[quadris]

Hello all, i am here in hope that you guys can help me out!

Here is the scenario:


I have a client with a site here in England, UK and a new site over in Guernsey, Channel Islands, The site here in England has a Small Biz Server 2003 with Exchange 2003 and BES 4.1.7.18 installed on an XP Machine on the Domain.

The new site (in Guernsey) is going to become the primary and i have been tasked with migrating the current BES over to Guernsey, We have a Small Biz Server 2008 R2 (64bit) with Exchange 2007. We have bought the latest BES Software, 5.X. <- Full version, NOT Express.
We have 8 Users with the following devices - 8100 x3, 8110 x4 & 8310 x1.

The email domain will remain the same, the external IP will change, there is a third party spam filter (postni) Which sits between the domain and the exchange server

I have spent a good few hours trolling the net for a single documented solution but have been unsuccessful with my question:

How do we migrate the existing devices over to the new server? the devices will be here in the UK so we will not be able to plug them directly into the new BES, we can set up a VPN to the new BES if needed.

Ideally we could do with the handsets being left as they are now, IE, not loosing any SMS, Contacts (they are brought down from exchange right?) or pictures etc.



Many thanks


Martin

[Jadey]

Contacts will come from Exchange

Other things like SMS, Pictures will not.
Yes BES backs up certain stuff OTA (not SMS or pics actually, stuff like call logs) but you're not reactivating on the same BES. So the OTA backup data won't help.

The 2 BES servers do not share a DB, and do not sound like they are on the same LAN. As such, I can't see how you are going to be able to move users across.

I would suggest doing this on a one-by-one basis, as you have very few users:

* Backup the device using Desktop Manager - if pics are not saved to SD card but internal memory, make sure you back these up! A standard backup won't get them, you'll need Media Manager or do it manually
* Wipe the device (if pics are on SD card, don't wipe the SD Card. Makes life easier)
* Restore SMS messages, MMS messages, pics/media if necessary, other stuff user wants like call logs, browser history, bookmarks blah via Desktop Manager
* Don't restore messages, contacts, to do or anything that will OTA sync from Exchange
* Activate the device against the new BES

If I have got your network setup wrong, let me know. But I assumed that these 2 Exchange/BES environments have no visibility of each other, so to move users from one to another is going to need a wipe&reload on devices

[quadris]

thanks for your reply,
The two sites are not on the same LAN, you are right. BUT... they can be, i can set up a VPN between the two sites if this helps, but i would prefer to have this done with the least chance of failure adding a VPN into the process means we have to get that working before we can start the user migration.

So, assuming the two sites are in no way connected, how do i re-join the handsets to the new BES?

[Jadey]

I'm still a tad confused about the exchange bit, are you upgrading or migrating or...?

Anyway, once the users are on the Exchange 2007 server (which is what the BES 5 looks at), add them to the BES 5... Set an Enterprise Activation password... Then do the backup/wipe/partial restore/activate bit above.

[knottyrope]

Assisted here as well
Re: Help with Migration & Relocation - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

[quadris]

Ok thanks,

They have a 2003 Exchange server in the UK and a new Exchange 2007 server in Guernsey, i am setting up the new exchange server now and will be ready to go by the time i am doing this BES work (i hope).

So a Brand new server and software in a different country.

[Jadey]

Will the users have their mail/contacts etc migrated over to the new Exchange server then?

[quadris]

Yes, i will be exmerging all of the data on monday night ready for flying out on tuesday morning.