Can BES and BESX exist in the same Windows domain?

[1crackerjack]

According to the documentation on BESX:
"The BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express does not support the connection of BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to the same domain. You can, however, configure a domain for BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express for one group of users, and another domain for the BlackBerryEnterprise Server for a different group of users."
I contacted BES tech support and they could not explain why they could not exist in the same domain, just that you will run into a problem and it is not supported. BlackBerry is marketing this as a solution for users that have their own blackberry and do not have the enterprise data plan. Do they really expect you to create a new domain and thus a new email server to support this? Does anyone have both of these applications running in one domain?
I am looking to migrate about 50 users from BES to BESX. We simply don't need the expanded features of BES and the expense of the CALS. We have some users that don't want to purchase the enterprise data plan just to check their work email.

[jlongjr27]

Just uninstall BES and install BESX. Then add the previous BES users to the BESX server and you don't have to do anything else. The process should take about 1 hour. Just notify them of the down time and the fact that email and calendar items prior to the switch will become disconnected, meaning if they delete an old email from their BB it will not delete from the server.

For new users just add them and tell them to connect their blackberry to their computer using the desktop software and it will connect them to the BESX server.

Tell all your existing BES subscribers to downgrade to BIS with their carrier. With Verizon it saves $15 per month.

[1crackerjack]

It sounds a bit messy for the existing BES users, these people are heavy Outlook users with lots of scheduled meetings (that tend to be changed and updated). Would it be cleaner to delete their phone from BES and reactivate on BESX? Is there a downside to deleting the phone from BES?

[jlongjr27]

It may be better to wipe their phone. Not sure how you would accomplish that with BES. It sounds like at some point your just going to have to jump in and do the upgrade.

[jp1]

Not sure if its supported, but I'm running BES 4.1 and BES Express in the same domain with no issues what so ever. We had a server not doing alot and installed BESX on it and didn't touch the existing 4.1 box.

The 4.1 box is for devices that are company supplied and fully supported by us and the BESX box is for user supplied devices that are on a "use at your own risk" basis. We only activate the phone and ensure communications to BESX, we don't support anything else with them and the user is own their own for everything else.

Having the 2 servers keeps everything nice and seperate and we know which phones we need to fully support and which ones we don't.

[GlenB]

If you went this route I would use a seperate besadmin account (and mailbox), seperate BESMgmt config database. The only other potential complication is that BES, in common with many other products that integrate into Exchange, creates hidden folders within the end user's mailbox, so try to avoid moving users between BES servers.

[cody.aldinger@ulteig.com]

First off, it DOES work to have a BES and BESX server on the same network. We have one of each talking to the same Exchange server and everything works great.

Second, I have a question....We have about 60 users who are currently connected to the BES that I'd like to move to the BESX. If I delete the user from the BES, and then try to activate them on the BESX, I get an error stating that the server doesn't support the current policy. The only way for me to "migrate" the user is to completely wipe their phone and then activate them on the BESX. As you can imagine, with 60 phones (most of which are users who are constantly traveling) this is not a very efficiant process.

Does anyone else have any other ways of migrating the users to BESX without me having to wipe each phone and reactivate them?

Thanks in advance.

[03CrewSC]

We also have a BES and BESx talking to the same Exchange server. Although unsupported, I have used the Transporter Tool to move users from BES to BESx.

[tbone69]

Are you using two different BESadmin/exchange accounts for the two servers? Or, are you using the same accounts for both BES and BESX?

[titanjhb]

You can have both BES and BESX on the same Windows domain, I actually run very small instances of both on the same exchange and the same service account, what you can have is both on the same blackberry domain however.