BlackBerry Administration Service Session Timeout.

The new web based BlackBerry Administration Service time-out does become annoying at times. And here is the way to increase the session time-out.
Login to the BAS Server as an administrator, and browse to the following directory - 

C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BAS\jboss\ejb\server\default\deploy\jboss-web.deployer\conf


Open Web.XML file in Notepad and search for Session-timeout. Change the default value to the value (in red) of your choice.

Save the file. Restart BlackBerry Administration Service - Application Server. And enjoy.

P.S - The BAS Server version was 5.0.1 running on Windows 2008 SP1 (32 Bit). I had issues saving the Web.XML file even though the BESAdmin account is a local administrator. So I ran "cmd" as an administrator, navigated to the desired folder and typed "notepad Web.XML". I changed the value to 600 minutes i.e 10 hours. My first test after 9 hours was successful. I am sure there is more to it. If time permits I will explore further.

If you encounter any issues, or have an update, please feel free to comment.
Thanks
-InsideAdministrator


P.S - This may be of great benefit in a lab environment. However, check your corporate policy before making these sort of changes.

How to find the MAC address of a BlackBerry device

To find the MAC address of a BlackBerry device.
- Click Options.
- Click Status.
- MAC address is displayed here.


Note - this option is available only for WIFI enabled devices.

Impact of BlackBerry Enterprise Server on Exchange.

RIM has published a new performance benchmarking guide  that should help remove the misconception about the BES's impact on performance of Exchange. But before I deal with the numbers, let me go through some historical facts on Exchange.

Background.
Few years back during Exchange 2003, an average Exchange user would generate 0.5 IOPS. There were few large clients I worked that had an average IOPS of about 1.0. During this time period, it was a common assumption to profile a BES user to be 3 to 5 times a normal outlook user. The number was cooked and mashed up by RIM's old performance benchmark guide and chatter in the BESAdmin community. I am sure SAN vendors just loved this multiplying factor and adapted their marketing materials to sell larger systems. Personally, I cannot confirm the IOPS generated by BES during Exchange 2003 days, but I do remember seeing Exchange Server drives churning heavily after every BES restarts and every few minutes (probably rescans). This made designing of Exchange Systems really complex taking into account the IOPS that would be generated for each exchange user. Adding to it were factors like Mailbox size and the number of items in the most common folders like Inbox. SAN was becoming the norm to host Exchange Server databases, mainly to handle the increased IOPS.
With the release of Exchange 2007, Microsoft was successfully able to tweak the Jet Database schema and along with other technology factors like 64 bit OS, increased RAM, increased page size from 4k to 32K helped reduce the IOPS by 70%. In Exchange 2010 it was further reduced further by 70%. This means the IOPS has reduced to 90% in Exchange 2010 as compared to Exchange 2003.
Let me illustrate it by giving an example of an organization with 1000 Exchange and BlackBerry Users. 



Users    Avg                 IOPS/User Total IOPS for   Exchange Total IOPS with BES Users



EX2003  1000   0.5                     500                                2500


EX2007  1000   0.15                   150                                750


EX2010  1000   0.045                 45                                  225


As shown in above table, it would have taken a about 2500 IOPS disk system to support 1000 users on Exchange 2003 Server. While today it would require only 225 IOPS on Exchange 2010 Server. A reduction of 90% just due to Exchange 2010.



RIM's new magical number for BES impact.
As per the recent performance benchmark guide from RIM, the new magical number is equal to the load generated by an outlook client. This means an average user with with BES on Exchange would generate .045X2 = .09 IOPS. For 1000 users this equates to only 90 IOPS.
1000 BES Users on Exchange 2003(5X factor)          2500 IOPS
1000 BES Users on Exchange 2010(2X factor)          90 IOPS
This is a huge reduction of IOPS requirement.

I think that the reduction of IOPS due to BES may primarily be due to the architectural changes made in the BES in terms of how the rescan, reconciliation, MAPI property updates etc is performed. But a part of it may also be due to the advances in Exchange 2010 and the amount of memory cache available to it. Another factor that could come into play is the way lab tests are conducted, the way data can be massaged and sweetened etc.

What else could be done to reduce the impact of BES on Exchange.
Some of the possible steps that could reduce impact of BES on Exchange can be 
- Remove all non active users from BES.
- Increase the checkpoint depth on Exchange Server. (Understand it well before doing this)
- Spread the BES users across multiple transactional logs - more storage groups in Exchange 2007 and more databases in Exchange 2010.
- Training users to exit outlook when not in use. This reduces one client load on Exchange Server.
- Reduce the number of items in the Mailbox commonly used folders like Inbox, Sent Items, Calendar etc.
- Avoid unnecessary shutdown and restarting of BES Server or Services. 

BESUserAdminClient - The Key to automation.

A sign of a great System Administrator is his ability to automate the daily tasks. After great success with Powershell, I turned my attention towards BlackBerry Server. In BES 5.0 RIM released API's to automate and script BlackBerry Administrative Tasks. I peeked and poked around the BAS API documentation, and finally said good bye. Though I agree that framework is solid and useful, but as an administrator who has to wear multiple hats, it was too much of an investment in time to save those GUI clicks. Real low return of investment. But for developers and companies developing BlackBerry products, this surely is a framework to look for.

I had read somewhere that the new BlackBerry Enterprise Server User Administration Tool version (BESUserAdminClient) is designed to use BAS API, so I focussed my attention to this tool one more time. Earlier, I had limited success before but the tool was never my favorite. 

Features

For those of you new to this tool, BESUserAdminClient can be used to perform user account operations like find, add, remove, move and change user configurations. It can also be used to perform BlackBerry Enterprise Server administration to gather management and monitoring information. An interesting note in the document mentions that new server options introduced in the later versions of BES will work without any update of BESUserAdminClient. But new client options will be only be available with the latest version of BESUserAdminClient.

Installation
Installation of BlackBerry Enterprise Server User Administration Tool version 5.0 Service pack 1, on Windows 7 machine was a breeze. The one and only prompt was to enter the name of BAS Server. I used the DNS name of the machine itself instead of the BAS Pool name in the DNS, so as to minimize the troubleshooting elements by excluding the BAS pool as well as any SSL certificate issues I may have. The target BlackBerry Server was also 5.0 SP1.

Earlier versions of BESUserAdminClient required a server component (running as service) and a client component. I tried to run this tool against BES 5.0 MR1 with no success.

Results

For instant gratification, I used BESAdmin Account (will all its powers) instead of following the documentation for complex role assignments. The tool also provides an option to store an encrypted set of authentication credentials, but again I used it in the command line itself. The first success after trial and error was when I typed

BESUserAdminClient.exe -n BESSERVER1 -username admin -password ZZZZZZZ -bas_auth -status
BlackBerry(R) Enterprise Server User Administration Tool Version 5.0.1.7
Copyright (c) Research In Motion, Ltd. 2009. All rights reserved.


(05/06 16:08:11) Running command...
(05/06 16:08:12) ...Done
(05/06 16:08:12) Command Results:
Property,Value
BAS Version,5.0.1.58
BAA Version,5.0.1.24

(Note - if you are using Active Directory authentication use the it as below ) 

BESUserAdminClient.exe -n 172.29.3.142 -username BESadmin -password ZZZZZZZ - domain Galaxy.LAB -ad_auth -status)

Here are other few commands that can help you .

• Get user information
  BESUserAdminClient.exe -n 172.29.3.142 -username admin -password ZZZZZZZ -bas_auth -find -u neptune@galaxy.lab
• Get handheld statistics
  BESUserAdminClient.exe -n 172.29.3.142 -username admin -password ZZZZZZZ -bas_auth -handheld_info -hhstats -u neptune@galaxy.lab
• Get Server Statistics
  BESUserAdminClient.exe -n 172.29.3.142 -username admin -password ZZZZZZZ -bas_auth -handheld_info -stats -service -b BES01_instance_name
• Get the list of applications installed on devices.
  BESUserAdminClient.exe -n 172.29.3.142 -username admin -password ZZZZZZZ -bas_auth -handheld_info -hhstats -apps -u neptune@galaxy.lab
  

Coming up

In my next blog I plan to write about following group of operations that could be performed by this tool.

• User and Device Management 
• Server Management
• Bulk Operations

Enjoy the blog. Hope this will serve as a good start.

Ping and DNS lookup on a BlackBerry Device.

The newer BlackBerry device includes a client that support ping as well as DNS lookup. To access these tools - 

• On the BlackBerry device, Select Settings -> Options -> Mobile Network.
• Press the Menu key.
• Click Tool and then select the ping to DNS Lookup.

The ping tool can also be used to get the IP address of the device.

The reality of BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express

RIM has recently introduced BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express (BESX) for free. Yes, absolutely free. And I want to take this opportunity to thank iPhone for that.

Do we really need to thank iPhone?
BlackBerry devices were the absolute corporate standard for email and PIM. But with the advent of iPhone, its  cool features, deluge of applications, and the culture around it, a new trend emerged among users using mobile devices to access corporate emails. Why not use this cool and fun device to access corporate emails using Activesync. The IT department and corporations would always incline towards BlackBerry than iPhone, but the economic reality made them think otherwise.
A personal iPhone device can access corporate email on Exchange at no cost to either the user nor the corporation. On the other hand, a personal BlackBerry device with a BIS plan cannot access corporate email. The only viable option was to convert a BIS plan to a BES plan for the user and invest in BlackBerry Server licensing for the corporations. In this economic downturn, iPhone started to make huge inroads into corporations as well. What started as a consumer device is now also part of a corporate email.
RIM responded by releasing cut down version of BES Server called BESX. It has a feature to support BIS users that even full blown BES does not have. So now a user with a personal BlackBerry on a BIS plan can access corporate email. At the same time, the corporation may not have a spend a dime on licensing. This surely looks to be one of the way RIM plans to compete with Iphone and ActiveSync.

Main difference with traditional BES Server.

• It is free and like BES can support up to 2000 users on a single server.
• Unlike BES, BES Express support devices on BIS Plan.
• Enterprise Activation is available only for devices with BES Plan.
• Only 35 IT control policies as compared with 450+ on BES.
• High availability option is NOT available in BESX.
• BES Monitoring Service is NOT available.
• No support for BlackBerry Add-on products like Enterprise IM, Enterprise social networking (such as IBM Lotus Connections)  and BlackBerry MobileVoice System. IM's like Yahoo, AIM, Windows Live etc, and social networking like Facebook is supported on BESX. 
• Contrary to popular belief, Remote File Access and Access to Intranet is supported. BESX user would be able to enjoy the applications available on BlackBerry App World and corporate applications behind the firewall. However, MDS-IS is not supported.
• Enterprise Transporter tool used for migration is not supported.
• BESX cannot be installed as part of the BES Domains (same BES Database).
• BESX can be installed on the Exchange Server itself.

Who will use this?
The next logical question is who will use it. I think, small to medium size organizations that do not require features like HA, MVS, and advanced IT controls would benefit from it. Even large enterprises who have heavily invested in BES Servers and plan to continue with it may install BlackBerry Express Server some where in the corner to support personal BlackBerry devices on BIS Plans.

A great deal for all. Happy BlackBerry'ing :)