[a_user]

Has anyone upgraded a BES Enterprise Small Business Edition to the Professional edition in order to expand their CAL limit from 15 to 30?

It appears possible to upgrade from BES Professional to BES Enterprise Full with just a SP install and unlock code. It also appears the upgrade from BES SBE to Professional is free for existing customers?

I am wondering if there are any real disadvantages to doing this. If I understand correctly you can still install BES Professional to a server other then the mail server?

[knottyrope]

I have done this. We dont use MDS yet. MDS is a little limited in PRO.

The interface is where you see a big change. Takes a little getting used to it.

My upgrade went smooth. Never had any major issues.

Now we are on full blown BES.

[a_user]

Thanks knottyrope.

I am actually considering performing a fresh installation but using the pro version (if possible). My biggest gripe right now is that the database is on an external SQL server. Not that big of a deal but our load dosen't warrant it and having an extra machine in the mix...and one that may be retiring soon seems somewhat unnecessary at this point.

The only issue I forsee is having to retype in our license keys (which all are 5 user cal packs) and the srp info, re-adding the 15 users and resending activations to them.

Anyone see anything wrong with that approach?

[legacyb4]

I went from the BES Express to the BES Pro a few weeks back for the same issues (just about to hit 15 users, but won't hit over 30).

If you have existing BES Express licenses, those get converted over automatically in the upgrade process. I did have one problem with the upgrade not taking but since my BES is a VM, I rolled back my snapshot, tried again and it seemed to work okay.

[knottyrope]

Do you have any other SQL servers? Or one that can run it. For 30 users it wont be resource heavy.

Then you can Knife edge to newhardware then upgrade.

[a_user]

Is it possible to do a fresh installation of BES Pro using the SMB licenses and srp key? Or does SMB need to be installed as a base and then upgraded to Pro?

[a_user]

Originally Posted by knottyrope

Do you have any other SQL servers? Or one that can run it. For 30 users it wont be resource heavy.

Then you can Knife edge to newhardware then upgrade.

Actually we have quite a few. I was planning on using msde though and then migrating that to an external sql server down the road if we ever have to. Maybe thats not a good idea though?

[a_user]

Anyone with any further thoughts on the impact of performance on running 30 users on the professional version on a local sql database vs. an external sql2000/2005 DB?

[knottyrope]

Why goto MSDE then back to SQL.
Doen not make sense. Just move the data base to the othe SQL BOX and do a Knife edge to new BES PRO box.

[Stern]

Originally Posted by a_user

Is it possible to do a fresh installation of BES Pro using the SMB licenses and srp key? Or does SMB need to be installed as a base and then upgraded to Pro?

You would need to add the licenses in order on a fresh install. so the original SBE licenses then the upgrade CAL then the enterprise CALS

[a_user]

Originally Posted by knottyrope

Why goto MSDE then back to SQL.
Doen not make sense. Just move the data base to the othe SQL BOX and do a Knife edge to new BES PRO box.

My thought is this. We are in the process of reworking our database environment (about 15 db servers) and i would just assume not have to worry about having the database managed externally by the dba team. This would throw all requirements and management into a single location. We used image based backups so I could easily roll back in the case of a failure without having to worry about have the databases backed up and or restored independently.

Likewise this database, though small and not resource intensive will have to be moved to another db server with a new name AFTER the installation occurs in which case the BES system settings will have to be modified to reflect this change (which does appear to be straightforward however).

That is my reasoning. Upon reading up on it more it seems there are others running 200 and 300+ clients on a local sql express database without any issues. We are running 15 right now and i dont forsee us hitting that upper limit anytime soon.

[a_user]

Originally Posted by Stern

You would need to add the licenses in order on a fresh install. so the original SBE licenses then the upgrade CAL then the enterprise CALS

Hi Stern,

Are you saying that we can NOT perform a fresh install of the Pro version using the existing cals and srp info without first installing the SMB edition?

This is going to be a fresh install and I was hoping that I could perform a clean install with the pro version and not have to perform an in-place upgrade.

[knottyrope]

PRO used to use different CALs, not sure if this is true now.

[Calrider]

I migrated our Bes Express from a stand-alone W2K3-SP2 box onto a virtual-slice using Microsoft Virtual Server. I then upgraded the Express to Pro all with no issues. Been running fine for a dozen users for three weeks now.