Installing MSDE on SBS for Blackberry Enterprise Server
I’ve got a few customers using Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) now and they are all running this on Small Business Server 2003.
Research in Motion would probably not recommend this configuration, but actually SBS seems to cope quite well. Although I have not tested this out with more than 6 users.
Installing BES onto SBS is not entirely straight forward, mainly down to the way MSDE is installed on SBS. The BES installation cannot find the MSDE database, but it also doesn’t give you the option to automatically install another database instance.
So, in order to get the BES installation working on SBS, you should create a new instance of MSDE before ruining the installation. You can do this as follows:
1. Locate the MSDE files on the SBS 2003 CD 3 or download from Microsoft.
2. Open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd -> clickOK).
3. On the Command Prompt, change to the directory where the MSDE files are located e.g. cd D:\SBS\MONITOR\MSDE
4. Enter the following command to create the new instance:
setup INSTANCENAME=”BESMgmt” SAPWD=”AStrongSAPwd” /L*v C:\MSDELog.log
5. Start the service: Start -> Run -> Services.msc -> Click OK. Scroll down to the instance you just created MSSQL$BESMGMT, select and click start service.
6. Check the log file to make sure everything installed correctly at C:\MSDELog.log
Then when you run the BES installation, simply enter BESMgmt as the database name. The installation will then run like a dream.
Make sure you follow the Quick Start Guide for the rest of the installation available here: BES Express 4.1 Getting Started Guide
Brett Henrichsen Says:
May 30th, 2007 at 2:59 am
Hey -
I tried exactly what you did above, and the log says i’ve successfully created the new MSDE isntance of MSSQL$BESMGMT, but the Blackberry Enterprise installation says the database is invalid and won’t install. What am I doing wrong? I’ve got the local machine as the SQL Server name and BESMgmt as the database. NADA.
Is it just me, or is RIM’s documentation the most vague bunch of crap ever?
BES Xpress on SBS 2003 - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:23 am
[…] Today, 01:23 AM Chris Dalby Blog » Blog Archive » Installing MSDE on SBS for Blackberry Enterprise Server […]
Installing MSDE on SBS for Blackberry Enterprise Server Says:
July 29th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
[…] Installing MSDE on SBS for Blackberry Enterprise Server I’ve got a few customers using Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) now and they are all running this on Small Business Server 2003. Research in Motion would probably not recommend this configuration, but actually SBS seems to cope quite well. Although I have not tested this out with more than 6 users. Installing BES onto SBS is not entirely straight forward, mainly down to the way MSDE is installed on SBS. more… Source: [Link] July 29, 2007 | Filed Under Windows Password Reset | […]
BES4.1.3/Exchange Install - SQL Server 2005 questions - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community Says:
September 23rd, 2007 at 7:35 am
[…] Today, 07:35 AM Hello hdawg, many thanks for your answer. Well, the SBS 2003 Standard has an SQL-Server onboard, but I don’t know, whether it is in use or not. Actually, the COMPANYWEB and the SHAREPOINT-Services use some SQL-Databases, but I cannot analyse, if it’s provided by MSDE or the built-in SQL-Server (2000 I guess??) I found the "dedicated" installation string on Chris Dalby Blog » Blog Archive » Installing MSDE on SBS for Blackberry Enterprise Server, but the Log-File sais, the installation failed… [/quote]setup INSTANCENAME=”BESMgmt” SAPWD=”AStrongSAPwd” /L*v C:MSDELog.log[/quote] […]
BES4.1.3/Exchange Install - SQL Server 2005 questions - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community Says:
September 24th, 2007 at 3:46 am
[…] Yesterday, 07:35 AM Hello hdawg, many thanks for your answer. Well, the SBS 2003 Standard has an SQL-Server onboard, but I don’t know, whether it is in use or not. Actually, the COMPANYWEB and the SHAREPOINT-Services use some SQL-Databases, but I cannot analyse, if it’s provided by MSDE or the built-in SQL-Server (2000 I guess??) I found the "dedicated" installation string on Chris Dalby Blog » Blog Archive » Installing MSDE on SBS for Blackberry Enterprise Server, but the Log-File sais, the installation failed… Quote: […]
Steve Donaldson Says:
October 30th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I wanted a new instance for an ESC database. I made modifications to your command line and it seemed to work. However, I tried reinstalling ESC and it tells me that SQL is already installed. It will not run further than that. The instance I created showed up in the services mmc and I rebooted the server. Is there a way to tell if ESC is using the new instance?
Thanks for the help
Chris Goldberg Says:
November 1st, 2007 at 10:16 am
Thanks for the information.
I realized after a bit of fumbling that the host name for the SQL server
is \BESMgmt, according to the INSTANCENAME you’ve specified above.
Thanks again for the help.
Chris
Chris Goldberg Says:
November 1st, 2007 at 10:17 am
Arghhh, html parsing messed up my post.
Host name is SERVERNAME\BESMgmt
Chris
Luc Wisla Says:
January 14th, 2008 at 1:56 am
If it still gives you SQL errors after you create the SQL instance, change your database directory. It tries to create the files and gives you upgrade errors if it fails the first time.
BES_SBS 2003 - Trouble installing MSDE instance - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community Says:
January 28th, 2008 at 7:59 am
[…] Today, 07:59 AM It looks like you got instructions from here: Chris Dalby Blog » Blog Archive » Installing MSDE on SBS for Blackberry Enterprise Server … have you tried simply using the already installed instance of MSDE for BES? […]
BlackBerry Professional Software 4.1 install issue - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
[…] Today, 02:15 PM This seems to be a timely post for me. Our crumbly old IBM rackmount server running W2K server just died and I want to get BES running again as it will be a little while before I can get it repaired. We are running an SBS2003 server and I am considering installing BES Professional on there. However, running though the install stuff on RIM’s site (which is a good deal more straightforward than full BES when I did that!) it seems a stumbling block might be the database being create - hence I searched and came up with this current post! I don’t fancy hanging the BES Professional off an existing instance, so would like to create a new one. I found this link Chris Dalby Blog » Blog Archive » Installing MSDE on SBS for Blackberry Enterprise Server which gives a process for doing it. In a nutshell it says: Quote: […]
Business Integration Solution India Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 2:41 am
That was quite informative…thanks a lot.