In BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange 4.1 SP6, the BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool was introduced. The BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool can be used to find and correct differences between the calendar entries on the BlackBerry smartphone and the Microsoft® Exchange Server.

The BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization tool is turned off by default for all smartphone users in BlackBerry Enterprise Server  4.1 SP6 to 5.0 SP2 for Microsoft Exchange, and can be turned on and configured by a command line tool referred to internally as TraitTool. 

In BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 SP3 for Microsoft Exchange, the BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool is turned on by default for all users.

What does it do and why would should this feature be turned on?

The BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool feature is a calendar auditing tool which runs on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to keep calendar items in sync between the mail server and the BlackBerry smartphones.  It is particularly useful for detecting and reporting calendar mismatches, as well as performing self-correction without user intervention.  The primary purpose of BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool is to enhance the robustness of calendar synchronization between the mail server and BlackBerry smartphones. 

Settings can be defined globally, per server or per user.  Much like PIM sync field mappings, user level settings take precedence over settings at the server level.  Settings at the server level take precedence over the global level.  Settings at the global level take precedence over the default settings.

How does it work? 

The BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool requests a hash of all calendar items from the smartphone.  Once received, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server does a comparison of calendar items on the smartphone to what is in the Calsync State folder in the user’s mailbox.

The BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool follows the same general rules as Slow Sync, with the exception that BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool is scheduled and does not require any interaction from the user.  Slow Sync on the other hand will run after an OTA EA has been initiated or end user cradles their smartphone to activate using Serial Bypass.  

The BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool will run only if turned on from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.  Please see setting options below.  The user’s smartphone must be reachable in order to do the comparison.  If the user’s BlackBerry smartphone is not reachable, the synch process will be queued and will run after the next calendar rescan once the smartphone has been marked as in coverage.  If the smartphone user’s smartphone has been out of coverage for longer than one scheduled cycle, the synch will only happen once.  For Example the tool is scheduled to run daily, but the smartphone user has been out of coverage for a week.  The tool will run the synchronization only once when the smartphone is back in coverage.

Performance Considerations 

Synchronization will run for one smartphone user at a time.  Once it has completed the synch for one smartphone user, or determined that the smartphone user’s BlackBerry Smartphone is not reachable, the next smartphone user’s synchronization will be triggered.   

The BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool should be scheduled for "off peak" hours to ensure the impact to the smartphone users, BlackBerry Enterprise Server and Microsoft Exchange Server are minimal.

How to use the BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool? 

The TraitTool.exe executable is included in the Tools folder of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server installation files and can be run on the same machine as the Blackberry Enterprise Server. 

Troubleshooting 

Just like in a regular calendar investigation, the BlackBerry Mail Agent logs will provide the most valuable information.  To investigate what prevented BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool from resolving an out of synch issue, the RefID of the calendar item and the logs where an attempt was made by the tool to process this out of sync calendar item can be checked. 

Conflict Resolution during Synchronization

BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool conflict resolution follows the same rules as SlowSync.  In general, it is Server-Wins.  The only exception to this is when Appointment (with no attendees) is on the BlackBerry Smartphone but not Outlook.  For this, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server will send a CAL_SYNC_REQUEST_EVENTS to the BlackBerry smartphone.  The BlackBerry smartphone will respond by sending it's copy of the appointment to the server.  Please note, that meeting items are handled by CDO, or EWS if configured for calendar management.

Where meeting items are handled by CDO,  If a calendar item is a Meeting, the server will still send a Sync request but the update from the BlackBerry smartphone will be rejected because of a CDO limitation and the following log line will print:

[40000] (04/24 21:02:21.418):{0x122C} {user@company.com}-UpdateAppointment- Attendee cannot impersonate another user in creation of a new appointment

This is a previously reported issue that is being investigated by our development team. No resolution time frame is currently available.

Where to go to check BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool Configuration?

The TraitTool updates the BASTraits Table in the BESMgmt database.  To check whether the desired configuration exists, you can request a copy of that table from the customer.  (As usual, it is not supported to have the table updated manually.)

Settings are also printed in the Agent log when SmartSync runs.  The following lines will be helpful:

[40000] (06/04 01:04:15.148):{0x1954} {user@company.com} SmartSyncFireOff - SmartSync triggered - SyncDays=7, Sched=127, SendUpdate=0

This line is printed to show that a check has occurred to determine whether Synchronization should occur.  The check occurs for each smartphone user after every calendar rescan, but this line only prints when a smartphone user is set up for smart sync and the synchronization time (hour in which the BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool has been configured to run) has been reached or passed.

SyncDays=# (1-365)  The number shows how many days in the future will be corrected using BlackBerry® Calendar Synchronization Tool.  In the above example, the synchronization check is set up to look at calendar items for the next 7 days.  If SyncDays was set to 0 via the Database or RegKey, it will take the maximum.  It will synch calendar items up to 365 days in the future.

Sched=# 

1 - Sun

2 - Mon

4 – Tue

8 – Wed

16 – Thu

32 – Fri

64 – Sat

62 - Weekdays

65 - Weekends

127- Every Day  (default)

This variable shows which day BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool is scheduled run.  In the above example, Sched=127 which is a decimal equivalent of 0x7F.  So when Sched=127 is shown in the log, that indicates that BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool runs every day.

SendUpdate=#   (0/1) This variable checks whether the DEBUG mode of Synchronization is configured on the server or whether the server is set up to synchronize the mismatches during Synchronization.  0 indicates that synchronization is turned off and no calendar updates will be sent as a result of this synch operation which is in the above example.  This can be used to capture calendar synch statistics on the user(s) for informational purposes.  When the administrator has turned on SendUpdate successfully, calendar mismatches will be corrected for calendar items that occur within the configured time period by sending the appropriate update to smartphone or requesting update from smartphone.

The last trigger date and trigger hour can be determined from the log line that prints after each calendar rescan during the synchronization trigger hour:

[40267] (06/04 01:59:35.584):{0x1A34} {user@company.com} Starting calendar rescan

[40701] (06/04 01:59:35.584):{0x1A34} { user@company.com} Calendar rescan completed

[40000] (06/04 01:59:35.584):{0x1A34} { user@company.com}-SmartSyncFireOff-SmartSync not triggered - Sched=127, last triggered at Wed Jun 04 01:00:00 2008

The above log lines will print during the 1am calendar rescans for this user.

SMARTSYNC is printed in the log line to differentiate between SlowSync and the BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool.  SmartSync should not be used to refer to this tool externally.

• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 4.1 SP6 to 5.0 SP3
  
• DT185134
• DT183409
• DT180982
• DT180284
• DT180982

Please visit http://docs.blackberry.com and refer to the BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool document

Additionally information about How to use the BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool (Traittool.exe) and the (Traittool.exe) syntax's can be found in the following knowledge base article:

KB18548  How to use the BlackBerry Calendar Synchronization Tool (Traittool.exe)