[passivex]

Hi,

I'm running BES 4.1.3 (Bundle 61) on my Exchange 2003 server with about 30 users. I know, I shouldn't combine the BES with the Exchange server but a BES with around 30 users isn't much of a resource hog. My Exchange server is a fairly powerful box (DL385 w/ 2 dual-core Opteron 2218 and 4GB of RAM) and it's hosting only about 150 users (90% are running on Outlook 2003 cached mode) so it has plenty of resources to spare.

Anyway, I haven't touched the BES for a while (no problems for the past year) and noticed that BES is up to SP5. I'd like to keep current so I would like to upgrade but unsure if I should take this opportunity to split BES from the Exchange server. I am running ESX 3 so I'm planning to place BES on one of my non-critical VMs.

So my questions are:
1) Any major cons for running BES on Exchange server besides sharing resources and BES updates potentially requiring reboot of Exchange server?

2) I've read that a lot of people are not having problem running BES on VMs. My BES database is on a dedicated SQL box so the BES footprint on the VM should be minimal. Anything I should watch out for?

3) How would I perform the migration? I only have 1 SRP ID. I performed the knife-edge cutover method before but that caused my existing BBs to not be able to sync properly with the new BES. Actually, everything work but I kept getting eventID 20000 in my event log for all my BBs. Wiping the BB then reactivating it with the account fixed the problem but this wasn't documented any where. Anyway, this migration should be easier since I'm moving from 4.13 to 4.15 (I was migration from 3.6 before).

Thanks in advance.