[Khue]

Hey guys,
I am preparing to do the "knife edge cut over" and i had a few questions

1) do i really have to name the new bes server the same as the old?
2) the current bes is on 4.0.1.xxx. I was planning on upgrading the new machine all the way to 4.0.4 however the bes guide found here <Cut over info> indicates that they should be on the same level at the time of the move. what is the reasoning behind this?

thanks.

[Ekrimmer]

Your BES server must have the same name, but the Windows box does not require it. Using a new netbios name also provides the safety of an easy fallback position.

As far as the versions - I tend to follow such recomendations. You can always apply the updates after the new server is running - and still fallback if there is a problem. I'm running 4.0 SP3 HF3 with no problems

[Korbyn]

Your BES instance name and your SRP ID need to be the same, other wise your service book on all the client devices will be incorrect and would not work again until they resynced or reran the Enterprise activation.

You could potentially do the new install with going straight to 4.0.4, but I would strongly recommend you create a backup of your database and know how to restore it back incase things go wrong. You can do everything right, but sometimes that database just won't upgrade properely.

[Khue]

Great... so the bb server will be forever known as testbox1... lol not my fault though i suppose.

[Korbyn]

One potential method, if all your users devices are running 4.0+ code, and you are running off a SQL database and not MSDE.

You'll need another SRP key to do this, but rather then doing a knife edge cutover, install a new BES server, with another SRP key, connected to the same database. You can have multiple BES's on the same SQL database.

Then you can move you users from the old (poorly named) bes to the new bes (conforming to a better naming standard). If you do have any old pre-4.0 clients, they will have to recradle and resync to get the updated service book before their devices will function again.

[technickel]

explain further,
When we cutover to the new server. The name will be different. What does it mean when you say the Windows box. Is that under the BES install or in the change database tool?

We don't have a spare SRP, ya know. Thanks

[dshearon]

if all of your devices are at version 4.0, all you have to do is sign up for a trial version of the bes. they will give you an SRP id which you can use while you move all the users to the new server, once you are done you can then change the SRP is to the original. This method would also allow you to change the BES instance name.

[b52junebug]

http://www.blackberry.com/knowledgec...61637&vernum=0

Take a look at this from the Blackberry knowledge base.

We put together a couple of 'disaster recovery servers' using this. The biggest thing in doing a cutover like this is to make sure that before you validate your srp key, stop all services on the old server. Otherwise you have a conflicting srp and get blocked from RIM.

Your servers have got to be identical in the software that they are running in order for this to be seamless.

[technickel]

yes they are all 4.0 devices..but does that mean they all have to enterprise activate again?

meaning i have to go in and set up all teh passwords for each account

[dshearon]

I have not done it so you should test it first, however according to RIM if the device is 4.0 you should be able to move it between servers without any user involvement. You may need to resend service books which is really easy and can be done for the entire user list at one time. Why are you not upgrading to 4.1?


also if you have google talk you can IM me at

[technickel]

thanks b52

what the issue is will be the new server has a new name.

But to confirm, I think during the install of 4.0 on the new server once I get down to the name of the server I put in the old server name..even though the computer name is different.

[technickel]

I wish we just got 4.0 in April

[dshearon]

Originally Posted by technickel

thanks b52

what the issue is will be the new server has a new name.

But to confirm, I think during the install of 4.0 on the new server once I get down to the name of the server I put in the old server name..even though the computer name is different.

correct.... the windows server name can be anything you want. When doing the setup of the BES and you are asked what you want it named make sure you use the same name as the BES instance on the old server.

[H.Nayl]

Another thing is when importing your SQL database to the new server, let the BES server configuration create the BESMgmt database for you (essentially an empty BESMgmt DB) then restore your database from the old server BACK into the newly created BESMgmt.

We just recently did a KE-cut over and we restored the old BES SQL DB to the new SQL server thinking we could just point the new BES server installation directly to restored DB.....the install didnt like that at all....

[b52junebug]

I would go with dshearon on the naming convention. What the name of the BES has to do with how it communicates with exchange is what is important. Since technically you cant or shouldnt have two servers named the same anyway. As far as having to enterprise reactivate everyone... the theory is that no you wont have to. As dshearon said you may have to send all of the service books again. This was available for 3.6 server as well.

The sole purpose of this manuever is to do some form of recovery on a lost server with the least amount of user down time.

One other suggestion is that if you have mulitple locations, with multiple BES's the other thing to do would be to keep a server for each location in another city. Such as we in charlotte would put our DR BES in Ny. Ny would put theirs in Houston, etc. This ensures that if something happens in your location Acts of nature, hardware failure or the possible attack, you can at least fall back on another location for your service.