Licensing - using version 8 and 9 on same server

[BobWman]

We currently have an intranet server running Crystal Enterprise 8.0 with web several reports (CR 8.5) that have been in operation for about a year. We are living with the 5 concurrent user licenses, and it is working fine.

Now, we want to add some additional reports using Crystal Reports 9.0. My assumption is, since CE8 and CR8.5 live in the COM world and CR9.0 is in the .NET environment, that they will coexist on the same server with no conflicts. Do you agree?

I am also assuming that licensing issues should be a primary concern. Will the installation of CR 9.0 create 5 additional licenses for use in the CR 9 environment, or will both CE8 and CR9 reports draw from the same pool?

Does anyone have any experience with this combination? Is there anything else I need to consider?

Thanks for any help.

 

[SurfingGecko]

First up the cohabitation or side-by-side existence with the CR products was introduced in v9. This is beacuse v9 is now fully Unicode comliant whereas they were not before. It has nothing to do with COM and .NET CR9 is not .NET based. It does recognize if the framework is installed and if so it will install the GAC files.

As for putting CR9 on this machine with CE8 and CR85. Go ahead you will be fine, but be aware that these reports are ONLY good in CR9 NOT CE8.

The pre v9 engines will NOT be able to rebder the reports and should you open, modify and save a v85 report that report is done and will only be available in CR9

CR9 is compatible with CE9 and above, not below.

CR9 will also not create an additional 5 users for your CE environment. CE and CR are different beasts and will not 'share'licenses.


Cheers,

SurfingGecko

http://www.surfinggeckosoftware.com

Home of Crystal Ease

 

[BobWman]

Thanks for your response. I'm still a little unclear about licensing. I used the word "pool" and you used the word "share". Perhaps my question was not specific enough.

If 2 users are each viewing a CR85 report, 2 licenses are used, and tracked by CE8. How many licenses are available for CR9, 3 or 5?

In other words, each product is providing 5 licenses. Are they independent of each other?

 

[synapsevampire]

It sounds like you're confusing the products.

SurfingGecko described the scenario well, CR 9 is not an upgrade from CE 8. They are companion products, but they are completely different creatures.

You didn't mention which version of CR 9 you have?

You might use RAS to deploy CR 9 reports seperately, but that would be using the licensing of CR 9, which is version dependent.

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/communityCS/TechnicalPapers/cr_licensing.pdf.asp

-k

 

[BobWman]

I'm not sure why you would say I am confusing the products??

We are considering the installation of the Advanced version of CR9 alongside our currently installed CE8 and CR8.5. This is not an upgrade.

CR8.5 reports would be accessed using current web pages. CR9 reports would be accessed using new web pages designed for those reports.

My concern is licensing issues. Also, any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.

 

[JohnEck]

CE 8.0 and CR 9.0 are not compatible. Any web distribution of CR 9.0 reports needs to be handled outside of CE 8.0. If you are adding CE9.0 It is an upgrade and will not exist on the same server as CE 8.0. It will replace it. If you are using RAS to distribute CR 9.0 I am not familiar enough with the products to help out how it will work with CE 8.0