Zimbra with BES Question

[mek]

My company have decided to install Zimbra on our Redhat 5 server and use it for e-mail, calendering etc.

We are a small start up company so we only have around 10 users so far.

What we would like to do is integrate our Blackberry Calendar and Contacts into Zimbra with Zimbra Mobile and the Connector.

I had a look on the Blackberry site and it seems that you can only install BES with Exchange or some other Windows platforms.

How exactly do we now get BES and Zimbra on the same box so that we can make use of Zimbra mobile and sync all of the Calendar/Contacts and make use of the features this 500$ addon offers.

I realise I may be completely missing something here. Any comments or help would be greatly welcomed.

Regards

//Philip Curry

[phoenix]

I assume you're talking about installing the Network Edition of Zimbra? To start, have a look at these two links:

Zimbra Mobile Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) - Zimbra :: Wiki
Mobile collaboration tools for enterprise messaging for mobile devices

[mek]

I have looked over these 2 links yes

"To use the Zimbra Mobile Connector for BlackBerry you must be running BlackBerry Professional or BES for Exchange. Network Edition customers must also have a Zimbra Mobile license and with it can take advantage of the Connector at no additional cost."

And yes I mean the full Network Edition with all options / support.

Are you saying that with our cellphones having BES with their Carrier and just Zimbra with Mobile Connector that's enough?

I'm sorry if I sound stupid I'm just pretty confused about all this mention of Exchange which we really do not want to have to run.

[phoenix]

You don't need Exchange (the MS software) to be installed, the Blackberry server is just called a Blackberry Enterprise Server for Exchange (you need that installed) and you need that plus Zimbra NE plus the Connector.

[mek]

So I can install Blackberry Enterprise Server for Exchange on Redhat?

Just want to clarify!

Thanks very much for your assistance

[phoenix]

No, you need a Windows Server for BES - you can check the installation requirements for BES here: BlackBerry - BlackBerry Enterprise Server - Installation

[mek]

So basically Zimbra, a Linux/Mac solution, requires you to have an additional Windows server just to run the BES server on to take advantage of the Blackberry addon in Zimbra.

That is pretty cumbersome. It's a real shame that you can't put it all on one (Linux) box.

I guess we will have to decide on either buying an extra server, switching to different handsets or going with something other than Zimbra.

I'm guessing there is no other solution to getting the calendar/contact sync with Zimbra <-> Blackberry. Some kind of hosted BES service that you can rent that would tie in with our Zimbra/Linux box maybe ?

Thanks for your help once again

Regards

//Philip

[alexkelly]

The BES is something that is created and Maintained by Research in Motion. Zimbra didn't create it and, and has no control over the architecture BES requires. Zimbra has no option here, they have to work within those boundaries.

We have a BES setup in our environment, so I can't speak to this directly, but have you looked at AstraSync? It is supposed to add ActiveSync capabilities to BlackBerry phones. Since Zimbra's mobile add-on handles ActiveSync connections, that should work. Zimbra is specifically listed on AstraSync's page.

[mek]

AstraSync looks perfect thanks very much for your reply.