BCM 2007 Database Sharing Problem

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G

Guest

I've just installed the whole Office suite and it looks and works
exceptionally! However, I've got a problem with BCM.

We have a shared database that resides on an Office 2003 machine. I'm the
only one running 2007. I cannot connect to the database on the 2003 machine.
I can ping the machine.

I'm assuming this is because the database is in 2003 technology and my
machine is looking for 2007. I've trawled the MS site to confirm this but
can't find anything that specifically talks about this. If I'm correct, will
the problem go away by installing 2007 on the older machine?
 
I dug a little into this issue with Beta 1.

Both BCM and SBA used MSDE in the previous versions, and they now use
Sql Xpress--basically the new version--since the Beta 1.

They have changed the name of the sql instance and the port number.

You can see their values in the Registry in
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Business Solutions eCRM\SQLInstanceName and
SQLPort. The Registry keys are the same for BCM v2 and BCM v3 but the
values have changed.

I believe if you play with these you might be able to connect to the
database.

However, if you connect, you will get an error that the database
version does not match the BCM client version, or words to that effect,
and possibly an offer to migrate the database. If you do migrate the
db, then your BCM v2 clients will stop working with the database. So
whatever you do, be sure to BACKUP YOUR DATA FIRST!

Basically, I suspect it will be impossible to use the same db with BCM
v2 and v3 clients because of differences in the database schemas--e.g.
BCM v3 views have custom fields,
v2 views don't.

I'd recommend experimenting with v3 Beta on a private database, and
then upgrading everyone to Office 12 when it's available.

The SQLInstanceName and SQLPort Registry values may be useful to those
folks out there who are setting up their BCM databases on servers and
want some more flexibility. The rest of the connection information is
in the Outlook Mail profile, which I've never quite figured out (it
appears to be binary data stored in the Registry), but you can use the
Mail applet in Control Panel to edit profiles.
 
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