How to make BES redundant?

[zfrawg]

I've been tasked with upgrading our email infrastructure, and as part of that plan I want to make our BES server redundant. Right now we only have one BES server in our West coast office, and with our new system we'd like to have two one on the East coast, and one on the West coast. What's the best way to do this, can you have two BES servers in different physical locations that access the same database? Or is there some other way to do this?

[Rh1noo]

They can share the same database if the WLAN speed is sufficient to access the SQL server from the other site. Personal I would setup them up as two separate servers and use the enterprise transporter to move users between the two servers. SQL express will support up to 500 users and can be installed locally on the BES.

[besadmn]

ES servers (5.0+) can be configured in an active/standby configuration. The recommendation is no more than 2k users per BES. The DB can be mirrored to another location if bandwidth permits. (need sql not msde) RIM doesn't support DB cluster but from what I've heard, they do work quite well. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks. Rh1noo's on the ball, the enterprise transporter can be used to transport to a new BES domain.. If you are already at BES 5+, then just add a standby bes.. no need to transport users.

All the documentation you need is on the RIM site. Upgrade guide, ugrade planning guide, planning guide (the one your asking about now), installation guide, administration and configuration guide, etc. Alternativly, you can just contract a BES certified business like me to do it for you (is I allowed to say that on a forum?).