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BusinessObjects XI R2 – Good to the Last (Code) Drop

Today is June 30, 2010, a day that will live in infamy. It is the last day of patch support for SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2. Limited tech support will continue for an additional year, until June 30, 2011. But it means that XI R2 Service Pack 6 (XI R2 SP6 and a few fix packs, Fix Pack 6.4 being the latest) is the end of the XI R2 distribution. With the recent release of XI 3.1 Service Pack 3 (XI 3.1 SP3) and the highly anticipated BI 4.0 coming at the end of this year, SAP is signaling that it is time to move on (see related article, Customizing SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0). I can still remember the excitement of the 2004 acquisition announcement of Crystal Decisions by a then-independent BusinessObjects, followed by road shows and road maps. XI Release 1 was to ship in early 2005 with XI Release 2 following later in the year. XI R2 indeed shipped in late November 2005 and I started my first BusinessObjects migration project in January 2006. It brings a smile to my face when I think of how my career as a business intelligence professional has changed since those days.

What does the end of patch support mean for XI R2 customers? It means that although tech support is still available to assist with issues over the next 12 months, the standard approach to anything resembling a software bug will be “upgrade to XI R2 SP6, apply its fix packs, and hope the problem disappears.”  Otherwise, move to XI 3.1. XI 3.1 thoughtfully implements many of the enhancements customers requested for XI R2, including a completely redesigned Central Management Console (with new security features), a slightly redesigned InfoView portal for users, a desktop edition of Web Intelligence (the Web Intelligence Rich Client), and more. Beginning with XI 3.1 SP2, SAP introduced additional Web Intelligence features to help customers continue the migration away from Desktop Intelligence, which will either have limited or no support in BI 4.0. BTW, I have no inside knowledge here – we’ll all learn Desktop Intelligence’s fate together when SAP introduces BI 4.0 in fall 2010 (see related article, Desktop Intelligence, Back for a Limited Time).

The table below contains product end-of-life (EOL) dates courtesy of the SAP Support Portal. If your enterprise is still using classic BusinessObjects 5.x or 6.x, now is the time to begin planning your migration to XI 3.x. Customers on XI R1 or XI R2 should also begin making plans to upgrade to a fully-supported release. Because of the CMC’s redesign and its new security features, I highly recommend that organizations budget training dollars for their administrators. Although upgrading from XI R1 or R2 is not as complex as a classic BusinessObjects migration, the new XI 3.x security features, particularly the custom Access Levels (CAL) are much easier to maintain than the Advanced rights available in XI R1 or R2.

Product and Version GA Date Patch Support EOL Tech Support EOL
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2 24-Nov-2005 23-Apr-2007 30-Jun-2011
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2 SP1 30-Mar-2006 31-Aug-2007 30-Jun-2011
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2 SP2 23-Apr-2007 31-Mar-2008 30-Jun-2011
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2 SP3 20-Nov-2007 30-Sep-2008 30-Jun-2011
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2 SP4 31-May-2008 30-Nov-2009 30-Jun-2011
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2 SP5 31-Dec-2008 30-Jun-2010 30-Jun-2011
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2 SP6 16-Dec-2009 30-Jun-2010 30-Jun-2011
Dallas Marks

Dallas Marks

I am an analytics and cloud architect, author, and trainer. An AWS certified blogger, SAP Mentor Alumni and co-author of the SAP Press book SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence: The Comprehensive Guide, I prefer piano keyboards over computer keyboards when not blogging or tweeting.

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11 thoughts on “BusinessObjects XI R2 – Good to the Last (Code) Drop”

  2. OH! That explains the email I got from someone looking to download SP2…

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  6. come on guys…u know next version is cool and Aurora has more features like Data federator in universe but DeskI is not supported with unvierse(bad luck)….but really cool and I am really waiting for it.for ppl who r training u can train more with new software as everything is changed.

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  8. HI,

    I would like to download BOEXI R2 SP6 because I want to upgrade my database to SQL 2008 R2. Please can you give me the link to download that SP6

    1. Richard,

      From the SAP Service Marketplace:

      SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XIR2 arrived at its product end-of-life (EOL) on June 30 2010. SAP BusinessObjects has agreed to provide Best Effort Support for all customers until June 30, 2011. During this time customers may still need to access full XIR2 Builds, Fix Packs and Service Packs from the Service Marketplace (SMP). Fix Packs and Service Packs are still on SMP but have been moved to the archived folder.

      The latest installation version is visible on the SWDC. However, only authorized users can obtain that version. The customer must open a ticket under the component XX-SER-SWFL-SHIP. The ticket will be forwarded to a team that verifies whether the customer has a valid license for Enterprise. If a valid license exists, the customer is added to the authorization group in order to download.

      Good luck!

  9. Our scheduled reports are duplicating the instances and we are getting multiple emailed reports. Any solution? we are using BOXI R2 enterprise edition. Even after deleting the duplicated instances, the issue starts again after some days. Pls help

    1. Mithun,

      Thanks for writing. I cannot provide tech support, so you might want to look for similar issues on the BusinessObjects Board or SAP Support Portal. Because XI R2 no longer receives patch support, I would encourage you to upgrade your XI R2 installation to XI 3.1.

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