At last Microsoft have released the installation tool for Exchange 2007 SP2 on SBS 2008.
Looks fairly straight forward to use, download the service pack as normal, download the tool and then run the tool.
You can get more information about the tool and download it from this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=974271
Exchange 2007 has been rock solid in my experience and if you were put off installing it on your SBS 2008 machine because this tool wasn't released, now is your chance.
I am pleased to announce that the domain exbpa.com has been saved for the Exchange community.
This was a domain that Microsoft first used a few years ago to point to their (at the time) recently released Exchange Best Practises Analyser. There are thousands of links to this domain across the internet as well as in books and magazines.
However Microsoft recently decided to allow the domain to lapse and early this morning it was finally deleted.
Fortunately I was able to register it myself through my consultancy company Sembee Ltd and therefore kept it out of the hands of a domain squatter.
I have uploaded a slightly modified version of the list of Exchange resources that I maintain at Daniel Petri's forum, which as well as the links to the Exchange Best Practises Analyzer, also contains links to other Microsoft tools, blogs etc.
http://exbpa.com/
While it is not the best designed web site in the world, it does the job. Hopefully the Exchange community will find it of some use.
When I am working with clients and their Blackberry devices, particularly on new deployments, one of the issues I frequently have is discovering whether the device is enabled for the BES use. It is very common for the service providers to NOT enable the Blackberry device for BES correctly. As anyone who has dealt with mobile phone provider support, when it comes to Blackberry, most of them haven't got a clue.
For some time I have been aware that RIM have a tool available to people with a support contract which allows you to query their database, but none of my clients have a support contract. I actually considered getting a contract just to get access to that database!
However I discovered that recently RIM have released a new web tool, which is free to register and use, which allows you to check the status of the device. In RIM speak "Enterprise Activation Readiness".
It is free for all users of Blackberry Professional Server, Enterprise Server, Server Express and all the other names they have used for their software in the past. All you need is your identifier and CAL key for the server.
You also get a complimentary support incident which is also another good reason for signing up.
From the site itself:
"The BlackBerry Expert Support Center is a Web 2.0 application, which is designed to allow direct access to Enterprise grade tools and resources, and to give you the ability to manage your Technical support agreement and support related inquiries easily and independently.
- One Complimentary Support Incident to receive expert advice from a member of the BlackBerry Technical Support team at any time
- Online self service tools and resources designed to help with installation and ongoing management of your BlackBerry solution including step-by-step demonstrations
- All the relevant guides, articles and other resources to increase your BlackBerry solution know-how "
https://www.blackberry.com/besc/dashboard/
