Microsoft Patches Prove Problematic for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) for Exchange

BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) for Microsoft Exchange administrators beware: A handful of Microsoft security updates, issued recently and over the past year, could cause the BlackBerry Administration Service (BAS) component of your BES to stall and crash immediately after starting it up.

The problem is not a new one; the first Microsoft patch known to cause the issue was released nearly a year ago in April of 2010. But the problem was spotlighted again last week when Microsoft issued another problematic patch.

The issue affects BES 5.0 to BES 5.0 SP2 for Exchange users running Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2, according to the BlackBerry maker.

From RIM:

When certain Microsoft hotfixes are applied to Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 before or after installation of the BlackBerry Administration Service, the following may be observed when attempting to open the BlackBerry Administration Service console:

• The BlackBerry Administration Services start and stop immediately (as observed in the Microsoft Application Event Viewer log)

*Please note that BlackBerry Enterprise Server services that handle communication to BlackBerry smartphone users are not affected.

Though RIM has not yet offered any sort of official resolution for the problem, it did post instructions on two separate workarounds that should provide a fix.

First off, you can simply uninstall the suspect Microsoft patches and then reboot the affected BES. Or you can install a new BAS node on Windows Server 2003, which can “be installed into the same pool as the existing nonfunctional node and used until the issue is corrected.”

Additional information can be found at RIM’s BlackBerry technical solution center.

AS

Via @banthon

Al Sacco covers Mobile and Wireless for CIO.com. Follow Al on Twitter @ASacco. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. Email Al at ASacco@CIO.com.