ZCS NE 5.0.1 Blackberry support

[bramm]

It seems that I'm not able to find a good guide to get Zimbra working with blackberry devices. At this point we have nothing of our own for our blackberry devices. Our provider provides us with the blackberry functionalities.

We would like to change this to a solution of our own. The only server we have at the moment is the Zimbra server. What should I do or get to fully support the blackbery devices?

[sam]

The steps are mentioned in this post:

Want to get ZCB? Start Here:

Once you sign up for the beta, you can download the docs and see the requirements and setup procedure.

[bramm]

I saw that post and subscribed. Two things that I noticed.

1. This is a beta? This implies there is no solution for a production server?
2. I still need a BES server? And it seems I need a Windows server to run this?

[sam]

Originally Posted by bramm

1. This is a beta? This implies there is no solution for a production server?

Yes this is a beta. Yes, there is no solution for a production server yet.

Originally Posted by bramm

2. I still need a BES server? And it seems I need a Windows server to run this?

Yes you need a BES server. You will need to meet the minimum requirements for BES for Exchange, which includes a windows machine.

[davidfsmith]

Originally Posted by sam

Yes this is a beta. Yes, there is no solution for a production server yet.


Yes you need a BES server. You will need to meet the minimum requirements for BES for Exchange, which includes a windows machine.

I've got it running now on 3 devices, and while not perfect it is better than people using email redirect either via the internet or their desktop.

The bits missing are:

1) Ability to push multiple calendars to the device (you can't select which folders to send to the device through BES as it can't read the folders through the Zimbra MAPI profile)
2) Remove the feeling of clunkiness with the install process, I've got it working but it wasn't easy - it would be nice if BES and the ZCB connector played nicer together, although I suspect this will require changes on both BES and ZCB
3) Providers - when you tell them you installed and setup the server yourself, but have a simple question to ask, don't run for the hills (UK Vodafone!)

All good so far for the test users though, am now looking to roll out to 120 users in the next two months.

[sam]

Glad to hear its up and running.

1. What exactly are you referring to wrt folders? Folder redirection should work. Can you list exactly the steps you are taking?

2. We are aware the install isn't perfect. Can you specify what exactly felt clunky? We certainly want it to feel robust.

3. No comment :-)

[davidfsmith]

Originally Posted by sam

Glad to hear its up and running.

1. What exactly are you referring to wrt folders? Folder redirection should work. Can you list exactly the steps you are taking?

2. We are aware the install isn't perfect. Can you specify what exactly felt clunky? We certainly want it to feel robust.

3. No comment :-)

1 - I have multiple calendars in my account, it would be nice if they could all sync into my BB (and I know other people would make use of this)

2 - Outlook and BES on the same server is a no no as far as RIM is concerned as a starter, also it would be nice if there was a way of errors not coming up when you click on the MAPI account button in the BES admin.

Also I've ended up starting from scratch on the install several times to get things working following the instructions it is by no means a given that you'll end up with a working system (in my experience)

3 - It's ok we're a month to go on out existing business contract of 115 devices....

(new one) 4 - It would be great if the GAL could be synced to the device

(so I'm not wanting much then)

[alee]

Originally Posted by davidfsmith

1 - I have multiple calendars in my account, it would be nice if they could all sync into my BB (and I know other people would make use of this)

2 - Outlook and BES on the same server is a no no as far as RIM is concerned as a starter, also it would be nice if there was a way of errors not coming up when you click on the MAPI account button in the BES admin.

Also I've ended up starting from scratch on the install several times to get things working following the instructions it is by no means a given that you'll end up with a working system (in my experience)

3 - It's ok we're a month to go on out existing business contract of 115 devices....

(new one) 4 - It would be great if the GAL could be synced to the device

(so I'm not wanting much then)

How are you trying to enable multiple calendar folders on your device? Have you tried enabling folder redirection for the "other" calendar folders? Should work the same way that BES against Exchange works.

Fwiw, Its not BES and Outlook which is not recommended but it is Outlook and the Exchange Admin Tools (a prerequisite for BES because BES needs MAPI and CDO on the box to work). Even though it is not recommended I believe that there is a Stephen Griffin post somewhere that talks about how to do this properly. Either way, for ZCB we recommend the stand alone MAPI/CDO download available from Microsoft instead of the Exchange Admin Tools:

Download details: Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1

I've seen that error regarding the MAPI profile button throwing up and error when you click it in the BES configuration tool. I will file a bug against it.
My guess is that it is expecting an Exchange (and only an Exchange) profile but we are using a Zimbra profile under the scenes and the configuration application doesn't like it. In the meantime, if you need to modify the mail profile, you can use the mail control panel application since Outlook installs it. Traditionally, since you have only the Exchange admin tools on the box, there is no control panel mail applet so you can't modify the profiles so they included that button for that purpose.

Here is the bug that I filed:

Bug 23677 - BB: BlackBerry Server Configuration Application "Edit MAPI Profile" button doesn't work

Regarding the GAL, the lookup doesn't work for you when you are composing a message?

Hope this helps
--Tony

[davidfsmith]

The BES support guy I was chatting to said that Outlook and BES shouldn't be on the same server.

I can't redirect folders using BES as I get the MAPI error message, I'll have another look tomorrow when I'm in front of the machine.

[sam]

We are very aware of RIMs stance on the outlook/BES issue and have taken steps to ensure compatibility of Outlook/BES.

As a general precaution RIM doesn't allow Outlook/BES because order of install can register the wrong MAPI subsystem (have you seen fixmapi?). The ZCB installer takes steps to ensure that MAPI/Outlook/BES are configured properly as long as you follow the steps in the ZCB documentation.

We're looking into why the folder redirection settings can't be set via the BES manager. I've filed bug 23680 to track this.