Deployment information may look like an old record being replayed, but remains the most discussed issue on the forum as well as cases. Most of the times it becomes difficult to gather information about resources required for deployment, location of supported documents is not known etc… I  don’t intend to share how to deploy the application that uses Crystal Reports but provide the resources that can ease the deployment and few FAQ’s about it.

The deployment for Crystal Reports can be categorized in two or three types depending upon the applications being used. Merge Modules (MSM) and Windows Installer (MSI) can be used for Web and Windows application. Click Once is used only for deploying windows application.  More about deployment can be found in the Crystal Reports .NET SDK Developer’s Guide; open the file and you would find a separate section on Deployment in the Developer’s Guide as given in the image below.

Following are the most common questions that may arise during deploying the application:

• Where can I find the required runtimes?

Rumtimes can  be downloaded from here.

• Are there 64 bit MSM runtime?

There are no 64 bit msm for any version of Crystal Reports which is evident from this Production release for CRVS2010: Couple of Questions regarding Merge module and  KB1529068. MSM is likely to retire soon.

• Do I need Crystal Reports Designer on production machine (web server)?

No, it is not required as the purpose of runtime is defeated. Install the appropriate runtime on the production machine. It is always recommend that the patch level of designer and runtime are same.

• Where can I find the Supported Platform Guides?

They are available here.

Additional Resources:

• SAP Crystal Reports, Version for Visual Studio .NET
• Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 Reference
• Crystal Reports 2008 Reference

Blogs:

• How to deploy a Crystal Reports .Net Web application on a 64 bit operating system?

Wiki:

• Crystal Reports v. 9.1 to 12.x VS .NET Runtime Distribution & Supported Operating Systems

Forum:

• Read Before Posting – Where to find Crystal Reports .NET SDK resources

• SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio

KB Articles:

• 1215826 – How to deploy an application that uses Crystal Reports and Visual Studio .NET?

• 1544708 – What are the runtime dependencies for CRVS2010?
• 1534352 – Where is the Supported Platforms document for CRVS2010?
• 1529068 – CRVS2010 – Where can I download Crystal Reports 2010 for VS 2010 and the associated runtime?
• 1534388 – CRVS2010 – Creating Click Once deployment
• 1535778 – Where to find Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 Documentation?
• 1553968 – How to prevent the 64 bit msi installing on AMD64 processors when using Click-Once deployment
• 1553482 – How to force the 32bit runtime to install on all CPU Architectures (Intel and AMD64) when using Click-Once deployment