BESUserAdminClient.exe find issues

I had it on my list to write a blog entry this weekend about an issue we had recently with the find feature of the BESUserAdminClient.exe program returning incorrect results for the Blackberry portion of our Hosted Exchange 2007 platform, but it looks like one of the other engineers beat me to it. Read the details on his blog here: http://usrlocal.com/2009/06/05/besuseradminclientexe-find-issues/

OCS 2007 R2 Workaround for Blackberry Instant Messaging (BBIM)

In Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, the Asynchronous JavaScript® and XML (AJAX) AJAX application programming interface (API) is no longer being supported by Microsoft. The Unified Communications (UC) AJAX SDK that is available through the Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access 2007 server will not be re-released by Microsoft in Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access 2007 R2 or in future releases.

If you are planning to install Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, the unsupported AJAX API impacts the BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange for instant messaging implementation against Microsoft Office Communications Server.

Once Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 is installed, you cannot integrate your instant messaging environment with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

The good news is, there is a workaround. Apparently you can first install OCS 2007 R1 on your domain and then upgrade to OCS 2007 R2 leaving a R1 Web Access server installed for the BBIM service to communicate with.

I have not tested any of this yet but will post more updates as I get this going in the lab. Wish me luck.

For more information check out KB17757 on the Blackberry Support site. Since the search on their website is on the top of my list (and not the good list), here's a link. http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB17757

BES 4.1 Role Based Administration Rights

Role	Functionality
Security Administrator (rim_db_admin_security)	This role can perform all tasks. This role is the only role that can manage role membership or change sensitive security properties, such as licenses and encryption keys.
Audit Security Administrator (rim_db_admin_audit_security)	This role can view the same options as the Security Administrator role, but it cannot change or update any of these options.
Enterprise Administrator (rim_db_admin_enterprise)	This role can perform all tasks relating to BlackBerry smartphone users, services, servers, and global application data. This role can control the services in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, but cannot view role membership, licenses, or encryption keys.
Audit Enterprise Administrator (rim_db_admin_audit_enterprise)	This role can view the same options as the Enterprise Administrator role, but it cannot change or update any of these options.
Senior Help Desk Administrator (rim_db_admin_sr_helpdesk)	This role can perform all BlackBerry smartphone user management tasks, including deleting BlackBerry smartphone users, changing IT policy assignments, and issuing IT administration commands.
Audit Senior Help Desk Administrator (rim_db_admin_audit_sr_helpdesk)	This role can view the same options as the Senior Help Desk role, but it cannot change or update any of these options.
Device Administrator (rim_db_admin_handheld)	This role can perform all tasks that relate to BlackBerry smartphone users and BlackBerry smartphone management. This role is designed for administrators who support new BlackBerry smartphone users and deploy BlackBerry smartphones.
Audit Device Administrator (rim_db_admin_audit_handheld)	This role can view the same options as the Device Administrator role, but it cannot change or update any of these options.
Junior Help Desk Administrator (rim_db_admin_jr_helpdesk)	This role can perform BlackBerry smartphone user account management tasks, including creating and sending wireless enterprise activation passwords, and resending service books or IT policies. This role cannot add, move, or delete BlackBerry smartphone user accounts or send certain IT administration commands. This role can assign audit roles.
Audit Junior Help Desk Administrator (rim_db_admin__audit_jr_helpdesk)	This role can view the same options as the Junior Help Desk role, but it cannot change or update any of these options.

Source: http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB04889&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_SUPPORTISSUE_1_1&dialogID=92044347&stateId=1%200%2092038889

More information can also be found in the BES 4.1.6 Administration Guide at http://na.blackberry.com/eng/deliverables/2755/Admin_X_493311_11.pdf

Blackberry Enterprise Server (Exchange) Compatibility

Since I've been searching for the last hour on Blackberry's support site for documentation on whether Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.1.6 for Exchange will support a SQL 2008 database backend, I figured I would finally post the document that answers the question as well as other combinations of operating systems/server components.

For those of you that don't want to open the PDF, and all of you search engines out there wishing to index my answer so people can actually find the answer in the future:

Installing Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.1.6 on SQL Server 2008 (any edition) is listed as not recommended as the installer apparently won't allow it. Also, installing Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.1.6 on Windows Server 2008 is also listed as not recommended.

Reading into their classifications of supportability, 'Not Recommended' appears to equal 'Not Supported'.

HMC 4.5 Exchange 2007 Resource Manager - How it sorta works

I was browsing the inter-tubes today looking for some information on HMC 4.5 and ran across this link about the Exchange 2007 Resource manager and how it's tracking information in the ResourceManager backend databases as well as details on some of the procedures within the namespace. This is one of the best docs we've been able to find so far on this topic. Other similar docs can be found at http://www.mshosting.org/Tech-Bulletins/HMC/

Unexpected Shutdown Comments

We've all seen the following prompt after servers have "unexpectedly shutdown"



This is the summary of the “unexpected shutdown” comments left on our lab servers and the script I used to get them (which I'm sure could use some cleaning up/optimization). If your engineers are anything like us, I'm sure you'll find some interesting comments in your logs as well.

=========================================================================
$strCategory = "computer"

$objDomain = New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry

$objSearcher = New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher
$objSearcher.SearchRoot = $objDomain
$objSearcher.Filter = ("(objectCategory=$strCategory)")

$colProplist = "name"
foreach ($i in $colPropList){$objSearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add($i)}

$colResults = $objSearcher.FindAll()

foreach ($objResult in $colResults)
{$objComputer = $objResult.Properties

$objComputer.name
$SysEvent = new-object system.diagnostics.eventlog("system", $objComputer.name)
$SysEvent.entries | ?{ $_.eventid -match "1076" } | %{$_.Message.Split("`r`n")[16]}
}

=========================================================================
Comment: vmware
Comment: really? Dirty shut down woudNOT be my prefered way to patch .
Comment: dipshit, I clicked reboot... don't know how it gets any more "planned" than that.
Comment: esx4 shit itself again
Comment: ?
Comment: I called for this you liar!
Comment: vmware explode
Comment: ?
Comment: vmware blow up.
Comment: dunno
Comment: liar! I rebooted :)
Comment: shaddap
Comment: vmware blow up.
Comment: dunno
Comment: liar! I rebooted :)
Comment: kaboom vmware
Comment: #
Comment: ;alkjsfda;sldkfj
Comment: kah-BOOM
Comment: dunno
Comment: shaddap
Comment: vmware blow up.
Comment: dunno
Comment: liar! I rebooted :)
Comment: ruh roh
Comment: JS
Comment: df
Comment: Installed new dimms
Comment: some jackass downed the blade?

Microsoft in 2019

I was browsing through my UC blog list today on Google Reader and ran across this entry from http://blogs.technet.com/markdea/. It's an interesting concept and well made video of what thing _could_ look like in 10 years. While most of it isn't realistic, it is interesting to see where the products we are working on now could end up in 10 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvtxupQmRSA&eurl=http://blogs.technet.com/markdea/&feature=player_embedded

Cannot expand distribution groups in Communicator 2007 provisioned from HMC 4.5

We are working out the final kinks in our hosted Communications Server 2007 and have discovered yet another bug as confirmed by Microsoft. If you create a distribution group through MPS, the allusers@ group doesn't have the appropriate permissions on the distribution group object to allow the Communicator client to expand it correctly. The workaround (although not supported currently) is to grant the allusers@ group read permission on the distribution group you are trying to expand.

Our OCS Project goes Public

The Hosted Office Communications Server 2007 project that I've been working on for the last few months went public today. See link below for more details.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/feb09/02-10LightEdgePR.mspx

Apple DVR?

According to the article here, Apple could be considering upgrading the Apple TV device to include DVR capabilities by year end. Not to get into too much of a rush here, but I'd love to get my hands on one. With the integration between the Airport Express, iPhone, and iTunes that I already use and enjoy, I can only imagine what they could do with an Apple TV with DVR capabilities. I've been using Vista's Mediacenter for about a year now and my only real complaints are the sub-par online media and poor integration with other applications. While I've always been a Windows guy, I'm starting to feel myself pulled towards the "dark side" of the rounded corners, white plastic, and reflected icons more and more these days. I've got to hand it to Apple for making their products intuitive, clean, stable, and functional, now if we could only get them to drop the "Apple Tax" a bit and lower prices.

Blackberry Collaboration Service and Office Communications Server 2007

One of the many projects today was to get OCS 2007 and our Blackberry Enterprise Server (4.1.6) to talk to each other in our HMC 4.5 Lab. To accomplish this I created a new virtual web server on our Communicator Web Access server in OCS setting the type to Internal using Built-in Authentication. Where the documentation on http://www.blackberry.com/support doesn't tell you (or at least I didn't' see today) was that you have to enable BOTH Forms-based authentication and Integrated (NTLM/Kerberos) authentication to get it to work. Continue setting a random unused port number, choose SSL and select a certificate. On the BES side enter the FQDN of the server that matches your SSL cert and enter the port number in the Collaboration Sevice's properties page. The hardest part was getting the client downloaded to the device which I found at http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/im.jsp#tab_tab_ocs