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heiicat · 03-01-2010, 01:02 PM

Quick question if anyone has tried this...

Can you do an enterprise activation (wireless) with BESX and a CORPORATE BES data plan? The type of plan that allowed you to do an enterprise activation with BPS or BES. I know it does not work with a BIS data plan but i'm thinking of migrating from BES SBE to BESX and maintaining our cell phone plans. If anyone has tried this or knows if that functionality even exists in BESX some insight would be greatly appreciated.

voda_black · 03-01-2010, 03:22 PM

Reading around, I believe yes, you can do OTA if you have a BES plan

HDClown · 03-01-2010, 03:54 PM

From the BESX 5.0.1 Admin Guode, page 59:

"Before you activate a BlackBerry® device on the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express, you can visit the BlackBerry Expert
Support Center to use online tools to determine whether the BlackBerry device is associated with the BlackBerry® Internet Service.
You cannot activate a BlackBerry device that is associated with the BlackBerry Internet Service over the wireless network or over
your organization's Wi-Fi® network."

Page 59/60 details methods you can activate a device with BESX, which include:

-BB Administration Services
-over the wireless network
-over the LAN
-BB Web Desktop Manager
-over Wi-Fi

So yes, you can wirelessly activate via enterprise activation but ONLY if the device is not already using BIS. If the device is using BIS, you need to use another method. So the question here is, is this requirement listed because of cellular carries and the way they filter out enterprise access unless you have an enterprise data plan, or is this a requirement based on the device/BESX server.

I'll be able to test the various scenarious out once I get a BESX 5.0 server turned up, but it will be a couple of days until I can get to that point.

heiicat · 03-01-2010, 04:24 PM

Appreciate the time and effort on this! I look forward to hearing your results!

mindspit · 03-01-2010, 08:40 PM

Having installed it today i can see the option to do it but untested due to BIS plan.

HDClown · 03-02-2010, 09:08 PM

Looks like you may not need to wait for me. Reading another post, I was reminded that cellular providers (At least AT&T does, not sure about the others) remove the service book required to do an enterprise activation unless you have a BES data plan.

Something I can test is to see what happens if you have a BB with a BES data plan and it's only using BIS. Will BESX still let you enterprise activate or not? My thought is yes, it will let you enterprise activate.

knottyrope · 03-03-2010, 02:01 PM

it usually says handled by desktop in BES logs when using BIS.

qmacker · 03-05-2010, 06:32 PM

I can confirm that wireless activation DEFINITELY WORKS on BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express 5.0 with a corporate/enterprise data plan with the telco provider.

HDClown · 03-05-2010, 06:42 PM

Update on my part. I will finally get to do some "playing around" this weekend.

Since a standard OTA enterprise activation with enterprise data is confirmed I'm going to check the following

- enterprise data plan, phone never enterprise activated. Add 1 BIS account to the phone. Test various activation methods and see end result

Per the documentation this shouldn't let me OTA activate, but require cabled activation. I'll be able to determine if the documentation makes an assumption that if you use BIS, you don't have enterprise data plan, or if the document makes this statement due to a technical limitation in the device OS and BESX when a BIS account is configured on a device (even with enterprise data)

CanuckBB · 03-08-2010, 10:50 AM

HDClown,

I don't think it goes any deeper than is there a BES pan on that phone. BIS accounts are irrelevant.

HDClown · 03-08-2010, 11:32 AM

Ok, confirmed that the limitations mentioned in the manual are due to cellular data plans, and not BESX itself. It would be nice for RIM to clarify this IMO.

Here's what I did:

I took a BB with a BES Data Plan that was not enterprise activated. I added a BIS account to it. I was still able to enterprise activate.

I then wiped the phone, added a BIS account, and did an activation via Web Desktop Manager, for which there really is no "activation". As soon as the BESX server saw a device connected that was not activated, it activated it, simple as that. There's absolutely nothing for the user to do (aside from install the web desktop manager application if not already installed). Pretty slick I must say.

jsconyers · 03-08-2010, 12:55 PM

As CanuckBB stated, you have a BES data plan on the device, regardless if you have a BIS address on the device or not, it is still a BES data plan. You can have BIS accounts on a BES data plan.

You need a device with a BIS data plan (not account) to do your testing.

HDClown · 03-08-2010, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsconyers

As CanuckBB stated, you have a BES data plan on the device, regardless if you have a BIS address on the device or not, it is still a BES data plan. You can have BIS accounts on a BES data plan.

You need a device with a BIS data plan (not account) to do your testing.

Actually, no, I wanted to test with a device that has BES data plan. My whole point here is to determine why the manual says what it says.

I already know that a phone w/o a BES plan cannot enterprise activate, because the service providers remove the service books necessary to so. There was no question about that.

I was trying to address a specific capability for BESX and BESX only, as it's addressed in the manual. And since we cannot just blatantly assume BESX is "BES Lite", I did my testing.

The manual says that any phone with a BIS account cannot be wirelessly activated. As I pointed out earlier, and I'll reference again:

Quote:

From the BESX 5.0.1 Admin Guode, page 59:

"Before you activate a BlackBerry® device on the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express, you can visit the BlackBerry Expert
Support Center to use online tools to determine whether the BlackBerry device is associated with the BlackBerry® Internet Service.
You cannot activate a BlackBerry device that is associated with the BlackBerry Internet Service over the wireless network or over
your organization's Wi-Fi® network."

This implies that any device, regardless of data plan, that has a BIS account setup, cannot be wirelessly activated. My desire was to determine if this statement is made because RIM is making a general assumption that any user with a BIS account doesn't have an enterpris data plan, OR, was this statement made because there is some technical limitation in BESX that will detect a BIS account on a device, and prevente nterprise activation from completing.

And, per my testing, the statement is made because of the former. An assumption made by RIM that if you use BIS, you wouldn't have enterprise data plan.

CanuckBB · 03-08-2010, 01:42 PM

Actually it says exactly what it says.

The tool it refers to will tell you if the device has a BES or BIS data plan. If it has a BIS data plan it wont OTA activate.

HDClown · 03-08-2010, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CanuckBB

Actually it says exactly what it says.

The tool it refers to will tell you if the device has a BES or BIS data plan. If it has a BIS data plan it wont OTA activate.

The manual doesn't say that. If the tool may tell you what plan you have, but the manual is ambiguous with it's statement, simple as that, and testing it out for myself was worthwhile to know for a fact what can, and cannot be done.

jsconyers · 03-09-2010, 09:12 AM

I see your point that the wording is incorrect. It should read "You cannot activate a BlackBerry device that is associated with the BlackBerry Internet Service data plan over the wireless network or over your organization's Wi-Fi® network."

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Enterprise Activation with BESX