How to distribute SAP Crystal Reports 2020 service...

donald_guo · ‎2021 Jan 28

Introduction

As announced in SAP BusinessObjects addendum to Statement of Direction on Feb 2021 (and the June 2022 update), SAP Crystal Reports 2020 services are no longer supported on Linux and Unix operating systems from version BI 4.3 SP2 on (Q4 2021), to remove dependency of a 3rd party component that simulates Windows API on Linux and Unix.

SAP Crystal Reports 2020 reports are still fully supported, by distributing SAP Crystal Reports 2020 (CR 2020) services in SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) platform to a Windows server.

Such distributed deployment could also be used with BI 4.3 and BI 4.2:

to add more Crystal Reports processing power, by adding a Windows server

avoid Linux or Unix specific issues

Below are the detailed steps to:

perform an ‘Expand’ install (using BI 4.3 SP01 as example)

check the newly installed Windows CR2020 services

Install steps:

Download and run BI platform installer, on a clean Windows server

Choose installation folder (could use default)

Select "Custom/Expand" install type

In Select Features dialog, only select following CR 2020 related features:
- Servers / SAP Crystal Reports Services / SAP Crystal Reports 2020 Processing Services
- Servers / SAP Crystal Reports Services / SAP Crystal Reports 2020 Scheduling Services
- Integration Server / BW Publisher Server
- Database Access
- Samples

Read information on the 'Expand Installation' dialog, click Next

Provide a SIA (Server Intelligence Agent) name (could use default)

Enter existing CMS name / port / logon information
- Note: if your existing CMS has Corba SSL enabled, you may want to disable it during install. Otherwise the installer may have difficulty connect to your existing CMS. See SAPNote 2634052 for steps to enable / disable Corba SSL.

Select Automatic Server Start (could use default)

Finish the install

After install:

Perform necessary database configurations on this Windows server, e.g.
- install database drivers from vendor,
- configure ODBC DSN (with same name)

Login to CMC (Central Management Console), check the newly added CR2020 services are there and running on Windows (like screenshot below).

To prove newly installed CR2020 services are working, stop other CR2020 servers (e.g. on Linux/Unix).

Check if your CR2020 reports could still view and schedule (now processed on your Windows server).

Check server status in CMC

Note: In our setup, AdaptiveProcessingServer on Windows is not required, and can be stopped (like above).

Conclusion

With above steps, now you should be able to quickly distribute SAP Crystal Reports 2020 services in BI platform, to a Windows server.

Don't hesitate to comment, or share your experience / suggestion below.

For more details, see:

"Custom (Expand) installation" chapter in "BI platform Installation Guide for Windows"

"Server Administration" chapter in "BI platform Administrator Guide"

BI platform landing page on SAP Help Portal

former_member182521 · ‎2021 Mar 14

Thanks for the blog Donald. I recently got a chance to review the SOD document and I am trying to understand the below statement. I believe only CR 2020 (RAS & Cache) but we do have a confusion whether this is applicable for CRE as well. I would like to get some inputs from you.

donald_guo · ‎2021 Mar 15

Thanks for reaching out Manikandan!

You are right, Crystal Reports for Enterprise (CRE) is not impacted.

Checked with our product management team, the ~~BI SoD addendum~~ will also be updated recently.

busitech_inc · ‎2021 Aug 28

Rather than cause a major discrepancy in features between the Windows and Linux versions of the BI platform, please consider porting the Crystal Reports services source code to native Linux and Unix API calls, so customers can enjoy full parity, and have the freedom to choose the platform.

One does not simply "add a Windows server" without significant licensing expense, maintenance, and eventual headaches from registry corruption.

Until the BI platform can fully reproduce the "pixel perfect workflows" that Crystal Reports delivers, which we hope it will some day soon, this Crystal Reports subsystem is still valuable.

Bad design decisions always come home to roost eventually, at which time you have to pay the piper. Using a "simulator" so you can write to the Windows API and deliver a cross platform product is nothing short of a house of cards, and SAP knew that up front.

We suggest that SAP either deliver pixel perfect workflows to BusinessObjects BI platform, or port the code for the Crystal subsystem.

donald_guo · ‎2021 Sep 06

Thanks for the feedback, Matthew!

~~As an alternative with no extra cost, SAP extended the support of BI4.2 to 2027 on demand – see ‘SAP BusinessObjects addendum to Statement of Direction’.~~

Update: we learnt the on-demand BI 4.2 extension option is not provided in the end.

Apart from that, we are exploring BI 4.3 Windows + Linux mixed deployment on SAP BusinessObjects Private Cloud Edition (PCE). If that become available on PCE, SAP could take care of setting up Crystal Reports 2020 services on a Windows node.

rajivdutta · ‎2021 Oct 21

Hi Donald,

With this step SAP has put the Crystal Reports users like us in a very tight spot. We have ~100,000-150,000 CR scheduled every day. We have a massive deployment on 4.2 as of now. Now upgrade to 4.3 would be more difficult to us or we may have to switch to another tool which would be compatible with Linux as we cannot have windows in our deployment.

sharonzhou · ‎2021 Oct 25

Hi Rajiv,

Thanks for your feedback. If you prefer a pure Linux environment, you could stay on BI4.2 which supports Linux deployment till 2027. Beyond that, SAP will continue to support and evolve BusinessObjects BI, but only as a managed cloud subscription offering. You could also consider Linux+Windows mixed deployment or pure Windows deployment on PCE, once these options become available.

Best,

Sharon, SAP Analytics PM

rajivdutta · ‎2021 Oct 25

Hi Sharon,

Thank you for your inputs. However, BI 4.3 was a major incentive for us to upgrade as Crystal Reports 2020 is completely 64-bit. If we continue to stay on BI 4.2 we are missing out on major upgrade classic CR has seen since forever.

Regards,

Rajiv Dutta

DellSC · ‎2021 Dec 10

Personally, I think that SAP is doing the users of classic Crystal a grave disservice with this move. I think there are more companies using classic Crystal with BOBJ than SAP realizes - especially outside of the greater SAP ecosystem. But that's been an issue with SAP's vision for BOBJ for a long time - companies that use only BOBJ and not any other SAP software frequently feel like they don't have a voice in the future of the product.

Yes, CR for Enterprise is still an option, but it doesn't have full feature parity with classic Crystal and can be more difficult to use for some use cases.

-Dell

NTruhan · ‎2021 Dec 10

Donald,

One major issue with this is that PCE is a Linux only solution at the moment and up to 4.3 SP1 this was fine. In talking with certain SAP sales people that deal with PCE, the Windows servers you mentioned would not be part of the standard build, but would be additional LaaS extension servers that would be an additional cost outside of the T-Shirt sizing to provide something that was previously included, and would also be the responsibility of the client to manage the entire windows stack as well as install of those servers to be integrated into the Linux side of PCE. This eliminates any benefit for Crystal 2020 users to migrate to to the PCE platform before on-premise is unsupported after 2027.

CHickman72 · ‎2021 Dec 14

Given the direction of SAP BusinessObjects in the future with the PCE requirement, I have serious concerns about the ability to adequately integrate a Windows server for CR with a platform running on multiple Windows machines. Should we go this route, we need to identify the requirement very early in the process and very clearly lay out a plan. Will the Windows environment be managed by SAP as the Linux environments are in PCE or will the client be responsible for it? What are the licensing ramifications? What are the hosting costs? Are there any white papers or case studies on companies that have already implemented this architecture?

EricFenollosa · ‎2021 Dec 14

Hi Nathan,

The PCE Windows Server for Crystal Reports is now available. Like other parts of PCE this will be built, supported and maintained by the SAP cloud services team.

The server is not part of the core BusinessObjects PCE build and is an optional add-on that is priced separately. SAP has taken this approach as a minority of customers will ever need the Crystal server and this avoids installing it unnecessarily and passing the cost on to all customers.

Best regards,

Eric Fenollosa, SAP BusinessObjects BI Product Manager

EricFenollosa · ‎2021 Dec 14

Hi Chris,

The PCE Windows Server for Crystal Reports is now available. Like other parts of PCE this will be built, supported and maintained by the SAP cloud services team.

The server is not part of the core BusinessObjects PCE build and is an optional add-on that is priced separately. SAP has taken this approach as a minority of customers will ever need the Crystal server and this avoids installing it unnecessarily and passing the cost on to all customers.

Best regards,

Eric Fenollosa, SAP BusinessObjects BI Product Manager

sharonzhou · ‎2021 Dec 15

Hi Dell,

Thank you for your continued interest in Crystal Reports. Crystal Reports Classic was and will remain a key client tool of the BOBJ portfolio. To guarantee the best support to customers, we have to rationalize the technical stack and get rid of some old 3rd party dependencies when necessary.

Best Regards,

Sharon, SAP Analytics PM

donald_guo · ‎2022 Oct 24

Update: we learnt the on-demand BI 4.2 extension option is not provided in the end.

Link to latest (June 2022) SoD document: SAP Analytics Business Intelligence Statement of Direction

sharonzhou · ‎2022 Nov 17

Update to my last reply:

The on-demand BI 4.2 extension option was canceled due to limited customer requests. The PCE Windows Server for Crystal Reports is now available. Like other parts of PCE this will be built, supported and maintained by the SAP cloud services team.

former_member833983 · ‎2022 Dec 20

What about service account to run SIA on newly installed windows node? How both the machines will communicate? I.e Linux and windows! We have different service account on Linux! Please advice more on service account for Linux as well as windows node.

donald_guo · ‎2022 Dec 21

Hi, Bhushan:

Crystal Reports 2020 services on Windows machine communicates with other BI Platform services on Linux / Unix via CORBA, it doesn’t rely on specific service account on Windows and Linux / Unix.

On Windows, by default SIA will use System account LocalSystem after installation. You can switch to other Windows account if necessary.

On Linux / Unix where the BI Platform is installed, follow “Business Intelligence Platform Installation Guide for Unix”. E.g. User Account.

Best Regards and Merry Christmas!

Donald

former_member833983 · ‎2023 Jan 13

Donald,

We again need to install all the database middleware on Window box right? And change the Database configurations for all the existing CR reports.

Because CR service residing on the Windows box need to communicate to the Reporting DB and for that we need middleware's (Ex. ODBC, ORA Native client etc. )

-Bhushan

donald_guo · ‎2023 Jan 17

Happy new year Bhushan!

Yes, required database middleware has to be installed / deployed on the Window box.

In most cases no change is required to the connectivity in the reports, e.g. for reports using ODBC, just ensure DSN with same name is created, then the existing reports should work on Windows. For reports using JDBC, just ensure the JDBC driver (jar) can be loaded (configured in CRConfig.xml).

Best Regards

Donald

jose_rodriguez_1 · ‎2023 Mar 01

Hello Donald,

We have a four-tier landscape for SAP BI (SNDBX, DEV, QA, and PRD) and I have been looking for SAP best practices on deploying the CR2020 services on a windows server for multiple SAP BI systems. However, I don't know if we can leverage on windows server for multiple SAP BI systems. We were thinking of having one windows server for SAP BI pre-production systems (SNDBX, DEV, and QA) and one for SAP BI production.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Jose R.