November 16, 2011

Borland Enterprise Server 5 Web Edition

Blackberry recently introduced new version of Blackberry Enterprise Server for Exchange Server 2007/2010 which will help you transfer from older BES Professional Software Express 4.1 to new BES Express 5.01. In the old version software provided 1 user license and it was free and now it is completely free for BlackBerry users that are not enterprise. You will still need to get Blackberry Enterprise License if you are enterprise organization and have more than 75 users. There are some prerequisites that you need to install on your Small Business Server 2008 in order to successfully install and load BES server in your environment.

First you need to install Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1. Second your server must have Exchange SP2 installed and all following rollups. It is always good to run SBS 2008 Best Practice Analyzer and check report prior installing BES Express 5.01.

After successfully installing MAPI Client and checking your Exchange SP2 and overall server health you can move on with prerequisites. Next step is raising domain functional level or at least checking it, because most of default SBS installations come with 2008 domain functional level. Go to Active Directory User and Computers, right-click on your domain and go to raise domain functional level. Make sure Windows Server 2008 is selected under available domain functional level. Now open Active Directory Domains and Trusts and right-click on your domain and select raise forest functional level. Make sure Windows Server 2008 is selected under available forest functional level.

Last stage in preparing for setup is setting up besadmin account in your domain which will have necessary privileges to access Exchange server and route all the emails. Open Exchange Management Console and go to mailbox under recipient configuration. In the Actions Pane click New Mailbox. Follow on-screen instructions to create new mailbox account. Call it besadmin and put the password of your choice. After wizard finishes with new mailbox creation go ahead and open Exchange Management Shell. Type the following command to set ViewOnlyAdmin role for besadmin

Add-exchangeadministrator "besadmin" -role ViewOnlyAdmin and press enter

Now type the command to assign the ms-Exch-Store-Admin, and send as permissions for besadmin account

Get-mailboxserver "yourservername" add-adpermission -user "besadmin" -accessrights ExtendedRight -extendedrights Receive-As, ms-Exch-Store-Admin, Send-As and press enter

Next step is to open Active Directory User and Computers and go to Builtin group under your domain and right-click Administrators Group, click Add and add besadmin account here. Now go to Group Policy Management under Administrative Tools expand default domain, Domain Controllers and right-click on Default Domain Controller Policy and click Edit. Go to User Rights Assignment under Computer Configuration>Policies>Windows Settings>Security Settings>Local Policies and add besadmin account right for Allow log on locally and Log on as a service.

With this you are done with prerequisites. Go ahead and login as besadmin to your SBS 2008 Server and you are ready to download BES Express. Software is absolutely free and RIM will only require registration. After registration you'll receive email where you can access your CAL keys.

Now that you are logged in as besadmin proceed with the installation. Run the download and setup will start automatically. Follow simple on-screen instructions to install BES Express on your SBS 2008. Create SQL Database, start services when asked, enter your CAL keys and finish the installation. Recommended is that you create password for default admin account and not use domain account as there are some discrepancies between IIS Application and domain accounts. When you get a screen where it asks you for Advanced Administration Settings just check User BlackBerry Administration Service Authentication and enter password of your choice.

Last thing is configuring your firewall, make sure that port 3443 is opened and forwarded to your SBS 2008 Server. After you are done with all the settings, restart your server and login as besadmin, go to Blackberry Administration web based console and login as admin with password you previously created. Here you can add new user, generate and email password key and your mobile workforce will start connecting with your Exchange Server and real-time activesync enabled on their smartphones.

Resources:

MAPI Client Download http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E17E7F31-079A-43A9-BFF2-0A110307611E&displaylang=en.

BES Express http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/business/server/express/