How exactly does BlackBerry Professional Server work? I have an Exchange 2007 server which is reachable by IMAP & OWA. I have a separate server with BlackBerry Professional Server installed on it. Does the BES server need a public IP as well? I'm trying to activate the enterprise feature on my T-Mobile phone and it's just hanging at "Activating "

No.
It just needs an outbound initiated bi-directional connection to RIM's infrastructure on TCP port 3101.
No public IP is needed, and no inbound ports need to be opened.

Are you sure you have the Enterprise BlackBerry Data Plan provisioned on your account?


See here for troubleshooting the EA process:
KB13852 - Identifying and troubleshooting enterprise activation issues - Port3101.org : Your BES Connection

Apparently I didn't have the service so I just upgraded. However i'm still seeing the same behavior. Perhaps it takes time for the new data plan to take effect?

It's possible.
I would do a battery pull on the device as well.

I've tried that. I logged in as besadmin on a separate box and connected with Outlook. I then tried adding my own user account as an additional mailbox and it wouldn't allow me to view the contents of the mailbox. The user is an Exchange View-Only Admin. Shouldn't I be able to view the mailbox with that?

Whoa.. you totally changed directions on me here.
What exactly are you trying to do? Your initial post was related to an Enterprise Activation issue. This most recent post doesn't seem to be related to that at all.

Can you please clarify what your problem is again? I want to make sure we're on the same page.

You have BPS installed on a separate box from your Exchange 2007 server.
I'm assuming that installation went fine.
Does your SRP on the BPS box show that it's connected?

Sorry for the confusion.. I was assuming the BesAdmin user would need access to other mailboxes so that was my test.

Exchange 2007 X64, 2008 X64
Windows 2003 R2 - BlackBerry Professional Software v4.1.4.3

On the home screen "SRP Status" says "Connected".

I upgraded my account to include the Enterprise Data Services, however I'm still getting hung at "Activating" and eventually "Retrying." I'm receiving the e-mail with the key in it, but it never proceeds through the activation. The user account is still sitting at the "initializing" status.

And as a side note, when I initially added the user in the blackberry software, we were seeing some strange entries in the event logs on the Exchange server. Some of the logs looked ok, but others had foreign characters in them (Chinese).

OK, this is indicative of a permissions problem for the besadmin account.
Go through this document carefully, and make sure you've got everything set correctly:
KB02276 - Assigning permissions for a BlackBerry Enterprise Server service account - Port3101.org : Your BES Connection

Also, make sure the user is not a member of any special groups with elevated AD or Exchange permissions. No Domain Admin, etc...

K, looks like I needed to give the user account more permissions. Now I'm receiving "An error has occured. Please contact system administrator." This error is also displaying in the event logs of the BES server:

{Display Name} Old OTAKEYGEN packet is cancelled, Tag=14 (display name has my name in it, just removed).

So now go back and review the KB article I posted in my first reply.
Check the email address and EA password. Sounds like a mismatch.

Thanks for your help. I reset the EA password and it worked. It looks to be working now.