Hello!
I'm about to perform a major upgrade of our aging BES from 3.6.4.8 on a Windows NT 4 Server box to 4.0.2 on a new Windows 2003 Server machine using a "BES 3.6 to 4.0 for MS Exchange One Time Upgrade" package.
I've done a fair bit of reading around the subject but I can't find an example of an upgrade scenario that quite matches what I'm going to do this weekend.
I wondered if you knowledgeable more experienced BES admins can comment on any pitfalls or dead-ends that may be travelled down in error.
In more detail I'm upgrading from:
BES 3.6.4.8 running on Windows NT 4.0 sp6 Server with the BESAdmin account on an Exchange 5.5 sp4 Server and the BES database on MSDE 7 (the version from the SQL Server 7 era)
to:
BES 4.0.2 running on Windows 2003 sp2 Server on a different machine with the BESAdmin account moving to Exchange Server 2003 SP2 (running in a mixed environment with 5.5 Servers initially) with the BES database on MSDE 2000A (or MSDE 2000 sp3a, almost the same version).
The same SRP and CALs will be used on the new server as the old (with the old server's BES Services disabled of course).
Leaving aside the environment pre-requisites which I'm happy with and other things such as service account permissions,cdo.dll versions and TCPIP ports, I'm having a hard time finding a way to migrate the BES 3.6 (MSDE 7) database to a new server running BES 4.0 so that my 47 BB users can continue using their devices for wireless email etc once BES 4.0 is up and running without having to reactivate them first.
As our current BES 3.6 is running on Windows NT 4 Server I can't upgrade it to BES 4.0 and then cut over to the new server hardware.
Although it's not made clear in the documentation that comes with my "BES 3.6 to 4.0 for MS Exchange One Time Upgrade" package, I'm under the impression that it's for upgrading the BES from 3.6 to 4.0 on the same server hardware rather than migrating to a new server as part of the process.
QUESTION 1)
I've read in the docs that an MSDE 1.0 or 7 database has to be upgraded to MSDE 2000 before upgrading to BES 4.0, but of course my current database won't be on my new server to upgrade.
* Does the database have to be on MSDE 2000 on the BES 3.6 server before I even try to export it and import / migrate it to the BES 4.0 server?
QUESTION 2)
I have BlackBerryDBBackup.exe (file version 4.0.2.8) on the 3.6 to 4.0 upgrade CD (no sign of the command in a 3.6.4 Full Install archive I have but I don't have the original 3.6 CD to hand to check there).
I've tried running that BlackBerryDBBackup.exe with:
BlackberryDBBackup.exe -d BESMgmt -f e:\besdbbackup -p
on the BES but all attempts/variations at exporting the database throw up:
Server: CoInitialize Failed
in the Command window and a "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Error" window.
* Is it possible to use this version on a BES 3.6 database (on MSDE 7 and/or on MSDE 2000) ? Or do I need the version for BES 3.6, if there is one?
QUESTION 3)
There's a BESMigration.exe command on the 3.6 to 4.0 upgrade CD but running it with any/no arguments on the BES 3.6 server fires up a missing DBGHELP.dll file error message.
* Is the BESMigration.exe command designed to be run from the BES 4.0 server after install? Am I going to be able to make it find the (MSDE 7) database on the BES 3.6 Server to migrate?
QUESTION 4)
Will doing a BlackBerryBackup.exe to a file (which does work on the BES 3.6 server) be any use to me in migration configuration settings to BES4.0? Or are they in a useless format?
QUESTION 5)
If I can migrate the config/database over, is the host name (computer name) of the new server really going to have to be the same as the old server for the MDS to function correctly (given the references to the host name in the database)?
QUESTION 6)
Can anyone outline the steps in the correct order for migrating the config and database from the BES 3.6 server to the new BES 4.0 server (bearing in mind the OS / MSDE version stated at the top of this post).
Many thanks in advance for any advice!
Cheers!
Johnny