I followed the BES 4.1 install PDF guide and successfully setup a single BES 4.1 server with MDS.

I am now trying to figure out how to install a second BES server but cannot find any documentation on this. My goal is to have 2 BES servers hosting accounts in the same Exchange 2003 environment. I also need to have MDS installed.

My first BES server created a BESMgmt database, as well as a mdss and mdss_dis databases. When trying to install my second BES server in my Exchange 2003 environment, I told the installer to use the same BESMgmt database. It did not complain when I did this. I then told the installer to also use the same mdss and mdss_dis database which was created when I installed my first BES server, but I got an error:

"Failed to update the values into database [mdss] as the database has been assigned to another server [BLACKBERRY]. Please try with the other database."

Sure enough, my first BES server is named "BLACKBERRY" (both the machine name, and registered BES name). My second server is simply BLACKBERRY2.

Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong? Does the documentation even cover multi BES server configurations? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Perhaps I need to ask this question a little differently:

Does anyone know if its possible to share configuration databases between multiple MDS servers like you can do with BES servers? Or does each MDS server require its own database?

each needs it own; no sharing.