Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager served by SQL Server 2005

My last post dealed with installing BCM 2003 on a remote dedicated server; in this case, the same subject but related to the new Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager is addressed here. Microsoft has this procedure fully documented on Outlook 2007 Document: Deploying Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager in a Remote Database Configuration

Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager uses a SQL Server 2005 database for storing its data. By default, configuring Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager with any Outlook profile creates a SQL database on the local computer. Instead of creating a database on the local computer, you can choose to connect to an existing database on a remote server.

The main quiz of the document is installing a named instance called MSSMLBIZ and set up to listen to TCP port 5356. The documents talks about moving the database data using a backup and a restore, but if you want to try other procedure, you can simply:

1. Stop MSSQL$MSSMLBIZ service running on the original PC
2. Copy database files (called MSSmallBusiness.ldf and MSSmallBusiness.mdf by default on BCM2007) to the new coputer that will be serving them
3. Attach the database files (using sp_attach_db or the IDE in VS2005)
4. Configure proper permissions, open ports, etc.

The most useful point in the former Microsoft document (IMHO) is the one that explains how to Use a database backup file from a previous version of Business Contact Manager for Outlook on a remote server.

Users may have used a previous version of Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003, and may have created a backup of their database from that previous version. Specifically, the backup file may have been created by using the user interface and it may be in an .msbcm file or a .sbb file. This section describes how these backup files may be restored to a Business Contact Manager 2007 database on a remote server.

Happy upgrading ;)