License Types (NUL, CAL, CS, CSBL, CPU) for Business Objects Products
There are three types of user licenses available with SAP Business Intelligence (BI) BusinessObjects Enterprise / SAP Crystal Reports Server:
- Concurrent license (CAL)
- Named User license (NUL)
- CPU license
Concurrent Access License (CAL) / Concurrent Session (CS) or (CSBL)
- The Concurrent Access License specifies the number of sessions that can be connected to BusinessObjects Enterprise at a time.
- There are no limitations for a number of users that can be configured as concurrent. The total concurrent sessions allowed depends on the quantity of the license key installed.
- For example, if there are three users A, B, C; and if user A logs into BI launchpad then 1 user license is consumed; if the same user A logs on to WebI Rich Client, BVM, and Universe Designer then 3 more licenses are consumed by user A. Therefore, user A has consumed 4 licenses.
Named User License (NUL)
- Again If there are 4 Concurrent Session licenses, then maximum 4 users will be able to log in simultaneously; the fifth user will get an error message and will not be able to access BI.
- The named user licence is typically associated with specific usernames
- The number of users that can be configured depends upon the number of NUL licenses of the license key installed. Each named user will be allowed to use a maximum of 10 open sessions. For a named user license, there is also a limit of 10 sessions that a single user can have open. This rule has now been enforced in the software as of 4.2 SP04.
- For example, if there are three users A, B, C; if user A logs into BI launchpad, Webi Rich Client, BVM, and Universe Designer simultaneously, then only 1 user license is consumed.
- Now if there are 5 NUL licenses then only 5 users can be configured; therefore when creating a sixth user will show an error message.
Note: If any users are created as CAL and then switched to Named User Licence in the user preferences, then they may face problems as they are not registered properly with the CMS.
CPU License
- CPU licence demonstrate the number of CPU cores which can run, or potentially run the BusinessObjects Enterprise server
- An infinite number of users can be created in this licence with an unlimited number of sessions.
- 'N' number of users can be created as long as CPU will be able to take the load.