[ATLe46]

We have a client that is currently running off of a hosted Exchange environment, which is also hosting their BES.

We are moving them over to a new AD network that we have built from the ground up. I am looking for any tips or gotchas involved with migrating the users over from their current BES to our environment.

We are running BPS 4.1.4.17 with Exchange 2007. Not sure what the current setup is since we do not maintain that.

Will the users just go and activate their devices again? Will they lose their contacts, calendar, etc? We will be migrating their Exchange data into the new environment over the weekend, however most users want to be able to get new e-mails on their devices the Friday before the migration starts. Until we can get their contacts into Exchange, I am afraid that activating them on the new network will cause them to lose everything on their devices. Is this true?

Thanks!

[KMSigma]

Assuming that your user mailboxes have been moved to local Exchange and you are setting up a BlackBerry 5.0 Infrastructure, you should be able to just re-issue a new Enterprise Activation (set an EA password) for each of them, and have them Activate.

It will take a little time to move the mail locally and then do the BES EA, but it isn't too difficult.

You may also want to talk with the Hosted Service provider. Depending on the connection to the legacy BES, you may be able to use the Enterprise Transporter Tool. It is Excellent! A 100% home run for RIM that's been lacking in previous versions.

If the legacy systems allow you to use the BUA (BlackBerry User Administration tool) and you also allow it in your new environment, and have a decent network connection between the two, you should be golden.

[ATLe46]

Thanks KMSigma!

We will be migrating to Blackberry Professional (BPS) so unfortunately version 5 is not an option.

The user mailboxes are being ExMerged into PST's by the current provider (Rackspace/AppRiver) and I will be importing them into our environment over that weekend. I don't really have any connectivity between environments so it sounds like I can't use the tools you mentioned.

In that case, will I just have the users activate and it will move them to the new server? I am guessing until I can import their existing contacts, calendar, and e-mail; they'll only be able to get new messages. And when that happens, they won't have any contacts either as I've been told activating on a BES/BPS will wipe all existing contacts. Is that correct?