Hi,

I am in the process of doing an architecture design to expand & provide HA for our 4.1.6 environment. I am not prepared to wait for BES 5.0 to be released for Novell GroupWise & want to implement a new design now. Though I want to ensure it will be adequate when the time comes to upgrade to 5.0.

Current environment:
1 x BES
1 x SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition

Future design:
4 x live BES in domain with unique SRP ID's. All configured to use the same database. No shared remote services.
2 x SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition (mirrored database)

The idea is to split the load over the servers. If one goes down the user accounts will be shifted to another. No need to worry about standby servers, disabling services, SRP ID lock outs etc.

I know this is just a rough overview & will cost more than using standby servers.

Comments?

How many users do you have? Are all BES / SQL / Mail servers located on the same LAN? SQL 2000 does not support database mirroring so I'm not sure how you plan on implementing that.

__________________
http://blog.port3101.org/hdawg/

The views expressed by me on Port3101 and its affiliated sites are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

Right on the database configuration. You'll need to upgrade to SQL 2005 for this to work. You could do transactional replication with SQL 2000, but that is quite the pain in the butt.

I've never been a fan of sourceless moves as a means of redundancy. It is good in a pinch, but I don't think it should be used in formal DR/HA planning.

__________________
BCSA (4.1, 5.0) | BCSD (4.1, 5.0)

The views expressed by me on Port3101.org are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

But it does work

__________________

Hey, I did say this was just a rough overview.

I have over 470 users. All BES for GroupWise documentation found recommends not exceeding 500 per server. Whereas BES for Exchange & Domino list up to 2000 users per BES.

We plan to double the user base in the near future & anticipate tripling by the end of next year.

All BES & SQL servers will be on the same LAN. The primary GroupWise domain is on the LAN, but we have over 150 mail servers across the WAN.

SQL Server 2000 - sorry, that was a typo. I meant SQL Server 2005.

New Questions:
1. I assume when you add an additional BES to the BlackBerry domain, the CAL's are shared? That is, it doesn't matter how many BES you have in the domain as long as you have enough CAL's to cover the amount of users spread across the BES's.

2. When installing the BES software on an additional BES in the domain, does the installation process allow you to install the BlackBerry Router service, or do you have to point it to the existing BES to route? That is, can each BES in the domain have the router service installed, or can only one BES in a domain have the router service installed?

That's like saying you walked into a restaurant and said "I want food" ... you ask a question, you're getting a complete answer ... unless of course you say you use GroupWise

I don't get why there is the 500 limit ... but its definitely there ... I've attached the capacity calculator for you to this post for reference.

I now see why you're planning for 4 servers (based off the 500 user number).

Here's where my lack of knowledge with GroupWise is a pain to some degree ... that said, I would do my best to isolate / limit the number of mail servers each BES communicates with. I can't speak effectively to the GroupWise threading model, I haven't looked at it in well over a year and I never actually had to know it ...

SQL Mirroring

That is correct; all BlackBerry Enterprise Servers in a given domain share CAL's.

The installation process allows you to install the BlackBerry Router service on each additional BES you add; each BES in the domain can have the router service installed.

Hope this helps!

Attached Files

BES_Capacity_Calculator - Groupwise 4.1.xlsx (68.0 KB, 105 views)

__________________
http://blog.port3101.org/hdawg/

The views expressed by me on Port3101 and its affiliated sites are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

I'm not sure either. I asked the RIM Asia Pacific Technical Account Manager the same question last week. I haven't had a response yet.

I have had thoughts of setting up a GroupWise Post Office specifically for BlackBerry users. The only downsides I can think of are:
1. If that PO goes down for some reason, all BlackBerry users are effected.
2. Users are spread across the state & some are on slower WAN links than others. I'm concerned those on slow links may experience lag using the GroupWise client when at their desk.

Thanks hdawg.

have you thought about using athird party solution such as Neverfail (my company)

Andrew, as RIM is now including a very basic form of HA (one that is perfectly suitable for a good number of companies, mind you), has Neverfail performed a comparison analysis for what you offer (for a price) versus what RIM offers (for free)? I'm sure our readers would be interested in such a comparison (although, to be honest, I'm not sure on your limitations to publish such an article given your partner status with the perceived 'competitor'). As I mentioned in a session at WES, in the five years that I've known of Neverfail and interfaced with some of your customers (industry peers of mine), I've never heard a single complaint about the product. That cannot be said of many other vendors.

__________________
BCSA (4.1, 5.0) | BCSD (4.1, 5.0)

The views expressed by me on Port3101.org are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.