Blackberry Enterprise Server Support

Many times I find myself looking up this information, so I figured it would be nice to share this with all of our blog followers.

Correct order to restart BES services

Often times you will run into a situation that requires a restart of the BES server. The correct order to stop and start the services are as follows:

To stop the BES services:

BlackBerry Controller
BlackBerry Dispatcher
BlackBerry Router
All remaining BES services


To start BES services:

BlackBerry Router
BlackBerry Dispatcher
BlackBerry Controller
All remaining BES services

These steps are crucial in making sure that BES operates properly. They have to be started and stopped in this EXACT order. SkyByte consulting supports around a dozen different BES environments for our clients.

Recently one of our client's Blackberry smartphones stopped receiving emails from their Blackberry Enterprise Server.  Usually resetting the device by pulling out the battery resolves issues such as this.  Ironically, she could send emails from the device just fine, plus the 10 other devices connected to their BES and network infrastructure were working normally.

RIM has several resolutions to this problem, which corrected the issue.  I first verified email redirection was enabled, and the correct inbox folders were checked.  Next I checked to make sure no email filters were enabled.  Finally, the resolution was regenerating the encryption key on the device.

1. Click Options > Security > Security Status Information

2. Scroll to the Services section.

3. Highlight the Desktop [SXXXXXXX] line.

4. Press the Menu key and click Regenerate Encryption Key.

After regenerating the key, all new emails were received to the device.

1. In outlook 2010, click on your calendar.
   
2. From the Home tab, Select Calendar Groups.
   
3. In the drop-down list, click one of the following-
   
   
   1. To create a new group calendar, click Create New Group Calendar, and continue to step 4.
      
   2. If you have multiple Calendars open ( For example: You are viewing other peoples calendars along with your own), you can save the the calendars in the current view as a new calendar group in the navigation pane by clicking Save as New Calendar Group.
      
   3. To display team calendars in the navigation pane, click Show Team Calendars. Team calendars contain calendars for your manager, direct reports, and peers as determined from information in Active Directory.
      
4. In the Create New Calendar Group dialog box, type the name for the grouping, and click OK.
   
5. In the Select Name: Global Address List dialog box, find the individuals or resources you wish to add to the grouping. Click the Group Members -> button to add them (or double click their name). You can add multiple people or rooms by finding another person and clicking the button again.
   
   If you have a server-side distribution list (For example - a mail-enabled group, not a LISTSERV list or a personal distribution list), you may find that group and add it.
   
6. When you are done adding the people and rooms click OK and the calendar group is saved in your navigation pane. In it, you can see each of members or resources availability. If the individual or resource room doesn't allow people or a specific set of people to view the free/busy information, you will not see any details listed.
   
7. To add more people or resources, right-click on the calendar group in the navigation pane and click Add Calendar. Choose one of the following methods  to add the calendar-
   
   
   1. From Address Book
   2. From Room List
   3. From Internet
   4. Open Shared Calendar
      
8. To delete a calendar group, right-click the calendar group in the navigation pane and select Delete Group.

I ran across an issue on a client's SQL Server 2005 Express instance. The problem was that at 4:01am every morning the SQL server would just shutdown with the event messages of

1. Service Broker manager has shut down.
2. SQL Server is terminating in response to a 'stop' request from Service Control Manager. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.
3. SQL Trace was stopped due to server shutdown. Trace ID = '1'. This is an informational message only; no user action is required.

After a week of trying to narrow down the issue I found that it was Windows Update automatically trying to install the SP4 update for MSSQL 2005 Express and failing. This failure would cause the SQL server to shutdown for the update, but not come back up. This shutdown was affecting programs like Blackberry Enterprise Server and also BackupExec which would then crash and need to have their services restarted after bringing the SQL instances back online. The fix for this issue was merely to disable the update and also for preventing future issues I disabled the automatic installation of updates.

This issue could relate to Microsoft SQL Server Upgrades and Blackberry Enterprise Server Support.

1. Log onto BES/BESX Server
2. Open the user and choose delete user
3. It will prompt you Yes - Delete User or Yes - Delete the user and remove the BlackBerry information from the user's mail system (Choose User and BlackBerry Info)
4. Re-create user and set activation password
5. Activate phone.

After receiving my new HTC EVO from Sprint I was eager to get my corporate emails flowing in. I went to perform the mail setup and entered all of the info for our Exchange server then selected the data I wanted to sync. I selected finish and was then presented with an error stating - "Error Failed to create the account. Please try again later."

I was 100% sure that my exchange server was working properly because we had  just completed an Microsoft Exchange server uprade and I had been testing Blackberry Enterprise Server Support and iPhone users and they were working properly. After looking around on the Internet I found that I wasn't the only person with this issue.  I found that there are 2 very common issues and mine was the Active Directory fix. I did list both fixes below just incase others need one or the other.

SSL Certificate Fix:

A little further digging and I discovered that this was down to a security setting people use on their Exchange server which forces mobile ActiveSync users to specify a PIN number on their phone to add an additional layer of security on the phone. It seems the Android built in Exchange support can't deal with sending back your encrypted password. So, if you use SSL with your web-facing Exchange server, you won't be able to connect without either turning off the mobile users password policy requirement, or I assume, using a certified web certificate. Neither turning off SSL or turning off the password policy is a particularly good idea, and would violate most network security policies. The best option would be to ask your IT admins to arrange for a web certificate. In the interests of covering all the options for this guide though, I'll detail the method of excluding specific users from the password policy.

1.  Open Exchange System Manager
2.  Expand Global Settings and then right click on Mobile Services and choose Properties
3.  Click the Device Security button
4.  The "Enforce password on device" tick box is the culprit here, but it's better to turn it off for one specific user rather than the whole domain, so push the Exceptions button
5. Push Add and select the user you want added to the exception list
6.  Push OK three times to get back to Exchange System Manager and you're done

1. Log onto Domain Controller
2. Start AD Users and Computers
3. Click on View – Advanced Features
4. Double-click on the user who’s account wont work with ActiveSync
5. Go to the security tab and then select the advanced button
6. Select Exchange Servers, and tick the Include inheritable permissions toggle then Apply and OK.
7. Reconfigure your phone and walk away reading you emails

Smartphones are the hottest thing in IT industry right now. People can now stay plugged in without even needing a computer. Email can be sent with ease and information can be found on the Internet all from a device that's smaller than any laptop.

A little while ago RIM announced that they would be offering a new version of the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) that would be free and allow IT professionals to manage the Blackberry smartphones in the same fashion as they did before, but with new features and now the CAL's are free! Blackberry Enterprise Server support now gives companies a very affordable solution for keeping all of their employees plugged in where ever they are while maintaining strict network security. Also BESX will allow users outside of the office to access files and applications inside your network without compromising network firewall security.

Below is a list of a few key Blackberry Enterprise Server Express features. Please note some of these features require Blackberry® Device Software version 5.0.

• Advanced business email features
• Highly secure push-based HTML corporate email – connected to your work email account
• Synced inboxes (i.e., email deleted from work Outlook account are also deleted from your Blackberry smartphone – no need to manage 2 inboxes)
• Ability to flag emails for follow-up from your Blackberry smartphone
• Search your desktop inbox for messages from your Blackberry smartphone
• Set up out of office replies from your Blackberry smartphone
• Access and update important notes and tasks
• Edit Microsoft 2007 and 2010® Word, Microsoft® Excel® and Microsoft® PowerPoint® files on your Blackberry smartphone using Documents To Go®
• A calendar that’s always up-to-date
• Access to an up-to-date calendar that is synched wirelessly (No need to tether to your desktop!)
• See coworkers’ free/busy status (this should make setting up meetings easy)
• View, download and forward calendar attachments
• Advanced contact features
• Wireless address lookup (changes to your corporate address book are reflected almost immediately on your Blackberry smartphone)
• Synchronization between your desktop address book and your Blackberry smartphone address book (that means when you add a contact to one, it is automatically updated in the other)
• Behind the firewall access
• Access to your corporate intranet
• Remote file access – access your corporate documents and network drives from your Blackberry smartphone

• Assess your network infrastructure and decide if you need to acquire a new server or just require some server upgrades. Remember Exchange 2010 only runs on 64-bit versions of Server 2008 and R2. This also means you will need a 64-bit processor in your server.
• Do you currently use virtualization in your network infrastructure? If so you can virtualize your exchange server or servers using Microsoft Hyper V Server 2008,  Vmware Vsphere Installation, and other server virtualization systems.
• Download and read the Planning for Exchange 2010 and also the Deploying Exchange 2010 information on Microsoft's Technet site.
• Does your current network infrastructure design support an edge configuration, or will you be just installing a single server setup?
• If you are upgrading you can only upgrade from Exchange 2007 R2. This may require you to upgrade your exchange 2007 server to R2. If your running Exchange 2003 you will have to perform a migration.
• If your running an older network infrastructure like Server 2000 and earlier, it will require an Active Directory upgrade.
• Do your current email security solutions support Exchange 2010?
• When you finalize your plan also perform a business continuity risk assessment focusing on electronic communications for your business, and update your information Technology disaster recovery plan to include the new Exchange 2010 mail server or cluster. These are very important parts of the process that many neglect to do.