topic Re: Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1? in ArcGIS Desktop Installation Support Questions

Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1?

Mariekevan_der_Tuin — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 16:45:59 GMT

I would like to test a transport model (released in 2009) that was built upon ArcGIS 9.3.1. I do have a valid license for ArcGIS Desktop 10.5, but the model doesn't work with this version.

Is it still possible to get a trial version for a few weeks such that I can test the transport model before trying to get a license of this pretty old piece of software? I'm not able to find it anywhere at the ESRI website, nor any other information regarding still using the old 9.x version..

Who can help me with it?

Re: Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1?

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 18:58:15 GMT

Probably contacting your regional representative might be the best bet to see if they have a version that you can install, or perhaps even direct you to someone that has it installed already. If you belong to an organization that backs up their downloads locally, contact the person in charge of your license.

Re: Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1?

RobertBorchert — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 19:25:03 GMT

Have you tried making a copy of the DB first and then upgrade the DB to the new version?

Re: Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1?

Mariekevan_der_Tuin — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 09:17:43 GMT

The model doesn't only use databases, but also includes a set of (custom) geoprocessing tools. I haven't found a method to upgrade these tools or us them in a compatibility mode, or is this possible?

Re: Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1?

Mariekevan_der_Tuin — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 13:17:12 GMT

I contacted my organization and recieved an old copy of the software. It did install correctly, but the accompanying license server seems to be shutdown or deleted..:

"Cannot connect to license server system. The license server manager (lmgrd) has not been started yet, the wrong port@host or license file is being used, or the port or hostname in the license file has been changed.

FLEXnet Licensing error: -15.10. System Error: "Winsock: Connection refused"

Is there some general license server available somewhere providing trial version licenses?

Re: Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1?

RobertBorchert — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 15:05:40 GMT

The harsh truth of the matter at that point is that you most likely have to rewrite all of your tools. There normally is no compatibility mode. Its like trying to use a diesel truck in a gasoline environment.

Unfortunately ESRI seems to change its supported programming language every now and then.

Quite a few applications written for a version of ArcGIS by third party vendors have had to be scrapped because they constantly needed to be re-written.

Personally we find it best practice to stay out of the box with our GIS and never pay for or develop custom geo-processing tools. The result is we can upgrade at any time and maintain full functionality. We have custom tools we develop in model builder and export to python. But nothing we cannot recreate. I have found that many custom tools that some third party vendors develop are not much more than a new coat of paint on an existing tool.

Re: Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1?

RebeccaStrauch__GISP — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 16:29:27 GMT

Does your organization use a License Manager with concurrent use licenses? The 9.3.1 version should still be supported, but you will need to point the correct license manager, just as you would with newer versions.

I'm assuming the 9.3.1 is a Desktop (ArcMap/ArcCatalog) and not ArcINFO Workstation (program owuld probably be a .aml type? If Workstation, you will need to set a few system variables to get it to work....but it will work, even on Windows 7 (haven't tried Win10) if you have a valid concurrent license.

Re: Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1?

Mariekevan_der_Tuin — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 08:11:42 GMT

Thanks for your suggestion on the concurrent use licenses! I already tried the current license server earlier, but that resulted in the error message “The computer you chose is not a valid license server or is running an older version of the License Manager.”.

However, after a little search on Google I found out that this doesn't necessarily mean that the license server indeed doesn't support my ArcGis 9.3.1 version: ArcGIS issues: “The computer you chose is not a valid license server or is running an older version of the License Manag…

By changing my system environment variable ARCGIS_LICENSE_FILE to the license server instead of changing it in the Desktop Administrator, I'm able to use 9.3.1 correctly.

Thanks all for your help and thoughts!

Re: Trial ArcGIS desktop 9.3.1?

RebeccaStrauch__GISP — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 15:03:53 GMT

Glad you got it to work. I do the same type of thing to get Workstation to run on a new machine. I set about 5 system variables and it can then use the concurrent use license. Although I have a script, I'll include the relevant lines here for anyone that might be interested. (assumes software is in c:\arcgis folder

setx path "%path%;c:\arcgis\arcexe10x\bin"
SET ARCHOME=C:\ArcGIS\arcexe10x
SET ARCHOME_USER=C:\ArcGIS\arcexe10x
SET ARCINFOFONTNAME=Courier New
SET ARCINFOFONTSIZE=8
SET ATHOME=C:\ArcGIS\arcexe10x\arctools

run in a DOS/cmd window. Use at your own risk. Adjust paths as needed for your own install.