[swerve]

I admin my own SBS 2k3 R2, for my mental health practice. I know enough about it, to go beyond the wizards, I have it working flawlessly etc over the last 8 months. NOW since the BES Express option has become affordable, I would love to get into BES and provide service to about 4-5 handhelds.

My server:
AMD Opteron Dual Core 1212
2GB DDR2
Raid1, GB Lans, and sbcglobal DSL with static IP.

There are only three workstations connected to it at all times, barely even making this box work. I went for the over kill.

After reading for the past few days, I get the hint that running BES isn't the safest thing to do on the production server(however many will say it'll work fine). I have some extra hardware laying around, and would love to just throw BES onto a spare box, leaving my precious SBS server untouched.

Does anyone have tips, or tutorial on how to accomplish this? Do I have to join the windows XP bes server to the domain and eat one of my SBS Licenses? What are the extra steps required into making the xp pro box ready to run BES?

You guys are the best, I hope to learn more everyday.

[CanuckBB]

BES is stable in a production environment. I am, however, not a big fan of running anything on SBS. As soon as you stray from the wizards, you can get yourself into trouble.

In your case, I'd load up the free virtualization products from either MS or VMWare and load 2003 on it. While RIM won't support it, others pn this forums have reported success with it.

Check with your MS partner about licensing.

[swerve]

Originally Posted by CanuckBB

BES is stable in a production environment. I am, however, not a big fan of running anything on SBS. As soon as you stray from the wizards, you can get yourself into trouble.

In your case, I'd load up the free virtualization products from either MS or VMWare and load 2003 on it. While RIM won't support it, others pn this forums have reported success with it.

Check with your MS partner about licensing.

Hmm... Yeah I am slowly coming to the same conclusion. I will try searching for a write up.... So in running a virtualized OS, it will talk to the sql and exchange on the real SBS as long as the accounts and users are set up right?

[fadmin]

BES will not install on XP.

[CanuckBB]

Originally Posted by swerve

Hmm... Yeah I am slowly coming to the same conclusion. I will try searching for a write up.... So in running a virtualized OS, it will talk to the sql and exchange on the real SBS as long as the accounts and users are set up right?

Yes. It's as if you have another physical server.

OTOH, if you have to buy a copy of 2003 for the VM, then just install on a physical system. I ran my 10 user BES on a P4 3.0ghz with 512MB RAM and a 40GB HDD for over a year with no problems.

[swerve]

Originally Posted by CanuckBB

Yes. It's as if you have another physical server.

OTOH, if you have to buy a copy of 2003 for the VM, then just install on a physical system. I ran my 10 user BES on a P4 3.0ghz with 512MB RAM and a 40GB HDD for over a year with no problems.

Wow now that sounds promising, I'll be running even less users. So what are some of the special considerations with this setup? Specifically does the Win2k3 box have to be joined and listed in the active directory of the SBS2k3 (part of the domain). I want to keep this BES install as seperate from my really nicely humming production server as possible. Will it take just the correct sql accounts, and exhange accounts/user accounts, and openning up the right ports?

Or will it have to be another client computer (the 2k3 BES server) on my domain...

-btw thank you so much already.

[bertiebassett]

Originally Posted by fadmin

BES will not install on XP.

Not True - It will it does and it works... I've had a 2-3 user BES running on it and connecting to SBS for over 12 months now. Its not a supported configuration nor would I recommend it in any kind of 'critical' production evironment, but for my 2-3 users on another domain for us it was the cheapest way of giving them BES, as you're only spending on dirt cheap hardware and no server license costs which are over 600 uk pounds. All you need to pay for is the user CALS

To do this then the XP box needs to be
a) In the domain
b) Have Windows server management tools installed (IIRC)
c) Have exchange system manager installed.

then its follow the steps as outlined in the BES pre-requsites thread.

Caveat - It does fall over and I need to re-boot it every couple of weeks, whereas out main BES stays up until we re-boot following patch tuesday. For testing, limited usage I think it works, and its more straightforward (IMHO) than virtualisation.

[swerve]

Originally Posted by bertiebassett

Not True - It will it does and it works... I've had a 2-3 user BES running on it and connecting to SBS for over 12 months now. Its not a supported configuration nor would I recommend it in any kind of 'critical' production evironment, but for my 2-3 users on another domain for us it was the cheapest way of giving them BES, as you're only spending on dirt cheap hardware and no server license costs which are over 600 uk pounds. All you need to pay for is the user CALS

To do this then the XP box needs to be
a) In the domain
b) Have Windows server management tools installed (IIRC)
c) Have exchange system manager installed.

then its follow the steps as outlined in the BES pre-requsites thread.

Caveat - It does fall over and I need to re-boot it every couple of weeks, whereas out main BES stays up until we re-boot following patch tuesday. For testing, limited usage I think it works, and its more straightforward (IMHO) than virtualisation.

I'll give both a try. Now I am convinced I will keep the BES in a seperate box. This way if I blow it up, I can always start over.... Thank you for the suggestions... I'll keep everyone posted. ( but keep em coming too!)

[ladydi]

I agree with Bertie.

I definitely wouldn't install it on the SBS - especially if its running well and you have no desire to accidentally wreck havoc on it. If you can get a license for server 2003 standard, you will be better off for stability reasons. I think it would be worth the $$. But it will run on XP. And I highly highly advise that you have a minimum of 1GB RAM.