Blackberry Server still talks to old DC ??

[Loin75]

Hello All,

This is my first post on Crackberry.

I have a long standing BB server at my company, and 2 DC's. (lets call them DC1 and DC2).

DC1 literally died on me. So I have since introduced 2 new DC's. DC3 and DC4.

I wish to remove DC2 from the network now as it is very old, but every time I turn the server off, all my Blackberrys stop working.

There are absolutely no settings on the BB server that point to DC2, so why should this happen. I have searched the entire registry for any entries, and found nothing.

Can someone please help me understand why this might be happening. I desperately want to shut this server down. I am tempted to simply demote it as a DC first, but fear the consequences of such an action at this point.

I am running BES 5.0.

Many Thanks in advance..

[pineypl]

Your first problem is this is in the wrong section. This should be under BlackBerry pros or such, but that is okay.

The problem you are having is not a BES issue, it is a network Active Directory issue. The dc that up and died, did not go offline gracefully and properly relinguish its roles back to the domain. There are Microsoft kb articles on removing stale dcs and the like. I cannot look them up for you *t the moment, but I'll try to get to it in a bit.

As a starting point, the BES and MS Exchange are tightly integrated, you will have to adjust some things in AD to clean that up. Start researching that and I'll be back to you later.

Bob

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[audit]

Moved to the proper section.

[pineypl]

audit, thank you for moving this.

Loin75,

First, petri.co.il is one of the best sites for technical articles regarding MS products. IMNSHO, this is my go-to site for any questions I have with the MS based systems I have. That being said, here are some links to get you going. I have been through this before and these are the items I used to get things cleaned and proper again. Warning, it can take a LOT of reading and research as well as spelunking through the AD and perhaps registries. But if you persevere and do not rush, you will come out all right. Make sure to keep checking the logs for any suspicious items or clues. To review log entries by event number go to: Troubleshooting Microsoft Windows Event Logs

One final note. What I am giving you is not the path nor necessarily the exact order to go through this process, but rather many links to articles to explain the steps. Some steps may not even be required, but you should review all these steps and plan your attack accordingly. The one time I dealt with this type of thing, it took a day or so for all the steps to happen and the AD to stabalize.

Removing failed dc.
Delete Failed DCs from Active Directory

Do you know which roles DC1 held? Those will have to be moved to another DC.

Seizing DC roles (FSMO)
Seizing FSMO Roles

Seizing DC roles (from MS)
Using Ntdsutil.exe to transfer or seize FSMO roles to a domain controller

Moving DC roles from one DC to another.
Moving FSMO roles from one DC to another DC > ActiveDir.org

The BES may be fine after the roles are moved and the AD stabalizes. When I say stabalize, I mean some period of time has passed such that all DCs are updated to the latest schema info regarding which servers are real and online. The DCs that are gone, especially DC1 since it is toast, may also need to be removed from the DNS organization. You may have a lot of digging to do to find all the locations where the BES may find pointers to non-existant servers (DC1 and DC2).

I would leave DC2 online until everything looks stable(24-48 hours). Then, power down DC2 or disconnect its network connection, if you suspect the old hardware may not come back to life after a power down assuming it is as old as the dead DC1.

I'll check back on your progress.