[morser]

Performed a phased upgrade of BES 4.1.6 to BES 5.0 by moving users from old server to new (same db).

During move tests from 4.1.6 server to 5.0, my blackberry Enterprise Activation starts on the devices but hangs at "initializing Activation" and will stay there indefinitely.

I could pull out the battery and after that it will go back to normal, but we want to move over 700 users so if Enterprise Activation is going to invoke it must be successful. This issue can be reproduced on other devices.

Anyone had similar experience?

[slahm]

Don't know if it applies to you, but that is a known issue when upgrading from 4.1 to 5.0 and the encryption type on the old BES is different than then encryption type on the new.

There is a knowledge base article on blackberry.com, but I can never find them on their site....

I think the article said going from 3DES to 3DES/AEP, but I am not sure.

Hope that helps.

The berry will not work initially when the "activation" starts, but will when it gets to that screen apparently. The icon also cannot be removed from the home screen without a battery pull... sound familiar?

[noname]

morser, juz curious. How do you move your user from 4.1.6 to 5.0? What is the tool you use to move?

[morser]

slahm, I opened a support case and they mentioned this encryption as one of the first possible causes. Both my 4.1.6 server and 5.0 servers are set to 3DES/AEP so this may not be the problem. I am going to test a move again.

noname,
If your BES servers use different databases, you could use a new tool called the Enterprise Server Transporter. I tested this product. Basically it will move a user from one BES to another with minimal interruption to the user. The few things I saw that the user was required to do was that a) any 3rd party applications that originally had to ask for permission to do something came up again and b) things like IT policies etc are not ported to the new BES, so the end user experience may change.

But to get to the main answer for noname, a phased upgrade is when you install BES 5.0 on a new server and point it to a live 4.1.6 database. Both BES servers become part of the same BES domain, allowing you to simply move users from one BES to another with no user interruption. Obviously I'm testing this at the moment and running into an issue but it will be resolved. The one caveat I've found is that as soon as you install BES 5.0 in this manner, you need to start using the new Blackberry Administration Service web based GUI to admin all users whether they are on 4.1.6 or 5.0 servers. If you have delegated roles to other admins, you need to prepare them first before doing the install; the old Blackberry management console will not load. We installed in a test environment in order to give our admins a peek at the new GUI, and to write the required documents.

I'll post more when I have a solution to my move issue.

[morser]

To close this thread, I ended not getting full support from RIM on this because both my SRPs are not in the support contract we have with RIM.

I created a completely new environment to perform this and got the same result so I'm not sure if this is expected.
1 new BES 4.1.6
1 new BES 5.0 installed to share DB with 4.1.6 (phased upgrade)
Both servers set to 3DES and AES encryption
wiped two devices (curve and bold) including 3rd party apps.
added them to 4.1.6 server
moved them to 5.0 server
The devices experienced the problem.

Gave up on perfecting this one for now...