[housej55]

Hello,
Although I have administered an Exchange BES server for the past 6 years, I don't see much traffic for the Novell Groupwise version for BES.
Is there anyone out here currently using this, and if so please provide your feedback. I'm aware that Novell is hardly used and there are more current updates for Exchange so all the opinions aside on that, I'm looking for info on how reliable the Groupwise has been for you.

Thanks in advance,
housej55

[jsconyers]

I am currently running BES on Groupwise. I have never had any real issues with it. Yes, we get updates a lot slower than Exchange and Domino. I am not too familiar with Exchange, so as to compare the 2, I can't really help you there.

You shouldn't need to worry about the reliability, it has been very reliable in our organization. But that is only ~500 users or so.

[blueshockeynut]

Have been running BES on GW for the last couple of years now and we are in the process of moving to Exchange, to be quite honest, the setup doe BES with GW seems to be quite a bit easier, but of course, thats because GW is alot different then Exchange. Guess it all depends on who you ask and what people think of the 2 different types of email systems.

B

[brendan_cna]

We are running BES with GroupWise. We also have GroupWise Mobile Server which is for non BlackBerry devices.

We had problems initially running both GroupWise Mobile and BES, but when we upgraded our GroupWise server to 7.0.3 that seemed to take care of it.

Recently we've been having problems with bad latency on both GroupWise Mobile and Blackberry, with GMS being the worst. When we briefly shutdown our BES server for 8 hours, the GMS worked great during this time. When BES was turned back on, the latency returned. We are looking into the matter for a solution. We're currently running BES 4.1.4, maybe an upgrade to 4.1.6 might help?

[svandamme]

BES for GW in API mode, although stable if the right GW client installed, and on SP4 MR1... i have to say offers only basic functionality compared to BES for Notes or Exchange...

Adress book synch... up to 4 hours
modified appointments, often only over night...
no push mail


SOAP mode however, used to have a bad wrap on stability, but since SP4, i've had no complaints from customers where i installed it... And none of the drawbacks i listed for API mode...


Hopefully SP6 continues on the trend, and SOAP can become the defacto standard for BESg

[johnnyshaka]

BES 4.1.6 (updated before they yanked SP6 off the site...ugh) installed on a W2K3 server talking to a GW 7.0.2 (haven't had a need to update to 7.0.3 just yet) via SOAP.

Currently we're in the "testing" phase as just a few of us are setup to use the BES and so far, things seem so-so.

There is some functionality that I'd love to see like proper address sync'ing...specifically being able to add PINs and have the Home/Office/Mobile numbers sync correctly. Also trying to find a way to get "ruled" mail show on the BB. Right now, any incoming email that has a "Move To Folder" rule applied to it will not hit the BB.

Otherwise, still playing with both the BB and the BES to try and get familiar with all the ins and outs.

[TruckinwithBBs]

BES 4.1.6, I also updated before they pulled it from their site and wish that I could roll back. I'm hoping a MR is coming for SP6 soon! I was running 4.1.4 MR1 and didn't have any real trouble with it. OAPI mode seems to be anywhere between 5-20 minutes slower with email reconciliation (status update, deleted messages, foldered messages) than in 4.1.4. I would love to switch to SOAP mode, but found out that 4.2.1 handheld software can cause email messages to come into the device as a filed message. Also, if the user would open that message, they couldn't delete it off of the device. This affected about 100 of my users on 4.2.1 handheld software. Prior to 4.1.6, I ran 4.1.4 and 4.0.7 and was pleased. 4.1.6 has been quite a different story. I think it would have been much better had all of the devices in our environment had 4.1.5 handheld code available and installed.

johnnyshaka - if you have rules setup in Groupwise that move incoming messages to another folder, you need to make sure that you check those folders for redirection, either in Blackberry Manager or on the device itself. Blackberry Manager - right click the user and select 'Choose Folders for Redirection'. On the device itself, go to 'Messages' --> 'Options' --> 'Email Settings' --> Click scroll wheel or menu key and select 'Folder Redirection', then select the folders you want to be redirected to the handheld. Mailbox and Sent Items are the only ones selected by default.

[johnnyshaka]

Originally Posted by TruckinwithBBs

johnnyshaka - if you have rules setup in Groupwise that move incoming messages to another folder, you need to make sure that you check those folders for redirection, either in Blackberry Manager or on the device itself. Blackberry Manager - right click the user and select 'Choose Folders for Redirection'. On the device itself, go to 'Messages' --> 'Options' --> 'Email Settings' --> Click scroll wheel or menu key and select 'Folder Redirection', then select the folders you want to be redirected to the handheld. Mailbox and Sent Items are the only ones selected by default.

Nice, thanks!!

Oddly, I don't see the "Choose Folders for Redirection" when right-clicking a user in BM but found the Folder Redirection only when pressing the menu key on the device in the Email Settings menu.

Anybody here been to any Groupwise focused BES training? Something like this:

hxxp://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/programs/1-Syllabus%20BES%204.1.6%20Advanced%20-%20726-00934-123.pdf

If so, was it worth it? Also, the word is that the Groupwise specific training will be going away soon...just a heads up.

[the maddman]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

There is some functionality that I'd love to see like proper address sync'ing...specifically being able to add PINs and have the Home/Office/Mobile numbers sync correctly.

I've been experimenting with adding the missing fields into the database. Seems to work until you do a full sync of the Global Address book.

[TruckinwithBBs]

johnnyshaka-
I went to Groupwise training out in California at the beginning of this year. I had only been doing BB administration for about 2 months prior, so I found it pretty beneficial just to get to know all of the components of the BES and how they worked. Also, it was pretty helpful because you get to meet others running the same platform and discuss different things that have worked/not worked for them. I had a pretty good instructor as well that kept it interesting.
As far as overall usefullness, if you are a beginner I would say go for it if your company is paying. Could you learn it by yourself from the RIM documentation? Probably yes, but with the training, you can ask all of the questions you want. However, if you expect to learn anything in-depth about the configuration database or how to decipher BES logs, that was hardly even touched in the 2 day training.
If you're a t support customer and what to setup a test environment, ask RIM for a SRP to test with. It's fully functional and doesn't expire, but they do make you purchase CALs for the server after their 120 day complimentary ones expire.

Hope that helps.
-TruckinwithBBs

[johnnyshaka]

Great info, thanks!!

BES training or Brainshare?? Argh!!! Decisions, decisions!!!