Moving a from BB desktop to BES
 

I have a BB 7105t with T-Mobile on the Unlimited Data Plan. I originally set it up to use the BB desktop and the Redirector with my outlook email. Recently I recieved a copy of BES Express and want to set it up on our exchange server for evaluation. My question is, since I have already set it up on BB desktop to use the redirector, what do I need to do to set up the 7105t on the BES Express Server ? Will I need to reset the device ? Will I loose my installed applications ?
Thanks in advance !:smile:

you will find that you will have to do a security wipe.
no, you will not loose your apps during a security wipe.

Not sure if it still works this way, but if the desktop redirector is left in your mailbox, when you add yourself to the BES, it will see that in the mailbox immediately take over the redirector function.

At the same time, if your BES were to be down or if you were removed from the BES, you could use the desktop redirector as the pointers and encryption keys would still be in your mailbox.

At this is how previous versions of BES/redirector worked. I've not worked with redirector in a while now.

I'd look in to running BES on the Exchange box a bit closely, it's not the way you really want to be going.

What does the security wipe do exactly ?
Thanks

It wipes all service books, user data and settings. It doesn't remove the applications, but any user data from applications is erased. It is effectively putting it back to factory defaults.

One more thing, BBAdmin said is right, you really shouldn't run BES on the same box as Exchange. If you're just experimenting with BES, just grab a regular PC and do the test from there. I ran a full test with over 20 users on a PC dedicated to BES before moving it into a server-class machine and a larger scale deployment.

hi cchatagnier
i'd be interested to know what is involved in moving your test pc config to a server - is there a way to transfer the whole configuration + bb info from all your devices to the new box/install?

It's been a while since I did it. One way of doing it is to shut down your test server turn up your new one. Before shutting it down, you'll want to get a listing of all users on it. On your new server, simply add the users into it. The mailbox contains the BES information so there won't be any re-provisioning of any of the handhelds. This is the same as moving from a desktop redirector to a BES and vice versa.

As an FYI, this is also the case in case you have a crash and need to add people back to your BES. I've got about 150 users, so it's not too much of a hassle, but I would imagine if you've got several thousand users on a BES, it would be way too much to add them one at a time. I'm sure there is an import function, I just haven't really had the time to check it out as the last time I had to do this, there was only about 20 people to add.

If you've got a small deployment, you'll be surprised at just how easy it actually is. I was!

thx for your reply cchatagnier
what do u mean by
1)the mailbox contains the bes info? are you saying that the bes config is stored in AD and in the user's exchange mailbox?
2)what do you mean by "there won't be any reprovisioning" - are you referring to activation or something else?

thx very much - i am just trying to understand as much as i can before installing for first time in my small office environment