Business Objects Enterprise vs Crystal Reports Server for Central Reporting

A question for all the Architects and Administrators out thereu2026
I have a vision of centrally managing operational reporting (reporting directly against applications and/or ODS databases). The main reasons:
- Management of Security
- Management of Report Inventory
- More efficient use of server resources and capacity (clustering/sharable)
This will be Crystal Reports only.
Is Business Objects Enterprise a feasible solution for this or is a series of Crystal Reports Servers?
My understanding is that the server version does not cluster or scale and a series of them operates independently from each other. Is there a concern of the over-kill or magnitude of Business Objects Enterprise for just Crystal Reports?
What are everyoneu2019s thoughts?
Thanks Much
Ryan Shaw
Enterprise Architect

Hi Ryan,
It really depends what meets your business needs. If you require to scale and expand your BOE XI environment then BOE is what you'll need. BOE will allow you to have clustered CMS' and have multiple processing servers that reside on remote servers.
If your deployment does not require a lot resource and one server can handle the amount of reporting requests and logons, then CR Server would be the better choice. You are correct, CR Server is not scalable and is a single server install only. You cannot expand or add additional BOE servers on remote servers if you use CR Server.
Regards,
Wallie
Edited by: Wallie Cheng on Aug 23, 2008 12:31 AM
If you want to centralize this, a series of CR Servers will not work as each installation will be its entity.

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Post Author: RVM
CA Forum: General
I'm evaluating Crystal Reports Server XI with a view to fulfilling the reporting requirements of my Client. I've identified Crystal Reports Server XI as the ideal solution and have been looking for documentation that describes the constituents of CRS XI and the architecture of the product from a technical perspective. I haven't been able to locate an administrators guide for CRS XI similar to the one available for crystal Enterprise 10 and Business Objects Enterprise XI R2. I've read that CRS XI is a subset of Business Objects Enterprise XI and as such has the same arichitecture. COuld some please clarify what constituents of BO Enterprise XI also reside within CRS XI?
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Post Author: yangster
CA Forum: General
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I am new to Business Objects & Crystal Reports. I have recently been given the repsonsibility of supporting our BO XI R2 environment. This system is not in production yet, but initial use has shown an inability to create a crystal report.
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Please post this query to the Business Objects Enterprise Administration forum:
BI Platform
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Hi,
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Here's the brief summary:
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- One copy of CR Developer Edition for every 5 CAL purchased (Report designers are extra with BusinessObjects Enterprise)
- Live Office for office integration
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Thanks,
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go into the properties of the report and verify that the Database Login values are still set. I found that it doesn't always transfer those when doing the import.

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Hi Ed,
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1.
When they enter their username and password in InfoView the Application Server (Tomcat) does it.
2.
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Regards
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I am quite new Business Objects and right now I am using Business Objects Enterprise XI 3.1.
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Business Objects Enterprise vs Crystal Reports Server for Central Reporting

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