[benny78]

We will be upgrading from version 3.6 to 4.0 this thursday and I was just wondering if anyone had exeperience any problems with this process.

Were currently running Windows 2000 sp3 and I've read trough the manual that makes it seem quite straight forward with regards to upgrading the MSDE to 2000 etc

Any more light shed on the process would be very grateful

[jibi]

Ask yourself one question prior to going through a huge hooplah. Do you use IT Policy? If not (which a lot of companies don't), then don't give the database a second thought - start from scratch instead of 'upgrading'. If you're going to reuse the same server, simply uninstall MSDE and BES and start over with the new installations of BES and MSDE 2000.

[benny78]

Sorry to sound like an idiot but whats IT policy? I've inherited a bes server with no real documention on how it works as the guy who built it all has jumped ship (he had already purchased the upgrade back), and now I've been given the task of upgrading it.

How can I find out if IT Policy is enabled?

[acnst]

Before you can upgrade to version 4 you first have to upgrade your 3.6 installation to SP3. This is the minimum required service pack for an upgrade scenario from 3.6 to 4.0. Also check this KB article http://www.blackberry.com/knowledgec...65854&vernum=0

[jibi]

Open the BES Management console and right-click on your BES server name. Click on IT Policy. There will be a default policy listed. Just choose to Edit it and see if anything is checked. If so, then I'd honestly just make a note of what is checked and duplicate it after the upgrade (makes life a bit easier).

You should have your SRP ID, SRP Auth Key, BES Service Account/Mailbox info already. Make note of the BES server name (listed in the Mgmt Console - virtual server name). Just keep all of these the same on the new server.

Again, I'd recommend just uninstalling and starting from scratch rather than performing an in-place upgrade. Its cleaner and easier, imo.

[cchatagnier]

We went to new hardware at the same time we upgraded from 3.6 to 4.0 and did not have any issues. We went from Win 2K to Win2003 Server. The only thing that didin't go quite right is the user list. We had to add everyone back to the BES. Once we added their name, it quickly found their usage statistics, PIN, and all settings. Considering we had only 40 users at the time, this was no big deal at all, for us anyway.

I would agree with the above about un-installing previous verions and starting from scratch. For me, it was much easier to satrt with a blank sheet. As you probably know, currently, 4.01 is available with two hot fixes.

[jibi]

oh yeah, forgot the user list part. we have a dist list for all blackberry users, so just in case we forget to export the dist list, its fairly easy to add the users back. just remember not to clear their statistics when adding the users to the new server.

[benny78]

thanks for the advice, we went for a clean install in the end which is all working fine apart from the Blackberry router service not starting at start up.