License in database

Kisu

Quick question, if you save customer license in customers sql database and take backup, will the license be still in the backup and when you restore it will it come with it?

And if you have own sql server with dev license on your sql server am I right the customers license will not over write our license when we restore customers database (with the saved license in it) to our sql ?

Last when we restore and if it does not over write, where does the license file in the backed up database go, does it dissapear when we restore it to our sql server.

These are not fully clear to me..

bbrown

First, are you sure that your customer has their NAV license install in the NAV database and not the default location of Master? "License per database" is only meant for sites that are hosting multiple independent NAV installations. Sites running a single licensed installation should have the license installed in Master.

Now, if you take a SQL backup, and the license is in the database, it will be there when you restore. With a NAV backup, I'm not sure, as a rarely use NAV backups with SQL.

Kisu

bbrown wrote:

First, are you sure that your customer has their NAV license install in the NAV database and not the default location of Master? "License per database" is only meant for sites that are hosting multiple independent NAV installations. Sites running a single licensed installation should have the license installed in Master.

No specific customer, it was just example question. If the customer would have navision database on an sql server and the licence file would've been Uploaded to it with the option in Navision - tools - license information. So the licence would be in the database? then if you take the backup out from the database would the license be inside the backup with it. I dunno how I could say this easier, I hope you understand what I mean ^^

bbrown wrote:

Now, if you take a SQL backup, and the license is in the database, it will be there when you restore. With a NAV backup, I'm not sure, as a rarely use NAV backups with SQL.

hmm if it is with the backup file does it over write the license where you restore it or if it does not over write does the license just dissapear from the backup?
SQL or Navision backup, would be nice to know both. Cant find much detail info about this.

bbrown

Kisu wrote:

hmm if it is with the backup file does it over write the license where you restore it or if it does not over write does the license just dissapear from the backup?
SQL or Navision backup, would be nice to know both. Cant find much detail info about this.

A SQL restore replaces the entire previous database, so nothing (including the prior license) would remain, and it would be replaced by everything that was in the source DB.

A NAV backup is different as it is really a table level backup and not a DB backup. I'm not clear whether it backups up the system table containing the license. I have my doubts, but you'll need to test.

bbrown

Kisu wrote:

bbrown wrote:

First, are you sure that your customer has their NAV license install in the NAV database and not the default location of Master? "License per database" is only meant for sites that are hosting multiple independent NAV installations. Sites running a single licensed installation should have the license installed in Master.

No specific customer, it was just example question. If the customer would have navision database on an sql server and the licence file would've been Uploaded to it with the option in Navision - tools - license information. So the licence would be in the database? then if you take the backup out from the database would the license be inside the backup with it. I dunno how I could say this easier, I hope you understand what I mean ^^

A SQL full backup includes the entire database, so yes it would include the license.

bbrown

Kisu wrote:

...
And if you have own sql server with dev license on your sql server am I right the customers license will not over write our license when we restore customers database (with the saved license in it) to our sql ?
...

If you have your dev license in the database, then yes the SQL restore will overwrite your license. Even if the restored database does not contain a license, your dev license would no longer be there. If your dev license is stored in master then it won't be disturbed.

Kisu

bbrown wrote:

A SQL restore replaces the entire previous database, so nothing (including the prior license) would remain, and it would be replaced by everything that was in the source DB.

So would I have to backup our license file each time I take backup from the customer (that has license in their sql database) before we restore it to our server then restore our dev license on the database? Or is there way to exclude the license file from the sql backup dump?

I checked that the navision backup does not take the license with it so it'd be probably easier or the correct way to only take that? But then again I'm wondering about the transaction logs if nav backup even have those if they were needed with something.

Which kind of way you usually take backup when you modify customers database objects/restore it to specific point etc.?

Some cases its realy hard to work with over citrix/remote due the latency making it mandatory to take the db on a stick and work it in our own server.

Kisu

bbrown wrote:

If your dev license is stored in master then it won't be disturbed.

Will it be in the master if I use the nav upload tool there? I tested it with few cronus ones, uploaded it on one and then checked the license on the rest and it was the same dev. Does it mean its in the master then

bbrown

Kisu wrote:

...So would I have to backup our license file each time I take backup from the customer (that has license in their sql database) before we restore it to our server then restore our dev license on the database? Or is there way to exclude the license file from the sql backup dump?...

The best practice would be to train clients not to put the license in the DB unless there was a specific reason to do so. The only reason to do this is if they are running multiple NAV installations that are independently licensed. A classic example would be an ASP (Application Service Provider) also known as a hosting operation. This is the reason this feature was originally added.

Kisu wrote:

...I checked that the navision backup does not take the license with it so it'd be probably easier or the correct way to only take that? But then again I'm wondering about the transaction logs if nav backup even have those if they were needed with something...

SQL backups are much quicker to restore. Transaction logs have nothing to do with taking full DB backups. With a NAV backup you would start by creating a new empty SQL datafiles and transactions log and restoring into them. With a SQL backup the empty transaction log would be created during the restore.

Kisu wrote:

...Which kind of way you usually take backup when you modify customers database objects/restore it to specific point etc.?...

We don't. We maintain a development database from which all modifications originate. If the site hasn't been worked on for a bit, I may pull the objects to do a sanity check.

Kisu wrote:

...Some cases its realy hard to work with over citrix/remote due the latency making it mandatory to take the db on a stick and work it in our own server...

We conduct 100% of our development over remote (Terminal Server) connections. The vast majority of these are centrally located on a server in one of our offices. No developers are in that office. A few are hosted on customer sites. These are customers that either are also involved in development or have system interfaces that are not practical to replicate in our office. Another reason would be very large databases that may contain unique data required for development.

bbrown

Kisu wrote:

bbrown wrote:

If your dev license is stored in master then it won't be disturbed.

Will it be in the master if I use the nav upload tool there? I tested it with few cronus ones, uploaded it on one and then checked the license on the rest and it was the same dev. Does it mean its in the master then

It will only be in the NAV DB if you have checked the "Save License in Database" option in the DB setup (Alter). Otherwise it will be in Master. If you use "Save License in Database" the license installed in Master must contain the "License per Database" granule.