Configuring BlackBerry Configuration Database high availability
Posted 06-19-2009 at 04:00 AM by hdawg
BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0 officially rolled in support for Microsoft® SQL Server® database mirroring.
Historically BES Administrators were forced to either setup transactional replication or some form of manual (or scripted) log shipping to achieve high availability with their BlackBerry® Configuration Database. While other methods of high availability exist for SQL Server such as Neverfail or Veritas Cluster Server, they aren't officially supported by RIM (even if RIM uses it!). As with using any 3rd party product you may have to involve the vendor if troubleshooting was necessary. (Disclaimer: Don't get me wrong here, both products do an excellent job; I've recommended Neverfail to several people looking for high availability with BES and they are all very happy with the product).
Included in the Administration Guide for BES 5.0 - Exchange, pages 82 to 98 is a full explanation of how to configure both database mirroring and transactional replication. Here's breakdown of database mirroring with SQL 2005:
Prerequisites:
Learn about database mirroring:
Use the guide Microsoft has provided Database Mirroring How-to Topics to learn more about database mirroring
Configure database mirroring:
Once you've got an idea of how database mirroring works, then it is time to implement it for your BlackBerry Configuration Database.
After you finish: To permit the mirror BlackBerry Configuration Database to write BlackBerry® Enterprise Server event messages,
install the BlackBerry database notification system on the database server that hosts the mirror BlackBerry Configuration
Database.
Configure BES to support database mirroring:
NOTE: If you did not specify the mirror database server during the installation process, you must configure the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server to support database mirroring. Also, the database server that hosts the mirror database must be running.
That is it ... you now have a mirrored BlackBerry Configuration Database.
Historically BES Administrators were forced to either setup transactional replication or some form of manual (or scripted) log shipping to achieve high availability with their BlackBerry® Configuration Database. While other methods of high availability exist for SQL Server such as Neverfail or Veritas Cluster Server, they aren't officially supported by RIM (even if RIM uses it!). As with using any 3rd party product you may have to involve the vendor if troubleshooting was necessary. (Disclaimer: Don't get me wrong here, both products do an excellent job; I've recommended Neverfail to several people looking for high availability with BES and they are all very happy with the product).
Included in the Administration Guide for BES 5.0 - Exchange, pages 82 to 98 is a full explanation of how to configure both database mirroring and transactional replication. Here's breakdown of database mirroring with SQL 2005:
Prerequisites:
- Install the same version and build of SQL Server for the mirror database server that you installed for the principal database server.
- Configure the database servers to permit access from remote computers.
- Verify that the SQL Server Agent uses a domain user account with the local administrative permissions set to the same permissions as the Windows account that runs the BES services. (very important, the database server must run as a user account and not local system)
- Verify that the domain user account has permissions on both database servers so that each SQL Server Agent can access the shared replication folder.
- Configure the database server that will host the mirror or replicated BlackBerry Configuration Database or BlackBerry MDS Integration Service database with the same permissions that you configured on the database server that hosts the principal BlackBerry Configuration Database and BlackBerry MDS Integration Service database.
- Verify that the DNS server is running.
- If you turned on the automatic failover option for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, use the BlackBerry Administration Service to change the failover type to manual. (you're going to be stopping the services shortly and don't want the BES to failover).
- Configure the database servers as follows:
- Use static port number 1433.
- Verify that the SQL Server Browser is running.
- Do not use named instances.
- Turn off the Named Pipes option in the Microsoft SQL Server Native Client on the computers that hosts the BlackBerry Enterprise Server instances.
Learn about database mirroring:
Use the guide Microsoft has provided Database Mirroring How-to Topics to learn more about database mirroring
Configure database mirroring:
Once you've got an idea of how database mirroring works, then it is time to implement it for your BlackBerry Configuration Database.
- Stop all the BES services. You can't have services accessing the database while you're making these changes.
- In the Microsoft® SQL Server® Management Studio, change the Recovery Model property for the principal database to Full.
- In the query editor, execute: ALTER DATABASE BESMgmt SET TRUSTWORTHY ON , where BESMgmt is the
name of the BlackBerry® Configuration Database or BlackBerry MDS Integration Service database. - Change the Backup type option to Full and back up the principal database.
- Copy the backup files to the database server that you want to have host the mirror database.
- On the database server that will host the mirror database, restore the database. If you did not perform a full backup, specify
the NO RECOVERY option. - Complete steps 4 and 5 for the log databases.
- On the principal database, run the Configure Security wizard.
- Start the mirroring process.
- To verify that failover works correctly, fail over to the mirror database and back to the principal database manually.
After you finish: To permit the mirror BlackBerry Configuration Database to write BlackBerry® Enterprise Server event messages,
install the BlackBerry database notification system on the database server that hosts the mirror BlackBerry Configuration
Database.
Configure BES to support database mirroring:
NOTE: If you did not specify the mirror database server during the installation process, you must configure the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server to support database mirroring. Also, the database server that hosts the mirror database must be running.
- On the computer that hosts the BlackBerry Enterprise Server launch regedit.
- Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\Database.
- Create a DWORD value that is named FailoverServerMachineName.
- Specify the name of the mirror database server as the value.
- Restart all of the BES services.
That is it ... you now have a mirrored BlackBerry Configuration Database.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Hmmm... just finally getting around to looking at mirroring w/ 5.0
But I highly doubt you really meant DWORD as the value type.
Posted 02-10-2010 at 06:49 PM by Sp1d3rM@n
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Ahh I just pulled down the PDF and see it is in there that way too. Got to be a typo.Posted 02-10-2010 at 07:50 PM by Sp1d3rM@n
