[JLEIGHTON]

I'm running BES 4.1.5 on Windows Server 2003 SP2 in an Exchange 2003 environment. We have been running the system since first quarter of last year roughly, and never had any issues with it. All of a sudden, when I go to activate a device, it just hangs on "Activating ...".

To make a long story short, I found out that the activation email never made it to the user's inbox. After searching our spam filter, it turns out that the email never even made it to our network. I ran the BBSRPTEST utility and it passed, all other normal BES functionality is working, users are sending/receiving email just fine, but I can't activate ANY new users. I looked through both the Windows application log as well as the BES specific logs under c:\program files\research in motion\blackberry enterprise server\logs, and found nothing that made reference to contacting the RIM servers to initiate the user activation.

I disabled all Symantec Endpoint services running on the machine to make sure that was not denying the outbound connection from the server, but no luck. I even went as far as to uninstall SEP temporarily since this was a recent install and I suspected it may be interfering.

Also, just to verify my understanding of the activation process is accurate and I'm at least following the right troubleshooting steps, this is the order as I understand it:

1. BES admin generates the activation password from the server.
2. BES contacts the RIM network with the password and email information.
3. RIM servers send activation email with EPT.DAT attachment to email address of the user.
4. Email is delivered to user's inbox.
5. Enterprise Activation is initiated from the device with email address and password.
6. BES checks the email address and password against the EPT.DAT file in the user's inbox via MAPI connection to Exchange.
7. Assuming the information matches up, it starts to push the service books, etc. and finishes activating the device.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Josh

[hdawg]

The handheld initiates the activation email

READ:

KB04566 - Enterprise activation sequence on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server

KB13850 - What is the wireless enterprise activation process

KB13852 - Identifying and troubleshooting enterprise activation issues

If you want to zip up a set of logs and send me a link to it or the actual logs in the email and I'll look through them to see if there are other issues send them to

[TargetIT]

If the email doesn't get through, wouldn't that simply indicate that BES Data plan isn't setup for that number? I mean, if you can re-activate your BB, then that's most likely your problem.

[SteveO86]

Originally Posted by TargetIT

If the email doesn't get through, wouldn't that simply indicate that BES Data plan isn't setup for that number? I mean, if you can re-activate your BB, then that's most likely your problem.

BB Devices will the Provisioning Service Book on them, which indicates they can be activated.

If you have T-Support you can use their Enterprise Activation tool to check a specific BB device/PIN... Also make sure no SPAM filters are catching the ETP.dat email/attachment..

[JLEIGHTON]

Thanks for the clarification on the activation rundown. That definitely helped me get back on the right track. So here's my update. Hopefully someone has some ideas:

After doing some searching and troubleshooting on the mail delivery side of things, I found a mention on a different forum that the BES server may be processing the email immediately, and that's why I'm never seeing it show up in the user's inbox. So I stopped BES, started the Enterprise Activation from the handset, and voila... the email showed up in the inbox. As soon as I fired up BES, the two activation emails that were sitting in there disappeared and I'm still stuck at "Activating user @ domain.com...". Any ideas? I've never had this problem before with BES, and it's now happening with any user I try to activate.

Thanks!

[JLEIGHTON]

Bump

[nobody7290]

I once had luck by setting a simple password manually, Should not make any difference, but maybe worth a try.
I had several cases, where the device refused activation until I erased it.

If activation is urgent, use an USB cable, install the blackberry desktop software, and activate via cable.

[JLEIGHTON]

Originally Posted by nobody7290

I once had luck by setting a simple password manually, Should not make any difference, but maybe worth a try.
I had several cases, where the device refused activation until I erased it.

If activation is urgent, use an USB cable, install the blackberry desktop software, and activate via cable.

Thanks.

I've tried doing the manual password set (as opposed to the "Generate and Email Activation Password" option), but no luck. I've also made sure I have the password correct and forced the existing one to expire by setting it again with a timeout period of 0, and then setting it again to the password I'm attempting to use on the device end. I'm sure that I can do it via the desktop, but ultimately I would like to get the wireless activation working. Any other ideas?

[nobody7290]

Have you tried to erase the Device before activation ?

Is this a new user, or, a user which previously was on BB ? If he previously had a BB, delete the user from the Server (keeping his data), wait for 5 Minutes, then, add him again to the System.

[JLEIGHTON]

Originally Posted by nobody7290

Have you tried to erase the Device before activation ?

Is this a new user, or, a user which previously was on BB ? If he previously had a BB, delete the user from the Server (keeping his data), wait for 5 Minutes, then, add him again to the System.

I have tried this. I actually wiped the device and deleted the user, recreated the user, and attempted it again. This was not a previous BB user, and I even created a test user, tried a different phone and line... so the only common denominator that I can see is BES.

[knottyrope]

Originally Posted by hdawg

If you want to zip up a set of logs and send me a link to it or the actual logs in the email and I'll look through them to see if there are other issues send them to

Might want to take him up on this offer.

[JLEIGHTON]

Good call.

hdawg, sent you an email with the zip and a PM as a heads up in case you block zip attachments. Thanks in advance!

Anyone else care to weigh in? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[TargetIT]

Did you try re-activating yourself? IE - not a new user?

[DavidAdams]

When you say you have tried to activate other users are they all being done on the same BB and SIM combo? Have you confirmed the SIM/BB are configured for BES? Check with your carrier.

[SteveO86]

Have you wiped the hand held, and then tried to re-activate?

Would a wired activation be an option?