Supporting Blackberry Enterprise Server on Exchange 2010
Supporting Blackberry Enterprise Server on Exchange 2010 in “Greenfield’ Implementations
By Lee Walton
Since RIM first began selling the Blackberry messaging devices, they have been the recognized leader in mobile e-mail solutions. Combining a server infrastructure with directly interacts with Exchange, and a device which can receive e-mail in many cases sooner than Outlook, the Blackberry has become a mainstay in corporate messaging environments. As newer versions of Exchange have been released, RIM has kept pace with Microsoft, by using native Microsoft connectivity methods such as MAPI to connect to the mailbox server for forwarding e-mail to mailbox user’s Blackberry devices. With Exchange 2007, there was a slight delay in providing support via the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), however, today we enjoy the same compatibility and reliability that we have come to associate with BES integration. With Exchange 2010, there is a bit of an issue with BES support. Previous to Exchange 2010, connectivity to the mailbox servers was made via the MAPI protocol. This standard allowed RIM to provide compatibility relatively quickly. Even Exchange 2007, with its Client Access Server role used for client connectivity, still allowed direct connectivity to the Mailbox Server role via MAPI. With Exchange 2010, that has changed, and so we have a slight issue for those of us developing “greenfield” or new implementations of Exchange 2010 for our clients.
BES: Our Client’s Requirement
Our client currently has a deployment of Exchange 2003. This implementation has significant reliability issues, and the client does not want to carry forward any issues from the Active Directory and Exchange implementation. Because of this, the client has specifically asked that we implement Exchange 2010 in a “greenfield”, or as a new implementation of Active Directory and Exchange. Our initial thought was that we could simply deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010, and implement a BES in that environment. Our research determined that it would not be quite that simple. Because BES does not yet support Exchange 2010, we had to come up with an alternate deployment method, one that provided the “greenfield” implementation that the customer desired, supported Exchange 2010 AND supported BES.
Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010 and Windows Server 2008
The client wanted a deployment of Microsoft’s latest and greatest Windows platform to form the basis of their Active Directory. This meant that we would have to deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 as a domain requirement. As it happens, this is also a requirement for Exchange 2010, so our plan was to start with a Windows Server 2008 R2 server and simply perform a dcpromo to make the server a domain controller of the new Active Directory. We began putting together a project plan that would guide our team through the implementation, and started going down the list of requirements for the new environment. When we reached the mobility requirement, we realized that we needed to support BES in the environment, and began researching which version of BES was compatible with Exchange 2010. What we found put a fly in the ointment of our plans; RIM does not currently have a version of BES that supports Exchange 2010! Not only did RIM not have a beta that we could use, but there was no information at all about a projected date for a version that supports BES. This required that we rethink how we would deploy Exchange 2010.
Our first thought was that we could deploy Active Directory based on Windows Server 2008 R2, with Exchange 2010, and then add Exchange 2007 for BES compatibility. In migration of Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010, we have done something similar in the past, where we would add Exchange 2010 to an existing Exchange 2007 organization, and decommission all but the mailbox server that supported BES. But this was a new implementation of Active Directory, and a new implementation of Exchange 2010. Furthermore, Exchange 2007 is not support on Windows Server 2008 R2, which further complicated things.
Our Solution
With all of these requirements, and issues, we came up with a very simple solution; we would deploy Exchange 2007 in a new Windows Server 2008 Active Directory forest. This would require deploy both a Client Access Server and a Mailbox Server based on Exchange 2007. The reason we had to deploy the Client Access Server even though we only need a Mailbox Server for BES integration is because the first Exchange 2007 server in a new Exchange organization must be a Client Access Server. Once the Exchange 2007 server is deployed, we would then deploy BES. Only after we have our Exchange 2007 “environment” implemented, would we begin deployment of Exchange 2010. First we would install a Windows Server 2008 R2 server as the operating system for our first Exchange 2010 server, which would need to be a Client Access Server, just like Exchange 2007. We would then install the Exchange 2010 Client Access Server, and the subsequent roles of Exchange 2010, based on our individual design specifications. Using this methodology, we are able to provide Blackberry access via BES to our Exchange 2010 environment.