BES Down - EVERYWHERE

In case you haven't heard, this may keep some of you BES admins from troubleshooting today. Last night the entire BES infrastructure went down...

And it's still down as of this posting! At least it appears to be for us.

New Open Source BlackBerry Site!

I just listened to the latest Taking Notes Podcast regarding BlackBerry development. This was a really good Podcast. Bruce and Julian are doing a great job - keep it up!!

In the Podcast we learn of a new Open Source BlackBerry applications site that is similar to OpenNTF. It is openCOD.org - check it out!

Samsung Blackjack

Last week I received a Samsung Blackjack (i607) to test. It's the new Windows Smartphone from Samsung that is only available through Cingular. I've been using a BlackBerry 8700c since January. But, I really like the Samsung. The display appears to be a lot smaller than the 8700, but it's actually the same height and just slightly narrower. Here's my unofficial review:

Pros:
- Nice display
- I like the feel of the keyboard
- Nice fit in the hand
- EDGE, but is 3G UMTS/HSDPA capable when that's available in my area
- 1.3 MP camera
- Windows Mobile 5 is pretty straightforward
- Media player
- Extra battery and standalone charger
- Able to set up POP accounts for mail
- I'm going to get a MicroSD card and should be able to load Lotus Notes Nomad and carry my mail client with me everywhere

Cons:
- Speaking of that, I don't like that the USB port on the Blackjack is proprietary. It also functions as a headphone port. Come on, just give me an 1/8" port!
- Anyone know of a free GoogleTalk IM client for WM5? I have AOL and Sametime 7.5 clients loaded.
- And speaking of the extra battery - it's needed! Battery life isn't so hot. Maybe 1.5 days with general usage. And it's not just me.
- The number keys are separated by other keys instead of all being together. This isn't too bad, but it is somewhat of a nuisance.
- No BBConnect client. And I'm still trying to work with Cingular on getting their XPressMail working with "Lotus Domino". It's an option in their client, but the client fails for each computer I use with it. It is supposed to sync contacts and calendar entries with Lotus.
- I will be OK to keep using POP mail with my Domino server as long as I can find something to sync with Lotus. We use XTNDConnectPC internally, but they don't "support" Blackjack yet.
- No carrying case
- I may just load Domino Access for MS Outlook so that everything will just sync! I can see the case for the ease of synchronization between ActiveSync and WM devices.

Technorati: Blackjack

Treo 650 with BlackBerry Connect and DAMO

Since Cingular finally released BBConnect for the Treo 650, I have someone testing it out. It works alright. I posted about this in April and it's pretty much the same. The thing that we really don't dig is that the account has to have the BlackBerry plan (~$40) as well as a MediaNET plan (~$40). The MediaNet plan is necessary if you want to use the Internet Browser on the phone. It will definitely be a niche product for people who just have to keep their Treo. But that may all change when they try out a BlackBerry Pearl!

Also, we have a workgroup that needs to use Outlook to demo a product they sell for VoIP integration. So, I'm working on loading DAMO 6.5.5 on their Outlook 2003 clients. I cringe every time I VNC to one of their computers to set it up... At least it's just 6 users!

Now Playing: "Make Believe Jesus" by Shane & Shane

BES 4.1 Update

Ted has posted about Sametime on BlackBerry and MDSS problems. That reminds me that I've been needing to post an update.

Since my last upgrade failed again, I decided to punt. Since we got the new xSeries for our BES, I'm just migrating the accounts from the old server to the new server. But, this also means that I'm having to wipe and reactivate every BlackBerry we have! I've done 56 so far (out of only 106), so that puts me over the halfway point. According to RIM, I should have been able to upgrade if I would restore a pre-upgraded database. Unfortunately, this restore would have to be from April. Since we've added maybe about 30 BlackBerries since then, I decided it may be best to just cut over slowly.

In Ted's first post, he talks about the installation procedure for getting "Enterprise Messenger" (Sametime) loaded on the server. To accompany his post, here are some screen grabs I took a couple of weeks ago. I've been waiting for the right time to post...



In Ted's second post, he mentioned that his MDS Services (MDSS) install is not going well. When I was speaking with RIM, I actually had a problem loading MDSS on the brand new system with a clean Domino 7.0.1 install and BES 4.1.1! They said that I could either press on to get it installed or, as they suggest, run MDSS on a separate system in the domain. All of the Enterprise Browser functionality will work fine without MDSS. So, if you don't have plans to develop and push out custom applications, then you don't need to load MDSS. RIM stated that MDSS is a huge resource hog and it may be best for my environment to not install it.

Finally, our mail server crashed for a bit today and BES 4.1 with Domino 7.x performs failover!! I checked out the console and could see that it was redirecting requests over to our cluster server. Then it had a specific time that it was waiting for to retry the primary server. This worked well and was a much-needed enhancement!

Technorati: BES, BlackBerry

Guess What? BES 4.1 Upgrade Hosed Again!

Now I'm getting an SQL error regarding an ambiguous column name on the MachineName column. Looking at RIM's online support, I see that I will have to restore a pre-upgrade-attempt db to fix this. The problem with that is the first upgrade attempt was in April! And we've added many more users since then. I tried modifying that column to equal the machine name. I even removed a secondary record, but it was a no-go. I'll be calling them again tomorrow to see if there's some way to bypass this. It should be a mere matter of correcting data in the SQL databases, but since this is a RIM upgrade I'm probably SOL. I've uninstalled 4.1 (again) and am going through the 4.0 install and service pack installations. I can tell already that I will not have a "happy heart" (as we tell our 2 year old she should have) when I call support in the morning!

Upgrading from 4.0.3 to 4.1 Tonight

OK, so I had a pretty terrible upgrade experience in April and I was waiting for SP1 to be released. It appears that SP1 definitely corrected the errors I was having. See links at the bottom of this post. Since then I have also acquired a new IBM xSeries to run the BES. I have loaded Domino 7.0.1 and BES 4.1 SP1 on this new xSeries and am using BESMgmt2 SQL db. My old BES has Domino 6.5.4 and BES 4.0.3 and is using BESMgmt1 SQL db.

Here's my planned upgrade procedure for tonight - does it sound OK?

BES A = current/old BES at 4.0.3
BES B = new BES

1. Upgrade BES A to 4.1 SP1 so that my BESMgmt1 SQL db is upgraded.
2. Start BES A.
3. Redirect BES B to BESMgmt1 db from BESMgmt2.
4. Both BES A and B should now be displayed in the BlackBerry Manager app and in the same BB Domain, right?
5. Click my account on BES A and choose to move it to BES B.
6. This shouldn't require re-activation, right?

Anyway, let me know what you think...

BES 4.1 Upgrade (and Downgrade)
BES 4.1 Service Pack 1 Available

Now Playing: "Echoes Pt. 1" by Dream Theater

Technorati: BlackBerry

BES 4.1 Service Pack 1 Available

According to the download site, it was released on July 28, 2006. For Domino, it's 361MB! The release notes are here. I've been holding off on my upgrade for SP1 to be released because of my previous debacle!

Some fixes: There are about 10 pages of fixes and about 3 pages of known issues.
SDR 80370 - I think this was my main issue! In BlackBerry Enterprise Server Version 4.1, if your database environment was Microsoft SQL Server and you attempted to create the MDSS and/or the MDSS_DIS databases, the creation failed and error messages displayed.
In BlackBerry Enterprise Server Version 4.1 SP1 and later, this issue is resolved.
Visit www.blackberry.com/knowledgecenterpublic to read article KB-042935 for more information (I can't find this document... it appears that it's actually KB-04953)

SDR 85325 - This was my other show-stopper! RIM told me that they didn't believe me when I told them I got this message! In BlackBerry Enterprise Server Version 4.1, if your database environment was Microsoft SQL Server and the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 driver for Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Service Pack 3 was installed on the same computer on which you planned to upgrade the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the setup program failed to locate the JDBC driver.
In BlackBerry Enterprise Server Version 4.1 SP1 and later, the setup program successfully locates the JDBC driver.

SDR 87289 In earlier versions of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, a Lotus Notes email address was not handled properly as an address in the To field of a message component. A Notes ID (for example, Trevor Van Daele/test.rim.net) was broken up into three addresses when it was sent to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
In BlackBerry Enterprise Server Version 4.1 SP1 and later, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server handles Lotus Notes email addresses
properly. (This is cool because now you can list the Notes address in your PAB)

SDR 78026 In BlackBerry Enterprise Server Version 4.1, if users attempted to log in to Enterprise Messenger using a password that was greater than 100 characters, the “SametimeError:80000001” error message appeared.
In BlackBerry Enterprise Server Version 4.1 SP1 and later, this issue is resolved. All I can say is - WTF? Password over 100 characters? Talk about AR!

Known Issues Not Fixed:
SDR 97967 When you delete a user from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the incorrect user profile document is deleted.

SDR 69400 If users log in to BlackBerry Instant Messaging for Sametime, presence notification is turned off on their email client.

SDR 91287 If you are upgrading the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Version 4.0 to Version 4.1 and later, email messages that were sent to a user during the upgrade process will not be sent to the BlackBerry device after the upgrade process is complete.

Now Playing: "Thorn Tree in the Garden" by Derek and The Dominos

Technorati: BES, BlackBerry

71% of Servers and 97% of Clients at ND 7.0.1

I (finally) upgraded our production application and mail partitions to Domino 7.0.1 on Saturday night. All but 2 of our Domino servers are at 7.0.1 now. I'm holding off on upgrading the Sametime partition to 7.x since we only use it for chat and there are no major benefits at Sametime 7.0 for us. I may even hold off until Sametime 7.5. And I'm still holding off on our BES 7.0.1 upgrade because of the fiasco I had last time I tried upgrading the BES from 4.0 to 4.1. But so far, so good!

Now Playing: "Blindside" by Precious Death

Technorati: Lotus Domino

Any Interest In This Application?

I have a fairly simple application (I guess I could put it at OpenNTF also to see if people are interested) for tracking services performed on your vehicles. It's a really simple app that I wanted to port for use on my BlackBerry web browser. What better to do than create service records while you're waiting on your vehicle to be repaired? Below are some screen grabs from my BlackBerry 8700c. It looks pretty much the same on the web as well as in Notes. The main view will give you collapsed categories for the vehicles with the date, service, mileage (in Notes), and cost displayed. Basically the information available to track is all on the form (Image 2). There is a separate form for the vehicle record as well.

If there is any interest I can post up a template.




Now Playing: "I Wish You Were Here" by Balance of Power

Technorati: Lotus Notes

Blackberry Connect For Treo, Take Two

As I posted Friday, I had BB Connect for Treo working. However, as I posted over at Tony Kelleran's site, it was not without issues:

The messaging and calendar sync were cool, but I didn't see a native option for synchronizing the address book (would one have to buy a 3rd-party application to do this?). Again, I know that BBC for Treo is far from official for Cingular, so I can't really complain too much.

Also, I could NOT get the Internet browser to connect. From reading at blackberryforums, some users stated that you would have to disconnect the BB service and then connect the Media Net service. I was unable to do this, and it would be highly cumbersome.

So, a Treo 650 with BB Connect is a great idea (even though the only thing I like about the device over my 8700 is the camera), not having Internet access is not cool. I know this will be working when it's an official release. I guess you could call what I loaded an alpha release that works with the Singapore carrier. However, it was great to get my hands on the software and try it out. I work for a Cingular reseller, and have known the guy over our wireless sales division for about 14 years. He's a die-hard Treonaut and I would love to get him off of the VersaMail POP access to our mail server onto something more stable and useful. Someday we'll get it working with the official release and I'll be sure to blog about it.

Also, they are setting up a Nokia 9300 on BB Connect today too. As Tony posted, the device has some great features, but I found it very clumsy and bulky when I handled it Friday.

Now Playing: "In The Name of God" by Dream Theater

BlackBerry Connect on Treo 650 Available...Sort Of

Just wanted to brag and make some people mad, but I have BlackBerry Connect on a Treo 650 and it's working! How, you ask? Go about halfway down this page...

Now Playing: "Stream of Consciousness" by Dream Theater

BES 4.1 Upgrade (and Downgrade)

Judging by the title, you can probably tell that my upgrade was unsuccessful. Let me do a recap (as much for me when I call RIM tomorrow as for the readers).

First of all, I thought I would just upgrade Domino from 6.5.4 to 7.0.1. No problems with the Domino upgrade (as usual). So then I got out my BES upgrade checklist. I should have stopped when the configuration database could not be backed up using the BlackBerryDBBackup.exe command. I was getting a C++ error. I pressed on since we are using a SQL backend and it is backed up regularly. So I proceeded with the BES setup.exe.

I chose to install the full package of BES plus MDS. None of the documentation stated that TWO additional SQL databases would be created (MDSS and MDSS_DIR). This is in addition to having to update the current BESMgmt database. I was able to successfully update the BESMgmt database and then it was to the point of rebooting. After coming back up, the setup program continues.

It was at this point that the two new MDS databases would be created. My SQL user account already had the required SA (Server Administrator) and DB Creator authority as noted in the upgrade manual. After successfully creating the MDSS database, I received an error stating that the database could not be updated. In the BES logs folder, there is an Install sub-folder with installation logs. Looking at this I could see that the problem was that the SQL DB_VERSION table in the MDSS database could not be updated with an INSERT of the new version data. So I paged our Network/SQL admin group and got someone to look at the database. Come to find out, the DB_VERSION table didn't even exist! I'm glad the install program created it properly... Back to the story, I had the SQL admin manually create the table AND give me owner access to all of the other tables. It seems that the install program didn't grant that authority either! Then I was able to INSERT the records for the version and proceed with the setup.

After this, I get to the next to final option. Two more clicks and I'm home free and should be able to get Sametime working (since we have a need for that, hence the upgrade). So I'm at the point where the install program is going to need the location of the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (or 2005) Driver. I didn't have the driver installed, but the installer gives you the location for download. After downloading and installing the driver, the installer cannot find the DLL. I think that possibly a restart would be in order, so I do that and come back to the installer. It still cannot find the file. I uninstall the SQL driver and reinstall it to the D: drive where my BES is installed. It's a no-go! The installer apparently cannot find a file that exists on the system!!

So after this, I was basically dead in the water. I would have to downgrade to get it working because for some reason I don't have weekend support (the things done to save a buck...). So I uninstalled BES 4.1 and was going to load BES 4.0. Can anyone guess what happened? I didn't have (nor could I find) a full installer for BES 4.0 SP3 that supports Domino 7. So after loading BES 4.0 I got an error stating that the notes.ini could not be located. So I just installed Domino 6.5.4 over 7.0.1 and then ran the BES installer again. During this install, it found that the BESMgmt database was at a "Pre-4.0 level" and could not proceed. So I call my SQL guy again and he sees that in the BESMgmt database there is a ServerDBVersion table that has a record for 4.0 and 4.1. So he just removes the 4.1 record and the installer was happy. Things came up fine and I loaded SP3 for BES to be fairly up-to-date. Now my BES is active but still at 4.0...

To do this week:
- Find a full installer for BES 4.0 SP3 so I can load Domino 7.0.1 and not have to downgrade Domino later.
- Find out why in the world the BES 4.1 installer couldn't find the SQL driver!! Not happy about that!
- Find out where my SQL guy wants to go to lunch because I owe him!

West Wing Has New "BlackBerry"

So I'm watching West Wing (hard to believe I like that show, huh?) and Josh said that at least he didn't take his BlackBerry to bed with him. They have all been using BlackBerrys for this whole season... Anyway, what he just called his "BlackBerry" rings and he answers it. But, it's not a BlackBerry but a Treo!! Take from that what you will.

Now Playing: "Insectsamongus" by Jordan Rudess

Connect Google Talk to AIM, MSN, & Yahoo

I saw this today at BlackBerryForums.com: Connect Google Talk to AIM, MSN, & Yahoo

Basically, you download PSI (a Jabber client) and connect to Google Talk. Then you can browse to AIM, MSN, and Yahoo networks. After connecting to these you will have to "accept" connections for each network as well as each contact. It's a bit of a hassle if you have a ton of contacts (unlike me). Then close PSI and login to Google Talk - voila!

Do you want to make it even more interesting? Get Google Talk for your BlackBerry and you have a single client for all or most of the IM networks you would need! On your BlackBerry, go to http://www.blackberry.com/GoogleTalk/ to download the application over-the-air.

Now Playing: "Shelter Me" by Balance of Power

This JUST in...

RIM and NTP settle for $612.5 million - no shutdown! Settlement was reached this afternoon.

BlackBerry Multi-Mode Edition Software FAQ

The document linked below details BlackBerry's Multi-Mode Edition software. This will be released in the event that an injunction is made against RIM in their patent dispute case with NTP. The software is a workaround that will bypass the claims of the patents.

Initially, I understood that no updates would need to be made to the BES or devices. But if the injunction is made, the BES and devices will need to be patched.

http://www.blackberry.com/select/mme/pdfs/mme_customer_faq.pdf

Now Playing: "Stars" by David Crowder Band

RIM Workaround

Here's a trackback to the RIMBlackBerryNTP Blog detailing the "workaround" that we've been reading about.

It does seem like a fairly seamless workaround. Though I agree with the concerns of not being able to read and respond to emails when you are not in coverage. I'm not familiar with all of the semantics regarding "push" and "push-pull". Effectively the workaround is for RIM to push only some headers to the phone and when viewing the message the handheld will pull the rest of the body. Back to the semantics, is this not what RIM now does with the exception of pushing headers plus a truncated body? Many times I will have to initiate the pull to read messages longer than a certain length. But I guess those semantics are meant for the courtroom. Hopefully this will all work out since we just placed an order to double the number of licenses on our BES.

Now Playing: "Mud Puddle" by Disciple

Opening General Session (LS06)

This thing is packed!! Word is that the entire front section is just for the press. Some major announcements - just see these highlights:

* Jason Alexander speaks! He's hilarious...
* DWA and Notes with Sametime for Mac - live demo!
* Over 1500 Notes wins over Exchange!
* GoodLink for Lotus
* Wanda - Portable Notes on USB stick
* Notes/SAP integration next quarter - prior to MS/SAP integration
* This was the feature Rocky was talking about
* IM on BlackBerry - in Message window not separate chat app
* Web Services on BB
* Connectivity with AIM, Y!, and Google Talk!! WOW! With no additional purchase.
* Sametime 7.5 - emoticons too! Voice Chat, built on Eclipse! Screen capture to put in chat
* Better UI for Web Conferencing too
* 15 Million users of Sametime
* IBM Workplace Forms - very nice!
* Domino builder for Eclipse?
* Shipping WCS and WMC today!
* IBM Productivity Tools
* Activity Explorer for WMC 2.6
* Domino "Next" - Websphere Portal integrated to Domino (Lotus Domino 8?)
* Hannover - The richest Implementation of activity centric computing, improved mail threads, ctrl-click to select multiples
* Hannover Demo was awesome! Way to go Lotus!!
* Oh yeah - NO CRASHES from these major demos (remember the infamous MS BSoD with major announcements?)

Testing from BlackBerry

Just testing. I enabled my blogspot email address - just send an email to the address and it publishes the post. I figure I can use this to post more frequently next week!