[wmarques]

we are looking to upgrade our current BES 4.1 system to 5.0.4. we run an exchange 2003 stand alone server. BES also runs on the same machine. i've read some conflicting reports about activesync and 5.0. i've also read that its difficult to enable activesync or oma if you don't have a frontend server, which i do not. i'm trying to find a resource that can A) help me correctly configure exchange 2003 before the upgrade and B) explain the front end/back end server complications with activesync and oma, or if i need to mess with the oma settings at all.

[dpeters11]

BES on the Exchange server is only supported with BES Express and less than 75 users.

I don't remember any particularly large issues with my upgrade, but that was about 5 years ago. I don't think you can go straight to SP4, you have to go from 4.1 SP7 to 5.0.3 then to 5.0.4.

This is the upgrade document for SP3:
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/admin/...001-5.0-US.pdf

[wmarques]

i'm gathered that from the RIM docs. i'm going to have to upgrade incrementally. do you know of any resources the relate directly to configuring exchange 2003 to work with version 5? do i HAVE to have activesync working for version 5 or is that just for the new blackberry 10 server?

[dpeters11]

I believe you would want the latest MAPI/CDO on Exchange, as well as be on SP2 if you aren't already. RTM and SP1 are limited support, but were for 4.1.7 as well.

[knottyrope]

BES/SBE/BPS 4.x upgrade options to BES Express 5.0 - BlackBerry Support Community Forums