try using the order identified in the Services applet as a guideline when stopping/starting. It depends on the issue at the time and the service that you wish to manipulate to influence the output.
As mentioned before there is no specific order for services startup...however main BES functionality (mail redirection, syncing..etc) does depend on the Dispatcher service being connected (authenticated) to the RIM infrastructure. You could disable the Dispatcher service and start the other services in any order and it won't make a world of difference. Or you could disable all the other services and leave only the Dispatcher service.
The only service that should not be restarted too many times is the Dispatcher service, since this causes a disconnection by RIM because of the
the 5-in-1 rule.

Thanks for that break down Dev, I lose heart when someone asks a question, you answer it based on your in depth experience and then they go "but there must be"!!!!!!

Start them Top to Bottom so you dont miss any.

I think the startup order does matter. When my server was at BES 3.6, I had created batch files that would stop and restart the services and the batch files all worked fine.

When I upgraded to BES 4.0 and haphazardly added the new services to the batch files, they no longer worked.

I don't remember what criteria I used to determine the working order, but these batch files currently work for my BES 4.0.4.5

REM Stop All Services:

net stop "BlackBerry Attachment Service"

net stop "BlackBerry Controller"

NET STOP "BlackBerry Dispatcher"


net stop "BlackBerry Mobile Data Service"

NET STOP "BlackBerry Policy Service"

NET STOP "BlackBerry Router"

net stop "BlackBerry Synchronization Service"

net stop "BlackBerry User Administration"
-----------------------------------------------
REM: Start All Services:

net start "BlackBerry Attachment Service"

net start "BlackBerry Controller"



net start "BlackBerry Mobile Data Service"


net start "BlackBerry User Administration"


NET start "BlackBerry Router"

NET start "BlackBerry Policy Service"

NET start "BlackBerry Dispatcher"

net start "BlackBerry Synchronization Service"

In 3.6 there was an order, not in 4.0 and above.................................for the last time!

there is an order because if the computer is slow to boot because of upgrade / ms patch / just plain a busy computer the services time out after trying to connect to dispatcher 10 times. then bad things happen.

i just don't reboot to fix things. bes has to work 24*7 and handle power failures and startup running 100% of the time.

on a fast machine this is never experienced. so thus the answer there is no order for many people. most a corect answer. but there is if the machine is not healthy or is very busy because of external requirements.

1) first exchange & sql have to start and be ready for BES services to connect. exchange if on same computer. not if not.
2) dispatcher must be running and authenticated and connected.
3) then the rest I think.

I am surprised that there is no dependency in the services config.

I think we're confusing specific BES services in conjunction with "other" services (be they SQL, or 3rd party services) that otherwise makeup the complete BES messaging solution. If they all happen to be running on a single box, then you'll likey have performance issues that will undoubtedly have an effect on service startup...not to mention if the box is attempting to connect to a remote server/service -e.g SQL or Attachment service.
An "unhealthy" server hampered by busy "external requirements" does not dictate BES services order start-up. BES runs just like any other service - be it a Printer, fax server, Terminal server, proxy server -
If you recognize that your server is "unhealthy", then set the critical services to manual - in this case the Dispatcher - to prevent bad things from happening, or introduce a delay in the startup of some services in your batch file.
Let the other services catch up and be fully functional before he Dispatcher attempts to connect to the RIM relay host. Or better yet get a better server to run your mission critical BES messaging.

For what it's worth, in BES 4.1 during an upgrade or installation (can't remember), it goes in this order:

To note, RIM's documentation for High Availability gives the 'net start' commands in alphabetical order. So I suppose that could be the definitive answer you're looking for, even though the level of expertise in this thread should have been more than sufficient (atleast from where I'm standing).

P.S. - I *fully* agree with what dev put in his last reply. You asked what order the BES services start and then rambled on that there must be an order and specifically pointed out Exchange and SQL services as dependencies. Not really what you originally asked for, no?

Here's a variable-based single batch file that works.

http://www.blackberryforums.com/99207-post2.html

I've always wondered about the order too. For what it is worth, I took a capture during my last service pack upgrade, and this was the order in which it had started up the services. I have followed this in order when starting services, and backwards when stopping services manually when I needed to, without any problems.

Thanks god this sorry thread's come to an end!

Yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because...

This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend...

I did really mean what order does BES services have to start relative to themsleves and the others they need.

I think the problem is that some BES services depend on Dispatcher. So I will make sure that SQL Server & Exchange is running, then Dispatcher then the rest of BES.

It should go without saying that for BES to start up correctly you need to have your Exchange services and SQL running (a bit like saying if you want your car to start you need petrol and oil in it first).

On the basis they are running fine then start the BES services in whatever order you fancy.

Thanks BBAdmin....