Does anyone install components like Collaboration service, MDS, Router, etc on computers separate from the BES hosting users? I manage 4 servers running 4.1.6 now, and each has all services running locally. I'm planning a new 5.0 environment and wondering if anyone is running some services on dedicated boxes, and if so, do you notice any performance benefits?

with 4.x I've worked in environments that have split off MDS, Attachment, and Router services.

Part of the reason for doing this was perceived performance improvement (attachment) ... which I think was never realized as the servers were never that taxed.

The remote router typically comes through as a mandate from the network team, and remote MDS-CS is a little bit of both. The thing I like about remote MDS is that it gives you a single point to manage all MDS activity ... and I've found more of a need to go through MDS logs / data than I have with attachment services.

I think the big thing to really look at with 5.0 is planning how you're going to do high availability ... what have you planned for that; if anything?

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I'm just in the beginning of planning, but my initial thoughts are to have BAS on a separate pair of server, then set up 3 or 4 pairs of BlackBerry Enterprise Servers with all the components on each (one primary and one standby in each pair).
We have some users on IM and a few web apps accessed via MDS, but nothing intensive right now, so I can't see a need to run those services on separate machines.

i'm going to have 20 bes servers so for me it makes sense to separate lcs, mds-cs and attachment from a management standpoint (and stupid monthly pdf patches). having to change configurations (and apply stupid pdf patches) on 4 servers compared to 20 makes much more sense.

my dilemma has been can you put all 3 services on one box? and if so, how many of these "communications services" boxes would i need to support 20 bes server instances?

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Exactly what I would recommend doing

Keep BAS separate and everything else shared.

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How many users do you average per BES? what mail platform are you using?

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J, as you've seen in my QA diagram, that's what we're doing (BAS + CoreBES + SQL on three separate levels). If and when we have the need to break one of the services out, we will do so. However, as it stands with BES, I have an OOBE of 350MB total RAM usage (OS + BES), so I don't think this is going to be much different than BES 4.x on resources.

I can definitely see how the distributed model would help RH in his environment. He had also mentioned the monthly PDF patches would be easier to install with a distributed Attachment Service, which I completely agree with (except the fact that we've simply given up on applying these patches in our environment, as the potential for risk is slim given that these are processed 4 levels deep in the environment). I do use this as a tongue-and-cheek example of distributed components whenever I'm in a RIM training class, though

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