I have been asked several times recently about the BlackBerry® client support for OCS R2 (RIM makes a BlackBerry client that works with OCS. You can read more about it in my original post: Mobile Options for OCS).
The short answer is that OCS R2 is not supported, however there is a workaround that amounts to leaving an OCS R1 CWA (Communicator Web Access) Server for the BlackBerry client to use after upgrading to OCS R2. Trying to install an OCS R1 CWA after upgrading to R2 will not work. You must leave an OCS R1 CWA server intact before upgrading. My understanding is that OCS R2 Active Directory changes will not make it possible to install an OCS R1 CWA after the fact.
The official workaround is described in more detail here: BlackBerry Enterprise Instant Messaging is not functional with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
The Microsoft description of the situation and the workaround is available in KB Article 969336: “How to set up a Communicator Web Access 2007 server in a Communications Server 2007 R2 topology to support UC AJAX applications”.
The issue is that the BlackBerry client uses the Web API used for R1 Communicator Web Access (the Asynchronous JavaScript® and XML (AJAX) API) and Microsoft no longer supports this API in the OCS R2 version of CWA. There are no current plans at this time to re-release or support this API in future releases.
(BlackBerry® is a registered trademark of Research in Motion Limited).
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You shouldn’t require an OCS Edge server for your BB clients to work, but you will require an OCS Communicator Web Access (CWA) role – and a OCS 2007 R1 CWA version at that (the R2 version is does not work with BB clients yet). An OCS Access Edge is required for remote Office Communicator or Windows Communicator Mobile clients to connect externally. Also, I do not have much experience setting up the BB client to work with OCS, but I am told that need the Blackberry Collobaration Service needs to be installed. Hope that helps,
Is an OCS edge server (public facing) required to get the BB client to work? We have a BES server and OCS EE server running inside our network but clients can’t connect after configuring the services.
I’ve gotten the beta version of 5.0.2 but the ocs 2007 client does not work with it – where can I find the client to work with ocs r2?
I have heard that BES 5.0.2 will support this going forward.
Hello, Gav. thank you for your post. Will it be possible if you can provide me more details on how you were able to get the blackberry device work with OCS R2? I have the same requirement. Thanks in advance for your reply.
We have a native blackberry app that works agains OCS R2 and supports Group Chat.
Tried in my lab (r1 upgraded to r2) and I couldn’t get the r1 cwa to work – even after running r1 prep…
Has anyone tried what the “Three UC Amigos” are mentioning in their blog about prep’ing with OCS 2007 RTM to get a CWA R1 to install and work after you’ve already installed OCS 2007 R2? If so, did you have to rerun R2’s preps again?
The Three UC Amigos has a blog on how to to install OCS R1 CWA after installing OCS R2
http://blogs.technet.com/ucedsg/archive/2009/06/04/i-need-to-support-rim-s-como-client-in-ocs-2007-r2.aspx
[...] more information see the previous blog entry: BlackBerry® Client Support for OCS R2. Share and [...]
[...] they are still able to connect to the OCS 2007 R2 infrastructure. See the Inside OCS blog entry BlackBerry Client Support for OCS R2 for more [...]