Blackberry Express: Upgrade from Blackberry Professional

I recently performed two BESX migrations in both test and production environments and here are some key takeaways:

  • There is no migration or upgrade method from Blackberry Professional
  • Make sure you have a good backup of both the file and database
  • Remove all phones from Professional
  • Uninstall Blackberry Pro
  • Use SQL Management Studio to delete the BESMgmt database completely
  • If you’re running SQL Express 2005, you’ll need to make sure you’re running SP-3, if not be sure to upgrade first
  • Reboot the server
  • Delete the “Research In Motion” registry keys under HKLM/Software and HKCU/Software
  • Download and follow the pre-installation checklist, paying special attention to all pre-reqs, including:

o   Besadmin account must be a domain user, but local admin on the exchange server

o   Send-as permission settings

o   AD account settings for DES/AES

  • Download and install the current version of BESX
  • Typically a reboot will be required, be sure to logon as a local admin
  • Complete the installation process
  • Once completed, it may take up to 30 minutes before the Administrator Website will work properly, until then you’ll get 404 errors – just hold tight. J

Also here are some less standard configurations but can cause a lot of trouble:

  • Double check to make sure you’re not running in Terminal Server “application mode” (if you are, be sure to remove TS, and run in remote admin mode only) (I recently found an exchange server running in application mode)
  • There can be problems connecting to the web console if you have a mixed 2003/2008 Domain Controller environment (With the forest set to 2003 functionality). See kb18186; however these problems do not exist in pure 2003 or pure 2008 domains.