[Si]

Following on from my Exchange 2003 checklist, below you will find a simplified (yet fully RIM supported) prerequisite checklist for Exchange 2007. It assumes you are installing all BES components on a single machine, and that this machine is not the Exchange server itself. Here we go......

BES Prerequisites for Exchange 2007


Hardware Requirements

RIM’s minimum recommendations for the hardware on which you want to run BES are:

Intel Pentium IV processor (2GHz or higher)
1.5GB RAM
10GB of free disk space

Your BES should also be located near your Exchange Server to avoid issues with latency.


Network Environment & Firewall Configuration

Do not put the BES in a DMZ

Configure your firewall to initiate a bi-directional TCP/IP connection to an external server on port 3101

Verify that the firewall can resolve Internet addresses using DNS

If using a proxying firewall, ensure that the proxy is transparent


SPAM & Anti Virus Systems

You must allow .DAT file attachments to pass through to users mailboxes for Enterprise Activation

You must ensure your Anti SPAM software does not prevent activation messages reaching users’ mailboxes. The best way to configure this is to allow all emails from *.blackberry.net


BES Software Requirements

Your BES server will need to run Microsoft Windows 2003 SP1 or later

You will need to install Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1

You will need to install Microsoft Messaging Queue (MSMQ) Version 3.0.

Install the Internet Service Manager component of Internet Information Services from your Microsoft Windows installation media

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.0 or later

Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 or later (to read the user guides)

You must install SQL 2005 Express or SQL 2000 (or later) on the same computer as the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. You can also utilise a remote SQL server if required (this has failover benefits).


Microsoft Exchange Infrastructure

Microsoft Exchange 2007 native environment

Any Microsoft Exchange service packs that are installed on your mail server must also be installed on the BES computer

Do not install Microsoft Outlook on the computer on which you intend to install BES

Verify that the BES is in the same Microsoft Exchange domain as your messaging server


Configuration Database

If you intend to install your database on the same computer as BES, install one of the following database programs:

1. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a (or later)

3. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Express, Professional or Enterprise)

If your configuration database is on a remote server, you must enable named pipes and TCP/IP network protocols

Microsoft SQL Server must not be installed with case-sensitive collation settings. Use the default case-insensitive collation settings

You must only use one database per organisation

Install the following Microsoft Data Access Component (MDAC) version on the computer where you plan to install the BlackBerry Enterprise Server:

MDAC 2.8 Service Pack 2 (version 2000.86.1830.00)


If you are using Microsoft SQL Server, download and install the appropriate Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) driver.

- Microsoft SQL Server 2000 driver for JDBC Service Pack 3
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 driver for JDBC


Database Permissions

If creating the configuration database on the BES computer, assign System Administrator permission

If creating the configuration database on a remote database server during the BlackBerry Enterprise Server installation, assign Server Administrator and Database Creator permissions. If you are using Microsoft SQL Server 2005, also assign the System Administrator permission or the following roles: SQLAgentReaderRole, and SQLAgentOperatorRole


BESAdmin Permissions

Create a service (user) account and mailbox called BESAdmin in Microsoft Active Directory

Initialize the mailbox by sending a test message to the newly created service account mailbox

The service account requires a minimum of the following permissions:

* Log on locally with local permissions
* Log on as a service
* Local administrator

The service account requires the following Microsoft Exchange permissions:

* View Only Administrator.
* Administrator Information store, Send as, and Receive as.

You must ensure your Group Policy does not conflict and override the permissions set for the BESAdmin


Terminal Services

Windows Server 2000: If installed, select Remote Administration mode
Windows Server 2003: Do not install; select Remote Desktop mode on the System Properties Remote tab


Multiple Languages

You can enable additional languages to support Unicode in the BlackBerry Manager using the Windows regional options

Download the Microsoft Internet Explorer Multilanguage support pack and adjust the encoding to view Chinese Simplified [GB2312] and, or Chinese Traditional [Big5]


USB Hub

If you are running a USB hub, verify that the driver supports USB 1.1 compliant hubs


As a final point, when it comes to actually installing your BES server, make sure you are logged on as the BESAdmin account!!

[naviculture]

Brilliant information, thanks. We're about to upgrade our BES to the latest version, and at the same time upgrade to Exchange 2007. Scary, I'm not looking forward to it...

[hdawg]

Originally Posted by naviwilliams

Brilliant information, thanks. We're about to upgrade our BES to the latest version, and at the same time upgrade to Exchange 2007. Scary, I'm not looking forward to it...

EEP! Sounds like a lot of changes in a short amount of time. Document document document.

[SneakySoulJAH]

Virtually an identical requirements list to the one I created a few months ago, we moved from Exchange 2000 to 2007 and moved the BES from 4.1.2 to 4.1.6 MR2. Only hiccup I encounter throughout both projects was the installation of CDO and MAPI client on the BES, the package for use with Exchange 2007 was installed but CDO didn't register properly I ended up manually registering it. Now that I think about it I had an issue with MDAC on Windows 2000 Server (One of my clients BES's is installed on 2000 Server) also, the correct version was installed as required but the prerequisite check shot back some registry issue with version conflicts or something along those lines, I was able to resolve it by installing the MDAC security updates via Windows Update for the latest version available on a Windows 2000 Server. Overall those nice job on the list, I'm certainly sure it will be helpful to many.

[SneakySoulJAH]

Originally Posted by hdawg

EEP! Sounds like a lot of changes in a short amount of time. Document document document.

Yup gotta document document document, you'd be surprised though I did the same both a migration from Exchange 2000 to 2007 and BES upgrade from 4.1.2 to 4.1.6 MR2 at pretty much the same time. I just left all the BES user mailboxes on the Exchange 2000 server and moved all other user mailboxes to 2007, after letting users use the Exchange 2007 box for a week or so without issue I upgraded the BES and moved over the remaining mailboxes (Just the BES Users and BESAdmin Mailbox) smoothly.

[sriBerry]

hi all,
i have expirience calendering one way synch error(handheld to server) after migrating exchange 2003 to exchange 2007 with BES 4.1.6 MR2.

BES Enviornment;

Windows 2003 + SP2
ExchangeMapiCdo 1.2.1 - v.6.5.8069.0
SQL 2000 server + SP3
exchange 2007 sp1

Error : "Unlisted Message Error"
all other services are working fine.
appriciate your help to solve that issue

[Abe]

One-way calendar sync errors usually have their root cause in wrong permissions.