Subject:
Crystal Ball 2000.5 (5.5) Licensing FAQ
Here are some questions and answers about the new Crystal Ball
licensing scheme.
The Licensing Glossary
defines some terms used in the FAQ.
Contents
1. How has licensing changed
in Crystal Ball 2000.5?
A new licensing scheme for Crystal Ball simplifies the activation
of different features and products when users upgrade or purchase
new products. To activate new features with a minimum of uninstalling
and re-installing, the new licensing scheme uses an encrypted License
File on each user's machine to determine which features (Crystal
Ball Professional, Crystal Ball Standard, CB Predictor, or OptQuest)
have been licensed. Individual products are no longer installed
separately. Instead, the entire Crystal Ball Professional product
is installed. Then, the functionality of each individual product
is switched on or off according to the features listed in the License
File.
2. Who needs a Crystal Ball
or CB Predictor license?
Everyone needs a license to run Crystal Ball products, even for
7-day evaluation versions. If you are upgrading from a previous
version of Crystal Ball, your old license will not work. You will
need to activate a new license for Crystal Ball 2000.5. If you are
upgrading from a 7-day evaluation version of Crystal Ball 2000.5
or CB Predictor 1.5 to a commercial version, you only need to upgrade
your license. You don't need to uninstall and re-install.
3. Do I need local administrator
privileges to license my Crystal Ball product?
No, you don't need local administrator privileges to license Crystal
Ball products, although you do need those privileges to install
Crystal Ball products on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows
XP.
4. What is the License Manager?
The License Manager is a tool based on FLEXlm by Macrovision that
lets users download, activate, and manage the Crystal Ball License
File on their computers. The License File contains information about
what features or products are enabled (Crystal Ball Professional,
Crystal Ball Standard, CB Predictor, or OptQuest) for a particular
user. There are three different ways to use the License Manager,
all based on two pieces of unique information - the user's Host
ID and the user's License Authorization Code:
Download and activate a license online: If you are connected
to the Internet, the License Manager can automatically send the
Host ID and License Authorization Code to the Crystal Ball Licensing
Web Server. The Licensing Web Server then generates and sends
a License File back to the License Manager that, in turn, stores
it on the host machine. Depending on a number of factors, this
process might take longer than a few minutes. We will try to make
any delay as short as possible.
Download and activate a license offline: If you have
no access to the Internet, Crystal Ball can email a License
File. In this case, you can call Crystal Ball Technical Support
with your Host ID and License Authorization Code. A Technical
Support engineer then creates a License File and sends it to you
in the body of an email. You can then copy and paste the text
of the License File from the email directly into the License Manager.
Depending on a number of factors, this process might take longer
than a few minutes. We will try to make any delay as short as
possible.
Use a license server: If you are operating in a concurrent
licensing environment, you can enter the name (and optionally
the port number) of your organization's license server to activate
your license. It is possible to configure single-server and triple-redundant-server
licensing environments. In a concurrent licensing environment,
the License File stored on your host machine simply points to
your organization's license server. Once all available concurrent
licenses are checked out, additional users must wait until a license
becomes available before running the product.
5. In the License Manager,
what is the difference between Online and Offline licensing?
To create a license file, two pieces of information are required:
a Host ID and a License Authorization Code. If you are connected to
the Internet, this information can be sent to you automatically through
the License Manager (online licensing). If you are not connected to
the Internet, you can read the Host ID and License Authorization Code
to one of our Technical Support engineers over the phone so they can
generate a license for you (offline licensing). Then, the License
File is emailed to you and you can follow the instructions in the
License Manager to activate the license on your computer. If you don't
have email access, you can still license Crystal Ball products offline.
Just call or email Crystal Ball Technical Support at the contact
addresses given in the License Manager screens or the last question below and your License File can be
faxed to you or sent on a disk.
Notice that once you have licensed a Crystal Ball product, you don't
need to be connected to the Internet to run the product.
6. What is a Host ID?
The Host ID is a unique identifier for the computer hardware on a
network or the Internet. If the computer is not on a network or the
Internet, a unique identifier for the hard drive is used.
7. Why does Decisioneering need
my Host ID?
Crystal Ball is licensed to a specific host machine. To lock the software
to a machine, a unique piece of information from that machine (the
Host ID) is required. The only time information is provided to the
Crystal Ball Licensing Web Server is during the license activation
process. No further information is ever provided when the computer
is used with or without launching Crystal Ball products.
8. What is a License Authorization
Code?
A License Authorization Code is a 20-digit unique identifier that
tells Crystal Ball what type of license should be given to a particular
user. There are many different types of licenses, including seven-day
evaluation versions, Crystal Ball Professional, Crystal Ball Standard,
CB Predictor, OptQuest, concurrent licensing of Crystal Ball, and
more.
9. How do I use my License Authorization
Code?
Once you have purchased the software or have registered for a seven-day
evaluation version, a License Authorization Code is sent to you by
email. When you install the Crystal Ball software, the License Manager
starts and you are prompted to enter the License Authorization Code
by copying and pasting or typing it from the email that you were sent
(from license@crystalball.com). The License Manager then sends your
Host ID and License Authorization Code to Crystal Ball, where the
information is interpreted by our Licensing Web Server. Our Licensing
Web Server sends the appropriate License File back to the License
Manager that, in turn, stores it on the your computer to activate
a license.
This describes online licensing of Crystal Ball products immediately
following installation. If you need to wait before licensing Crystal
Ball, you can cancel licensing at the end of installation and start
the License Manager again by choosing Start > Programs > Crystal
Ball > License Manager in Microsoft Windows. If you are not connected
to the Internet, you can contact Crystal Ball by phone or email
and complete the licensing process offline.
10. Where is my License File
saved?
Your License File is saved in your Crystal Ball installation folder.
By default, the file is saved in C:\Program Files\Crystal Ball\CrystalBall.lic.
11. I use a laptop. Why do I have trouble
using Crystal Ball from certain locations?
If you use a portable computer or computers that are connected
to different networks at different times, you might have trouble starting
Crystal Ball. This is because of the way the Crystal Ball License
Manager assigned a Host ID to your machine during the licensing process.
Contact Crystal Ball Technical Support as described in the last question below and Crystal Ball's support engineers
can help you remedy this situation.
12. Why am I getting a message about
a missing msvcr71.dll file when the License Manager starts?
If you encounter an error message when launching the Crystal Ball
License Manager indicating that the msvcr71.dll file cannot be found,
it might be that the msvcr71.dll file has been removed from your Windows
System folder during a previous uninstallation of Crystal Ball. You
should copy the msvcr71.dll file from the FLEXlm folder of your Crystal
Ball 2000.5 (5.5) CD and paste it into the Windows System folder (by
default, C:\Windows\system32 on Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition
(Me), and Windows XP machines; C:\Winnt\system32 on Windows NT 4.0
and Windows 2000 machines).
13. I just obtained a license successfully
in Hawaii at 10 p.m. Why won't Crystal Ball start?
When you license Crystal Ball, the date is written into the License
File by the Crystal Ball Licensing Web Server. The Crystal Ball
Licensing Web Server clock is set to Mountain Time. If you are west
of that time zone and license Crystal Ball or CB Predictor after 7
p.m., it is possible that the Crystal Ball Licensing Web Server
clock has gone past midnight into the next day while your computer's
clock still shows the previous day. In that case, the Crystal Ball
Licensing Web Server has entered your license on the current day,
but according to your computer's clock, that day has not arrived yet.
For example, since clocks in Hawaii are set three to four hours earlier
than clocks in the Mountain Time zone, when it is 10 p.m. in Hawaii,
it is 1 a.m. the next morning in the Mountain Time zone (if Standard
Time is in effect). If you wait until after midnight, your Crystal
Ball product should start immediately.
14. What about other license files
on my computer?
Crystal Ball license management is based on version 9.0 of the FLEXlm
product by Macrovision, an industry standard. If you are installing
Crystal Ball on a computer where other FLEXlm-type licenses exist,
those licenses relevant to the licensing of Crystal Ball will appear
on the Existing License Detected screen in the Crystal Ball License
Manager. The order in which the existing licenses are listed is also
the order in which they are searched when checking out licenses to
start Crystal Ball products. For more information, contact your
organization's system administrator or Crystal Ball Technical Support.
You can also learn more by reading the FLEXlm End Users Guide in the
Technical Support area of the Macrovision Web site:
http://www.macrovision.com/services/support/flexlm/enduser.pdf
More technical information for system administrators is also available
on Macrovision's Web site. For example, the FLEXlm Programmer's Guide
(available there in .pdf format) describes how a FLEXlm client application
chooses a license file to use by searching environment variables,
the Windows registry, and by CHECKOUT() or lp_checkout() calls in
the code. License file paths can also be set on the command line at
startup, in which case environment variables are ignored. Should you
need more information on technical details concerning Crystal Ball
licensing and FLEXlm, check with Crystal Ball Technical Support
to see if white papers or tech notes are available from us and also
check the documentation and other information available from Macrovision
at:
http://www.macrovision.com/
15. How can I borrow a license in
a concurrent licensing environment?
If their Crystal Ball license is set up for borrowing (the default),
mobile users of Crystal Ball or CB Predictor in concurrent licensing
environments can borrow licenses for specified periods of time. Then,
when the borrow period expires, the FLEXlm license server returns
the borrowed license to the pool of available licenses. No clock synchronization
is required between the license server machine and the machine running
the FLEXlm-licensed application. To initiate borrowing:
- The end user follows these steps to set the LM_BORROW environment
variable on the machine to be used with the borrowed license:
- For Windows 2000, in the Windows Control Panel, select the
System icon, the Advanced tab, and then click on New under
the System Variables pane.
- When the New System Variable dialog appears, enter LM_BORROW
in the Variable Name text box.
- In the Variable Value text box, enter:
today:decision:enddate[:time]
where:
today
= Today's date in dd-mmm-yyyy format. Any checkouts done
on this date create local borrow information. If a checkout
is done on a different date than this date, no local borrowing
information is created.
decision
= Entered as is; the vendor name for Crystal Ball licenses
(based on the company's former name, Decisioneering, Inc.) If all is
used instead of decision,
licenses for all FLEXlm-licensed products installed on that
computer will be borrowed for the same time period.
enddate
= The date borrowing will expire in dd-mmm-yyyy format.
time
= The time borrowing will expire, in 24-hour format (hh:mm) in
the FLEXlm-licensed application's local time. This setting
is optional. If time is unspecified, the checkout lasts
until the end of the given end date.
For example, suppose LM_BORROW is set to:15-aug-2004:decision:20-aug-2004:13:00
In this example, a license served by the decision vendor
daemon is borrowed on August 15, 2004, and is scheduled to
be returned at 1 p.m. on August 20, 2004.
- On the same day and the same machine, the end user runs Crystal
Ball or stand-alone CB Predictor while still connected to the
network to check out and borrow the license for that feature.
If the Crystal Ball product is run more than once that day, duplicate
licenses are not checked out and borrowed. If the Crystal Ball
product is run on a different day, no license is checked out and
borrowed.
Once the license is checked out, you can close the borrowed application
and disconnect the computer from the network. The license that was
just checked out stays checked out from the license server until
the borrow period expires. That license can now be used on the disconnected
machine until the borrow period expires. The license cannot be returned
before the end of the borrow period unless the network administrator
uses a special FLEXlm utility to check in the license early. The
borrow period cannot be renewed until the period has expired or
an early check-in takes place.
16. What happens if another FLEXlm server
in my licensing environment isn't working?
Licensing problems can occur if you have an environment variable or
registry entry that points to a FLEXlm license server that cannot
be reached while you are trying to license Crystal Ball. This problem
can occur for users in either concurrent licensing environments or
stand-alone (non-concurrent) licensing environments. The following
error message appears: "Cannot connect to license server." Check all
FLEXlm license servers in the licensing environment to make sure the
computers are powered on and the FLEXlm license services are running.
This problem can occur even if the license server that handles Crystal
Ball is fully functional. The problem arises when the server that
is down is contacted before the Crystal Ball license file or license
server.
17. Does Crystal Ball work in Citrix Server, Windows Terminal
Server, or Remote Desktop environments?
Remote login applications such as Citrix Server, Windows Terminal Server, and Remote Desktop are not supported in Crystal Ball's licensing scheme. We do not allow multiple users to access Crystal Ball on the same machine and also require that customers get separate Crystal Ball licenses for their home machines.
To run Crystal Ball from both your home and office computer, you need to install and license the software separately on both computers. Please contact your sales representative for more information.
18. How can I contact Crystal Ball
Technical Support?
You can call between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mountain Time at the phone
numbers listed below, email us at the addresses listed below, or check
out our Web site:
http://support.crystalball.com/
Contact information in the United States:
Oracle Crystal Ball Global Business Unit
7700 Technology Way
Denver, Colorado 80237
USA
Main number: +1.303.334.4000 (Switchboard only – no technical support)
US Sales: +1.719.757.2173
Support: +1.303.334.7599 or +1.800.373.5885
Fax: +1.303.334.7598
CBSalesNA_ww@oracle.com
cbsupport_ww@oracle.com
Web Site: http://www.crystalball.com/
For a current list of international dealers and distributors, see
the Web site at:
http://distributors.crystalball.com/
All other countries, please contact Crystal Ball in the United
States. |
