[kentiler]

Hi,

We just installed BES 4.1.4.12 and now when the server is rebooted, the BES services take over the standard VPN port (1723). All remote users can't access our internal network when this happens.

Once I stop the BES services, restart Routing and Remote Access Service, then restart BES services, things are OK.

I have added the RemoteAccess to the DependOnService for the BES services, but that doesn't seem to help the issue!

The two BES services specifically at the Synchronization Service and the Dispatcher.

I called Blackberry support and used our one free incident only to be told that there isn't any way to specify port settings, and that BES just grabs the first free port.

I find it strange that the first free port is always 1723!

Anyway, has anyone run into this issue before, and do you have any suggestions on resolving it?

I'm planning on writing a script to manually start the BES services 5 minutes after the server is restarted to make sure the RRAS is up and running. I'll probably have to create a web page on the Intranet to allow users to do this service restart anytime there are VPN issues.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you.

--Kent Iler

[jmryan]

Hey Kent,

I'm experiencing exactly the same problem, and I have found the only solution as resetting all services. Definitely not a viable option and I am scouring the net for solutions as well

[kentiler]

I plan on implementing a script this week and if that resolves it, I'll post it up here.

[penguin3107]

Just food for thought...
Why aren't you running BES on a dedicated server?

[jmryan]

Lack of resources personally

I suppose I could run it in a VM

[Ugg]

Just a thought - does your windows\system32\drivers\etc\services file contain a line like:

pptp 1723/tcp #Point-to-point tunnelling protocol

I'd have expected that if it did the BES shouldn't use 1723 as an ephemeral port.

When the problem is occurring, if you do a "netstat -a" into a file and look for 1723, what do you see?

[jmryan]

pptp 1723/tcp #Point-to-point tunnelling protocol

Yep has that exact line

Can't find 1723 in netstat -a

C:\>netstat -aon | find xxx8220;1723xxx8243;
TCP 200.77.60.88:1433 200.77.60.88:1723 ESTABLISHED 2468
TCP 200.77.60.88:1723 200.77.60.88:1433 ESTABLISHED 6524

Process 6524 was the BlackberrySync service. 2468 was sqlservr.exe

[BigA]

The vmware solution will work if you have 2 nics in the server and each one is dedicated to its vmw environment.

[jmryan]

Yeah, I do have that available.

What kinda resources do you think I will need for BES

[jmryan]

Or would it not be easier to run the VPN server in a VM

[scott_perry]

Originally Posted by jmryan

Yeah, I do have that available.

What kinda resources do you think I will need for BES

Our BES is running as a virtual machine. We have it allocated for 1 processor, 1 GB of memory, and a 30 GB disk. We haven't had any issues with performance - we're averaging about 28% usage on memory and 5% on processor. We have approx 400 users.