[stevekdavis]

Hi,

Server Setup:

BES 4.1.3.18 running on Win 2003 R2 SP2
Exchange 2003 SP2 Server Manager installed

BES users have mailboxes on 2 exchange 2003 SP2 servers running on Win2003 R2 SP2 and email was working fine between blackberries and exchange servers.

I'm really struggling to fix a BES issues that cropped up over Christmas. Firstly, BES was working fine with 5 handsets happily processing email and had been for about 9 months. On Dec 30th BES start throwing lots of errors about mailbox access. The office was closed so no changes were made to the server apart from critical MS updates but none were applied on the 30th.

In trying to trouble shoot I deleted a few users and tried to re-activate but this never worked.

On looking closer on the server it seems like there is a MAPI problem in that when confirming the BESAccount and exchange server it takes 5 minutes to confirm and underline the names. To eliminate a server problem I tried setting an outlook profile on an XP client for the BESAdmin user and it validates immediately.

I then tried a MAPI profile test tool from microsoft and just creating a basic user profile to an exchange server resulted in exactly the same delay. So I figure that unless I can resolve this then BES has no chance of connecting.

I tried installing outlook on the server and had the same issue. Removed outlook, removed the exchange system manager and re-installed outlook, same problem. I'm not struggling to think of what to do next.

Any ideas?

thanks
Steve

[hdawg]

Steve, welcome to the forums!

Check to make sure you're not having any problems with any of your Global Catalog servers; also make sure you don't have any hard coded HOSTS file entries pointing to old / stale GC references on your BES.

Remove Outlook from the BES and reinstall the ESM components (and service packs and hotfixes) to match what you have on your Exchange servers.

If you wanted to test address resolution some more, try a fresh XP system with Outlook installed and setup your first profile with the BESAdmin account. (or use the MAPI profile test tool)

You also might want to try installing the Windows Support Tools and using netdiag on your BES / GCs and also using dcdiag on your GCs to see if there are any network related issues.

[stevekdavis]

Thanks for responding

Outlook has now gone and I'm currently re-installing the ESM and patches on the BES server. What I did also notice was that from the ESM I could not connect and display the individual mailboxes for one of our exchange servers (the one containing the BES account annoyingly) It connected all the way to the point of opening the mailbox store fine. It would connect and display the mailboxes from the other 3 without issue.

I tried the same test from my XP workstation which also has the ESM installed and it displayed them fine on the exchange server in question so the issue appears to be communication between the BES server and one exchange server only. I'm pretty confident exchange is fine as I can access it from everywhere else and no is or has been complaining of exchange/outlook issues.

The are no obvious network isseus between servers, they're on the same 1gbps switch and LAN segment and pings are less than 1ms.

I'm at a loss here, it seem like my exchange server has taken offence to something the BES has done and is not letting it back in

[hdawg]

Check your event logs on Exchange / BES and look for anything errors / warnings. If on the BES you put in a different mailbox name and try to resolve that, does it come back quickly?

You may need to blow away and re-create the besadmin mailbox; or perhaps create a totally new account ...

[stevekdavis]

More information: it looks to be a general network/security issue between these two servers only and not limited to MAPI or exchange.

BES is servera and exchange is serverb.

on servera command prompt, type: net view \\serverb and I get the error that the server service is not running - it is, on both machines.

on servera, start, run, \\serverb\c$ and it goes away for 5 minutes (same time it takes to resolve an exchange profile) and then displays an explorer window with the contents of the c drive as it should.

servera to any other server is fine.
any other server to serverb is also fine.


I feel a server rebuild coming up

[hdawg]

If your BES SQL database is on a remote server you might as well blow away this server and reinstall everything.

Then reinstall the same version of BES and point it to the already existing database.

if the DB is local; take a backup of it; move it elsewhere and then rebuild and restore.

[stevekdavis]

update: stopped all bes services on original bes.

Installed to a completely new server:
Installed ESM, plus SP2, plus updates. Set BESAdmin as local administrator
Installed BES 4.1.3 (logged in a BESadmin), using MSDE and local database.

Recreated BES config from scratch (I had copies of all the keys and codes handy)

Set MAPI profile and it validated immediately!

Added myself to the BES server, activated immediately

All emails, events and contacts have been sync'd

Tried to send an email from the blackberry and it failed with a red cross

Eventlog on the new BES server says: {user@email.address} Send() failed: ERR_SUBMIT_MAIL, Tag=31

Event ID: 20000

I'm racking my brains trying to think of what I've missed and am coming up blank.

[hdawg]

Sounds like Send As permissions are being revoked on your account.

AdminSDHolder object got your tongue?

[stevekdavis]

that was it!

We're all working again.

Thanks a lot

[stevekdavis]

strangely the send-as permission on my account for BESAdmin was revoked again today. My account used to be Domain admin but isn't any more. Yesterday I ticked the box to inherit permissions from the parent.

What would cause it to be revoked again and any ideas on how to stop it happening?

thanks

Steve

[hdawg]

What groups is your account currently a member of?

[stevekdavis]

doh! - Enterprise Admins and Schema Admins - both now removed.