Customer Reviews

BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft¿ Exchange: Installation and Administration

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was offered a copy of "Blackberry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange Installation and Administration" for review. This is the one published by Packt Publishing, written by Mitesh Desai and Dan Renfroe. I readily accepted the offer.

I was pre-disposed to like this book - I really was. I've worked with BlackBerry's, and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), for quite some time; have written about them, and am a big fan of the devices, technology and platform.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Right off the bat, just looking at the book made me blink. It has a list price $44.99, and is currently available on Amazon.com for $41.03, yet it is only 166 pages of content, plus a couple of pages for the index, with an overall print quality - just flicking through the pages will tell you this - that looks like a systems administrator put this together one afternoon and printed it out on the office laser printer. And not a good, current laser printer either. The screenshots show this particularly well (and this is a "fully released" book, not an advance copy, in case you're wondering).

Look, I know technical books "cost more", but let's keep things reasonable and in perspective, shall we?

So, on to actual content. The co-author and reviewer of this book are the same, and his biography is printed twice at the start of the book - sorry, but that's sloppy reviewing and editing, and doesn't really inspire me with confidence as to the rest of the book. And sure enough, now I'm at the table of contents, merely at page "ii", and there's a spacing error on one of the chapter titles. Petty? Trivial? Sure, on one level. But again - it's an indication of the level of detail that has (not) been paid to this work.

Alrighty then, on to the real, actual content. No, I'm sorry - one more. Is it "BlackBerry", or "Blackberry"? Yes, I know the correct answer, but it appears the folks behind this book don't. At that point of discovery, I was tempted and inclined to stop reading the book, but I did feel obligated to continue.

So, in brief - there's nothing in the meat of the content that isn't already in the published RIM documentation, but there's something to be said for having it bound together. Better quality screenshots would've been nice too. The text assumes you know nothing going in to this task - documenting, step-by-step, for instance, the creation of the service account and mailbox. I may have "big-company" fixation here, but I'd expect - or at least prefer - that my BES administrator already had that level of knowledge.

Look, bottom-line - if you've absolutely no experience with the BES, and have little to no knowledge with the underlying operating system, this probably would get you up and running - this is an "installation and administration" book, so don't look too hard for anything in the troubleshooting area, which is a shame, because you definitely need that as well.

I wouldn't purchase this book, and I don't and won't recommend it. Other opinions may vary, but this is mine. Sorry Packt.

I saw nothing beneficial from this book outside what I received from RIM's own website. I found myself skipping through obvious step after step on setups. Nothing insightful at all here. My own training I provide in Word documents to my internal help desk provide better information.

I was really hoping for more. Over priced for what you get. Spend your time on forums or RIM's own resources.

How do I return???

I've found this book as a collection of screen shots, but no actual useful information about BES. I guess this could be used as a install guide for the BES but that is about it. Missed plenty of key points though. As a BES Engineer, this book had potential to be so much better, a real let down.


Refund?

This is an OK book for the basic setup and configuration of a BES. However it is useless after you're up and running and you need to troubleshoot the system. More in-depth troubleshooting material is needed to make this book worth the purchase.

If you're an administrator tasked with setting up the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) for the first time, it can be overwhelming and confusing. Similarly, for those who are just curious to learn about BES, it's rather difficult as you need to purchase the software from RIM as well as have one or two devices to test with. This is where a book such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange can be useful: it provides step-by-step instructions to create and manage a BES infrastructure that are suitable for new administrators or those who are just curious.

The most noticeable quality about this book is the amount of screen captures used when explaining tasks. This is great for a new administrator so they can simply walk through the installations with the book. If you don't have access to BES, this ensures that you're familiar with the different screens for later use. I also liked how parts of the BES - everything from the different components that make up a BES installation to the layered security permissions - were broken down and explained in detail. Finally, I appreciated how the author included steps to utilize either Microsoft SQL Server or the free MSDE allowing the administrator to make their own choice.

If you've found yourself tasked with creating a new BES infrastructure, have inherited one for the first time, or are just curious about how BES works, I think this is a good book. You'll learn how to plan and execute an installation, manage devices, and prepare for disaster.

I was provided a review copy of this book from the publisher, Packt Publishing. Published in October 2007, this is an up-to-date guide to installing, configuring, and administering a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) for Exchange.

Contents:
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Blackberry World
Chapter 2: BES Architecture and Implementation Planning
Chapter 3: Preparing for the BES Installation
Chapter 4: Installing BES for Microsoft Exchange
Chapter 5: Provisioning BlackBerry Users and Devices
Chapter 6: Creating and Enforcing Policies
Chapter 7: Getting the Most Out of Your BES
Chapter 8: Security & Disaster Recovery
Index

This book is targeted at the person responsible for installing a new BES in their environment. I would also mention that it is beneficial for the person who has slogged through all of the documentation and still can't figure out what to do or where to start. That is not meant as an offensive comment. I know, I have tried to get through the online documentation and it is . . . daunting. This book takes all of the Blackberry documentation and distills it into a nicely written, well documented 172 page book. If you are new to Blackberry, need to install your organizations first BES, or would like to know a little more about that server that you just installed, this is a very good book for you. While I am not an Exchange expert, I have installed BES in several Exchange shops. This book does an excellent job of stepping you through the installation, configuration, and administration of the BES in an Exchange environment. Written clearly, with plenty of screen shots, you should have no problems installing BES using this book as your guide. Also, the authors take time to explain encryption, the architecture, and support of different devices. You will be able to talk to management, or IT professionals, about how to deploy software, policies, and the architecture, without looking like a novice.

While this book is an excellent guide to the installation of BES in an Exchange environment, there were a few items that bugged me. First, you can see my first issue by reviewing the contents. Notice that the word "Blackberry" is spelled two different ways. I am not sure which is the correct version, but I would have appreciated if they stuck with one or the other. One chapter, it was especially grating on me, as they used "Blackberries" and BlackBerries" within a couple of sentences of each other. The second issue is that some people, new to BES, would have appreciated a little note that they are required to install the Blackberry Enterprise Manager software on a workstation, and the steps to install it. Once the authors have guided you through the installation of the actual BES, they jump right into managing the server, expecting that the management software has been installed. Finally, for such a well documented book, the chapter on provisioning the users and devices was lacking in any screen shots. While I knew where to find the settings, I don't think that it is a stretch to expect others to be wondering where to find them. A few more screen shots would have been welcome.

But, even with my "issues," I found this book to be remarkably well written and documented. At only 172 pages, you are not overwhelmed. It is the perfect companion to the installation of your first BES in an Exchange environment. Instead of printing out all of the Blackberry documentation and trying to figure out where to start, this book will guide you through those waters. It has been well edited, it reads quickly, and it should be a welcome addition to your installation toolkit. Even if you have already installed BES in your environment, the chapters on "Getting the Most Out of Your BES" and "Security & Disaster Recovery" should give you some food for thought.

Overall I thought the book did a decent job of giving a sys admin an overview of BES with some details here and there. This book is definitely not for someone who has never touched a BES server before. But for someone like me who's used BES but never had formal training on it, this book fills in some gaps.

I liked this book until the last chapter on Security & Disaster Recovery. The last section in that chapter, titled "Blackberry Configuration Database Disaster Recovery," is a joke. It has two paragraphs and instructs you to go and view the BB documentation on disaster recovery. They don't even instruct you on how to use the built-in BlackBerryBackup.exe utility.

There's really nothing in this book that isn't in the BB documentation, but it's nice that there are a lot of topics covered in a short amount of pages. Without the excessive use of screenshots, there are probably 100 pages of material, so it's a short read. If you have some experience with BES and want to get a good overview of it for, say a job interview, then this should do it.

Forty something bucks for this book is a bit expensive though. It's less than 200 pages!

If you have just been tasked with implementing a BlackBerry solution for your company, this is the book to get. Whether you are the manager or the implementor, this book will give you a good primer on the BlackBerry technology then take you step by step to install and configure the BES. The authors even covered some necessary steps in setting up Active Directory and MS Exchange before you start installing the BES, very thoughtful.

I highly recommend this book if you are new to the BES and need to install BES at your work place.

Recently, BlackBerry has lowered the price of its server product in an effort to reach down to much smaller workgroups and organizations. Consequently, a greater number of internal and outsourced IT professionals will need to know how to manage this software and this book is a good place to start.

I emphasize "start". It is pretty easy to set up a BlackBerry server. But it's also pretty easy to set it up wrong, as I learned after months of wondering why our server wasn't populating calendar entries correctly. I finally realized that you have to create a special login for the BlackBerry server and that our outsourced IT professional, unfamiliar with BlackBerrys, had neglected this important step. If he'd started with this book he'd have got off on the right track.

So, good book, clearly written, easy to follow, well indexed. My criticism however is that if you approach IT like many small businesses do, which means following instructions only in retrospect and having to trace your mistakes backwards, you may find this book slightly frustrating. What I would have wished is that it provided a more comprehensive list of common problems and mistakes. I'm sure that the writers have a long list of things that typically go wrong. This would have been helpful. Unfortunately, without such a compilation, you'll have to sift through all the user forums and plus RIM's own site to figure out what mistakes you're making. This is a book to start the BB Enterprise Server process with, not a reference manual to diagnose problems.

This book takes you through a step-by-step complete installation and configuration of the most common implementation of BES for Exchange. You'll review everything from prerequisite configuration options and recommendations to wirelessly deploying applications to your BlackBerry handhelds. Starting with an introduction of BES, you're given a guided tour that explains each BES component and dependency, and then get to see an actual installation; step-by-step. After completing the installation you learn how to provision and manage users, secure those provisioned users, and then secure your data.

The remaining chapters of the book focus on getting the most out of your BES implementation and how to protect that investment from disaster. Details on deploying applications (one of the most confusing aspects of BES), advice on security, and contingency planning truly make this book more than just a simple installation guide. What really makes this book valuable is that you're not burdened with detailed configuration options that have no use or relevance for most people; but instead you're getting a clear, concise understanding of how to implement BES for Exchange all in one place. A fantastic reference guide for the new administrator or the administrator that "inherited" a pre-existing BES environment.

Howard Rappaport
A+, Network+, Server+, MCSA:Messaging, MCSE:Messaging, CBSS, CBESA, CBTC