[Grifter]

I'm looking to upgrade a BES for a hospital and migrate it to another piece of hardware. I haven't looked at the old server yet but I have a feeling that it's running MSDE and not full blown SQL 2000. Is there a way to migrate the database? I know with SQL you can just detach it and then attach it to the new SQL server but it's a bit different since there's no front end to MSDE so I'm not sure of what to do. Also, once it's moved over is there any installation procedures that need to be done differently when installing the BES on the new machine? Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.

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Here are the backup/restore commmands:

How to Backup the BESMgmt MSDE database 

1. Close out of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Management Console.
2. Open a command prompt window. 
3. Type the following: (Switches are case sensitive)

osql -E         and press Enter   (Uses NT Authentication)

4. At the 1> prompt type:

backup database besmgmt to disk="c:\backup.bak" and press ENTER. 

Where:
c:\backup.bak is the name and location of the backup file. Quotes used in this command are required or the command will fail.

5. At the 2> prompt, type go and press ENTER. 
6. At the 1> prompt, type quit and press ENTER


How to Restore the BESMgmt MSDE database 

1. Close out of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Management Console.
2. Open a command prompt window. 
3. Type the following: (Switches are case sensitive)

osql -E         and press Enter   (Uses NT Authentication)

4. At the 1> prompt type:

restore database besmgmt from disk="c:\backup.bak" with recovery,replace 

and press ENTER. 

Where:
c:\backup.bak is the full path to the previously created backup file. Quotes used in this command are required or the command will fail.

5. At the 2> prompt, type go and press ENTER. 
6. At the 1> prompt, type quit and press ENTER

[bertiebassett]

please post more info on..

a) Number of devices
b) Models of devices - so we can guess whether 4.0 or earlier s/w in the handheld
c) Version of Exchange and O/S
d) Maximum permissable outage period to get the change happening in.
e) are they generally a SQL shop...do they have SQL licensed and skills..

several main options including..
1) run up copy of current BES on new HW and move users across - refer here for how to do it. Livelink - Redirection then once in place do an in-situ upgrade.

2) Requires a secondary temp SRP ID, but then install the new version on the new HW with the temp SRP ID. Move the users across (manually) to the new machine. Once completed remove SRP info from old bes, turn off. Stop all sevices on new BES, replace temp SRP with new SRP and re-start services.

1) Is potentially riskier as your doing the in-situ upgrade and I've had one go wrong on me that was a beatch to recover from (start from scratch), but generally most go fine.

2) 2 is a pain in the ass in terms of the second SRP and then manually moving users. However does mean that you can pace the rollout, perhaps upgrading devices at the same time. This option also is easier to implement the "move to SQL" as part of the process. i.e. you install from scratch and go sql not msde

[Grifter]

They have a 4.0 server so they should have to have 4.0 or later in all devices.
They have about 80-100 BES users.
I believe that they have Exchange 2003 though I won't be sure until tomorrow when I assess their entire network.
They're a hospital so they really need to have their BES operational for as long as possible. I figure that if we do it after normal operating hours (9-5) we could be down for as long as it takes though.
I don't think that they have any SQL pros on staff. I will be doing all of the work anyway and I'm not too good with SQL myself. The last migration that I did was for a small company so having to manually activate the users on the new BES was not a big deal but this many users will need to be taken care of in as smooth a way as possible.