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LJHarris
Level 3

Flexera does not support downgrade rights for Standalone Build

My company does not release installs built through the GUI interface. All production installs should be built on a dedicated build server using the SAB. The problem we are having is with licensing. Flexera admits that we should not use concurrent licenses with the SAB for real build machine environments. Flexera will also only sell you a node-lock license for the CURRENT release of InstallShield. This means if I want to set up a new build server today then I can only buy a license for IS2012. Forget about the fact that I have not upgraded to using IS2012 (and have no plans to since it does not offer me any functionality I need). I also have products built in IS2009 which I create MSP hotfixes for which FLexera says should be built using the same version of InstallShield that the base was created in, but they will not sell a valid license for IS2009 SAB.

Flexera's licensing model does not support their technical model. Flexera does not support downgrade rights (i.e. the ability to use an earlier version of the product that you’ve licensed in place of the licensed version) for the InstallShield Standalone Build. It is ironic that Flexera is a company that sells licensing software but does not not have a workable model for its own product. Because of this problem I am now being pressured by management to move all of our InstallShield installs to Wix.

Note: We do not have the problem with Visual Studio when setting up a new build server because buying a new license is not only good for the current version but is valid for the previous versions as well (Microsoft supports downgrade rights).

Does anyone else have this problem where Flexera does not understand that licensing restrictions is making their product unusable in a real environment?
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Christoph
Level 8

LJHarris wrote:
I also have products built in IS2009 which I create MSP hotfixes for which FLexera says should be built using the same version of InstallShield that the base was created in, but they will not sell a valid license for IS2009 SAB.


Question: did IS2009 also forced you to buy licensed StandAlone builds?
From which version of Installshield are you forced to buy licensed SAB?
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LJHarris
Level 3

Christoph wrote:
Question: did IS2009 also forced you to buy licensed StandAlone builds?
From which version of Installshield are you forced to buy licensed SAB?


We did have to buy licensed StandAlone builds when we upgraded to IS2009. We need these noded-locked licenses for our build servers.
We do not upgrade every new InstallShield version so I do not which version forces you to buy the SAB license.
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Christoph
Level 8

LJHarris wrote:
We did have to buy licensed StandAlone builds when we upgraded to IS2009. We need these noded-locked licenses for our build servers.
We do not upgrade every new InstallShield version so I do not which version forces you to buy the SAB license.


Thanks for the answer. We're still using IS 2008 Premier and there you can install the SAB on as much systems as you want. So their licensing policy has been changed starting from IS2009.

Good to know that it the SAB lic is not downwards compatible. Which is a flaw off course.
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