BES Express

RIM has published details on the compatibility of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5 product with the next release of Microsoft Exchange: Exchange 2013

Exchange 2013 will only accept connections from desktop clients over RPC/HTTP, as opposed to RPC/TCP as with earlier versions of Exchange.

In order to provide this connectivity, a new version of the Microsoft MAPI/CDO package will be required, version 6.5.8289.0 or later - available for download from theMicrosoft web site.

The BES software itself will need to be version 5.0.4 Maintenance Release 2, available for download from the BlackBerry web site.

The BesAdmin service account user's mailbox must itself also be physically located on an Exchange 2013 server.

In order to configure the BES to access Exchange via RPC/HTTP, follow the below procedure:

1. Log in to the server which you plan to install the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software using the service account (BESAdmin).
2. Open the Windows Registry Editor by clicking on Start > Run. At the run window, type regedit and click OK.
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem.
4. On the left hand side, right-click on Windows Messaging Subsystem, expand New, select String Value.
5. Enter RPCHTTPProxyMap_BES in the Name field.
6. Double click the RPCHTTPProxyMap_BES registry value.
7. Type *=https://[FrontEndPoolFQDN] in the value field.
8. Click OK, and then close the Windows Registry Editor.

Next install the SSL certificate for the Exchange Client Access Server Front End Pool onto the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

1. In Windows Internet Explorer, access the Microsoft CAS through the (default) URL: https://[CAS Server Address]
2. Ensure that you are presented with an IIS page and that you are not redirected to Outlook Web Access.
3. Windows Internet Explorer shows an untrusted certificate error. If there is no access at all to the Microsoft CAS, verify the web address followed by verifying the installation of the Microsoft CAS role and IIS configuration on the server. In situations where Windows Internet Explorer security is restrictive, the Microsoft CAS URL may have to be added to the trusted sites.
4. Click on the Certificate Error section of the address bar.
5. Click on View the certificate.
6. Click the Install Certificate button.
7. Click Next.
8. Click on the radio button Place all certificates in the following store.
9. Click Browse.
10. Select Trusted Root Certification Authorities.
11. Click OK.
12. Click Next.
13. Click Finish.
14. Click Yes if prompted to install the certificate representing the CAS server.
15. Click on The import was successful. prompt.

Note: The BlackBerry Enterprise Server supports a self-signed security certificate or a certificate that a certificate authority issues.

When performing the steps outlined above should the certificate error not display complete the following steps :

1. In Internet Explorer select Tools and then Internet Options.
2. Select the Security tab and then click Trusted Sites.
3. Click on Sites and add the current site.
4. Click OK.
5. Close and then re open Windows Internet Explorer.
6. In Windows Internet Explorer, access the Microsoft CAS through the (default) https://[CAS Server Address]
7. Certificate error will now display and the steps outlined above can be completed.

Lastly, the BES BlackBerry Messaging Agent must be configured to only use Exchange Web Services to check user mailbox status. To do this:

1. Copy the BlackBerry Enterprise Server installation files to the computer that hosts the primary BlackBerry Enterprise Server instance.
2. Extract the contents to a folder on the computer.
3. At the command prompt, navigate to \tools.
4. Perform one of the following actions:
   • To configure all the BlackBerry Messaging Agent instances on a specific BlackBerry Enterprise Server to look up the user's status using only Microsoft Exchange Web Services, type:
     

     traittool.exe -server  -trait EWSUserAvailabilityAccess -set EWS

   • To configure all BlackBerry Messaging Agent instances on all BlackBerry Enterprise Server instances to look up the user's status using only Microsoft Exchange Web Services, type:

     traittool.exe -global -trait EWSUserAvailabilityAccess -set EWS