I started an upgrade from Blackberry Perfessional Server 4.5something to Blackberry Enterprise Server Express 5.0.1 last night. I started by uninstalling BPS and then when through the process of preinstall and everything was correct since it was already set from the BPS install. I went through the BESx install and everything went great. I have logged into the admin web page and have added a user and set and activation password. When I go to do the Enterprise Activation on the phone it just stays are activating and retrys the 3 times and then fails and says cannot access the server. I get the email in my mailbox from blackberry.net but the message never leaves and nothing happens. Anyone have any idea what to do or try?

Sounds like you did not properly set the permissions for the BES service account.
http://www.port3101.org/featured-bla...e-account.html

I went through the permissions and still no go. Im still getting the same symptoms. The account that I am using is the same account that i used on BPS. It was also the same server so the permissions should be in place already.

Well, your upgrade process was certainly non-standard. I'm not entirely sure why you removed BPS 4 before installing BESx 5.
Are you using the same SQL database or is this a new database?

If you could provide more details on the exact steps you took to do this upgrade, that would help.

From everything i have read it states that you cannot do an inplace upgrade from BPS to BESx. So I basically uninstalled BPS and installed BESx from scratch using a new database.

The link below is one location that states you cannot do an inplace upgrade.BES/SBE/BPS 4.x upgrade options to BES Express 5.0 - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

I reused the BESAdmin account and the Server OS.

OK, so if you're using a new database, then the handhelds need to be security wiped first.
Have you done that part?

I havent done all of them yet becuase i want to make sure i can get one to work first. But yes I have wiped my phone and have tried to sync it many times. I have wiped all of the phones that i have tried to sync.

Have you gone through the Enterprise Activation troubleshooting KB article from RIM?
KB13852 - Identifying and troubleshooting enterprise activation issues - Port3101.org : Your BES Connection

I still believe you have a permissions problem somewhere. Is your user account a Domain Admin by any chance?

The BESAdmin account use to be a Domain Admin when i was running BPS but i removed Domain Admin before i installed BESx

No, I'm talking about your user account... the user you are having trouble activating.

My account doesnt have any builtin groups or domain admins associated to it.

Im thinking about uninstalling BESx from this server and installing it on a different server just to try something different.

Do i need to install the MAPI addon deal for BESx to work with Exchange if i dont have the Exchange Admins tools on the other server.

I have tried everything i can think of and have found for troubleshooting this and have had no luck.

I assume that you still need to install the "Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects" for Exchange 2007 and BESx?

Things are working better now my account is working but i have a cew accounts that can racive but cant send. I havent looked into that yet. For some reason those accounts must not have the correct permissions so for some reason that account must not have inherit permission selected. This was weird. The phones that I didnt wipe but had setup the users as users in BESx automatically started receiving email. Not sure why but i ran the Handheld clean up utility and that is when everything started working.

Im still thinking move the BESx software to a different server because this server is quite overloaded with BESx it ran great with BPS but now that i have BESx installed it keeps the CPU up around 80 to 90% where before with BPS it only ran at 30% Its a fairly old server anyways so need to retire it anyhow.

I had a similar thing today:
installed: BESx Express 4.1.6
New install of BESx 5.0.1, no migration.
One day before move from Exchange 2003 to 2007

I moved all mailboxes to the new server, deactivated the old BES.
installed new server.
Tried to activate: no method worked, (USB, OTA, Wifi)
The activation mail either stayed in the inbox, or, vanished, but, the device refused the activation.

I found, that in the logs the new server thought, that the BB was still handled by the old server. I had secure-wiped the device before.

The only thing which finally helped was:
did remove the user from the old BES including the information stored in the mailbox
removed the user from the new server
again wiped the device
restarted the old and new server

activation was sucessful after these steps.