Efficiently Distributing VLA Software

Learn about different types of NI software and how to distribute them in the most effective manner to reduce footprint on disk and setup time.

Different types of NI Software

LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio are application development environments that each have modules and/or toolkits used to extend their functionality. TestStand and DIAdem can be combined with LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, or Measurement Studio, or operate as standalone software. NI Developer Suite is a bundle of software that consists of a Core, containing LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, Measurement Studio, LabVIEW SignalExpress, and general purpose toolkits, and Options, containing most other NI software, that are selected based on the application needs. Device drivers are hardware dependent, but can work with all software. The image below shows how the different types of NI software relate to each other.

 
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LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, Measurement Studio, TestStand, and DIAdem all have several flavors with different feature sets (ex: Full and Professional) and versions (ex: 8.0 and 8.2.1). Modules for LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI must be the same version for the software.

Multiple software packages on DVD Set

NI has taken advantage of activation and multiple packages of software are on a set of DVDs. For example, all flavors of LabVIEW and LabVIEW modules and toolkits are all on the LabVIEW Platform DVD. The same is true for NI Developer Suite DVDs, all activateable software in Developer Suite is in the Developer Suite DVD set. This is important to know when distributing software to the VLA users. When using NI Volume License Manager (NI VLM) 2.1.1, you can create volume license installers for all software on a DVD or CD at one time. Note: LabWindows/CVI Base Development System and LabWindows/CVI Full Development System are not on the same CD.

Efficiently Using Volume License Installers

Volume license installers allow you to put NI software on a company server for end users to download, while NI VLM or FLEXnet Manager handles all permissions. Volume license installers contain four components: the software installer, permission requests for licenses, VLA Administrator information, and connection information about the server hosting NI VLM or FLEXnet Manager. Volume license installers are not included in FLEXnet Manager, but can be created in NI VLM and used by FLEXnet Manager. It will provide the same functionality as with NI VLM except FLEXnet Manager does not support permission requests. Watch the Creating a Volume License Installer  video to learn how to create volume license installers.

NI VLM 2.1.1 creates an easy way to combine volume license installers for a CD or set of DVDs. For example, LabVIEW Full Development System, LabVIEW Professional Development System, and all LabVIEW modules and toolkits all include the same LabVIEW installer. Also all Developer Suite software is included on the set of DVDs. NI VLM 2.1.1 allows you to combine all volume license installers to all call the same software installer. You can also group software into license sets so the user only opens one setup.exe file and they get all the software and permissions they need with the software installer. For example, you could have the following license sets all in a single volume license installer. This is folder hierarchy would look like this:

• LabVIEW Platform DVD 8.6
  • LabVIEW Full Development System
  • LabVIEW Professional Development System and LabVIEW Real-Time Module
  • LabVIEW Professional Development System and LabVIEW FPGA Module

This feature works well with different groups using the same software as well. For example if 4^th Floor Manufacturing is using LabVIEW Full Development System, 5^th Floor Engineering is using LabVIEW Professional Development System and LabVIEW Real-Time Module, and 6^th Floor Engineering is using LabVIEW Professional Development System and LabVIEW FPGA Module, you could label the volume license installers to be applicable to the different groups. In this example the volume license installer would have the folder hierarchy below:

• LabVIEW 8.2.1
  • 4^th Floor Manufacturing
  • 5^th Floor Engineering
  • 6^th Floor Engineering

If you are a Developer Suite Customer, you should take advantage of the grouped volume license installers with DVDs. A single volume license installer can be used for all Developer Suite configurations. This will allow you to group everything in Developer Suite together, without create a huge footprint on disk. In this example the folder hierarchy would look like this:

• NI Developer Suite
  • NI Developer Suite Core
  • NI Developer Suite Core and Real-Time Deployment Option
  • NI Developer Suite Core and FPGA Deployment Option

To learn more how to set up volume license installers in NI VLM 2.1.1 see Getting Started with NI Volume License Manager and the NI Volume License Manager Videos.

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