Absoblogginlutely

I thought second time around was meant to be easier? This one certainly wasn't. Initially I had to reboot the server to get all of the windows patches installed but one of the Exchange patches wouldn't install properly and the machine hung. Rebooting, stopping the services and installing the patch manually fixed it. After a reboot the server was back up and I started the install off. The first part of the install went through fine and the server rebooted again. After logging in the server struggled to create (or rather populate) the database on the existing instance of SQL. I kept getting messages that the database couldn't be created and the logs showed DDL statement not allowed. Funny thing is that the database was being created, it just wasn't being populated with any tables or data. Not much in google to go on and after trying various things I ended up installing a new instance of sqlexpress on the machine and then using that for the install which went through perfectly. Unfortunately I've inherited this particular server so I'm not sure why it failed to install on the built in database which seems to work fine.

I've had two requests in the past week to install the Blackberry Professional software for clients - this software allows you to sync your blackberry to Exchange (or domino) without having to buy a Blackberry Enterprise server. It comes with one free client access licence and others can be added for $99 (up to 30 devices).

The software is fairly straight forward to install as long as you follow the documentation carefully and ensure you have the prerequisites satisfied.  My notes below are all covered in the documentation but for those of you who don't read the instructions, hopefully it will help.

• Watch the tutorials/read the manuals from the Blackberry Professional Software Installation Toolkit
• Ensure you check the Microsoft kb articles on setting up appropriate permissions for the Besadmin account as this is needed for the Besadmin account to send the mail for you.
• You do need to install the software as your newly created Besadmin account  - not the administrator account.  The server does need a reboot and the first login on the server needs to be the Besadmin account.
• When installing the database and an SQL instance already exists on the server you will typically need to enter server\instance for the host - a new database will then be created for you.
• Once you create a user, using the wizard, you will need the user to go to options/advanced options/activate and enter their email, password and activation code that was emailed to them - so this needs to be done before the user goes out on the road with no email access!
• The software can be downloaded from the Blackberry Professional page but you do need to register (with the pin number of the Blackberry Device that is going to be used) as you will get an activation key via email.
• Don't forget to document the password for the BesAdmin account!

The total time to install is probably about 15-30 minutes pre-configuration of exchange, creating the besadmin account, 30-45  minutes to install the software (plus reboot time) and then 5 minutes to set the first user up.