Free BES for Office 365 Users

BPOS and Office 365 users will be getting BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) for free based on the information in this slide deck, http://www.slideshare.net/jessiethe3rd/blackberry-now-free-with-bposoffice-365.

Blackberry now free with BPOS/Office 365

View more presentations from jessiethe3rd

I get the impression this will be built on BES 6, as the slide deck makes reference to the service being hosted and managed by RIM. It will probably be the “Express” edition, but the difference between it and the full product a diminishing anyway.

If you have requirement for BES in business you should work with a partner who can develop a complete solution from devices to air-time and app development to hosting.

I’m available to chat about mobile and messaging as a managed service, just drop me an email or DM on twitter.

Daniel Noakes
twitter.com/dannoakes
daniel.noakes@developiq.com

Update Roll Up 9 for HMC 4.5

Finally, the update for HMC 4.5 that resolves the bug when working with resource mailboxes.

Get the info and the update here, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2492952.

Daniel Noakes

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Planning Tool Released

The Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Planning Tool has made it out of beta and is available to download here, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=bcd64040-40c4-4714-9e68-c649785cc43a.

The Planning Tool will recommend a topology and out the XML for the Topology Builder based on questions you answer about your Organisation. The suggested topology includes most things you need to know; server specifications; IP addresses; host names; and firewall rules.

Site Topology:

Edge Network:

The topology can be exported straight to Visio which is great.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Planning Tool:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=bcd64040-40c4-4714-9e68-c649785cc43a.

Daniel Noakes

Exchange 2010 SP1 /Hosting -MultiTenant CMDLET Parameter

The –MultiTenant parameter is only available for a few cmdlets in a multi-tenant deployment of Exchange Server 2010 SP1. Using –MultiTenant specifies the search or operation should be performed across the entire forest and not just the organization currently scoped.

I have found this parameter useful in combination with the Get-MoveRequest and Get-MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlets.

If I want to decommission a database I have to move all the mailboxes using New-MoveRequest. Below using Get-Mailbox with -Database I am able to retrieve all mailboxes hosted on the database across the entire forest, that is apart from arbitration mailboxes.

Get-Mailbox -Database DAG1DB1 | New-MoveRequest –Target Database DAG1DB2

To view the progress you normally run Get-MoveRequest or Get-Mailbox –Organization “Org_Name” but this will only show results scoped to the administrators or specified organization.

Using Get-MoveRequest –MultiTenant will show results for all move requests across the entire forest. This can be piped in to other cmdlets, for example to check when the moves are complete and remove them.

Get-MoveRequest –MultiTenant

Get-MoveRequest –MultiTenant | Remove-MoveRequest

This is much simpler than running Get-Mailbox –Organization 100s or even1000s of times.

Daniel Noakes

Upgrading Windows Server 2008 R2 Editions with DISM.exe

You can use DISM.exe to upgrade the Windows Server 2008 R2 Edition you have installed from the command line. Before going any further, don’t think about doing this on DC or Exchange Server without first removing these roles.

Why would you need this? I’m working with a Virtual Data Centre provider who provide a Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition template, but I need Windows Failover Clustering support for Exchange Server 2010 Database Availability Groups.

I could use the install media, but using DISM.exe is much simpler. You may run in to trouble if a single licence key covers both Standard and Enterprise, in that case head over to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793406.aspx and use a KMS client setup key to perform the upgrade.

Run the following from the command prompt, followed by a restart as directed.

DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerEnterprise /ProductKey:ABC12-ABC12-ABC12-ABC12-ABC12

If KMS client setup key was used remember to change to the key.

Daniel Noakes