Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) – Java Upgrade Caveats

 Be very careful when upgrading Java on a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES).  The Blackberry Collaboration Service and the Blackberry MDS Connection Service may not start up properly.  Fortunately, this is an easy fix:

1)  Pull up a command line and type java -version and see what version of java the OS has loaded.

2)  Go to your Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Program Files\Java and see if the version of the folder is there (i.e. jre1.6.0_02)

3)  Pull up RegEdit (Start –> Run –> Regedit (or regedt32)) and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\SERVICES\BLACKBERRY COLLABORATION SERVICE and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\SERVICES\BLACKBERRY MDS CONNECTION SERVICE and edit the ImagePath.  Look for jvmpath=”C:\Program Files\Java\ and edit the folder after Java\ to equal what java version you are using.  For instance, my path had read:

 “D:\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BBIM\bin\bcol.exe” -s jvmpath=”c:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_06\bin\client\jvm.dll” -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -Xss64K -Xmx512M -Xms128M classpathdir=”D:\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BBIM\classpath\\” wrkdir=”D:\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BBIM\Servers\Instance\\” -feature sametime -rimbes “xxxxxx_BBIM_1” 

Due to the fact that the Blackberry Administrative Service only runs Java 6 Update 2, I had to reinstall Update 2 and edit the jre1.6.0_06 of the path to say jre1.6.0_02.

4)  Exit out of RegEdit and start up the services.