LABS GALLERY: BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 Effectively Spreads Admin Load
Admin Login
When using the new BlackBerry Enterprise Server Web interface, administration credentials can be local to the BES system or tied to Active Directory credentials.
Web UI
BES 5 features a brand-new Web-based GUI for administrators. From the Web interface, administrators can control all the policies, users and software configurations they have the rights to administer.
Failover
BES 5 now offers redundancy. Administrators, using the same license key, can create a second backup iteration of each BES server that comes online if problems arise on the primary machine.
Policy Priorities
Policies can now be assigned to groups and users to groups (lower right). Users can be in multiple groups, but only one policy can be assigned to each user. Administrators must rank policies by priority: Higher-priority policies overrule lower-priority ones, but a policy assigned directly to a user trumps all.
Policy Options
Administrators can finely control just about everything on a device via policies.
Device Info
Administrators get at-a-glance insight into device status-including network connection, available memory, effective policies and remaining battery life-at last check-in.
Roles
BES 5 now supports administrator roles, allowing mobile administrators to assign front-line support staffers only the permissions needed to view or modify the users and devices for which they are responsible.
Remote Wipe
Here’s a collection of dialogs seen during the process of centrally wiping a device still in the field.
LDAP
As part of the BES 5.0 setup, administrators input Active Directory credentials to pull data from the directory. New in Version 5.0, BES periodically pulls directory data automatically to quicken the lookup process when creating new users within BES.