Hello there

Could you provide me some advice please.

I currently haven't got a BB handheld bought for me by my employers so I can't test various scenarios yet, hence everything is currently theory.

I am setting up a HA BES environment for between 500-1000 (all of them with personal Blackberry's and personal BES or BIS plans - we are a prestigious University so "anything" is allowed) users and am documenting everything I intend to do in advance.

This includes what I anticipate to be the only really complicated part of the process, which is the User activation and PIM\Data retention. Many of the users will be coming from BES systems (No more than 100users on any one BES though) on completely seperate Email environments (GroupWise, Exchange, Lotus). I do want to keep moving these users onto my BES as simple as possible but I am confused as to what will and won't work.

Former colleagues of mine have said that they have managed Forest-Forest migrations using the transporter tool and it went fine, (NT4-AD). However, I've also seen posts that I interpret as saying that you have to "wipe and activate" the handheld if you are coming from a different Email organisation. In which case the activation\retention process becomes a manual one. If the latter is the case is the below an accurate process:

1) Have user Deleted from OLD BES (Does this remove IT policy from handheld)
2)Backup handheld data using DM
3)Wipe handheld
4)Restore Data using DM (Dont restore data that will sync with Private\Corporate Email systems though)
5)Create BES account and activate on new BES

I would really appreciate any comments you might have on this, obviously nothing is taken as gospel but it will help me determine if I am thinking the right way.

Tom

The procedure you have listed is what I'd recommend ... with a couple of additions.

1) I'd upgrade the OS of each and every handheld that you can possibly do. Newer OS's support newer BES functionality. Keeping the older OS's around will only cause problems going forward

2) Wipe each handheld AFTER upgrading the OS using Jl_Cmder. Newer OS's when wiped and reset to factory default will remove the current IT Policy. Older OS's (4.2.x and older) will not remove a policy with this method

The backup / restore procedure is exactly what I'd recommend too.

Unfortunately there is no supported way to migrate between disparate mail systems.

__________________
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.

Cheers HDawg (Hope you liked the look of Striphouse steaks)

I take it the transporter tool is not appropriate for my situation then? To be honest, even if it was, I have no intention of using it due to the large number of disparate systems, but interested to know.

I need to have a play with a handheld and BES to test out as many backup\restore processes as I can because until then ity is all just theory.

One thing I struggle to visualize is BIS data that is on these handhelds and how to restore this. If you were a BES user on a system and also a BIS user with various email connections, would DM allow you to backup all these different emails\settings and then restore it, and would DM actually make that simple?

Because my place of work are offering this BES service to personal BB users (Almost all of them are personally owned) it just means there is that much more possibility for people causing a noise if they lose their configurations, applications etc

At this point I just dont know if it is possible to retain most of what they currently have if they decide to attach to our BES? Would you agree?

We really do seem to be creating more of a headache for ourselves by offering this (initially at least, once migrated the less management we have to do the better i supose). To me it is only being offered because it allows a good interaction with the Email store, we are going to do almost no management of devices from BES at all.

Transporter will only support BlackBerry domain to BlackBerry domain within the same AD forest. You are still limited by the Exchange domain.

Restoring BIS data should be more than practical through DM. With that said, as a corporation, is BIS data, third party applications, etc. really that big of a concern? I think there's a certain level of liability for using a corporate device as a personal toy. I would highly suggest adopting a policy regarding personal BB usage on the BES and a 'best effort' clause when it comes to data protection. I think, within reason, most of the data should be able to be restored. However, if you do a JavaLoader wipe, a resettofactory, etc., there will be third party applications that will not be restored (not that the data/configurations for these applications would be restored anyhow following a standard security wipe or a device software update, etc).

Do you have any policies or guidelines regarding limited liability and support for these devices (in the form of an agreement that they must acknowledge prior to activating)? It would seem like, as a company, you'd want to protect yourself from such a liability. If you do not, I would recommend that IT management and Legal and whomever else need to iron out some details of such an agreement/policy.

__________________
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.