[Benjiee]

Hi,
I have been tasked with the following by my boss.
We have a user in Dubai with a mailbox on a Dubai Exchange server that my boss wants us to activate on our UK BES. If we ping the Dubai Exchange from the UK BES server we are getting an average response time of about 145ms. I know RIM recommend that BES should be sited close to Exchange and the response time should be no more than 35 ms, if not less. I have recommended getting a BES server in Dubai but they still want to see if we can get it working.
So as a test, I created a mailbox on the Dubai BES server and activated this mailbox using the UK BES on my Blackberry in the UK. It seemed to work fine over a two day period that I was using it. So the next stage of the trial was to get a user in Dubai to activate their Blackberry using a Dubai mailbox via the UK BES. It wouldn’t activate and the BES would log MAPI call failed. Error 'The client operation failed.', LowLevelError 2147746063, Component 'Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store', Context 1281. I think this error shows the Blackberry and BES cannot talk to our Exchange server properly. Maybe it’s the entire cycle from Dubai – UK – Dubai again. I had more luck from UK – UK – DUBAI. Does this prove RIM’s recommendation that the response time needs to low for BES and Exchange to communicate properly between each other and to the handheld from wherever you are in the world.
Anyway I explained this to my boss but he still doesn’t think it’s the reason this handheld wont activate.
Any help would be great.
Thanks
Ben

[gibson_hg]

The latency issue has nothing to do with BES or BB. Microsoft recommends that ping times for MAPI be no less more than 50MS I think. So, RIM cannot exceed what Microsoft does not support.

Your ping time is an issue here, you could try moving the users mailbox to a local Exchnage Server and try activating. Odds are it works fine.

Even if he does activate you are looking at latency in receiving emails, the user may not work from time to time, hng worker threads caused by the latency.

MAPI cannot function properly with ping times reaching 145MS.

Explain to your boss that it is an issue with MAPI, a Microsoft product, and BES uses MAPI to cummimcate to Exchange. Therefore it is directly affected. Most users do not see performance issues when using Outlook when there is a high ping time but they will get similar issues with latency receiving email and opening attachments.

Your boss and push all he wants that it's something with the BES but he obviously doesn't know BES/BB or Exchange. If you can locate the document/article from MS stating that 35MS is the recommended ping time he might be happy.

[gibson_hg]

Here's an article from Microsoft about latency:

Identifying Slow RPC Request Processing

This is proof that latency should no more than 50MS.

[Benjiee]

Thanks for you reply, I did read the following articles before we attempted the activation of this user

Effects of latency on Blackberry Enterprise Server for Exchange
BlackBerry Search Results

And the capacity and planning guide which mentions it should be less than 35ms
Livelink - Redirection

We are willing to trial the latency issue but we can't trial it unless we manage to activate this user. In the long run a BES server will be installed in Dubai but for now we need an interim solution. The user gets "Server not responding" when he tries to activate from his Blackberry. Its not really feasible for us to move his mailbox to the UK so we can activate from there. My boss did read both of the articles above but would still like us to get this working, the above articles only mention about BES and Exchange, and mail delays/loss due to the latency, but nothing about location of the handheld or activation.
Thanks Ben

[Mark_Venture]

Originally Posted by Benjiee

Hi,
I have been tasked with the following by my boss.
We have a user in Dubai with a mailbox on a Dubai Exchange server that my boss wants us to activate on our UK BES. If we ping the Dubai Exchange from the UK BES server we are getting an average response time of about 145ms. I know RIM recommend that BES should be sited close to Exchange and the response time should be no more than 35 ms, if not less. I have recommended getting a BES server in Dubai but they still want to see if we can get it working.

So they want you to enter an unmodified Ford Focus, right off the Dealer's floor, into the 24 hours of Le Mans race, using only 1 driver, in the same class as Porsche and Ferrari, and expect you to finish in the top 2.

In other words, they are asking you to take something that wasn't designed to do what you want, is beyond the technical limits, and "make it work" anyway.

Its not going to work, and if/when it does, its not going to be reliable or stable.

I can tell you that latency is in fact why you are having problems enterprise activiting this device.

I have a BES, here in Delaware (USA), exchange servers here in the same building. When we first brought Brazil on, with their exchange servers in their country, latency between our BES and their mail servers was about 40 ms. So we put the users on our BES and we had no issues.

Today, utilization of the link between here and there has sky rocketed. Latency is now over 200ms durring the business day... We can't enterprise activate devices. If they start, they take over 8 hours to complete. If we wait until night/weekend... latency drops to about 60ms and we can enterprise activate fine, but it still takes two and three times as long as it does for us to Enterprise activate devices from the USA.

This latency during the day for Brazil, not only impacts mail delivery times for those Brazil users, but also impacts the over all performance of our USA BES. We have message agents getting blocked, getting hung, having to be restarted, etc.

We are moving the Brazil users OFF of this USA BES, and putting a BES down there next to their exchange servers.

One other thing to consider is RIM's support. While running a BES outside of RIM's specs and guidelines might be possible (latency between BES and Exchange greater than 35ms), they will NOT help or support you when you have problems and issues until after you bring your config to their specs.

[fadmin]

Just download and install free bes and install it in Dubai and go on with your life.

[Benjiee]

Thank you all for your replies, they now believe what I have been saying all along and you have all helped me confirm it!
Looks like they are going to spend some money!

[Mark_Venture]

Originally Posted by Benjiee

Thank you all for your replies, they now believe what I have been saying all along and you have all helped me confirm it!
Looks like they are going to spend some money!

Congrats!!!

Usually it is the money that stands in the way... the cost of the hardware for the BES, the BES license, stand alone SQL server (if expansion is forecast), to support only a few users can be hard to justify...

It all comes down to... do they want it to work properly, or do without the service?